Marine Area: “Words are important”

Society is so little used to dealing with disability that the stories that concern us often have a strong flavor of exceptionality.. The spectacularization of disabled people is a very widespread practice in the media and is manifested by a precise term, coined by the activist Stella Young: Inspiration Porn.

No, it is not a new adult streaming service, but it is the representation of disabled people as source of inspiration on the basis of their disability. It is that amazement in people’s eyes every time they watch us do common things, it is that unmotivated and generalized esteem that is accompanied by specific words such as “courage”, “admiration” and “strength”, but which underneath becomes relief, is to use our lives as a term of comparison to push others to get their asses off the couch.

What apparently looks like a series of compliments, actually are a very well disguised form of devaluation. All this stems from a low expectation of people with disabilities, so every ordinary action they take automatically becomes a great goal.

On the real successes, however, those that concern the professional sphere, communication tends to focus on something else. A large number of articles linger morbidly on the body, on hospital past, and on issues that have little or nothing to do with it with the skills and role of the person.

What I have learned from a lifetime of communications based on prejudicial assumptions is that our body comes before us. All time. Even in situations that have nothing to do with it.

If we want the perception of disability to change, it is essential to start choosing content and words carefully. As Nanni Moretti said, “words are important”, because they have a great power, that of representing the reality in which we live. Changing the words, and how we tell things, it changes the way we see the world.