Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body

Rebekah Taussig

Aug 2020 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

A memoir-in-essays from disability advocate and creator of the Instagram account @sitting_pretty Rebekah Taussig, processing a lifetime of memories to paint a beautiful, nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently than most.

Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling.

Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life.

Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story.

Ratings and reviews

Taussig does an amazing job of describing her life to people who may or may not relate at all. I think the stories and metaphors she uses to describe her "disability" are eye opening to the world around me, especially as my husband, who is an amputee, and I live in the same city as her. We can relate to the things she sees and to the places she feels left out of. The stories she tells aren't exaggerations or dramatic retellings to get attention or make a big deal of her situation. It's real life for her and many other disabled people all over the world. Sitting Pretty made me feel all the feels, from sadness and disappointment at the way she has felt and society makes her feel, to joy from the way she handles a variety of situations. I also felt empowered, and encouraged, to take action. Please read the whole book, don't stop halfway through and don't get offended by her saying she lives in an inaccessible world or by her stories of interactions with able bodied people. We can all learn, no matter how "able bodied" or "disabled" we are. We can all make this world a better place for everyone. Thank you, Rebekah, for bringing your personal stories to the table for us to read and take to heart. I hope this book helps the world change for the better. It definitely benefited my life.

I heard about your success at work today, and I am so proud of you! I know that you’ll be achieving much more in the time to come, and I’m just excited to see what you’ll be doing in the years to come @sitting_pretty

Love it so much!

About the author

REBEKAH TAUSSIG, PH.D. is a Kansas City writer and teacher with her doctorate in Creative Nonfiction and Disability Studies. She has led workshops and presentations at the University of Michigan, University of Kansas, and Davidson College on disability representation, identity, and community. She also runs the Instagram platform @sitting_pretty where she crafts “mini-memoirs” to contribute nuance to the collective narratives being told about disability in our culture. She lives with two cranky orange cats and one angsty-tender human.