According to the Center for Disability Rights, ableism is “a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities and often rests on the assumption that disabled people need to be ‘fixed’ in one form or the other” (“#Ableism.” Center for Disability Rights). Ableism is a term that Eli Clare references frequently, both explicitly and implicitly. Ableism affects his life in myriad ways, from his elementary school ignoring his educational needs to his internalized need to become a “supercrip” while climbing Mount Adams. Ableism is also integral to Clare’s historical examination of freak shows, as well as his exploration of whether modern medicalization has truly transformed perceptions and treatment of people with disabilities. Ableism shapes the world in which Clare lives and is one of the many social injustices that he seeks to rally against to create a fairer and more egalitarian world.

Classism is bias or discrimination against someone because of their socioeconomic status; it is related to but distinct from class inequality, which refers to the material differences between social classes. Both are important ideas in Exile and Pride. Throughout the Prologue and both parts of Exile and Pride, Clare examines the importance of socioeconomic status in identity formation and the necessity of considering class in intersectional movements.