Happy Wednesday!
This commercial hits a nerve of inspiration porn with the general tone of the commercial. They first ask a question: "what can you do?"And at the end of the commercial they leave us with "Empowering us all".
The tone is this little boy is brave and courageous because he has no legs. If he can triumph in life without legs than so can we all! This boy is being used as an object for inspiration.
Inspiration porn is a form of objectification. It objectifies people with disabilities in order to make able bodied people feel better about their lives. I've heard this directed towards me and it drives me nuts because I'm nobody's object. I exist for the same reason we all do: we are just human. The little boy in the commercial will probably do just fine. The human body is awesome and can adapt and change for many circumstances. Just because he happens to have no legs shouldn't change the way he is viewed as a human being.
Let me know your thoughts! Have you seen inspiration porn in everyday life?
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ReplyDeleteHi Isabel! Thanks for posting this. I happen to have just read this article yesterday and found it VERY enlightening: http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/10/down-s-behind-thesmiles.html. Then it got me thinking about the last post I wrote on my own blog, and whether there was any inspiration porn involved. Have a look: http://helenellisarttherapy.com/2015/01/20/inspiration-judith-scott/. This was a beautiful show! Art critics consider her work the real deal. As an art therapist, I found her story and her work fascinating and beautiful. What do you think? I love this whole topic. Really makes me think...
ReplyDeleteHi Helen!
ReplyDeleteI want to thank you so much for taking the time to look at my blog. I had a chance to look at yours as well. In my opinion I think your blog post did a great job in showcasing Judith's art work. What incredible work! I would love to see them in person because I imagine pictures don't do them justice. I think the questions you ask at the end of your post are intriguing and I have an inkling that they are all unanswerable or maybe shouldn't be answered. Really cool stuff. To speak to the inspiration porn topic, I think your blog focused the inspiration on Judith as an artist and not because she lives with a disability. Thanks for sharing!
The Al Jazeera article was great! Activists for Down Syndrome do adopt this idea that it is all smiles and happiness to make it all seem okay when maybe it would be better just to acknowledge individuals with down syndrome as having a full range of the human experience. That was a great article and I'm going to share it on Facebook.