Thursday, August 14, 2014
George Takei Followup: Good Enough For Me
Gril With The Cane - August 14, 2014
I am Sarah Levis, the blogger at Girl With The Cane is a Facebook friend, so I first saw George Takei’s apology on her Facebook page. Today, she posted more about it on her blog, linked above.
I agree with Sarah. This was a genuine apology, given for all the right reasons. I hope my earlier post didn’t give the impression that I had “written off” Sulu entirely. I was disappointed. But part of my point was that it’s something very particular about ableism right now (as opposed to most other -isms) that it is not widely recognized and is often still abused by otherwise “good” people. I didn’t blame Mr. Takei for posting the meme. I only felt he’d fallen short of recognizing the meaning behind it. And now he has done that. That’s good enough for me.
Like Sarah, I, too will probably have more to say soon about the people who STILL gripe and whine about “political correctness” of all sorts. I wonder if the tenor of some of their comments in defense of him is part of what clued Takei in that he might be on the wrong side on this one?
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Disability.TV Update
This Friday I will post the first full episode of the Disability.TV podcast, with a review of the original Ironside television series, starring Raymond Burr.
I am also exited to announce that I have some great guest hosts for several of the upcoming podcast episodes:
I am also exited to announce that I have some great guest hosts for several of the upcoming podcast episodes:
August 15 - Ironside - the original series with Raymond Burr
August 29 - Ironside - the new series with Blair Underwood
September 5 - Friday Night Lights
With guest host Maddy Ruvolo of the Disabled Girls Talk Podcast.
September 19 - Game Of Thrones: Tyrion Lannister
With guest host Alice Wong of the Disability Visibility Project.
October 3 - Game Of Thrones: Jaimie Lannister, Bran Stark, and others.
With guest host Alice Wong.
October 17 - Glee
With guest host Cheryl Green of Who Am I To Stop It?
October 31 - My Gimpy Life
November 14 - The Big Bang Theory
With guest host Sarah Levis of Girl With The Cane.
On Fridays in between, look for Mini-Casts with podcast news, quiz answers, feedback, and related short topics.
Each episode will be posted here on the blog, and also on the podcast’s own website. You can also subscribe in iTunes, so you will automatically get each new episode downloaded to your computer or mobile device. Click here to get to the Disability.TV listing in iTunes.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Where In The World?
The Visitors Map widget on the lower right of the blog tells me that while most Disability Thinking readers are in the United States, there are a respectable number of readers from all over the globe. Plus, the American readers aren’t all clustered in the Northeast where I live. Here’s a little snapshot:
48 states + District of Columbia
Top 10 states
California
New Jersey
Ohio
New York
Texas
Illinois
Washington
Virginia
Massachusetts
Minnesota
51 countries
Top 10 countries, other than the United States
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Germany
Argentina
France
Ireland
Philippines
India
New Zealand
Video Of The Day
This seems like an important thing for people to look at today.
Via the Just Rolling On Tumblr blog.
Two Disability Cultures
I sometimes think that many of the conflicts within the disability community are less about specific disagreements than about peoples’ different responses to sentimentality on the one hand, and irony on the other. It’s almost like there are two disability cultures.
One is sustained by positivity, inspiration, and aspiration, and is either indifferent to or uncomfortable with discussions of policy and advocacy. The other “side” is fueled by injustice, collective action and identity, and a sort of world-weary cynicism about where disabled people really stand in the world. And they are either indifferent to or revolted by heartwarming stories of personal optimism and spirituality.
One is sustained by positivity, inspiration, and aspiration, and is either indifferent to or uncomfortable with discussions of policy and advocacy. The other “side” is fueled by injustice, collective action and identity, and a sort of world-weary cynicism about where disabled people really stand in the world. And they are either indifferent to or revolted by heartwarming stories of personal optimism and spirituality.
The only time the two cultures seem to cross is when we occasionally unite to share heartwarming, inspirational stories about prominent disability rights advocates, like Justin Dart and Judy Heumann. Otherwise, our two tribes seem to be carrying on entirely different conversations.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Bad Name, Promising Show
I just ran across this British TV series called The Specials, a reality TV show about five young men and women with intellectual disabilities, who share a house. The show will be coming to the OWN Network here in the U.S. in September. There is also a Web Series on YouTube.
It’s a terrible name … “The Specials” ... which I very much hope is meant to be ironic. What little I have seen of the show suggests that it probably is, because although these peoples’ disabilities are quite apparent, they are not shown to be either helpless or one-dimensional. The other thing that occurs to me is that there is something about British language and culture that seems to help keep sentimentality under control. It’s not cynical or anything, and there are some scenes between these supportive friends that do look heartwarming, but not in the revolting, gooey way a similar show would likely turn out here in the U.S. I can’t prove it, it’s just a feeling.
Something Close To Home
Disability Visibility Project - August 10, 2014
I wish I had known about this protest to make Montréal, Quebec’s Metro system more accessible.
I live only an hour south of Montréal, and it is my favorite city, but it’s not lost on me that some of its charm comes at the expense of accessibility. It especially bums me out that the Metro is so lacking in access, because in every other way, I love Montréal's Metro!
From this article, I also found a cool Tumblr site by the local group that organized the protest, Access4mtl (Access for Montréal) . They also have a Wordpress site, Accessible Montréal. There are some really great photos there, and this map showing just the portion of the metro that is wheelchair accessible is an amazing piece of persuasive art. I’ll set it next to the actual, official Metro map used n Montréal, to show how effective it is.
By the way, if you haven’t visited the Disability Visibility Project lately, or you haven’t been there yet, what are you waiting for? Whether or not you are able to participate by going to a recording site, reading the fantastic guest blog posts and profiles of media partners gives a great overview of what the disability activist community looks like today. There’s something new there pretty much every day, so you need to “Bookmark” or “Favorite” it so you can add the site to your daily website rounds.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Buy It: "I Claudius"
I plan on covering "I, Claudius" next Spring in my new podcast, Disability.TV.
Weekly Wrap-Up
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Monday, August 4, 2014
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Blogging Break
Friday, August 8, 2014
Disability.TV Podcast - Ep. 1.5, Mini-Cast
The next episode of Disability.TV is up. It’s a “Mini-Cast” in which I replay the disabled character samples from the Introductory episode, this time with actual audio, and take a little time to explain how you can support Disability.TV, the Disability Thinking blog.
Next episode: Friday, August 15: Ironside (Original Series).
A reminder, you can now click here to subscribe to Disability.TV at iTunes.
Oscar Pistorius' Disability Defense
Leizl Thom, ABC News - August 8, 2014
I would be more sympathetic if Oscar Pistorius' defense was that he, Oscar, is easily startled by sudden loud noises, or that he, particularly, feels physically vulnerable because of his double amputations. But that doesn’t seem to be what he and his lawyer are saying. They seem to argue that Pistorius feels extra vulnerable because of his disability ... as any amputee would feel. Instead of saying, “This is how being a double amputee affects me”, he’s saying, “This is how double amputees are”.
Aside from that, the argument may not work either way. The judge may simply not believe that Pistorius’ feelings of higher vulnerability were severe enough to justify him shooting that gun, apparently without first shouting out, “Who’s there?”, or “I’ve got a loaded gun!” And in the South African judicial system, there’s no jury, just the judge. I wonder if judges in this position are allowed to take into account the effects of precedents? Can she, for instance, rule against Pistorius partly because she’s concerned about giving license to kill to everyone in South Africa who has a physical or psychological injury … who isn’t 100% fit?
I don't have much interest either way in whether people "use their disability as an excuse" for bad behavior or failure. Sometimes disability is a factor in these things. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes disability helps explain behavior, without excusing it. It depends on each person and their individual sum of experiences. What bothers me is when disabled people invoke and use broad stereotypes of disability in order to take the onus off themselves ... to paint themselves as typical rather than unique.
By the way, for what it's worth, I think the article is a fine example of impartial journalism. It states the arguments being made, without drawing broader conclusions or moral distinctions, as I have just done.
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