Showers: Discourse, Disability, and the State

Abstract

Showering is a pleasurable part of a daily hygiene routine for many people. However, for those who are unable to stand or step up into the typical shower unit, it is a space of exclusion. In Aotearoa New Zealand, occupational therapists can apply to the State for funding to modify shower units so that people may wheel into their shower, shower while seated, or be assisted with showering. However, this funding comes from a limited budget in which the need always exceeds the allocation. As such, a system for assessing who is able to get funding has been established. From the outside, it seems that this funding solves the issue of inaccessible showers. Although not everyone can get what they need, one could presume that the system for prioritisation addresses the needs of those whose are the greatest. However, disabled people’s access to suitable housing in Aotearoa New Zealand has recently been described as grim. Issues with inaccessible housing and showers appear frequently in mainstream media, and numerous studies have found that the need for accessible houses is far from being met.

In this study, I use a Foucauldian genealogical approach to interrogate the history of the shower. This reveals the discursive construction of the typical shower unit and shows the shower to be a political actor in the exclusion of disabled people from private dwellings. I have gathered texts from the birth of showers through to modern day to show how the government of individuals and populations shaped the shower and produced the idea of showering as an essential everyday activity. I analysed these texts using the concept of the dispositif to reveal the governmentalities that have shaped where and how disabled people live. I conclude that the current system of housing modification maintains biopolitical disablism, and is part of excluding disabled people from neoliberal life. I argue that this is an extremely dangerous practice, pushing disabled people (including the elderly) into institutional living where they are excluded from life.

This study provides a unique contribution to the argument for radical change to the way housing is governed. It shows how the shower has become a technology for investment in human capital for those who can stand and step up. While the possibility of showers that can be accessible for all has been realised, the established order has remained; and the very system that is supposed to address problems with access contributes to the dangerous exclusion of disabled people from community life. However, the recent establishment of the Ministry of Disabled People provides some hope that discriminatory practices will be confronted, and practices such as Ministry of Health housing modifications will be rethought or done away with entirely.