Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Facebook, there it was – the video of a dancing amputee accompanied by the tag-line ‘disability is psychological’. Like and share if you agree! Give me strength…
The real worry for me was that the video had been shared by a former nurse, which suggests that, despite all of her expertise, she still has a very narrow definition of what a disabled person should ‘look’ like – and it’s clear that visible physical impairment is the benchmark: severed spines and missing limbs around an unimpaired core of a healthy cerebral system and robust internal organs. Any other time I would have simply glossed over it, but because I was in the process of having my butt royally kicked by an illness that it literally strangling my insides, I felt angry and betrayed by someone I thought would have known better.
Of course, this may have simply been an ‘oh wow’ moment for the person who posted the video – an indication that, if they were to lose a limb that their options would still remain open. But sharing something that states, without any specification, that ‘disability is psychological’ was bound to ruffle at least a few feathers.
These Inspiration porn videos can be incredibly damaging in regards to dialogues around the issues of disability and the effect they can have on the people whose lives they claim to have agency over. It shuts down any dialogue surrounding the very wide spectrum of disability and invalidates the voices of people who are trying to explain why ‘No I can’t’ is a valid response to some of the things the abled expect them to do. Even with all my limbs intact, I could not replicate what that dancer was doing on stage. Why? Because my heart cannot sustain a high level of exertion for a prolonged period of time. This doesn’t mean that I lead a sedentary life, but it does mean that the phrase ’sit down before you fall down’ applies to me literally.
The devastating effects of a body’s inability to conserve energy, or repair and replace cells cannot readily be seen like an amputated limb, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to claim that someone isn’t trying hard enough whilst living in a malfunctioning human shell. That lemonade we supposed to be making with that bag of lemons life handed to us is coming – it’s just not going to taste the way you expect it to.
This is why the Cripple Punk movement is so essential right now.
When I first saw this quote, by the originator of the C-Punk movement, I thought “YES!”.
I actually lead a relatively austere life for someone living outside of a monastery. I don’t drink, smoke, eat gluten or animal products; I get my five a day and ensure that I supplement meals with chia seeds and cacao as well as the boatload of supplements I use to try and keep my symptoms in check. I take care of my sleep cycles and make an effort to exercise, even when my ligaments are screaming. But for some, that is never enough. There is always something I should or shouldn’t be doing in order to fit the description of a ‘good’ disabled person.
The trouble is that the ‘good disabled person’ is a political invention, seemingly created solely to make the Abled feel more comfortable with their own frailty and mortality. I believe it’s their fear of becoming like us (particularly those of us whose bodies just seemed to turn on us for no reason) that drives their desperation to only acknowledge our lives through a veneer of what they believe they themselves would be like should such a ‘fate’ befall them too.
But, and I don’t mean to sound harsh when I say this, that’s not our problem. For someone to elevate themselves to a position where they feel they have the right to police what others eat, do and say is blatantly rude at best, and ableism at worst.
The able-bodied expect to be allowed to lead their lives without ‘helicopter’ friendships or the constant analysis the minutiae of their existence, Cripple Punks are merely stating that our lives should be given the same respect.
Cripple Punk and proud!
The Martian Princess Chronicles 
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