September 4, 2001

5:15 PM

He always did have a great wrist shot! There's a poll on the Globe and Mail website asking whether a person not afflicted with a certain condition should act as a spokesperson for the cause. I say why not?
posted by lairdj (4 comments total)

I think it's fine. Yes it probably helps to identify with the person and would coax more people into getting treatment if the spokesperson had the condition (Bob Dole), but I don't think it's required.

Someone talking about cancer who doesn't have cancer doesn't seem that odd. Audrey Hepburn and Princess Di come to mind as people who raised awareness for conditions they did not suffer.


My first thought about "why a hockey player" had something to do with him skating around with a big wooden stick... but it's just been one of those days.
posted by perplexed at 5:33 PM on September 4, 2001

Methinks it's a new, slightly sinister form of political correctness. Does it really help if a neurologist has Tourette's or a speech therapist stutters?
Experience may stimulate sympathy but it can never replace knowledge. I.e., you don't have to be impotent to extoll the virtues of Viagra. Merely terrified of becoming so - and glad there's something there in case you do.
I mean no offense when I say this is a particularly Canadian sort of quandary. And I'm not even Canadian.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:45 PM on September 4, 2001

I think it's alright for Guy Lafleur to be a spokesperson for something that he doesn't have. It shows that people without the "disability" are accepting and open about it. But it is also nice to have someone with the "disability" who is "celebrity" a role model if you will, to show people that there is nothing wrong with having a disease or a disorder or a "male affliction".

I used too many of "these". Heh.
posted by liz! at 6:16 PM on September 4, 2001

"Observers say Pfizer scored a marketing coup by signing on the celebrated stickhandler, whose appearance is expected to push the erstwhile taboo topic out of the closet."

So many jokes, so little time.
posted by mrbula at 7:32 PM on September 4, 2001