Edgy or insensitive? The Paralympics TikTok account sparks a debate
April 24, 2023 10:23 AM Subscribe
I'm guessing that to some extent this is in-group or even in-sub-group humor being broadcast to the general public, which is...let's just say, usually a bad idea. Especially if the athletes in question don't even know they're in the bit. (Some athletes might find it funny, some might find it demeaning...clearly, you should check.)
posted by praemunire at 11:30 AM on April 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 11:30 AM on April 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
As previously discussed Parasport is really popular in the UK, and treated like other non-soccer sports. The balance of athletes comments is portrayed differently by the BBC.
posted by plonkee at 11:33 AM on April 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by plonkee at 11:33 AM on April 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
I don't see why paralympians memeing for paralympians should censor themselves so that abled-bodied people don't feel uncomfortable. Neither do paralumpians, per the article.
posted by valdesm at 11:53 AM on April 24, 2023 [17 favorites]
posted by valdesm at 11:53 AM on April 24, 2023 [17 favorites]
To my untrained eye this looks like in-group shitposting. I'm not in the group, so I'm not sure I can or need to comment on it. But I did find some of the memes funny.
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:11 PM on April 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:11 PM on April 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
If anyone has links to articles, blog posts or forum threads about this story from folks with disabilities, I'd love to see those along with links to mainstream news sources. Thanks for the post, Etrigan; it's an interesting story, for sure. I'd love to see what the discussion is like among folks in various disability communities.
posted by mediareport at 12:20 PM on April 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mediareport at 12:20 PM on April 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
I saw these on the tok a couple months ago and I thought these were pretty funny in the same way that me making occasional jokes about my past traumas is funny. people, especially ones who haven't experienced the same lived experiences, can take things so seriously when they don't understand to a point that it makes me feel bad that I was making light of my own lived experience
of course the hyper-overcaring is better than people outright dismissing it but in some future reality maybe we'll land with a reasonable middleground where we can make a joke about our oppressed realities in the same way that you might for other things that make it a little tougher to thrive but are unalterable without both well-meaning people overcorrecting (as if their in-the-moment overcorrection will fix the reality of living in a society created for the white, cishet, able-bodied, etc) or a bad faith person being an unsympathetic-at-best-and-Machiavellian-at-worst asshole
posted by paimapi at 12:23 PM on April 24, 2023 [7 favorites]
of course the hyper-overcaring is better than people outright dismissing it but in some future reality maybe we'll land with a reasonable middleground where we can make a joke about our oppressed realities in the same way that you might for other things that make it a little tougher to thrive but are unalterable without both well-meaning people overcorrecting (as if their in-the-moment overcorrection will fix the reality of living in a society created for the white, cishet, able-bodied, etc) or a bad faith person being an unsympathetic-at-best-and-Machiavellian-at-worst asshole
posted by paimapi at 12:23 PM on April 24, 2023 [7 favorites]
Let me just relink Imani Barbarin's video (posted on Twitter) on this topic, as she is a disability-rights activist and disabled herself. It's linked in the article, but folks seem to be reading right over it when saying criticisms of the accound are coming from folks "without the same lived experience". Now, I can't guarantee that Ms. Barbarin is a Paralympian, but she's certainly equally disabled.
posted by epj at 1:06 PM on April 24, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by epj at 1:06 PM on April 24, 2023 [7 favorites]
You can't make an in-joke that might trick a normal, good person into laughing at your $OPPRESSED_STATUS. It would make them feel uncomfortable, and they don't deserve that because they're a good person. So only make those jokes where no normal person would go. IDK, somewhere else.
{|} with an impossible patty
posted by tigrrrlily at 1:54 PM on April 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
{|} with an impossible patty
posted by tigrrrlily at 1:54 PM on April 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
After all these years I still don't know if I'm "inside" or "outside" on some of this stuff. My sense of humor really does jibe with the "left... left... left.." bicycling video and if I had one side down or gone because of some biophysical problem I'd be all about that kind of humor directed at my mobility.
But the important thing is I don't and haven't. What's cool for me is not the same as what's cool for someone else. It's a lesson I had to learn the hard way and I think especially if the social media director making these things is in the same position, I get how they'd love these videos but they need to think about what happens when they go out into the broader world.
Actually I don't think I can say it better than Mr. Snyder so I'll just quote his summary to make sure it's seen here:
But the important thing is I don't and haven't. What's cool for me is not the same as what's cool for someone else. It's a lesson I had to learn the hard way and I think especially if the social media director making these things is in the same position, I get how they'd love these videos but they need to think about what happens when they go out into the broader world.
Actually I don't think I can say it better than Mr. Snyder so I'll just quote his summary to make sure it's seen here:
Snyder told CNN that he found the video funny and reposted it at the time. But he also acknowledges that there's a fine line between cheeky and disrespectful, and that no one person can "fully understand the gamut of disability."posted by traveler_ at 2:05 PM on April 24, 2023 [6 favorites]
That said, he appreciates that the account is using sports and humor to try to bridge that gap.
"And now let's have a conversation about what my experience might be like and what my challenges might be, and how you as an able-bodied person, might be able to understand and accommodate me in various ways or help me cross the street or help me without pitying me and those sorts of things," Snyder said.
of course the hyper-overcaring is better than people outright dismissing it but in some future reality maybe we'll land with a reasonable middleground where we can make a joke about our oppressed realities in the same way that you might for other things that make it a little tougher to thrive but are unalterable without both well-meaning people overcorrecting (as if their in-the-moment overcorrection will fix the reality of living in a society created for the white, cishet, able-bodied, etc) or a bad faith person being an unsympathetic-at-best-and-Machiavellian-at-worst assholeWhen issues like race or religion or impairment (oh dear $diety don't get me started on hierarchies of disability) there's a heuristic that I've found personally helpful: if the perceived outrage can in anyway be traced back to pity then I'm not at all responsible for any piece of said outrage.
posted by mce at 2:54 PM on April 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
As a visually impaired person the Bop-it video is hilarious, and as someone who spent many years in a wheelchair that one is only unfunny on principle because I hate Family Guy but objectively has excellent comedic timing.
As a disability activist myself I get Imani’s perspective, and would probably not recommend this strategy to any official platform that needs to like, market and shit. But goddamn is this account made by and for disabled people. Obviously not every disabled person has this specific brand of humor and that’s fine, but this is entirely in keeping with the kinds of jokes many disability communities I’m involved in make. I do think there’s something to be said about the people in the videos not getting a say in how they’re talked about—in the same vein as I can call myself a dirty homosexual as a joke but straight people can’t and I’m definitely not going to make that joke about someone else unless I know they’re okay with it—but they also don’t get a say in all the inspiration porn that usually gets posted about them, so I don’t see how this is objectively worse. And I would personally rather a joke like this than more inspo shit, given the choice.
And I can’t blame anyone for trying something new and edgy to get people to pay attention to disabled issues. They clearly are getting a lot more traction with this content, and intersperse it with education. If it works, I don’t find it nearly offensive enough to insist they return to the sort of bland, anodyne content disabled people usually get when in the mainstream view.
posted by brook horse at 3:30 PM on April 24, 2023 [29 favorites]
As a disability activist myself I get Imani’s perspective, and would probably not recommend this strategy to any official platform that needs to like, market and shit. But goddamn is this account made by and for disabled people. Obviously not every disabled person has this specific brand of humor and that’s fine, but this is entirely in keeping with the kinds of jokes many disability communities I’m involved in make. I do think there’s something to be said about the people in the videos not getting a say in how they’re talked about—in the same vein as I can call myself a dirty homosexual as a joke but straight people can’t and I’m definitely not going to make that joke about someone else unless I know they’re okay with it—but they also don’t get a say in all the inspiration porn that usually gets posted about them, so I don’t see how this is objectively worse. And I would personally rather a joke like this than more inspo shit, given the choice.
And I can’t blame anyone for trying something new and edgy to get people to pay attention to disabled issues. They clearly are getting a lot more traction with this content, and intersperse it with education. If it works, I don’t find it nearly offensive enough to insist they return to the sort of bland, anodyne content disabled people usually get when in the mainstream view.
posted by brook horse at 3:30 PM on April 24, 2023 [29 favorites]
My last girlfriend with multiple health conditions would have laughed herself sick at these. It was definitely a way to help her cope and deal with a lifetime of being different and having some heavy limitations. But she was also a brilliant, stubborn and highly independent woman who never let anything stop her.... Especially if someone was trying to call her an inspiration, that whole inspo porn thing really got to her.
posted by Jacen at 5:15 PM on April 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Jacen at 5:15 PM on April 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
Yay disabled people can be fun and funny. It's fine. I always enjoy being goofy in my chair and I like it when other people are stoked to see me having fun. Using a wheelchair doesn't have to be the grim slog of "those poor heroic unfortunates." Damn I wish I had some vids of me and my pal Russell racing in the aisles of the co-op or me coming down the hill behind the store at 10mph and making the fast turn and rolling straight in the back door! Or my ever amusing habit of going up all hills backwards.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:19 PM on April 24, 2023 [17 favorites]
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:19 PM on April 24, 2023 [17 favorites]
I've known -- and know -- goodly number of people with various disabilities. I know that inspiration porn is cornball at best yet just watching how some of these citizens move through life is inspiring; it just is.
One good friend was playing in band in high school1 plus also he was playing playing football, and this in a small Texas town, so you know he was accorded God-like status. It was in football that it first began to come on to him, he'd be all about it, running full out and then just fall. Some goddamned neurological jive.
1He played French horn; more than once I've asked him if they don't just call it "a horn" in France. Or maybe does he call it 1A"A Freedom Horn" so everybody knows he's A Good AmericanTM
He want to some rehab thing, to learn about this illness, and his life from that point on. They told him "Hey, just bag it, get into this here wheelchair, this is your life now. Everyone else got into their chair and Steve did also but he fought it for decades, use the chair when absolutely no other options. For years he used a walker, or a grocery cart -- you'd perhaps be surprised to learn this: Grocery carts are realy great.
I put railings all around his apartment, he'd grab onto them and haul himself around that way.
I have no idea how many bones he's broken, falling when he lost control of his body.. Broke a tooth off, fell smack dab into concrete curb, he was a big bloody mess. He's broken his arms Steve really has some jam, there is no back away, only here in the past two or three years has his illness taken over. I've gone deep into, now he''s into his chair and no way out of it, except that Steve is one stubborn S.O.B and you never have any idea of what he's thinking, next thing you know he's on the other side of the roon, tangled up in a big mess, laughing about what jjust happened to the walker or grocery cart.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:44 AM on April 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
One good friend was playing in band in high school1 plus also he was playing playing football, and this in a small Texas town, so you know he was accorded God-like status. It was in football that it first began to come on to him, he'd be all about it, running full out and then just fall. Some goddamned neurological jive.
1He played French horn; more than once I've asked him if they don't just call it "a horn" in France. Or maybe does he call it 1A"A Freedom Horn" so everybody knows he's A Good AmericanTM
He want to some rehab thing, to learn about this illness, and his life from that point on. They told him "Hey, just bag it, get into this here wheelchair, this is your life now. Everyone else got into their chair and Steve did also but he fought it for decades, use the chair when absolutely no other options. For years he used a walker, or a grocery cart -- you'd perhaps be surprised to learn this: Grocery carts are realy great.
I put railings all around his apartment, he'd grab onto them and haul himself around that way.
I have no idea how many bones he's broken, falling when he lost control of his body.. Broke a tooth off, fell smack dab into concrete curb, he was a big bloody mess. He's broken his arms Steve really has some jam, there is no back away, only here in the past two or three years has his illness taken over. I've gone deep into, now he''s into his chair and no way out of it, except that Steve is one stubborn S.O.B and you never have any idea of what he's thinking, next thing you know he's on the other side of the roon, tangled up in a big mess, laughing about what jjust happened to the walker or grocery cart.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:44 AM on April 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
We went to the see the British advertising awards a few months ago, and one of my favorites was one where they showed a montage of athletes with various disabilities doing ridiculous training things - one armed pushups with their toddler on their back or whatever, clearly taking their training to extremes out of their dedication to their sport - and at the end, the voiceover says, “If you want to be a Paralympian, there has to be something wrong with you.”
You can't make an in-joke that might trick a normal, good person into laughing at your $OPPRESSED_STATUS. It would make them feel uncomfortable, and they don't deserve that because they're a good person.
This goes a long way to explaining why no one laughed at my joke yesterday. In my boss’s staff meeting there’s a tradition of opening with an icebreaker question and this time it was “what’s the most ‘old person’ thing you do?” Folks were talking about how they make grunting noises when they sit down, or tilt their heads back to read things through their bifocals or whatever. I waited to go last for maximum comic effect, and after a pregnant pause said “I mean, I walk with a cane!” Hilarity, right? But barely a chuckle among the half-dozen others in the meeting.
posted by nickmark at 5:43 AM on April 25, 2023 [6 favorites]
You can't make an in-joke that might trick a normal, good person into laughing at your $OPPRESSED_STATUS. It would make them feel uncomfortable, and they don't deserve that because they're a good person.
This goes a long way to explaining why no one laughed at my joke yesterday. In my boss’s staff meeting there’s a tradition of opening with an icebreaker question and this time it was “what’s the most ‘old person’ thing you do?” Folks were talking about how they make grunting noises when they sit down, or tilt their heads back to read things through their bifocals or whatever. I waited to go last for maximum comic effect, and after a pregnant pause said “I mean, I walk with a cane!” Hilarity, right? But barely a chuckle among the half-dozen others in the meeting.
posted by nickmark at 5:43 AM on April 25, 2023 [6 favorites]
Oh that’s so totally a thing, I once watched The Gay Deceivers with some lovely progressive and straight family members and they were so uncomfortable because you could tell they couldn’t figure out if laughing would be homophobic of them, the poor things.
posted by brook horse at 7:08 AM on April 25, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by brook horse at 7:08 AM on April 25, 2023 [5 favorites]
FWIW, I kind of like being made to feel uncomfortable that way. I remind myself that it's a sign of progress and it's wonderful that person feels comfortable enough to make that kind of joke.
You're not really punching down so much as you're punching yourself. If you can't make fun of yourself then what are even doing here? Then I get to have fun poking at myself and my fellow non-oppressed white guys/people and I'm really good and making fun of myself.
I just need to be more careful about who the butt of my jokes are. Oh what a terrible burden (faints). j/k of course.
Embrace the discomfort!
posted by VTX at 2:04 PM on April 27, 2023
You're not really punching down so much as you're punching yourself. If you can't make fun of yourself then what are even doing here? Then I get to have fun poking at myself and my fellow non-oppressed white guys/people and I'm really good and making fun of myself.
I just need to be more careful about who the butt of my jokes are. Oh what a terrible burden (faints). j/k of course.
Embrace the discomfort!
posted by VTX at 2:04 PM on April 27, 2023
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posted by NoxAeternum at 11:24 AM on April 24, 2023 [12 favorites]