So I think this is bizarre. I originally heard of it when she had lost the title as Ms. Wheelchair, but now they do this. First off, to strip someone of anything for not being disabled enough is not only wrong, it's, as I understand it, illegal.
A quick story: One day I was buying a train ticket to visit my sister. After everything was taken care of and I was walking away, the salesman politely got my attention saying something to the effect of, 'I don't mean to offend you, but I wanted to inform you of our disability rate.' With only a slight disability effecting the right side of my body, I'm fully functional, but in this case, I felt I should in a way humor him. As I started to explain, he interrupted, explaining the policy of no-questions-asked. I was given the impression that this was law. And as I walked away, I had 50 percent of the price of my ticket back in my pocket.
The point being, she shouldn't be asked to prove her disability, especially after the fact.
But for me there is a bigger issue here. As someone who is mildly disabled, albeit extremely mild, and someone who has been working with someone in a wheelchair for 11 months, I think the whole story is wrong, right down to the existence of a Ms. Wheelchair pageant in the first place.
I'm sure I'm in the minority on this one, but I believe disabilities are not something to celebrate, in the same way that they are not something that should cause people to become self-consumed with doubt or grief or just uncertainty. I should add that people should always celebrate their differences; they should always figure out what makes them them. But if someone's identity is simply the Disabled Guy, it does not make for a positive situation for him nor for the community where he carries that identity.
Disabilities are a reality, and now for some reason there is a Miss disAbility. Perhaps next there will be a Miss Overweight (as long as it's glandular).
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