Ways of Staring

This article considers how staring informs the ways we know each other and the world around us. Staring, a complex, nuanced, and meaning-laden social interaction, can take many forms: arrested, separated, or engaged. It is an intense encounter which is sometimes a random, idiosyncratic confrontation and at other times a highly structured social ritual driven by the collective impulse to look. This article argues that staring often defines the relationship between disabled and nondisabled individuals. More important, however, it seeks to redefine this relationship by imagining, perhaps counterintuitively, the object of the stare as determining the structure and outcome of the staring engagement. The staree may take charge of the encounter, in other words, using various strategies to both mediate and transform discomforting interaction into an unexpected opportunity for mutual transformation.