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In her new regular column, Youreable contributor Jill Parkinson
comments on the issues that affect us all: like the wheelchair dancers
in the new BBC trailer...
Miss Bowes-Lyon
The Queen Mother had a very long, comfortable life and the glowing tributes
she has received are testimony to her personality. Yet in my 'umble opinion,
her Maj did have a flaw - her vanity.
This trait is not to be confused with stoicism or moral fortitude. These
are virtues.
No, it was the Queen Mother's insistence on wearing unsuitable footwear
(high heels) which caused her, more than once, to stumble.
Fortunately for her there was a plethora of willing servants on hand
to save the indignity of the monarch crashing unceremoniously to the floor.
The QM also hated having to use a wheelchair and worse, to be seen using
a wheelchair. Why? With her advanced age and frailty she had earned the
right to do so - she might even have done "wheelies" if she
so decreed.
Many, many people do not have a choice. A wheelchair can provide independence
and mobility and does not deserve to be denigrated or derided, but then
given the royal family's past record on dealing with disability, perhaps
it was par for the course.
Nature and Nurture
I recently watched ITV's Southbank programme on the late Johnny Ray.
It was informative and reminded viewers that Mr Ray was the originator
of the suggestive style of Rock'n'Roll, even before the King, Elvis Presley.
Johnny was wild with a capital W and he was adored by a large number
of the female population. This, despite accusations of homosexuality which
dogged him throughout his life.
More astonishingly, he was deaf and wore a hearing aid; not a discreet
little number though, but an obvious National Health contraption.
Rather than the girls being put off by his disability, it endeared him
to them even more. Women wanted to mother him, protect him, love him.
Johnny Ray was that fascinating mixture of sexuality and vulnerability
- perhaps that is what the girlies see in Pop Idol's Gareth Gates?
Message for "Auntie"
Have you seen the new BBC trailers?
They used to have the globe soaring above this green and pleasant land
but they've been replaced by a variety of dancers wearing the colour red.
(I believe this denotes the passion and fire that the Beeb wishes to be
associated with, rather than the political connotations of The Red Flag.)
Initially, when I read that the globe was to be replaced by the dancers
in order to "reflect different cultures", I was not too hopeful…
but at long, long last, the Beeb (a Public Service Broadcaster) have finally
acknowledged that people with disabilities DO have their own culture.
(Over eight million people have to belong somewhere, don't they?)
The dancers and dances chosen are reflective and include wheelchair dancers.
Well done, BBC. This is a good start.
That was the bouquet; here comes the brickbat. The so-called comedy drama,
"All About Me" would be better titled "What's it All About?"
As soon as I saw the trailers and read the pre-launch hype, I knew it
would be a major let down.
When write-ups use words like "groundbreaking" and "wheelchair-bound"
in the same sentence, then you know you are on a hiding to nothing.
The disabled character serves no purpose in this drivel and seems only
to be there in order to make the rest of the cast look good.
The media should have no truck with PC ideas like positive discrimination
and quotas.
Each and every one of us should be chosen on MERIT and not because of
the colour of our skin, age, gender, sexuality or disability.
Only when we see disabled people included in all aspects of television
as other license fee-payers are, will we get quality real-life reflected
programmes instead of someone's idea of what they think it should
be. When will the men in suits learn?
And finally
What do you think of Daniel Sadler, the wheelchair racing entrant and
Paralympian who does not actually have any form of disability? It seems
there is nothing in the rules to prevent him entering races alongside
disabled athletes. Fine. Yet I have this niggling unease. Daniel as an
able-bodied person can "pose" as a disabled athlete, but I doubt
somehow that the reverse would be possible? If only life could really
be a two-way street…
Posted: 17 Apr, 2002
What do you think? Have
your say in our 'Other Stuff' discussion forum...
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