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When watching the video “Gimp”, I was blown away by their effort and body expressions. Their dance moves were really powerful and sometimes I would be in awe by how they wound make the dance seem like another able person doing it, but looking twice and seeing their muscular dystrophy it amazed me even more. It was something I don’t see every day. It made me think that they could dance just as well or even better than the usual able performers. It also made me think as to all the things that disable people could do that most people don’t realized.
I now prefer the definition of someone who does things different than able people instead of disable. They can do a lot of things that able people do, but they have to recur to other methods in order to do them. But most people think when they see disable people that they can’t do anything for themselves, or that they are cripple or retarded. All these names further the damage that we do towards disable people. Ableism forms our way of thinking by diminishing them with all these names, and also by ignoring their necessities. We need to change the way we see them and treat them as another person just like us.
I agree I found this video very powerful. I was proud that they could express themselves with such beautiful manner. It is definitely a perfect expression of all that they are still able to do even though they have a disability. We do need to change the way we see them and more videos such as this may be helpful to doing so.
ReplyDeleteThe video was very powerful and gives a positive way to include other performers who do not fit into the stereotypical, narrow view of who a "dancer" is and the role media and culture has had in creating it. We need to start, just as you said treating "them" as another person just like "us". The term "them" immediately labels these individuals as not part of the mainstream, accepted culture of predominantly white, heterosexual, and non disabled.
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