I have been taken aback today by the Times Headline, which was repeated as a throw away remark out of context to me earlier today that "it's cool to be disabled".
If you know me, I crack on with life despite my own circumstances - and actually I don't think of myself as being disabled. But clearly it's not cool that I can't drive a car, or tread a book in the traditional sense.
It's not cool that idiots walk in to me in the street because they are not paying attention and I can't see them coming and it's not cool that I have to spend out mega bucks on taxis travelling places that sighted friends and colleagues can just walk to.
It's not cool that some people think it's ok to talk to me as if I'm stupid because I work with my guide dog or a white stick. It's not cool when people are surprised when I tell them I work. It's flippin' luke warm at it's coolest when random people tell me how well I'm doing to get on a train.
And none of this particularly bothers me - rough with the smooth and all that.
but when a fellow guest on Sky News today casually dropped in the term "it's cool to be disabled" during a sky news discussion - even I (the world's least PC person) was, as I say, taken aback.
I was taken aback not based on my own circumstances because I live a pretty dam good life - but there are people who are so severely disabled that they can't eve leave their home or hospital bed. How cool is that?
And what patronising cretin thinks the success of athletes with disabilities makes their disability "cool"?
I have always taken the attitude that I'm me, and if anyone has a problem with that - I couldn't give a rat's rectum - but I will not and cannot sit anywhere keeping a straight face when anyone thinks it's cool not to be able to do things that other people can.
If you think disability is cool - you're a fool
Woolwich atrocity: religious groups unambiguously condemn 'barbaric
terrorism'
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London Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains,
Zoroastrians – representatives of all these religions spoke with one voice
tonight. This...
8 hours ago
Passed a guy on Oxford Street today while the parade was finishing up nearby - he was in a wheelchair, missing his legs and hands. He had a bronze medal draped around his neck that he'd just bought from the shop, and shouted sarcastically to his friends, 'Look, I'm cool now!'
ReplyDeleteOne of his friends played along, saying 'But hey - before nobody would have looked at you, and now they're all looking at you and saying well done!'
He replied, 'No, before they would have looked at me and said "Look at that guy with no legs and missing his hands!" Now they think for a second I'm a paralympic athlete so they say "Well done!" - until they realise it's fake.'
He was bitter. There's a lot of talk about how the paralympics has changed people's attitudes toward the disabled, but I worry that that only extends as far as "cool" disabled people - you know, the ones who can still do the 100m.
Yeah, as Sean says above, I saw that headline "it's cool to be disabled" and thought the same as he did.
DeleteA few of my friends and I were discussing the Paralympics and all agreed that there was something about it that made us very uncomfortable, and then we realised the reason was that they competitors were being patronised with coverage and commentary paraphrased as: “Oh, aren’t they doing well!”
A few people I discussed this with were immediately on my case, saying how great it was that the competitors had “overcome their disabilities.”
I was obliged to remind them that they hadn’t really done that, because at the end of the event, they were all still disabled. I said that I admired Oscar Pistorius in the he had genuinely transcended (note, transcended not overcome) his disability in the he wanted to run against able-bodied people, but of course, in true hypocritical Olympic spirit, they didn’t want to run against him because of his “mechanical aids.”
Then, of course, in true hypocritical Paralympic spirit, Oscar let the side down by protesting that the blades of the bloke that beat him were “too long.” Answer is mate, get blades that are 50 metres long and do the race in one stride!
I do not have a downer on disabled people at all, but I really don’t want t hear about how “special” it is to be disabled. This is the very worst kind of positive discrimination, which is phenomenally patronising and insulting, and actually demeans the people who accept it. It’s the same with being gay – fine, whatever, but don’t keep on about it, it isn’t very interesting!
As a test, ask disabled people whether they would rather stay disabled and keep their medals or become able-bodied. I suspect they would all chose the latter, which would demonstrate exactly how “cool” or “special” it is.
And of course, if anyone decided they would rather be disabled and keep their medals, that would have to say something about their state of mind.
Yes, some people are disabled/ gay/ black/ religious or whatever. So what?
Just don’t tell me that they are “special,” which implies that because I am “normal;” i.e. a white, able-bodied, heterosexual atheist, I am actually in some way inferior disabled/ gay/ black/ religious, which is far from true.
Another band-aid is to acquirement banal cheap wall murals that can be put up like wallpaper. There are bank murals accessible for just about annihilation you can brainstorm – including horses of course! These pre-fabricated murals can be big-ticket and they don’t leave a accomplished lot of allowance for adroitness – it’s appealing harder to add your own alone blow to these designs.
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