Divesting from the “fake service dog” narrative in service of a future that centers care
Main Article Content
Keywords
service animal, ableism, spatiality of injustice
Abstract
In this essay, I draw from my experience as a (disabled) service dog handler and from critical frameworks to situate “fake service dog” narratives in capitalism, white supremacy, and ableism. I claim that “fake service dog” narratives reflect imagery of service dogs as ideal workers under capitalism.
References
Ahmed, S. (2015). The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Second). New York, NY: Routledge.
Assistance Dogs International. (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved August 25, 2024, from https://assistancedogsinternational.org/about/who-we-are/
Cabral, R. (2022). What is a Service Dog? - Real or Fake and What’s the Difference - Episode 105.
Connor, D. J., Ferri, B. A., & Annamma, S. A. (2016). DisCrit: Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Davis, L. J. (2014). The End of Normal: Identity in a Biocultural Era. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Giroux, H. A. (1983). Theories of Reproduction and Resistance in the New Sociology of Education: A Critical Analysis. Harvard Educational Review, 53(3), 257–293.
Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as Property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8), 1707–1791.
Justice, D. of. (2020). ADA Requirements: Service Animals. Retrieved August 25, 2024, from https://www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-2010-requirements/
Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, Queer, Crip. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. (2018). Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press.
Leonardo, Z., & Zembylas, M. (2013). Whiteness as Technology of Affect: Implications for Educational Praxis. Equity & Excellence in Education, 46(1), 150–165.
McRuer, R. (2006). Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Mills, M. L. (2017). Invisible disabilities, visible Service Dogs: the discrimination of Service Dog handlers. Disability & Society, 32(5), 635–656.
Mills, M. L. (2023). “Fake Dogs Hurt Real Dogs”: boundary work and discrimination in the Service Dog Community. Disability & Society. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2023.2227336
Mitchell, A. (2024). Inside the Mind of a Dog.
Parenti, L., Wilson, M., Foreman, A. M., Wirth, O., & Meade, B. J. (2015). Selecting Quality Service Dogs: Part 1: Morphological and Health Considerations. Chronicle of the Dog, 71–77.
Price, M. (2011). Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Price, M. (2015). The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain. Hypatia, 30(1), 268–284.
Price, M. (2017). What is a Service Animal? A Careful Rethinking. Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, 13(4), 1–18.
Rodriguez, K. E., LaFollette, M. R., Hediger, K., Ogata, N., & O’Haire, M. E. (2020). Defining the PTSD Service Dog Intervention: Perceived Importance, Usage, and Symptom Specificity of Psychiatric Service Dogs for Military Veterans. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(1638), 1–15.
Schalk, S. (2018). Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Seawright, G. (2018). Questioning the white body: on applying a phenomenological mode of inquiry to whiteness studies in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 31(10), 911–934.
Shikashio, M. (2024). Challenges and Triumphs in the Service Dog World with Veronica Sanchez.
Taussig, R. (2020). Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body. New York, NY: Harper One.
Wendell, S. (1996). The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. New York, NY: Routledge.
Wendell, S. (2001). Unhealthy Disabled: Treating Chronic Illnesses as Disabilities. Hypatia, 16(4), 17–33.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
RDS Journal is an open-access journal, create a free account to read full articles and to submit a proposal. For visual arts and multimedia, submission will be considered evidence that you are offering RDS the right to display your work without penalty, compensation or royalties.
Amy Robertson, Seattle Pacific University
Amy Robertson is a Research Professor of Physics at Seattle Pacific University. She has been partnering with her service dog, Eilish, for the past four years, to move through the world with more ease. She is passionate about all forms of justice, enjoys being outside, and loves to craft.