Episode 186: Wild One

A surprising news headline inspired this week's episode, and a discussion about what it means to be disabled AND human.

Transcript

Laura 0:00

For a loop , thrown, I was.

Male VO 0:03

This is Bad Attitudes.

Laura 0:20

Hello, friends and strangers. Welcome to another episode of Bad Attitudes, an uninspiring podcast about disability. I'm your host, Laura.

Laura 0:31

This week's supporter shout out goes to Eric Suchyta. Thank you for your continuing support.

Laura 0:36

If you'd like to hear your name on a future episode, consider becoming a member on Coffee. Visit ko-fi.com slash bad attitudes pod for more information.

Laura 0:50

You can also support the pod by visiting our merch store at badattitudeshop.etsy.com, where you'll find podcast merch and satisfyingly sarcastic designs, especially for the disabled and chronically ill communities.

Laura 1:05

For questions, comments, or ideas, visit the website at badattitudespod.com, email badattitudespod at gmail.com, or reach out on social media. Follow at badattitudespod on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Blue Sky.

Laura 1:25

As always, I want to remind you that disability is not a monolith. My experience as a disabled person is going to be different from the experiences of other disabled people. I am one voice for the disabled community, but I am not the only voice.

Laura 1:41

Quadruple amputee cornhole champion accused of shooting, killing man, during argument while driving.

Laura 1:49

Admittedly, that was a wild ride, but it was also a real headline from a story on my local news station's Facebook page. Even I did a double take. I think what I got hung up on was Cornhole Champion. I didn't know there was such a thing as professional cornhole, but why wouldn't there be?

Laura 2:10

What really got me was the casual ableism in the comments. A whole lot of ums and what's and general confusion over the story. Well, over the headline, because I bet less than 10% of those commenters actually read the story. Several people referred to the subject as a quadriplegic, not a quadruple amputee. I know school systems here are shit, but are we actively teaching against reading comprehension these days? Auto-correct as an excuse can only carry you so far, and there is a big difference between quadruplegic and quadruple amputee.

Laura 2:51

You might think, Laura, this guy allegedly killed someone. Why do we care about casual ableism? Haven't you ever heard that the way we treat the people below us is the real measure of our character? Or, as Jesus put it, whatever you do for the least of these, so forth and so on. So, yes, the man in the story may be an alleged murderer, but he still deserves basic respect. He's not the president.

Laura 3:22

The thing is, I know where people's minds went when they read this headline. Quadruple amputee? They were probably envisioning a torso with a head. And before you jump down my throat that I don't know what they were thinking, people are predictable. The imagery of disability is hard-baked into most of us, and the imagery of amputee means the affected body part is gone. Hell, I was even once accused of being just a torso with a head, and I have four fully functioning extremities.

Laura 3:57

If these commenters had bothered to read the story or do even a single Google search, they would have learned that the subject of the story actually has the majority of each of his limbs. And no, I cannot remember his name. The headline, however, will live in my head rent-free for eternity. Sorry.

Laura 4:16

I can't say what confused them most. The fact that a quadruple amputee can toss a beanbag, the fact that he can drive a car, or the fact that he can shoot a gun. Okay, I'll admit, the gun thing did give me pause. But then I remembered that adaptive equipment exists, and prosthetics exist, and oftentimes when someone is born with truncated limbs, as I believe was the case here, it is possible they have a digit of some kind that could be used to pull a trigger.

Laura 4:49

What all the comments of ums and what's and overall confusion expressed is the disbelief that disabled people exist in the fullness of the human condition. Yes, disabled people drive cars. Yes, we play cornhole. Yes, we can be murderers. Admittedly, not all good things. But a disabled person isn't separate from the condition of humanity by virtue of being disabled. Being disabled doesn't absolve us from making bad choices or being bad people. Oscar Pistorius was a celebrated disabled athlete who murdered his girlfriend. Madison Cawthorn is a paraplegic, but also a shit politician and a shit human being who often sexually harasses women.

Laura 5:41

Disabled people are more than the sum of our disabilities. And being disabled doesn't preclude us from the vagaries of being human. I understand why people who are not exposed to disability might find this headline overwhelmingly confusing. Our society doesn't talk enough about how disabled people accomplish everyday tasks. When I started driving, my peers were fascinated by my pedal extensions because they had never been exposed to adaptive equipment like that. They didn't doubt my abilities because they knew me, but they doubted that an abstract disabled person could do what I was doing.

Laura 6:20

To the majority of non-disabled people, it is foreign to them that a disabled person could accomplish any of what makes this headline so wild. If you ask them directly, do you think a disabled person could XYZ, they would undoubtedly say yes, without really thinking about whether or not they believe it.

Laura 6:42

When encountering a disabled person, assume ability, assume competence. There is no lack of people in this world assuming what disabled people can't do. We don't need to perpetuate it. It's fine if you saw that headline and were taken aback. It's less fine if you saw that headline and were taken aback because you don't believe a quadruple amputee would be capable of a given action. It's okay to admit you don't understand disability.

Laura 7:15

It's even more okay to try and learn about it. Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you in the next one.