Month: January 2017

Dear Meryl Streep

5 Comments / Uncategorized / January 10, 2017
At the Golden Globes on Sunday night, Meryl Streep called out Trump for publicly mocking a disabled reporter and then high five’d Hollywood for its inclusiveness, identifying her community as “crawling with outsiders and foreigners”. While I was excited to see a major star use such a huge platform to defend the dignity of Mr. Kovaleski and to speak out against the unjust treatment of persons with disabilities, Hollywood is not yet deserving of a pat on the back for total inclusion, especially as it relates to disability representation.

c Thomas Wolf www.foto-tw.de CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Across multiple media, including television and film, disability is still grossly underrepresented, misrepresented or just plain ignored. In her speech, Streep said “An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like”. But in the world of entertainment, disability stories are little more than stereotypes of victims and burdens, heroes or freaks; lazy tropes that are used to make us feel specific emotions. These careless characterizations are not just hurtful, they’re dangerous. They inform how we see disabled people in real life and lead us to believe they are low status individuals. 

The real stories of disability are still not being told.

The arts are by nature forward thinking and innovative. Media is one of the most effective vehicles to illicit change in hearts and minds. Hollywood has a real opportunity to influence and normalize how we see disability just as it has for other marginalized groups.

So, thank you Ms. Streep, for shedding a massive light on this issue. You’re amazing and I love you, but there’s still work to be done. I hope this encourages more conversation about the accurate and authentic inclusion and representation of disability across all media.

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New Year, New You? Simple Resolutions For Uncertain Futures

3 Comments / Life hacks / October 29, 2019
Dedicated readers may remember this (slightly modified) address. We’re all throwing shade at the past year and the need for optimism feels even more relevant as we dip a nervous toe into the future. Or maybe I’m too hungover to come up with anything new. 

It’s the first day of a shiny new year. The day when all the mistakes of the previous year are behind us, and anything seems possible. By now, a month of partying has been put to bed, its memories tucked safely away on Instagram. My liver and credit card are holding hands and whispering “It’s over. We’re safe now”. The fun is over and as we face that icy, unforgiving bitch, January, it’s hard not to wonder why a new year is something to celebrate when the fête is finie. A beginning that doesn’t require us to actually start anything new. Good news if you just need a mental boost, to symbolically wipe the slate clean of all the injuries and injustices of the past, while you write the wrong year on your cheques for the next month. This is your holiday. You don’t have to change. That’s the gift of New Year’s. It’s up to you. 

Or don’t. Whatever.
For others, a new year means waking up January 1st in last night’s makeup and one shoe, rubbing mascara from your eyes while looking in the mirror and making RESOLUTIONS. Because a new year means a new you. One where you can get fit, find love, take that improv class, quit day drinking, stop using LOL and start being nice to the cat. I don’t know what you’re into. The point is: 

Anything is Possible

Many start the year with big plans only to find themselves failing by February. So, why bother with resolutions? Aren’t they just setting us up for failure? Maybe. But giving voice to our hopes and dreams, saying them out loud, is an important step to realizing them. Even if we never keep our pledges, the act of making them means we take stock, examine what we like, and maybe experience a few moments of gratitude, before rejecting whatever it is we don’t like. 

We get to know ourselves better for having named our convictions; for declaring just who it is we want to be.

In chronic progressive illness, like MS, the measuring of time is tricky business. By definition we’re supposed to, well, progress. Each calendar year is marked by diagnoses, tests, treatment régimes and abilities gradually lost. Ticking time can be a scary contemplation. Resolving to regrow myelin is more futile than resolving to lose those last five pounds. There are certain things over which we simply have no control. 

So this year I’m choosing simple goals. Despite disease and in my never ending pursuit of the best possible life, I will reflect on what it is I love to do, and figure out how I can do more of it. I will think about the people who lift me up and make me laugh, and commit to spending more time with them. I will pay attention to what doesn’t make me feel good, and do my best to avoid those things. With hope and confetti still in the air, today at least, I will say fuck fear, because dwelling on the worst case scenario is a waste of my imagination. 

It’s a new year.

Embrace unrelenting optimism

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