According to [one writer], Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived in a world in which there were two paths for well-off headstrong women who actively resented their role in the Victorian household: those who 'cast off their protective colouring and stood out boldly against the background like vulnerable animals to be sniped at,' and those who 'used it, took cover in illness.'
'[Elizabeth Barrett Browning] chose the second way, although unconsciously... It enabled her to opt out of the feminine role her age and position in the household demanded of her: now she need take no hand ordering it, for fear of over-fatigue, nor in sewing or embroidery, which she hated. Music, French, Italian, a little singing, were available: she could now choose what she wanted and discard the rest.'
Here is the myth, born and sustained - that to be ill is to hide, to crouch rather than stand (up or out), which would be the better path, the braver, riskier path, even if it left you worse off; the myth that to be inexplicably ill and dependent on the care and support of others is a choice, a way of getting out of what you don't want to do, a choice that clever, deceitful young women make for themselves.
The idea that being ill means 'taking to bed,' that it is a choice, that it is decadent, excessive and privileged, that it is connected with the sanguineous temperament rather than a health problem, that it is weak or lazy and therefore unworthy of help, that it is the result of giving up or doing too much, that it is a 'way out,' that chronic illness is enabled by an over-bearing mother - these are cultural myths that confine some women inside and shut others off from legitimate illness experiences. This is what is referred to when we are told: It must be nice to spend all day in bed. It sounds like a choice rather than a necessity; it sounds like only something wealthy white privileged people can do.
The myth of the fragile white woman or girl who takes to her bed harms everyone with a chronic illness; those whose experience is narrativized in this way, and those who are denied access to it, namely people in minority racial and ethnic groups, who are far more likely to experience misdiagnosis and medical neglect and are also more likely to have ME/CFS.
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
2087
gracieabrams
andulkaphoto
theartofmadeline
