Body Grief & Disability Pride Can Coexist
Jayne Mattingly guest-edits The Don't Buy List: Issue #56
I’m taking July off to focus on finishing my book (!!!) and handing The Unpublishable over to a series of guest writers for the month.1 Today’s guest is , a disability advocate who’s appeared in The Unpublishable before and writes the newsletter . (Subscribe here!) Below, find Jayne’s thoughts on Disability Pride, Body Grief, and bronzer.
-Jessica
The Don’t Buy List: Issue #56
by
Hi everyone! My name is Jayne Mattingly and I am honored to be guest writing for The Unpublishable this month! Some of you may remember me from an interview earlier this year, “If I'm In A Wheelchair, At Least I Need Good Hair.” I wear many hats, as an author, CEO, founder, content creator, advocate, and now guest writer for The Don’t Buy List. Let’s dive in and see what I have for you this week!
Disability Pride Month
July is Disability Pride Month and I am fucking proud to be disabled and I hope this newsletter helps you understand why. You can read more about my non-profit, The AND Initiative, if you feel called to support during this time! It’s all about inspiring and equipping individuals living with chronic illness and physical disabilities to live their “AND” through advocacy and gifting mobility aids to individuals with physical disabilities.
Body Grief
It wasn’t always like this. Five years ago I was able-bodied, and would have gasped at my reality now. I don’t know where I fit at times, as a 32-year-old woman coming into her body at the height of her sexual awakening, six months after a total hysterectomy. This is what I call Body Grief.
Body Grief is universal. It is cyclical, non linear, and ever-changing. We experience Body Grief and Perceived Body Betrayal several times throughout our lifetime, whether it be through puberty, mental illness, aging, infertility, chronic illness, physical disability, injury, addiction, weight changes, gender dysphoria, neurodivergence, and the many grievances that come from systems of oppression. Now as I write my manuscript for my book published by Penguin Random House, “This is Body Grief” — coming Spring 2025 — I understand the varying levels of Body Grief and how deep they are buried within us, and how powerful it can be to work and heal that grief with time and compassion.
Disabilty & Fuckability
The number one question I get from randos on the internet is, “Can you have sex?”