#mel baggs

So if you watched PhilosophyTube’s newest video “Charles Darwin vs Karl Marx,” you may recall that he recommended the writer Mel Baggs’ essay “There is ableism somewhere at the heart of your oppression, no matter what your oppression might be” to learn more about the ways ableism intersects with other forms of oppressions. I’m an autistic person who does disability rights activism, and Mel’s work was very influential in how I came to embrace my autistic identity. So I’m writing this as an intro for anyone who saw the “Charles Darwin vs Karl Marx” video, hasn’t come across Mel Baggs’ work before, & wants to read & watch hir work. I’ve also done a Twitter thread version of this linked here, so that Twitter thread is also done by me.

From what I’ve read from people who knew Mel, Mel used sie/hir pronouns AND also was okay with others using they/them & she/her, and Mel wanted hir pronouns to be accessible to people w/ developmental disabilities whose disabilities can cause struggles w/ remembering pronouns.

Mel Baggs was a multiply disabled genderless disability rights activist and writer whose writings are foundational to the disability rights movement, especially the developmental disability self-advocacy movement and the neurodiversity movement. Mel posted hir writings on hir blog https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/. Hir work has been influential for present & future generations of disabled activists. Mel emphasized that disability rights movements must advocate for everyone to have rights & autonomy and be valued for who they are on their terms. Mel was nonspeaking and advocated for wider acceptance of nonspeaking disabled people and the multitudes of ways that language can be expressed outside of mouth words. Mel died in April of this year, and that has been & is devastating to disabled community. Mel and hir work live on in the communities we have created. 

Here are links to some of Mel’s writings & videos & an obituary from the Washington Post below:

Hir ableism essay referenced in the PhilosophyTube video 
Hir video “In My Language”
“Please Don’t Take Me As Typical” 
Hir video “Being an Unperson”
Hir essay “Up in the Clouds and Down in the Valley: My Richness and Yours”
Obituary from the Washington Post