Why (On Earth) Call It Crip Life™?

You are most likely thinking why on earth we chose the name “Crip Life™” for our online publication. We shall now explain in more detail.

When Emma and I have mentioned the name to friends and family, we have either been met by a stunned silence or from those a little braver, “I don’t like it.”

The reason being that crip is regarded as a derogetary term for people with disabilities. The neurotypical and able-bodied amongst us regard this term as insulting and demeaning.

Well, if for us, crip is these things, we certainly wouldn’t have decided to name our magazine using it.

The history of crip

Yes, crip is certainly a short-form of the word cripple that has its origins in two old English words. The earliest reference is in the Lindisfarne Gospels in 950AD. Yes, crip was used at this time but only to describe people who had difficulty walking or using their arms.

The change in the meaning of crip to an insult only occurred in the 1920s. Here, crip became synonymous with easy and was used to reflect society’s low expectations of the disabled population.

So, a Crip College course would be an easy course.  At this time, the term started to become associated with an insult, negative connotations, or being derogatory to someone with a disability.

Crip social movements and Crip Theory

This negative meaning of crip grew and became embedded in society. Thankfully, the Disability Rights Movement of the 1960s began to reclaim crip and it is now in common usage within the disability community. This may explain why our neurotyipcal and able-bodied communities view the term negatively as they may never have heard of it!

So, if you hear about social movements such as #CripTheVote, Crip Camp and Crip Raves, understand that crip is being reclaimed and is being used positively, with a sense of pride and to illustrate the resilience of our community.

The term is also being used as it was originally intended, by some groups, as a descriptor, e.g., Crip Collectives for disabled writers.

Within Disability Studies, Crip Theory was developed as a concept to explore the experience of disability, acknowledge the history of exclusion of the disabled community and the disabling barriers they face. (See Crip Theory, cultural signs of disability and queerness Robert McRuer 2006.)

We acknowledge that the reclaiming of “crip” is not universally accepted by the disabled community. However, we both do and wanting to push the boundaries we have named our magazine Crip Life™. We know that not every member of the disabled community will embrace this but we are hoping our content will.