"From my bed, revolted"

Crippled reflections for a horizontal revolution

Abstract

In "Sick Woman Theory" author Johanna Hedva (2018) asks "how do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can't get out of bed?", to refer to the modes of protest and participation that are permissible for sick people. In a world where protest and revolution are manifested in public actions, what forms of revolt and tactics of resistance are possible for bodies that are physically unable to situate themselves in the street? This article seeks to answer this question by proposing a revision to our practices of revolt and revolution, grappling with the implications of what both exclude. Drawing on materials from my doctoral research, which explores the experiences of women with chronic pain, I use photographs and excerpts from one of the interviews conducted during fieldwork to propose radical visualities and imaginaries that sick or disabled people employ every day. In other words, this article proposes a reflection of forms of revolt and crippled resistance tactics to think about how a revolution is lived horizontally.