Hi everyone, for my capstone blog post I will be exploring the way in which memoirs deconstruct and reject the notion that victims can be deemed either worthy or unworthy based upon their physical or social conditions. Although this concept can be identified in several of the texts that we studied throughout the year, I will be analysing how Ryan Knighton has illustrated it through his memoir Cockeyed. Cockeyed is a coming of age narrative through which Knighton explains his experiences as a blind man and his struggle in coming to terms with his disability. The memoir recounts various instances in which Knighton felt marginalised as a result of his blindness as people provided him with special treatment, depicting him as an unworthy victim due to his perceived lack of agency and helplessness. The characterisation of a worthy victim, on the other hand, was seen in Missing Sarah through the representation of Sarah de Vries within the media due to her prescribed labels as a sex worker and drug addict. By presenting Sarah as particularly worthy, and Knighton as particularly unworthy, in comparison to the norm, worthiness is shown to exist on a spectrum within the mainstream. I argue that this spectrum works to further marginalise people regardless of the end on which they are placed as they become isolated from the majority.
Jiwani and Young cite Debbie Wise Harris in her description of “strategic silences” as a strategy to strip marginalised people of their agency and reduce them as silenced as victims (899). In regards to the Missing Women, these “strategic silences” work to place sex workers as “deserving victims” due to their perceived criminality and choice to engage with high risk activities (Jiwani and Young 899). I argue that the use of strategic silences to situate disabled people as more unworthy victims than the average person is equally as damaging. In Cockeyed, Knighton recalls an instance in which he was almost mugged in the street, but was released upon the muggers realisation of his blindness. Knighton explains how he “wanted to lose like everybody else in order to keep that bit of dignity” as he becomes reminded of the societal perception of him to be less capable than and inconsistent with the norm (94). By presenting worthiness on a spectrum, dominant narratives also suggest that morality is relative, thus supporting the idea that one life is worth more than another. In other words, the severity of a crime is dependent upon the worthiness of the victim. Through his memoir, Knighton counters this notion as he argues that everyone is disabled in one way or another, but the visibility of their respective disabilities are what determine their worthiness as victims. Jiwani and Young discuss a similar notion through their comparison between hyper visible and invisible traits, as visible traits, and in this case blindness, often determine how we are perceived within society (899). In this way, Knighton’s attempt to “camouflage” his blindness is revealed, and his discontent with his label as an unworthy victim is addressed (Knighton 179). The concept of worthiness in terms of victimisation is relevant beyond this study as it confronts the dehumanising narratives of marginalised people, thus re-establishing them as equals within society. This is important to society as a whole as it impacts the way in which people interact with one another, bridging the gap between us and them.
Works Cited
de Vries, Maggie. Missing Sarah: a Memoir of Loss. Penguin Books Canada, 2008.
Jiwani, Yasmin, and Mary Lynn Young. “Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse.” Canadian Journal of Communication 31.4 (2006): 895-917. ProQuest. Web. 8 Mar. 2018.
Knighton, Ryan. Cockeyed . The Penguin Group, 2006.
