#undertheground

Abstract:

Public scholar, poet, and activist Mel Baggs (sie/hir pronouns) died on April 11, 2020, in the thick of a catastrophic pandemic responsible for spotlighting long-held ableist, eugenic rhetorics that literally and figuratively structure disabled life. Since hir passing, however, Baggs’s “emblogged” archive –– remains powerfully relevant to anti-ableist discourse in an age of COVID-19, laying bare the invisible institutional contours, material and linguistic, undergirding disabled existence. In this article, I will engage with critical texts from Baggs’ online oeuvre, what I call an emblogged activist archive, written both from within and in the wake of pre-COVID institutional violence, asking what it means to survive/archive against a medical industry built to hasten disabled death. I will explore the ways in which Baggs reveals the discursive architecture of institutionalization, which follows and constitutes disabled subjects –– including and especially Baggs hirself –– both within and outside of hospital walls. Reading renewed interest in the euphemistic language of “triage,” “quality-of-life,” and “congregate care” through what I call hir “Baggsian Experiential Framework,” I will argue that Baggs remixes the language of hir oppression, using new and renewed terminology including the “Nice Lady Therapist,” “Snake Words,” and the “Burrito Test.” At the same time, sie remaps the institution as a discursive condition of disabled life rather than only a discrete(/discreet) location in which certain lives are led. Baggs uses emblogged, queercrip digital space to advance a formidable counter-discourse that has saved hir life and now preserves hir legacy.  



Plain Language Abstract:

Public scholar, poet, and activist Mel Baggs (sie/hir pronouns) died on April 11, 2020, early in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since hir death, Baggs’s “emblogged” online archive remain relevant in today’s environment of pandemic ableism. In this article, I look at important texts from Baggs’s body of work, especially those that address medical/institutional violence against disabled people. In this article, I explore Baggs’s commentary on how language creates and imprisons disabled people. Then, I apply what I call a “Baggsian Experiential Framework” to coded language that has become familiar since the start of the pandemic, including “triage,” “quality-of-life,” and “congregate care.” Through hir Experiential Framework, I argue that Baggs challenges the idea of institutions as isolated physical locations. Instead, sie reveals the ways that institutionalization affects disabled life everywhere, and that strong disabled resistance to institutionalization is equally widespread, especially online.

an album you wish you could hear again for the first time

there are a lot, but probably Light Me Up by The Pretty Reckless. I listened to it right when it came out in 2010, and my 11 year old self felt Seen by every song. I can go back at 24 and have the same experience, which is pretty unique.

name an album you feel is perfect

græ, Moses Sumney. 100%. he's a musical architect.

name a song that reminds you of one of your best memories

Bats - do you sleep with a stuffed toy?

No. I sleep with the majority of my very small bed overrun with the best plushies on the face of the earth ofc

Cat - what are the names of your pets?