February 17, 2026 - 14:40
In “Rest and the Disabled Body,” Jillian Crochet challenges the assumption that rest is laziness or absence. Instead, she frames rest as a deeply embodied and necessary practice for disabled people living in a world structured around able-bodied expectations. The essay argues that disabled artists and creators are already attuned to alternate rhythms of productivity because their bodies require pacing, recovery, and adaptation. Rather than treating these rhythms as limitations, Crochet suggests that they offer a different model of creativity and survival. Rest is not a break from work. It is part of how work is made possible. What stood out to me most is the idea that rest can be political. In a culture that values constant output, speed, and measurable productivity, choosing to rest disrupts dominant norms about whose time and labor matter. Disabled bodies expose the fragility of those norms. They reveal that the expectation of nonstop productivity is not neutral or natural, but constructed around a narrow understanding of ability. When disabled people prioritize rest, they are not failing to meet standards. They are rejecting standards that were never designed for them.
I can imagine this idea being enacted most clearly in creative and academic spaces. In classrooms, galleries, or workshops, rest could be treated as structurally necessary rather than individually requested. Flexible deadlines and even built-in pauses during long sessions would shift rest from accommodation to expectation. Instead of requiring someone to justify their need to slow down, institutions could assume variation in energy and stamina as normal.