I made one of my biannual pilgrimmages to the movie theater

[lindentreeisle]

If most wide-release films didn't suck so bad, I'd go more often. This theater is very upscale, which means that not only is the population of poorly-behaved teenagers and loud idiots low, it has a bar in the lobby. Fuck yes, I WILL be taking my double espresso vodka into the theater with me

Comments

[natsuko1978]

Well, one-in-seven adults does not necessarily mean 1:7 twenty-somethings. Disabling conditions can, after all, be a factor of age, so that bald statistic is skewed by the number of people in their eighties and nineties with diabilities - blindness, frailty, arthritis etc. You know?

Also, a lot of people with disabling conditions may either not be in the workplace at all (like me) or not in the mainstream workplace.

And a lot of people with disabling conditions don't announce the fact physically (see ButYouDontLookSick.com) any more than homosexuals, bisexuals and asexuals "look" like their sexuality, if you know what I mean.

But still, it would be nice to see a representation. Though, let's face it, it's far from the only minority issue. :(

Maybe you have to be - or become - a member of a minority group, to really start to LOOK for representation. I think disability is unique in some ways because so many of us were/have been able-bodied at some stage, until the symptoms started appearing or the accident. So our frame of reference has actually *changed*. Honestly, I didn't look at TV and film or look around me and think, "Where are all the disable people?" until I became one - and as one, found out just how many of us there are.

(It's also annoying as a disabled person to see the stories told about disability being the exceptional ones, the "Look what X did even though he is disabled!" type story. I tend to feel, "Great for X - but my Everest is actually being able to go down the road to the shops. Don't denigrate that accomplishment.")

[lindentreeisle]

Oh yeah, good point on the age thing. But still.

I think that's true about having to be a minority to see it. It's like white privilege...or in this case I guess able-bodied privilege. You don't realize there's a problem because you're so used to everyone in the media looking like you. I guess disability IS unique that way, it's not like a white girl's going to wake up as a poc one day. So it's a unique perspective.