Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body

Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body is a memoir by writer, teacher, and disability advocate Rebekah Taussig. Aimed at a general audience, the book was published in 2020. Rather than following a linear timeline, Taussig offers eight essays that describe her personal experiences with disability in relation to disability issues and concepts. The book was named a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read. Its themes include Disability as an Identity, Disability Impacts Everyone, and Combating Ableism.

This study guide is based on the 2020 hardcover edition published by HarperOne.

Content Warning: Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body uses identity-first language, rather than person-first language, when discussing disability and ableism. It also uses the terms “fat” and “cripple,” which are preserved only in direct quotations.

Summary

Rebekah Taussig offers eight essays that describe her personal experiences with disability issues involving relationships, disability education, work, health care, accessibility, media representation, womanhood and feminism, and kindness.

The Preface reveals that Taussig wrote Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body to illustrate the experiences of people with disabilities. “What’s the Problem?” is her first essay, which details her history of disability and how she navigated it during her childhood. She discusses shame in relation to disability, ableism, and related difficulties.

The second essay, “An Ordinary Unimaginable Love Story,” describes Taussig’s two marriages and views on dating and relationships as a woman with a disability, in the context of societal views and representation.

The third essay, “More than a Defect,” relates Taussig’s experience teaching a high school class about disability and her students’ resistance to understanding Disability as an Identity. She describes the medical and social models of disability and how disability parallels other identity categories.

The fourth essay, “The Real Citizens of Life,” addresses the lack of media representation of people with disabilities and how it impacts Taussig’s life. She discusses several films and their problematic representations of disability.

The fifth essay, “The Price of Your Body,” considers employment and health insurance and their costs for people with disabilities. Taussig details her own difficulties, as well as general issues with disability benefits and housing.

The sixth essay, “Feminist Pool Party,” examines Taussig’s struggle to partake in feminism as a woman with a disability. She describes how her disability overshadows her womanhood and how feminism excludes people like her.

The seventh essay, “The Complications of Kindness,” considers the issues that arise when people without disabilities try to help people with disabilities. It discusses how the general focus is on the help being given rather than the needs or abilities of people with disabilities. Taussig describes experiences with unsolicited help and how charitable organizations serving people with disabilities can sometimes reinforce ableism.

The eighth essay, “What I Mean When I Talk About ‘Accessibility,’” describes Taussig’s experiences with accessible housing, dressing rooms, parking, and other matters, as well as her anxiety regarding accessibility. She argues that accommodations for people without disabilities are taken for granted, as the world operates with them in mind.

The Epilogue lists books, television shows, and Instagram hashtags, as well as activists, artists, authors, and their work. The Postscript describes how after writing the book, Taussig learned that she was pregnant and her husband had colon cancer. She also discusses the impact of COVID-19 on accessibility for everyone.