At some point, your advocacy morphs into anger for angry sake.
Kylie Jenner's "raunchy" photo-shoot lands her in hot water with disability advocates. Tyler White, Chron.com
I will freely admit to being tragically unhip when it comes to all things Jenner/Kardashian.
I have not seen an episode of their reality show (shows now?), I don't really care what the family does/doesn't do aside from being amused slightly at the male/female/back to male (or not really) saga of Bruce/Caitlyn (especially the media storm over it and ESPN throwing away all of their credibility in awarding her the Arthur Ashe Courage Award). I will never see this photo shoot in its entirety, except for looking at the offending wheel-chair photo in question, nor do I have any desire to subscribe to Interview magazine, a publication whose desperation seems to manifest itself through Kardashians (according to a quick Google search).
I do, however, find the tendency of people to view them as cultural barometers with whom we should be concerned to be fascinating. For one, the entire family are attention whores, created by reality TV who desperately need the spotlight and the adulation of strangers to prop-up their self-worth. For another, this is perhaps the least interesting, least talented (with the exception of Kanye West who, despite being a turd of a human being, can craft a decent song.) families in popular culture.
I also get amused when their pictures cause outrage, as in the story above.
I get a little discouraged however, because we're allowing advocacy for important causes to morph into crap-fests of outrage and personal angst that do little to actually advance the issues that are, supposedly, being advocated for. I worry that this hurts the groups in question that we're trying to help.
I don't know this for sure, but I assume that it would be difficult to have to live your life in a wheelchair. And while I will admit, in my younger days, to rolling my eyes when I got caught behind someone with their slow-roll on that was back in my teenage years when I didn't know any better and when I was constantly in a hurry to do pretty much nothing at all.
These days I don't pay much attention to folks in wheelchairs, unless it's obvious that they could use assistance. Then I do whatever I can to help, if they want it. In many cases people in wheelchairs don't want help, and in some they do. The problem is when they act like offering help to them is an insult, or when they act like every depiction of a wheelchair is a personal shot against their current condition.
It's not helpful to try and shame Kylie Jenner for her shot in a golden wheelchair any more than it is to try and shame the rest of the Kardashians for putting images of their body parts all over the web. (again, a quick Google search revealed this unfortunate state of affairs) It also misdirects attention to the real problems that face those in wheelchairs, not being laughed down at by society, but having proper access points built for them so that they can go about life in whatever way is the new normal.
To be honest, I've not seen anyone treat people in wheelchairs in a discriminatory manner in years. I'm sure that there are people out there who do it, but in my circle of existence I've always seen them being treated with deference and (to be blunt) lassitude. In most cases people are OK letting the disabled exist amongst them with little angst.
Now, to be fair, I have seen angry people in wheelchairs, especially in stores, all but running over people and being rude because they feel they have not received proper deference. To be fair however, this is more of a natural condition in all human beings that manifests itself in group settings. (For an example, watch people at the grocery store sometime).
But again, none of this has anything to do with advocacy for the disabled, nor does it do anything special to help their cause.
I would even argue that it's counter productive, that it causes people to roll their eyes and tune out such advocates when real issues are brought to light. Think of it as the boy who cried wolf! and then multiply it times around a Million. That is the effect of our current outrage culture and why people are weary of being told that everything they do is an affront to something.
Consumerism kills the polar bears, Thanksgiving killed the people indigenous North American People, Christmas kills atheist, New Year's kills Al Anon and driving your car around kills Gaia.
We're reaching a point where getting out of bed in the morning is going to offend the bed-ridden, breathing is going to offend trees and plants who rely on the oxygen to live, where taking a drink of water will offend the fish, and standing will offend disability activists because it is a trigger warning to those who cannot. We're not too far from the point where the only thing not offensive is to die, but even that is now a trigger warning to some. That's right, your death can be considered offensive.
It's easy to say that the answer to all of this is an end to victim culture and to ignore it, in the hopes it will go away, but it is not that simple. The problem is that the folks who rely on victim culture have found a sympathetic outlet in the media who have determined that every slight, no matter how small, must be reported upon and treated as if it involves the slaughter of innocent baby seals by burly men with clubs one week after they are born. (Come to think of it, the phrase "burly men" might be a trigger warning.)
At some point there are going to need to be enough of us that decide these advocates need to be pointed at publicly, and shamed into stopping this foolishness. Of course, I'm not talking about shaming the victims themselves, but the bleeding heart, trigger-warning obsessed coddled advocates who spend their days scouring the Internet for something over which to be angered. I'm also talking about coddled college students who have suddenly found that the 1st Amendment violates their preference to never have their ideas challenged, or hear a disparaging word.
Those people need to be placed on the shaming table and laughed at mercilessly until they withdraw from the public square and their places get filled with proper activists doing proper work that tries to improve access and accommodation for their chosen groups, and not garner attention for the "activists" in question.
Until we decide to do that we're going to continue to live in a world filled with a daily litany of outrage, where politicians think it's OK to take away from people most of the protections built into the Bill of Rights* because the feels of those perpetually aggrieved might, accidentally get bruised or, even worse, that they might have to actually think about the beliefs they hold when challenged.
[Insert whatever Deity or universal force, or happenstance you believe in] Forbid.
*And no, it's not a violation of the 1st Amendment to shout people down. We're entitled (still, but barely) to freedom of speech not freedom from the consequences of that speech. That is a concept many have a problem grasping.
