This week in ASTU class we discussed the book Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton, cross analyzing it with Rhetoric and with G.T Couser’s chapter Self-Representation in Disability Memoir from the book Signifying Bodies. The book (Cockeyed) narrates the struggles of Ryan Knighton and a disease he develops, limiting his eyesight, and the ways in which society looks at Knighton and vice-versa.

I really really recommend the book since it is a fast and enjoyable read with comical brushes that in the end aid in raising awareness of the situation that visually impaired individuals have to go through. However, I am not here to talk about this but to explore more in depth one of the issues that Knighton raises, this being the semantics and idioms on sight that exist in english speaking society. This point is definitely a concern that not many take into consideration and it is something you can notice in this blog post at the end of the first paragraph (society looks at Knighton and vice-versa). The problem is not the fact that we use the words but that fact that there is no better substitute in the semantics used. Because believe me, I tried not using the word look, yet a search result on synonyms for “look” yielded up to 35 words that can be used to replace it yet all linked to sight.

What we see, and Knighton points out clearly is that a marginalization towards the visually disable exists through the everyday use of language. I think that the marginalization through language is something that clearly exists in society yet in many ways goes unnoticed by many.

I used to criticize those campaign that mentioned words hurt, but in the end what words do is marginalize other groups in society. So I think that the reading allows us to see something that we don’t usually consider.