4. The "Supercrip" Narrative and the Wilderness

Cover image: tall, snow and ice capped mountains at dusk

When I first started researching for this project, I saw an ad on Instagram about the first blind man to climb Mt. Everest, Eric Weihenmayer. This is an incredible accomplishment, as it is for anybody who climbs it, but one narrative that it immediately brings to light is that of the “supercrip”, a disabled person who accomplishes something in a way that “overcomes” their disability. The story of the supercrip becomes one of inspiration porn, “A term used to describe society’s tendency to reduce people with disabilities to objects of inspiration” (Catherine S).

Rachel Kafer discussed Weihenmayer’s story’s relation to the supercrip narrative in an incredibly insightful way. “Weihenmayer’s memoir, Touch the Top of the World, suggests that successfully hiking Everest was a way for him to “transcend” his blindness. His story would lose its thread if it ended not with the successful ascent but with Weihenmayer discovering that the peak was simply too high, or the climb too dangerous, or the risks too great” (Kafer 141). Weihenmayer’s story is well known because it is a tale of inspiration, and though it was not intended as inspiration porn, it is difficult to frame in any other way. The narrative surrounding it is largely one of him overcoming blindness in order to summit, not that he climbed the mountain and is also blind. Society tends to be most drawn in by stories of conquest and completion and it is doubtful his story would be as well known if he hadn’t made it to the peak.

Kafer makes the point that, “Both disability and wilderness are overcome by individual feats of strength and will” (141). In adventure culture, overcoming brutal nature and discomfort to achieve connection with the environment is the dominant narrative. Therefore, tales like Weihenmayer’s where disability as well as nature are conquered are bound to be popular and rich with inspiration porn. This isn’t meant to belittle Weihenmayer at all, and I think that being inspired by him and others who’ve climbed Mt. Everest is totally valid. However, we must pause and take a deeper look into the narratives surrounding his story and where that inspiration comes from.

Another valuable story that Kafer brings to light is Eli Claire’s in his essay “The Mountain”, in which Clare tries his hardest to summit a mountain with his friend but the terrain proves to be too much for him with his disability and he turns around. One point that Kafer made is that, “The mountain, both literal and metaphorical, becomes a proving ground rather than a site of connection or relation” (143). I think that if we were to reframe our narratives surrounding disability and the wilderness, we can realize the problematic nature of needing to physically struggle or to overcome in order to find meaning. Nature should be seen not as something to conquer but something to form a connection with, a type of story that we need to bring into the foreground today. In revising our views of disability “success” stories in the wilderness and how nature should be experienced, we can eliminate the narratives of the supercrip and the need for conquest in order to validate an outdoor experience.

P.S. While we need to eliminate the adventure culture narrative that necessitates challenge and conquest as the correct way to experience nature, we still need to acknowledge that it is okay to still want to physically challenge oneself in nature (if it’s not prized as the “correct” way) and we need to improve access so that people with disabilities have more and better opportunities to do so. Keep an eye out for blog posts featuring more about accessibility to come for part of my final project! :)

References:

Kafer, Alison. Feminist, Queer, Crip, Indiana University Press, 2013.

S, Catherine. “How to Avoid 'Inspiration Porn' When Talking About Disability.” The Mighty, 31 July 2016, themighty.com/2016/08/how-to-avoid-inspiration-porn-when-talking-about-disability/.

“The Mountain.” Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation, by Eli Clare, Duke University Press, 2015.