It’s difficult not to warm to Chris McCausland. Not only were his dances with Strictly Come Dancing partner Dianne Buswell to ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and ‘Instant Karma’ genuinely worthy of victory. But his lacerating, and seemingly entirely genuine, self-effacing modesty (a genuine rarity on Saturday night television) has made him one of the more likeable prime time stars of recent years.
As a severely visually impaired person myself (I have ocular albinism and nystagmus which makes me blind in my left eye and chronically partially sighted in my right) I am never less than thrilled to see (excuse the pun) anyone with a disability succeed on any level in the world of mainstream media.
Yet, looking through the rafts of deserved online praise for Chris which have been churning up social media over the last few weeks, it’s noticeable how many people find it difficult to congratulate a disabled person without using the tired old standby phrases of ‘brave’, ‘courageous’ and ‘inspiring’.
The late Australian comic Stella Young can be credited with coining the phrase ‘inspiration porn’. She was referring to the Paralympics and, in particular, the line attributed to the former Olympic skater and cancer survivor Scott Hamilton, who said, ‘the only disability in life is a bad attitude.’
Of course, I, and millions of other people with disabilities would take issue with this. I personally find that walking into lamp posts, getting run down by cyclists on pavements and having my arm held by people who assume I need assistance without asking me first are all more serious concerns than having a ‘bad attitude’, though all these things regularly put me in a bad mood.
As Stella pointed out, Hamilton’s comments were purloined en masse by the able-bodied, and myriad ‘inspirational’ posters and mugs were sold with this rather nauseating bon mot emblazoned on them.
Why high-intensity drinking is even more dangerous than bingeing
Read MoreSo why did so many people who don’t have a disability take this quote to heart? Stella contended that there is a strong, not-so-latent desire for ‘inspiration porn’ among the able-bodied, which, despite the ostensibly ‘positive’ sloganeering actually points to something rather more malevolent.
Despite the high-octane, ‘empowering’ content that broadcasters enjoy screening, the dull truth is that the overwhelming majority of disabled people aren’t Paralympians, aren’t winning TV dance contests and aren’t climbing up the north face of the Eiger for charity in order to prove there are ‘no boundaries’.
I consider it a successful day if I haven’t been abused by a motorist for crossing the road too slowly or if I succeed in not spilling a glass of wine down my shirt. Such are the mundane realities of life for most disabled people who, just like so many able-bodied carers, partners and family members, are struggling with the after-effects of fourteen years during which support for people with additional needs improved not one iota.
Disabled people are not all over-achievers who want to smash down the barricades. And, at the risk of sounding facetious, it really would be nice if there were a few more depictions in the media of people with disabilities behaving in a way that’s a bit more, well, ‘normal’.
You may counter by arguing that there’s nothing newsworthy whatsoever about a person with a disability simply going out on a date, heading to the pub and just getting on with their life.
This is true- but it doesn’t stop us taking an oft-prurient interest in the highly mundane lives of able bodied people on reality shows, on Instagram and (albeit fictionally) in the storylines of Eastenders or Corrie.
There are around sixteen million disabled people in the UK but Scope reckon that only around 2.5 percent of people who appear on television have a disability.
So it’s hardly surprising that when someone non-able bodied does find a camera pointing at them, it’s probably because they’re doing something that is highly unusual. It’s often the only way someone with a disability can get any prime time exposure at all.
There’s no compensation in the real world either. The fact that disabled people are twice as likely to be unemployed means that, for many able-bodied people, their only view of disability will come via those rare individuals such as Chris who fit into the barely subconscious media narrative that ‘disabled people must be exceptional to get screen time.’
So, congratulations Chris. But please can we do something about this ‘inspiration porn’ situation? And let’s try taking more of an interest in disabled people who aren’t any good at the ‘cha cha cha’ and, more pertinently, don’t have any desire to be.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( I’m thrilled for Chris McCausland – but we need normal disabled people on TV too )
Also on site :
- Adorable Elephant Breaks Free From National Park and Heads Right to the Snack Aisle at the Grocery Store
- Chicago Forecast: Pleasant temperatures, mostly cloudy skies ahead of possible evening rain
- Yemen’s al-Qaida branch leader threatens Trump, Musk and others