Aimee Mullins, using the story of her friend telling her in all seriousness that it wasn’t fair for her to be able to change her height, beautifully explains how there has been a shift in the conversation about amputees from one of disability, to power, esthetics, and allowing her and other individuals to be the architects of their own identities by designing their bodies from a place of empowerment. According to Arthur Frank’s paradigm, Aimee Mullin’s talk does not really follow the typical structure of life narratives discussed in the lecture material, she focuses less on her own experience (without mentioning any struggles she has faced) and uses it as evidence of changes in society, which is the focus of her talk. However, I would argue that there is an element of the “quest” in that she is a hero to many and focuses on the positive experiences she has had as an amputee (and not as a disabled person) and how she is working towards social change regarding perceptions of disability and amputation, opening up conversations, and improving the quality and esthetics of prosthetics.

As Courser discusses in relation to many illness narratives, Aimee’s narrative is political in the sense that she questions the social constructions of terms such as “healthy”, “beautiful”, and “disabled”. She says in her talk that people often tell her that she doesn’t look disabled and she says laughing that she doesn’t feel disabled. It’s important to note that as discussed in the lecture notes, “disability” refers to a socially imposed category of existence rather than someone who is “ill”.

Her talk highlights that many of the issues surrounding life narratives are interdisciplinary. She discusses specifically how poetry and science can combine to create incredible prosthetics that are also pieces of art, as well as the social constructions embedded in our understandings of disability.

Courser asks what social factors cause certain illness narratives to materialize in particular ways, Aimee Mullin’s addresses this question in her story about using children’s curiosity about the world around them as empowerment and allowing them to make their own ideas about what it means to have a prosthetic leg. She says that children’s fears come from adult’s discretion, there is something so honest about this statement that children are curious and its not knowing, rather than knowing things that could be scary that is frightening.

Having seen my uncle struggle with adapting to life as an amputee, I have a huge appreciation for what Aimee Mullins is working towards. Having said that, I also think that it’s incredibly important to take into account the huge costs associated with being an amputee and needing prosthetics, the battles that some go through to have insurance coverage, the struggles of getting used to “new legs” and all of the malfunctions that go along with them. Nonetheless it’s really incredible to see how far prosthetics and we as a society have come and the huge changes that this translates to in the quality of life of these individuals.