Image description: Cilla's artwork takes disabled guy, the basic universal disability access symbol, and gives him a cowboy hat, sheriff's star pinned to his chest, fringed chaps (showing the fringes on the underside of his thighs), kickass cowboy boots with spurs, and a lasso swinging in the air from his arm. She's beautiful. Thanks, Cilla!
Which is more disturbing? That the disabled wheelchair symbol guy is naked or that the nondisabled stick figure guy is not wearing pants?
Image description: A color photo of restroom signage in the Honolulu, Hawaii, airport, posted on Flickr by Wha'ppen. On a black or dark brown background two white stick figures for the mens' restroom: The universal access wheelchair guy, looking like he always does in simple white outline, sits next to the mostly universal stick figure symbol for the mens' restroom -- a nondisabled standing guy in simple white outline. Except the nondisabled guy is wearing a very festive Hawaiian shirt , yellow with red flowers. The effect of the colorful shirt on the otherwise white figure is that he appears to be wearing only a shirt. Disabled guy doesn't get a shirt.
This is a the latest of a series at my blog, usually consisting of an amusing visual image about disability. Visual descriptions are meant to both assist those who cannot view the image well, and encourage discussion when others see something different.
Visual description: A one-pane comic, drawn very simply. A stick figure stands next to a sign posted on a wall that reads "Third Floor Office" with some Braille just below those words. At the top of the comic: "I learned to read Braille a while back, and I've noticed that the messages on signs don't always match the regular text." The stick figure touching the Braille signage has a thought balloon translating what she reads: "S-I-G-H-T-E-D P-E-O-P-L-E S-U-C-K ... Hey!"
It hurts me a little bit to post this ad for discussion. I participated in protests at my university when the sports department contracted with Nike. I overcame my significant fear of public speaking to join with a local union and represent NOW to the Board of Regents. That was a decade ago and Nike still sucks.
But they do have this commercial (also embedded below) airing this weekend that will feature Paralympian basketball player Matt Scott. The news about the ad:
Nike's New Year television commercial will feature University of Wisconsin-Whitewater wheelchair basketball player Matt Scott.
Scott, a senior from Detroit, Mich., and a member of the U.S. Paralympic Basketball team, will appear in Nike's "No Excuses" commercial. The spot is the latest in the company's series of "Just Do It" ads.
Throughout the commercial, Scott bounces a basketball and takes shots at the hoop, while reciting a long list of excuses people use to avoid working out and staying in shape. The spot ends with Scott in his wheelchair, slamming down two basketballs simultaneously and saying the final excuse, "And my feet hurt." He then wheels out of the gymnasium.
The commercial will air on New Year's Eve on ESPN and MTV and on New Year's Day on FOX, ESPN, the NFL Network, BET, the Comedy Channel, FUSE, ABC Family and others. "Overcoming a disability and striving for athletic excellence is certainly not for the weak," Scott said. "I am proud I was chosen to represent disabled athletes and show that we do not make excuses."
The brief description of the ad above is not bad. Scott is a large attractive black man wearing a black Nike shirt and a black knit cap. The ad is a full minute long and while he offers all the common and ridiculous excuses people give for not exercising, he bounces a basketball out of camera view. The camera moves and the shot is repeatedly edited so that his wheelchair does not show until the final image of him turning and wheeling from the gym.
Since I posted this at The Gimp Parade last June, Boys on Wheels has been a fairly major contributer to my site's daily visitor hit count -- easily 30+ hits per day. Obviously people are fascinated enough to Google. So, what do you think?
Funny or not so much?
Direct YouTube link here. (Or at the bottom of the post.)
The lead singer of Boys on Wheels is Jesper Odelberg and he is a guy with cerebral palsy, as well as part of a Norwegian comedy show. The four-minute video linked above is a montage of rock songs with lyrics slightly altered. Subtitles are provided in the language each song is sung in. For example, the first song is in Norwegian, the second is a spoof on the '80s hit by Norwegian band A-Ha: "Take On Me," instead called "I'm Not Gay." Bryan Adams' '80s power ballad "Heaven" has been altered so the lyrics begin:
Baby, you're all that I want, but you're living on the fifth floor. I'm finding it hard to get there, in my wheelchair.
Bon Jovi's "Living On A Prayer" is spoofed as "Living In A Wheelchair." Three men in power wheelchairs sit on a stage with dynamic colorful lighting. Sometimes the two backup guys do some dancing with their wheelchairs. Odelberg's costume changes to match the song, with '80s-era Bon Jovi hair and clothes for the last song.
Image description: A roadside warning sign. A white triangular sign with a red boarder has an image of a horse drawing a cart with international symbol wheelchair guy sitting in the cart. His chair is larger than the horse. Signs below read "Disabled drivers, 100 yds".
Intriguing, isn't it? Are there actual horse carts like this up ahead? And what about that, exactly, warrants a warning? Are the horses particularly stressed? Are the drivers especially bad? Or did the local municipality decide this was so interesting that tourists need advance warning of what they will see?
Direct link to YouTube video here. Visual description: This is a video remake of the classic Ramones song "I Wanna be Sedated" sung and performed by dozens of elderly residents of a nursing home, it appears. In day rooms and hallways, using wheelchairs and walkers, elderly men and women sing or holler the lyrics raucously together directly to the camera. Someone plays a guitar and another man bangs on a piano in the background. One guy with white tufts of hair above each ear and eyeglasses with one lens patched over with tape plays a harmonica. The lyrics:
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothin' to do and no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated Just get me to the airport put me on a plane Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain Oh no no no no no Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go.... Just put me in a wheelchair, get me on a plane Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain Oh no no no no no Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothin' to do and no where to go-o-o I wanna be sedated Just put me in a wheelchair get me to the show Hurry hurry hurry before I go loco I can't control my fingers I can't control my toes Oh no no no no no Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go... Just put me in a wheelchair... Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Punk music sung with irony by seniors. This just makes me so indescribably happy!
The Ramones themselves in a much duller video performance here.
Direct link to YouTube video here. This is a live performance of the song "Torn" by comedian David Armand of The Hollow Men with singer Natalie Imbruglia at the 2006 Secret Policemen's Ball for Amnesty International.
Visual description: Armand is on-stage at a live event acting out the lyrics to the pop song "Torn" (lyrics here). The performance looks like sign language but has been described as "mime style interpretive dance". I don't know sign, so I don't know if any of the performance uses actual sign language, but much of it is puns and it's cleverly easy to follow for a hearing person: Armand holds up four fingers for the word "for", mimes reeling in a fish for the word "real", and mimes a magic act for the word "illusion". Halfway through this performance, Imbruglia appears on-stage singing and eventually joins him in the gestures. There's a wordless slide guitar part toward the end of the song where Armand and Imbruglia mime playing the guitar.
Is this cultural appropriation? A comedy act that has nothing to do with deafness and Deaf culture? Or is it cultural cross-over that might be useful to the Deaf, Deaf theater, and communication with Deaf folks?
Here's a different mime performance by Armand, to Paul Young's 1980s hit "Wherever I Lay My Hat, That's My Home"
An article by Mark Aronoff in The Chronicle of Higher Education (available free to nonsubscribers for just a few days) asks the question "In Discussing Disabilities, Are We Linguistically Disabled?" I missed it, but apparently back in June Today show personality Al Roker made a joke about the animated logo for the 2012 London Olympics that had to be changed because it triggered seizures for some people with epilepsy. Roker's comment:
"Remember that controversial Olympic logo for the 2012 Olympics in London? Some folks have complained that the campaign actually sent them into epileptic seizures. Well, we asked you to weigh in on our Web site in an informal poll; those of you who could get up off the floor after shaking around were able to actually log in."
And here's his apology, offered the following day:
"I started joking about it. I want to make this clear — I was not joking about epilepsy or anyone who suffers from epilepsy. ... We understand and know that this is a serious affliction and would never joke about that. ... We were joking about the logo — not about epilepsy. If anybody was offended, I heartily and really humbly apologize."
Well, of course, he was joking about epilepsy and the people who have it. If he'd been joking about the logo only, he'd have made the crack about advertising promotions made by committee or London's competence in planning the big event or the International Olympic Committee needing a doping rules exception for anti-convulsive drugs. It's a fairly typical non-apology apology. He didn't do anything wrong, but he's sorry anyway.
Aronoff asks and offers an answer for the question of why Roker's joke created a furor:
There are two reasons. The first, much discussed, is Roker's hypocrisy. Roker was one of the most insistent critics of Don Imus's infamous "nappy-headed ho's" comment, which eventually led to Imus's dismissal. Why, some ask, should Roker not be held to the same standard? The second reason, less discussed but worthier of comment, is the taboo status of disability in American culture and especially public language.
Over the last two decades, disability has become the most taboo subject in American society. We seem unable to reconcile the fundamental tenet that all men are created equal with the equally powerful new admiration for physical and emotional perfection that drives so many of us to plastic surgery and Prozac. To a linguist, though, regardless of the cause, the evidence is in our language.
I disagree with that second reason for the upset over Roker's comment. Roker was being a hypocrite and should be held to the same standard, but I don't think jokes about the disabled are taboo. I think they're considered very much fair game. Witness the frequent use of "retarded" by high profile comedians like Jon Stewart or the common reference to some politician's or celebrity's poor decision as "crazy." I think this particular joke by Roker was about having a seizure -- a specific physical and medical event -- which is distinguishable from being a person who has seizures. Joking about having seizures is perceived as like wishing someone bad luck or misfortune, and that's what was considered in poor taste.
Aronoff goes on to note that taboo subjects are sometimes treated with complete silence or discussed through euphemisms. "A good euphemism," he says, "should always sound a bit peculiar, allowing us to create a distance between ourselves and the subject, as if we are saying the word in shudder quotes or picking it up with tongs." Think "physically challenged" or handi-capable."
Aronoff also states that a taboo subject can be identified by the instability of terminology used to discuss it, like the evolution of terms for race ("colored," "black," "African-American"). I'd agree with that, as far as it goes, but I think this instability also indicates efforts to speak the unspeakable and expresses changing cultural attitudes. If someone refers unironically to "colored people" or "crippled kids" they're not simply using antiquated language, they're displaying a blatant failure to see or embrace current (or emerging) cultural norms. Language use is a barometer of an individual's social beliefs.
Aronoff continues:
The disability taboo is part of a larger societal trend to taboo all perceived hu-man defects, all departures from physical and mental perfection. That larger taboo has led to one of the strangest and most notable euphemisms in the history of any language or culture: the "people (living) with X" construction. What is most interesting about that euphemism is that it is not a single expression but a frame that allows speakers to construct an entire family of euphemisms, since X can be any tabooed condition, and the word "living" is optional.
The construction appears to have started with chronic diseases, in such expressions as people (living) with cancer/AIDS/ADHD/etc. One rationale for this way of putting things was that by literally placing the person first, not the condition, we are de-emphasizing the condition. Another was that it allowed us to avoid the degrading term "victim," as in "cancer victim." The "people (living) with X" construction quickly moved beyond chronic diseases to stigmatized human conditions that had always been described with adjectives, like (mentally) retarded. Now they are people (living) with mental retardation. More broadly, where we formerly spoke of disabled people, we now say people with disabilities or, following the California examples, people with nothing but abilities, which, by deleting the negative prefix dis-, allows us to remove ourselves even further from the unspeakable. Finally, we have a simple way to talk about disability without mentioning it at all!
I wish there was a disability equivalent to the term "queer." Something to express difference and the vast spectrum of ability that "disability" doesn't indicate. "Crip" and "gimp" are mobility-specific, but do have a directness that's needed to counter the euphemisms. George Carlin has an old comedy bit about how euphemisms get longer to distance the discussion from the impact of the idea -- "shell shock" became "battle fatigue" and then "post-traumatic stress disorder." Syllable-count works as bullshit detector, really. So, where's our one-syllable word?
Visual description: These three photos from collegehumor.com are about as unpretty as photographs can be. The first is a closeup of a placard that reads "HANDICAPPED FACILITES (sic) LOCATED ON 2ND AND 3RD FLOORS." The second pic is of a placard hanging next to a door with a lock on it that requires a key and a damaged wall above the placard, possibly where another sign has been yanked down. This placard reads "HANDICAP TOILET LOCATED ON 2ND FLOOR." The last photo is of a paper sign hanging in a window. It reads "NOTICE! HANDICAP BUTTON DISABLED (until further notice) Thanks for your Cooperation." There's something so passive-aggressive about that last.
The next carnival will be at Retired Waif on Thursday, July 12, with deadline the Monday before. The carnival submission form is here.
Visual description of the photo at left: It's the first icon created for the Disability Blog Carnival and it's a photo of a blue parking lot sign with the white lettering "Somewhat Disabled." In white text across the photo, the words "Disability Blog Carnival (come share the uncertainty)"
TWO academics have been suspended without pay for six months for criticising a thesis which they said poked fun at disabled people.
John Hookham and Gary MacLennan, both senior lecturers in creative industries at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), criticised the PhD work in an April article in The Australian newspaper.
The thesis is a film starring two intellectually impaired men and is entitled Laughing at the Disabled.
The academics said the men were put in cruel situations they did not understand - one in which they were sent to a rural pub to tell locals they were looking for romance, provoking advances from a drunk woman.
They said the scenes provoked raucous laughter at a university screening.
"The purpose of humour is not just cruelty ... we don't think it's funny to mock and ridicule two intellectually disabled boys," the pair wrote in the article.
The project had been developed in conjunction with the disability group Spectrum and the two men depicted in it as well as their parents were comfortable with the idea, having had experience with Noonan in the making of Unlikely Travellers [a film about a group of disabled people who had gone to the Sahara Desert, which has been purchased by the ABC and will be screened later this year].
In addition, the university's ethics committee had cleared the project.
But after seeing the rushes, MacLennan, a lecturer at the university, said: "I have a handicapped child and I pray to God that my child never comes into contact with someone like you." Also present was Hookham, who questioned the use of disabled people.
That night, Noonan emailed MacLennan and Hookham, asking them to expand on their responses.
MacLennan emailed back, saying: "It's quite simple, Michael, I was brought up by my mother - one of the uneducated Irish peasantry. She was the best human being I have ever met. She taught me not to mock the afflicted. I had to go to a university to see the mocking of the afflicted being celebrated under the spurious rubric of 'post-structuralism'."
A few weeks later, Noonan gave a lecture that involved scenes from Unlikely Travellers, and at the end of his lecture he explained that the two disabled men involved in the film were present. Indeed they were, and they answered questions from the class. What happened next depends on who you listen to.
According to various blog entries written by students, some of them found the experience positively challenged their view of the disabled, as here were two men quite open about their disabilities and prepared to speak openly and honestly.
But others claimed the experience shocked and embarrassed them.
Here's a link to some videos on the academics' position, an excerpt from Noonan's previous work Unlikely Travellers, and some disability advocates on the controversy.
The lead singer of Boys on Wheels is Jesper Odelberg and he is a guy with cerebral palsy, as well as part of a Norwegian comedy show. The four-minute video linked above is a montage of rock songs with lyrics slightly altered. For example, the first song is in Norwegian, the second is a spoof on the '80s hit by Norwegian band A-Ha: "Take On Me," instead called "I'm Not Gay." Bryan Adams' '80s power ballad "Heaven" has been altered so the lyrics begin:
Baby, you're all that I want, but you're living on the fifth floor. I'm finding it hard to get there, in my wheelchair.
Bon Jovi's "Living On A Prayer" is spoofed as "Living In A Wheelchair." The lyrics are provided in subtitles within the video.
Photo description: A picture of a woman in a wheelchair taken from several feet behind her. A woman with long flowing almost white-blonde hair and a leopard print cushion behind her back sits in a motorized wheelchair. You can't see her face or body, but there's a bumpersticker on the back of the power unit that reads "Does this wheelchair make my butt look big?"
I went for a jog in the city air I met a woman in a wheelchair I said "I'm sorry to see you're handicapped." She says "What makes you think a thing like that?"
And she looks at me real steady And she says, "You want to drag?"
So she starts to roll and I start to run And she beat the pants off my aching buns You know going uphill I'd hit my stride But coming down she'd sail on by!
When I finally caught up with her She says "Not bad for somebody ablebodied. You know, with adequate care and supervision You could be taught simple tasks. So how about something to eat?"
I said that'd suit me fine "We're near a favorite place of mine." So we mosied on over there But the only way in was up a flight of stairs.
"Gee, I never noticed that," says I. "No problem," the maitre d' replies. "There's a service elevator around the back."
So we made it upstairs on the elevator With the garbage, flies, and last week's potatoes I said "I'd like a table for my friend and me." He says "I'll try to find one out of the way."
Then he whispers, "Uh, is she gonna be sick, I mean, pee on the floor or throw some kind of fit?" I said "No, I don't think so, I think she once had polio.
But that was twenty years ago. You see, the fact of the matter is, If the truth be told, She can't walk.
So he points to a table, she wheels her chair Some people look down and others stare And a mother grabs her little girl Says "Keep away, honey, that woman's ill."
We felt right welcome.
Then a fella walks up and starts to babble About the devil and the holy bible Says "Woman, though marked with flesh's sin, Pray to Jesus, you'll walk again!"
Then the waiter says "What can I get for you?" I said "I'll have your best imported brew." And he says "What about her?" I say "Who?" He says "Her."
"Oh, you mean my friend here." He says "Yeah." I say "What about her?" "Well, what does she want?" "Well, why don't you ask her?"
Then he apologizes. Says he never waited on a cripple before. We immediately nominated him for Secretary of the Interior.
Well, she talked to the manager when we were through
She says "There're some things you could do To make it easier for folks in wheelchairs." He says "Oh, it's not necessary.
Handicapped never come here anyway."
Well, I said goodnight to my newfound friend I said, "I'm beginning to understand A little bit of how it feels To roll through life on a set of wheels."
She says "Don't feel sorry, don't feel sad, I take the good along with the bad I was arrested once at a protest demo And the police had to let me go.
See, we were protesting the fact That public buildings weren't wheelchair accessible. Turned out the jail was the same way. Anyway, I look at it this way-- In fifty years you'll be in worse shape than I am now. See, we're all the same, this human race. Some of us are called disabled. And the rest-- Well, the rest of you are just temporarily able-bodied."
Above is a YouTube video clip (link to it on YouTube here) from the cable comedy show Campus Ladies, an episode where the women research and then report to a class on the benefits of being "handicapped." Guest stars Janeane Garofalo.
When Joan and Barri's Sociology Professor asks his class to "live the life of someone struggling outside mainstream society," the Campus Ladies choose to be handicapped. But after Cassie Dipetrio (guest star Janeane Garofalo) befriends a wheelchair-bound Joan, the "perks" give her second thoughts.
Update: Okay, a visual/audio description. The clip is over four minutes long. It begins with the two women characters, Joan and Barri, getting out of an SUV where they've just parked at a curbside disabled access parking space. "We got the sweeeet spot Joannie!... And look where we are, right in front of the student store! The perks of being handicapped!" As they are chatting and getting an old Everest & Jennings manual out of the back of the vehicle, two young women come along and one of them says, "Excuse me. This spot is for handicapped people." Barri laughs a little and says, "Wellll, I don't know if you can tell, but my friend here is confined to a wheelchair." As she says this, Joan and she open the folded chair and Joan sits in it. Barri continues as she unfolds a white cane and puts away her dark sunglasses: "And I am legally blind." (Barri got out of the driver's seat of the SUV as the clip began.) The young women look at each other in amazement and shrug.
The scene switches to the inside of the student store where the women shop and chat:
"Do we get a discount? A handicapped discount?"
"We do, we get a huge quantity off just because we're (whispers) handicapped."
Joan is looking at tops hanging on a wall and gets out of the wheelchair to stand on the seat and reach for a shirt way up high. A woman (actor Janeane Garofalo) comes up to them in a manual chair, sees Joan, apparently surprised that she is out of the chair and can stand. She says, "Joan?"
When Joan and Barrie see her, they apparently know her and one of them says about Joan standing, "Hi Cassie, look it's-- Ohhh, it's a miracle! Oh, wait! Cassie!" Cassie wheels away quickly, upset. "Cassie! Cassie! Cassie!" they call after her. Barri: "Oh boy, I think she knows."
Joan sits back in the chair, shakes her head and says "Damn."
The scene switches again, this time to a college classroom where Barri and Joan are speaking to the other students while a male professor stands by and the listening students sit looking sceptical or frowning. The women finish each other's sentences in their enthusiasm: "There are so many perks to being handicapped, here are just some of them: Number one, they have whole special rooms and walkways devoted to handicapped people. Number two, you always get to park in a handicapped parking spot, even if you're blind and if you had a car, that's where you would park. Number three, you get super-duper discounts all over campus! I don't know if you guys know that. In the cafeteria, you always can get to the front of the line, and people always help you. Oh my gosh! Everyone's willing to carry your stuff, whether you're blind or in a wheelchair. You kind of have it made. So what we learned from being handicapped for a week, other than it was tremendous! Oh. My. Gosh! Did you guys have as much fun as we did? If you didn't have to lie to people and be dishonest, which we did with all the disabled kids on campus, and take advantage of a lot of stuff you wouldn't normally take advantage of... other than that it. was. out of sight! And what we learned overall is that handicapped people don't face nearly as many obstacles as you and I do in our daily life. They just cruise! It's excellent!"
Again the scene changes to what I believe is supposed to be a lounge area on campus for disabled students. Pictures on the wall show an empty wheelchair on a beach and another has crutches. There's a Foosball Table in the background and a half dozen students in the room. Janeane Garofalo's in her wheelchair in the center telling a young woman who uses a walker something about "I prefer you wear the helmet..." as Barri and Joan enter.
This is taking much more time than I expected, so a summary of the remaining dialogue: Barri and Joan apologize to the disabled students if they were offended, but assert that everyone is the same except that they (J & B) can run and see and escape buildings in earthquakes, etc. Joan's wheelchair is there, apparently having undergone some repairs and an heated discussion ensues where Joan says she's not sure she should take it back and Janeane's character repeatedly insists she can't have it back, they're not giving it to her. Joan doesn't appear to hear and keeps saying she can't accept it. Then the two mention donating money to make the campus "Snack Shack" wheelchair accessible and Janeane's frown becomes a smile.
One last scene occurs in the auditorium of some theater where the women use disabilities to get into the venue.
Finally, some recognition that we have friends that need venue seating too.
Visual description: Two ordinary Western-style toilets, one with the seat up, spaced at most a yard apart. There's a roll of toilet paper on the back tank of each and a waste basket on the floor between. Some long stripey curtains are half drawn to hide these toilets, and a sign above the curtain rod these curtains rest on reads "For the HANDICAPPED."
Image description: Cilla's artwork takes disabled guy, the basic universal disability access symbol, and gives him a cowboy hat, sheriff's star pinned to his chest, fringed chaps (showing the fringes on the underside of his thighs), kickass cowboy boots with spurs, and a lasso swinging in the air from his arm. She's beautiful. Thanks, Cilla!
