This viral video, as it is posted on YouTube, dares you to watch without crying. I watched it. I anticipated tears. I'm a crier. I'm not ashamed of that fact.
I didn't cry.
I did scream though.
WTF! WTF! WTF!
So, let's review. Here we have a father who is seemingly driven to distraction by the fact that his son eats. After a fight the son moves out, leaving a distraught mother and and angry father behind him. He gets a job, is injured on the job, ends up - gasp - in a wheelchair. Father cries. It's not clear if he's crying because of regret regarding his treatment of his son or that his son is now a cripple. Father then gets son out of wheelchair and drags him around, sons arms over his shoulders, feet dragging along behind. Son is then shown standing up ... no longer a cripple and is welcome to eat food.
This is parental love, according to the scriptwriter, when it comes to a child with a disability.
This brings on tears.
A film showing a father taking a gay son around and throwing him at women and into strip shows and onto the beds of prostitutes would probably not be received in the same way. But gay people are, as a group, acknowledged enough to be at the point of demanding acceptance, equality and rights and rejecting forced change.
Because you can't force change.
But then, for many disabilities, you can't force change either.
The video gives no indication that the kid needed a bit of physio, a few exercises, a couple of miles being carried like a sack of potatoes.
But it's all good in the end.
Even though the miracle shown is completely unbelievable.
HE WALKS!!
OH MY, HE WALKS!!!
What utter shite.
This is a movie that uses and exploits disability in the worst way. It isn't made for people with disabilities. It certainly isn't made for parents of kids with disabilities (many of whom might find this painful to watch, others might find that it carries with it the suggestion of blame for not loving, doing, caring enough). It's made for no one in the disability community.
It uses disability, exploits and manipulates the disability experience for the benefit on the non-disabled. It's worse than inspiration porn, it's snake oil porn - love as cure - abuse and lack of acceptance as a restorative process.
What's the main message of this ...
Watch this space tomorrow - and I'll show you.
5 comments:
When I first saw that video several months ago my reaction was, "yuck!" Thanks for clarifying why. Looking forward to part 2 tomorrow.
Click bait panders to first order thinkers.
People keep thinking that they can cure me through love or ~giving me a chance~, then they hate me when they find out I'm still disabled and still have support needs.
Because of your educational posts I am so aware of "disability porn" now. I bristle at the way things are portrayed. I can understand your ire.
Wow, I hate this on so many levels... It wasn't about an abusive dad who learned to love when his son became disabled. Instead, it was about an abusive dad who needed his son to be non-disabled again in order to love him. In real life, and in a more interesting story, the test of character would be how the dad would respond after his dragging-the-son-around antics didn't work.
Why can't these stories ever portray disability as "ok"? Value neutral? Just a thing?
Looking forward to the follow-up...
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