Gregory's Server"One of the most real scenes in modern television. Representation is so so important. We need to see the realities of living with disabilities and we need to see disabled actors featured as complex characters." - Brains and Spoons
Ned Yeung
24 comments
Hugs4friends โพ๐บ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ท
@Catawu Yep. People who are Blind, are not deaf and mentally deficient. People who are Deaf aren't going to hear better if you yell. They also aren't mentally deficient. People in wheelchairs have trouble walking. They are not deaf, blind, or mentally deficient. Nor are any of these conditions contagious - for the most part. I would like to see actual representation of Disabilities. Like Marlee Matlin. @ned 
Cat West
@Tooden @ned I have seen people yell at people in wheel chairs โso they can hear me.โ It would really help if more commercials used real people. I say that because commercials are repetitive and thatโs what people need to see themselves as part of the fabric. Adjustment seems to happened quicker with repetitive representation. When schools started mainstreaming it made a difference. People learned from it. Bonding occurred. It mattered. Integration is strength.
Grumpy Penguin
That character - and the actor who played him - was AMAZING! Best thing about OMITB Treating visibly disabled people as dumb infants is still a thing. Unfortunately. Some of the carers that we have had - who really should know better - do the yelling thing... The ignore thing... The condescending thing... It's heartbreaking ๐ฟ ๐
Cat West
@GrumpyPenguin @Tooden @ned I can barely imagine. My younger twin brothers were disabled in multiple ways. One completely incapacitated, the other struggled to just get through a day. I was so proud of him for what he could do. The sabotage was everywhere.
Cat West
@GrumpyPenguin @Tooden @ned Iโm missing part of the thread. What is OMITB? Iโll probably do a facepalm when you tell me (of COURSE!) but until then, itโs driving me cray.
Hugs4friends โพ๐บ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ท
@Catawu Only Murder In The Building...I think. @GrumpyPenguin @ned
Grumpy Penguin
So these shots in the post are from the first season of Only Murders In The Building. The character is deaf, and is played by a fabulous deaf actor. Unfortunately, given the storyline I doubt that he will appear in the third season, which is about to premiere Apparently, the actor was allowed a huge input into the way his character was portrayed, which had a (positive) ripple effect amongst the cast and writers.
Cat West
@GrumpyPenguin @Tooden @ned by letting the actor with the real life experience have input on his character, they literally improved the show. Iโve heard a lot of acclaim for this show and Iโm looking forward to seeing it. Typically, writers are โmaking upโ experience they donโt have in these characters, and typically they cast fully abled characters to play challenged roles. How refreshing! I hope more of this โ a lot moreโ becomes mainstream.
Deborah
Cat West
@gnomicutterance @ned Clearly, your struggle and the loss on your side of the equation is painful. And itโs unfair. Expensive. When I say โour lossโ , I mean it as treasure unrecognized. How much we could gain from connecting. And we donโt even know it. People who manage despite the challenges bring a new perspective to every level of society. We make greater progress when we include. Society is stunted from lack of fairness. One more postโฆ
Cat West
@gnomicutterance @ned Making it possible for everyone who wants to to be able to work, be paid fairly, and live an independent life as much as possible, also means we have more taxpayers to improve the things we all need. The perspective that a challenged person brings to a work environment actually improves it for everyone. Ramps, lifts, accessible counters and facilitiesโฆ all are in reality, improvements. 
Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)
๐ถMark Nicoll 3.5%๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐ฌ๐ง๐ช๐บ๐บ๐ณ
@ned it always impresses me how often characters on screen can lipread or understand sign language when they haven't got a good line of sight between them and the person talking.
Niko Trimmel :veriqueer:
@ned I still cant watch the new season for a few hours, now your post made me even more impatient lol 
The Aforementioned W
@ned I remember being disappointed that a secondary deaf character in a romance novel was depicted as lip reading with perfect accuracy. Then she got her own story and it turned out she was actually confused a lot of the time. I'm not sure if the author planned it or learned better but it was pretty cool.
DELETED
@ned What great representation...  |
@ned If we canโt see them as real people, they remain โotheredโ in society. Our loss.