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Restricting rights, preserving inequalities:
When microaggressions function as tools to maintain ableist and sexist hegemonies JAN ERRON R. CELEBRADO AND CHRISTELLE JUIN R. ANCHA |
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Academic Article
The Graduate Inequality Review, Volume IV (September 2025) |
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Abstract: How do microaggressions directed at Filipino women with mobility disabilities function as mechanisms of oppression that simultaneously restrict their exercise of fundamental human rights and maintain systems of ableist and sexist hegemonies? We aim to address this question by focusing on the qualitative data obtained from a focus group discussion with 10 women with mobility disabilities from Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, Inc., to elucidate the link between microaggressions and inequalities. Using feminist disability studies and faces of oppression as theoretical lens, we identified two overarching themes: (1) Microaggressions as tools to limit rights enjoyment: demonstrates how microaggressions restrict women with mobility disabilities’ enjoyment of human rights; and (2) Microaggressions as tools to maintain existing inequalities: shows how microaggressions preserve existing hegemonic power structures that privilege able-bodied individuals and patriarchal norms. Building on these findings, we argue that microaggressions are not subtle nor isolated incidents all the time. They vary across certain spaces and times, and their nuances make them implicit tools to maintain ableist and sexist hegemonies. There is a need to problematise microaggressions as actual problems embedded in social structures that have been normalised. Moreover, revealing their complexities and ambiguities is necessary rather than accepting them as “unintended consequences” of social inclusion. We posit the urgency to critically discuss how microaggressions that occur in public and private spaces must be addressed in context-specific manners. |
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