Text Tuesday!

Hi all!

Welcome to the second installment of Text Tuesday. Today I will discuss an article from the Fox news website. Now I do not condone Fox News as a reputable news source at all. I highly advise anyone consuming Fox News media to take it all with a grain of salt. Aside from my ranting against Fox News I was both surprised and disappointed by the following article: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/02/02/17-year-old-boy-with-devil-hands-undergoes-life-changing-plastic-surgery/

I hate to say this but what intrigued me to read this article in the first place was the title. I immediately felt disappointment towards the title due to the term 'devil hands'. I get that Fox News wanted to rope people in, but that term seemed quite offensive at first glance (and it continued to be offensive after I read the article). Through further reading of the article I found out  this boy was living with a type bone configuration that caused his elbows to bend inward and wrists downwards. This caused the boy to be unable to straighten his arms.

The term 'devil hands' was used as an insult/taunt by his peers. For shame fox news for utilizing this insult as a buzz word to rope people into reading the article in the first place! Maybe I'm just stuck on the sheer fact that this is a shitty way to identify Mamadou.

Now clearly Mamadou saw an opportunity with the Mercy Ships and was proactive and sought help. He proceeds to tell the nurse on the ship that he was capable of so much more than what people assumed about him. This is a common problem among the community of persons with disabilities.


Towards the end of the article he speaks of the fact that his arms scared people away and he felt shame about his arms. I think this just shows that this type of problem is a worldwide problem. People with not typical limbs or bodies are misconstrued and not even seen as real people. The problem is pervasive.

All in the all I was pleasantly surprised the article wasn't more inspirationy. Yup I just made up this word and I i'll use it again. Let me know your thoughts on the article! I'm happy to hear them. Lets get this dialogue on the road.