Nothing sadder than ignorant tweets

Nothing sadder than ignorant tweets

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disability, random, Wheelchair

I totally hadn't planned to post today. My ability level has taken a big nose dive & I'm struggling to get used to the new status quo, but there are some things that take precedent & this is one of those things.
I saw this on twitter & I just lost it. I really did, I went mental. Everything about this tweet is degrading from the word hot, to the word 'nothing' all the way through to the sentiment. If I was writing an essay I would tear this apart, it is such a loaded tweet! I think the only thing that could have made this worse is if they had used the phrase 'wheelchair bound'. And I am aware that this is supposed to be a joke but it is so much the attitude that society has towards wheelchair users that there is no way that this could ever be funny, you know?

As a wheelchair user you get used to being seen as less - less of a person, less of a woman, of less societal & social value - and you kind of get used to it, you really do. You understand that anything you achieve is only valuable 'in spite' of your disability & that everyone sees you 'despite' the wheelchair, you know?

"It's amazing that you stay so confident with all you are going through."
"You look incredible, despite the...*wheelchair*."
"I'm always so impressed that you are so happy & cheerful, I would just give up if I was in your shoes. What would I possibly have to live for?"

On & on & on. And you hear it from everywhere, people who think they're trying to be nice think you are an inspiration & people who think they are being honest think that they'd rather die than be in your position. As a society we are conditioned into believing that illness & disability make people less & that becoming disabled is life destroying but honestly the only thing that makes us less as people is the way that society pushes that belief onto us.

It is significantly harder for a disabled or chronically ill person to find work even when they are  more qualified than any other applicant. Society at large believes that people with disabilities have horrible lives but studies are repeatedly showing that our quality of life is (in general) as good or even better than non-disabled people. And wheelchair users & people with other disabilities are non-sexual as a matter of course, being almost object like communal property like a cute dog or a pregnant lady.
Our only value seems to be in 'inspiration porn', the classic if they can do you it 'with all their problems' what excuse do you have etc...

I think I'm just going to end this post with a list of things that are sadder than 'hot' wheelchair users:

• The oven at home no longer gets hot enough for good Yorkshire Puddings
• There is no lemon pepper in the ASDAs my brother goes to in London
• Poor Grammar
• Bad Accents
• The missing letter 'T'
• Blogger doesn't work on my iPad
• Ignorance
• Politicians (they're just so pathetic)
• Politicians with fake 'working class' accents (it's just embarrassing)
• War
• The stupidity in the middle east
• The problems with the NHS
• Tribal Voting in the UK (and seemingly everywhere else)
• The fact audible UK doesn't have the audio books I like
• Food that tastes good makes you fat
• The fact that there are people so ignorant & offensive that they think it is okay to tweet 'funny' things that nobody should even think!

P.S.

 

I'm so sorry for all the 'sad' pictures of me looking super hot that I've posted on here guys ;)

disability, random, Wheelchair

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