[To be crippled means to be institutionalized]

To be crippled means to be institutionalized, infantilized, unemployed, outcast, feared, marginalized, fetishized, desexualized, stared at, excluded, silenced, aborted, sterilized, medicalized, stuck, discounted, teased, voiceless, disrespected, raped, isolated, undereducated, made into a metaphor or an example. To be crippled means to be referred to as retard, cute, helpless, lame, bound, stupid, drunk, idiot, a burden on society, in/valid. To be crippled means to be discounted as a commodity or regarded as mere commodity.

Jennifer Bartlett, "[To be crippled means to be institutionalized]" from Autobiography/Anti-Autography. Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Bartlett.  Reprinted by permission of Jennifer Bartlett.

Source: Autobiography/Anti-Autography (theenk Books, 2014)