‘Clap for “some” carers’: Problematizing heroism and ableist tenets of heroic discourse through the experiences of parent-carers

Abstract

Marketing scholarship has commonly demonstrated how consumers assemble heroic identities as a means to facilitate forms of empowerment and emancipatory consumption. Although some insight into more troubling aspects of heroic discourses has been shared, prioritisation of the positive potentialities of heroism remain privileged. We invoke social heroism as an interpretive lens to study the lived experiences of parent-carer’s to children with impairments, employing paradoxes of heroism as heuristics to explore how heroic discourses disempower parent-carers. We find that parent-carers do not identify with the heroism surrounding care. Instead, they view themselves as unessential due to the ableist tenets that underlie heroic discourses. We uncover three problematizing and subtle practices of ableism; purification, micro-aggressions and responsibilized-commoditization. Such insight, (i) advances marketing theory’s understanding of the socio-political structuring of heroism, (ii) advances discourse on consumer vulnerabilities and ableism and (iii) begins to meet the calls for research into care politics and justice.

The Psychosocial Impact of Congenital Cytomegalovirus on Caregivers and Families: Lived Experiences and Review of the Literature

“…It feels better to just stay connected with the friends who know what I have been through, or to connect with people who are dealing with similar experiences”. Parents of typical children may also make comments, many times well-intentioned, that parents of disabled children find insensitive [ 95 ]. For instance, it can be difficult for parents to hear “I’m sorry” when a person learns that their child is disabled, or “I don’t know how you do it” or “you’re amazing”, and other ableist language.…”

“…We are also imperfect parents who are doing our best and attempting to learn from our mistakes just like everyone else. Telling parents that they are amazing only emphasizes the ableist notion that our child’s condition is a misfortune or a struggle and that only “super” parents would be able to manage it [ 95 , 96 ].…”