Making adult: capacidade and the ambiguities of maternal care in intellectual disability

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Abstract

Capacity/ability is a central category for discussions on disability in Brazil. It also leads to a reflection on how ableism orders society regarding the abled-body/disabled-body divide. In the present paper, I draw on the care practices for adults with intellectual disabilities to examine how the adulthood/childhood binary mirrors the ableist logic. Based on research conducted between 2017 and 2018 with mothers of adults with intellectual disabilities in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, I analyze the paradoxes of being at the same time responsible for promoting “autonomy and independence” and guaranteeing the well-being of their children. I argue that for people with intellectual disabilities, “adult” and “child” are categories commonly used to classify behaviors. Thus, rigid notions of what it means “to be an adult” produce the tension between protection and autonomy that mediate care. Finally, I contend that adulthood, as much as capacity, acts as a hierarchizing category that classifies persons and assesses what good care is for adults with intellectual disabilities.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Revista Estudos Feministas

Number

501

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