Quote: “In Frankenstein, I would argue that it horrifies Victor to encounter something so intimately familiar in the Creature’s sublime and uncanny body. Perhaps our conversations about disability in general—and in this novel—are similarly inflected.” -From Born This Way: Reading Frankenstein with Disability by Martha Stoddard Holmes

Comment: Holmes brought up a lot of ideas that society at a whole is uncomfortable talking about that need to be talked about. This ending statement in the essay in particular struck me as significant, it makes a lot of sense when you think about the way people can act around the disabled. Unfortunately there is people in the world who look upon disabled individuals with disgust, and like Holmes said about seeing something similar to us in something one could deem as horrifying or just strange. Going off of what Holmes says it would be ok to conclude that it is because they see something of themselves in a disabled individual and that makes them uncomfortable. They may think how is someone so different than me even similar in the slightest? I believe this is why conversations around disabilities tend to follow a similar direction of how we can make everything accessible. Like if there were a building where the stairs have no wheelchair accommodation and the only solution is to replace them with a ramp, some may get uncomfortable with that idea as they don’t need a ramp so why do they need it?

Question: If we take this possible thought process into account when discussing accessibility and just disabilities in general, can we do better as a society? Can we as a whole provide a friendlier and more accepting world for all disabled people?