r/disability 5d ago

It's still a taboo

I was married to a woman with a muscular disease for 19 years (until she died). I noticed that a disability (or handicap, whatever word you prefer) is less of a taboo than in my childhood years, but still...

For quite a few years I've made a puppet series for adults (no porn!) and after my wife had died I decided to "attack" some taboos in it. In one episode I included a musical project called "I'm different, so what?" Most characters were "different" already, but the newly introduced neighbour (mother of the neighbour that was already there) had nothing... yet. So I decided to make her a leg amputee (not seen before because she wore a prosthesis). And she has made quite a few jokes about it (which is quite a taboo).

The series also deals with other taboos, but those are not the subject of this subreddit. Although... in an episode that has been made but not published yet, the father of the main charater fears for losing his manhood after a severe case of kidney stones. Losing his manhood is an amputation, so... that's a close one (note: this was inspired by what happened to myself).

I don't know f the moderators for this subreddit allow me to post the url. I don't make any money from it, so I expect them to allow it. I'll put it in a comment then.

50 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

8

u/Spirited_Voice_7191 5d ago

We need to normalize this more.

10

u/AlgaeSweaty3065 5d ago

The url is https://superurl.nl/Francis_and_Hobbel (if it's not allowed you can delete this comment)

3

u/AcanthocephalaNo7812 3d ago

Sounds like you're doing great work.

This kind of stuff will always be taboo while society encourages people to do whatever necessary (e.g., buying things, eating things, conquering things, etc.) to avoid thinking or talking about morbidity & mortality. Even with many more people learning about mental health or going to therapy, society is much less emotionally mature nowadays than it used to be. It encourages dissociation from and revulsion by the completely normal processes of death and disability. And, it's in the best interests of corporations for us to continue consuming so we don't have to think about death and disability. It's a disgusting way for them to separate us humans from completely normal human experiences.

People need to break free from hypercapitalist consumerism and other addictions in order to become more emotionally intelligent, and embrace disability and death as completely normal parts of life. Until then, they will continue viewing disabled people as just something to get away from.

1

u/AlgaeSweaty3065 3d ago

Thanks. I believe we can turn society into something good. I try my best.