This paper examines the spread of Zika Virus infections in 2015 and 2016 across the Americas and contemporary constructions of disability. I employ a content analysis of coverage of the virus in two publications over a six month period (January-June) in 2016: The Washington Post and NPR, in addition to information published through the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization. I argue that medical and media discourse surrounding Zika perpetuates and reformulates historical constructions of disability: 1) Zika discourse promotes a medical model of disability that engenders fear of Zika-related microcephaly; 2) the discourse polices female sexuality and links women’s morality to their children’s disability; 3) disability links with xenophobia reminiscent of late-19th century narratives of feeblemindedness. This analysis demonstrates how Zika Virus discourse has relied upon the above themes to intricately link disability with infection. This, in turn, elides the central tenets of the social model of disability that locates disability within the social environment and it magnifies fear of globalization. I situate this paper within scholarship that examines the intersections of disability, sexuality, and globalization to contextualize how this recent public health crisis exists within a historical continuum of corporeal policing and surveillance. In short, this paper attempts to illustrate how Zika Virus discourse reiterates established attitudes toward disabilities and impairments within a framework of neoliberal individualism, imagined communities, and hegemonic femininity.
About the presenterKaitlyn Wauthier
Kaitlyn is a PhD student at Bowling Green State University, American Culture Studies Program. She is interested in the intersections of disability and tourism. Her proposed dissertation investigates the Make-A-Wish Foundation as a site of knowledge production about disability.