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Dec. 5th, 2014 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hopefulnebulaI could go the entire rest of my life without encountering another story about how ~~~inspirational~~~ disabled people are, and how ~~~amazing~~~ it is when they're successful. And I would be happy to do so.
Seriously, the news story I just watched was all about how this woman runs a restaurant, but it's not an ordinary restaurant, because she uses a wheelchair. They could have done a story about the barriers she faced getting it set up. (Hurdle number 1, as pointed out byexor674: people who are surprised that they can own a business!) They could have done about a hundred other stories about her. But no. This was flat-out "Hey, abled people, you can watch this and feel good about yourselves!"
Positive depictions of people with disabilities are good. The story I saw (which I am not linking, even via DoNotLink, because fuck that) is not positive, that is patronizing. It's inspiration porn, and I'm sick of it.
If you really want to use the media to help disabled people, you don't only show them the same way you'd do a story about a water-skiing budgie.
Seriously, the news story I just watched was all about how this woman runs a restaurant, but it's not an ordinary restaurant, because she uses a wheelchair. They could have done a story about the barriers she faced getting it set up. (Hurdle number 1, as pointed out by
exor674: people who are surprised that they can own a business!) They could have done about a hundred other stories about her. But no. This was flat-out "Hey, abled people, you can watch this and feel good about yourselves!"Positive depictions of people with disabilities are good. The story I saw (which I am not linking, even via DoNotLink, because fuck that) is not positive, that is patronizing. It's inspiration porn, and I'm sick of it.
If you really want to use the media to help disabled people, you don't only show them the same way you'd do a story about a water-skiing budgie.