My friend Jisun wrote a post on a new movie by Pixar called Inside Out.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but that doesn’t matter in this post at all. What does matter is what she is talking about in her post – did you read it? No? Here it is: Dear Pixar: Inside Out and Papercut Deaths – come back when you are done (I’ll wait).
This is the thing: it’s not about being anal over every.single.word. It’s not about jumping up and slamming a movie, a company, a person or whatever or the use of a word that is not PC.
It’s about the choices that a company like Pixar makes. It’s about how that particular scene could have been played differently. It’s about THINKING before you write jokes that (even minutely) mock those an intellectual disability in an enormously popular movie that will reside in the growing collective culture that our children will build.
Mark wrote a follow up post to Jisun’s, reminding us of the use of “mongo” and “moron” in Toy Story 3, used in direct context to someone having an intellectual disability like Down syndrome. (Check that post out too – it’s good)
Jisun’s post is getting a lot of traction now, and by “traction,” I mean, “people jumping on her for being the word police”
Which is just stupid. Jumping on her for her post,because her post – which you did read, right? – isn’t about that At.All.
It’s about papercuts
The papercuts are real. They exist. I feel them too, of course I do! I feel these both as a person with a disability and as a mother of a person with a disability. I’m covered with little papercut scars.
But the thing that I most want people to understand about these papercuts is not that they hurt, but that they SHAPE. I want people to understand that these types of small wounds actually shape culture. They are the bits that mold the collective understanding of what having a disability is about, they are the undertone upon which other big cuts are built.
It’s not about saying the perfect PC thing all the time.
It is about being thoughtful with choices.
Particularly if you are a company like Pixar that will actually influence how children will grow up thinking.
Meriah Nichols is a counselor. Solo mom to 3 (one with Down syndrome, one on the spectrum). Deaf, and neurodiverse herself, she’s a gardening nerd who loves cats, Star Trek, and takes her coffee hot and black.
Thank you, Meriah. Exactly.
As we say these days, no choice is necessary if our children and equal and free.
Once again, turning one issue into another issue without adding any substantive value.
Not at all. It’s very substantive. People are objecting to Pixar’s choice of words on the one hand, at a long stretch claiming that choice of words demean our children. But then, the same objectors support a right to stop our children being born. So, it’s “we object to your word choice”, but “we support your right to choose to not have a moron child”. Hardly consistent and not pro Down syndrome.
You’re right, that’s exactly what we are all saying. Afterall, I had a prenatal dx and delivered my son anyway, so I must be pro-extermination of all people with Ds. It’s too bad there is no block option for the Internet as a whole.
No, I didn’t say that. I said your inconsistent in opposing other peoples rights to choose their use of words, whilst endorsing other peoples right to not birth children with Down syndrome. Our children have the right to be treated as being free and equal in both regards.
All of the posts have really got me thinking about word use. It’s important!
You know, I personally feel like that’s the point. It’s not about saying the perfect thing, it’s not about being oh-so PC, it’s not about all of that. I think the point is to THINK. To be aware of what we say – not to the point in which it makes us anxious or makes us feel like we need to walk on eggshells, but but to be conscious. #mytwocents
Thank you for writing this. I also related to Jisun’s framing of the issue as paper cuts. I think this is the piece that people without disabilities or without someone in their life who have a disability don’t get. It’s not always the IN YOUR FACE acts of discrimination and mocking that get you. It’s the build up of the little things, the things they may not notice. I hate to admit this, but I didn’t even catch the things said in Toy Story when I originally saw it, Sadly, I probably even laughed. That was BC (before Carter), before I developed the ability to pick up even the slightest hit of mocking, of the otherness of having a disability.
Why are you concerned with mocking when you have openly participated in cyber bullying on Facebook yourself?
You can’t be serious. You consistently bully, stalk, misquote and belittle anyone that doesn’t agree with you. So much so that I had to block you from FB. You can’t call a woman a bully just because she doesn’t bend to your will. There’s a name for that, but it escapes me at the moment.
I’m serious. You made a meme mocking me and posted it publicly, but here you are saying mocking people is wrong, but you do it yourself.
Let’s stop there, please. Comments and discussions related to Jisun’s post or the topic are welcome and wanted, but derailment isn’t.
Thanks
Ummmm, was your name on it? It was posted on my private fb account, that you continuously stalked. I made a funny meme about people that are ‘shit stirrers’ I can’t help it if you just happen to identify with that label.
Yeah, you posted my name with it, and it was a public post for everyone to see. A public mockery. Let’s leave it at that and not worry about getting worked up over a minor word choice in a movie.
No I didn’t. I’d be happy to send the meme to you again to refresh your memory. It said, I see you’ve brought your extra large spoon to stir up shit today. That’s all. Btw, that’s exactly what you’ve done here. Interjecting your own agenda into a piece that has nothing to do with tx. We all get to choose how we advocate. I’m sorry for hijacking Meriah.
Your cute. You posted “mullivan” in the comments of your meme and your little posse had a bit of school yard bully humour slagging me off. Your right, our advocacy has different flavours.
What I don’t understand are people who fight for the right to free speech to say anything they want, but want to quash my right to stand up and say ouch!