9.01.2007

Whine and Cheese- I can't believe this thing is still around...

I'm taking part in Blogging Against Charity Day, hosted by Kara and Miss Crip Chick. Enjoy!

I remember watching the AMD telethon as a kid. I thought it was cool that kids with disabilities (who I totally identified with) got to hang out with celebrities for hours on end all in the name of a "good cause." The telethon looked like one big party- spoiled only by the pious whining of the host, who posed for pledge spots with children positioned like fashion accessories at his side.

The unease I felt towards Jerry Lewis was similar to the heeby-jeebies I experienced at Christmas in the presence of Mall Santa.
Mall Santa was inauthentic, tatty, an impostor whose job it was to affect paternalistic concern, the careless voyeur to my fledgling consumerism. Mall Santa had freakishly youthful skin and eyes. he said "like" and "cool" a lot. He could have been my older brother pulling a prank.

"So you want a Snacktime Kid? Dude, I heard those things bite kids' fingers off! Better not let it near your hamster, if you know what I mean!"

Mall Santa had surprisingly muscular legs, a high school jock in a fat suit and beard. I was mortified knowing that if I could feel leg muscles through the cheap velour suit, then surely he could feel my bony little butt. I felt dirty, like I'd signed up to make kiddie porn without knowing it.

When I was three, my mom was interviewed for a local fundraiser for the March of Dimes. I watched the show from home with my grandmother, talking to my mom through the television's speaker. For years I thought laugh tracks were the guffaws of people watching the same shows I was in their own homes. I'd laugh extra loud trying to hear my own voice in the chorus of chuckles.

My mom sat on a carpeted stage next to a large mounted television monitor. On the screen was a picture of a young mother pushing a child on a swing in a wooded playground. I don't remember what was said about me during the interview as a second generation disabled person. My mom was wearing a wool plaid skirt, the kind that always makes me think of librarians, and I remember the host asking her about the crutch that lay at her feet, about having polio as a kid and the effects it had on having kids.

My disabilities were too rare and too numerous to warrant a telethon. Nor did my disabilities elicit the classic "aww" factor favored by TV execs. Too many extraneous troubling things going on with my body at any given time to be easily "read" by viewers. Looking back I have to face the fact that I was a punk right out of the gate: too brassy, too bold, too weird to be typecast.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your story. The world needs to hear more from voices like yours.


I did a blog on the telethon as well at http://reunifygally.wordpress.com/2007/09/03/why-deaf-people-should-boycott-jerrys-telethon/

If you choose to come look at my telethon post then I hope you'll also stay and look around at some of the posts I've done about the ADA Restoration Act of 2007, which I think is another subject that people with disabilities should be up in arms about. And BLOGGING ABOUT!

Anonymous said...

I have been reading through the Blogswarm entries. Your reference to kiddie porn reminds me that the issue of abuse comes up almost as often as pity either explicitly or in the stories people choose to illustrate their response to the telethon. I used it myself in my post. Over at the Gimp Parade I found this quote that makes the link:

Actor Michael J. Fox, who lives with Parkinson's disease and raises funds for research on it, once said "I feared pity because pity is a step away from abuse."

Kay Olson said...

I find that connection Fox mentions both scary and interesting. (I believe he said it in his autobiography, by the way.) It intrigues me that a man who got his impairments in middle age has made the connection. Those of us raised on pity and the other related emotions need voices and vision from that perspective to fully see what we've been living within.

belledame222 said...

heh, now i'm thinking of Lewis as Krusty the Klown...

JM said...

Krusty the Klown? That's perfect! Love it.

Scott and Kay- thanks for your comments. I don't think i'd made that connection thoroughly. My "humor" cortex seems to work faster than the writerly part of my brain! What a profound quote! You're right- this is a subject that deserves much more attention from our ranks, as the pity impulse is so wide spread. It does seem a socially- sanctioned form of abuse. And the reactions of everyone from philanthropists to social workers when challenged on this matter are clear indicators of the cold hard truth.

Anonymous said...

Hi -- I wanted to make sure you knew about the latest that is happening with Jerry and his, yes, humanitarian award:

Jerry Lewis, the man who runs the annual Telethon to raise money for people with muscular dystrophy in the US is about to receive a humanitarian award. Many people in the disability community is protesting this award because they feel that Jerry perpetuates and entrenches negative, harmful stereotypes toward people with disabilities. More about the petition campaign at: http://www.petitiononline.com/jlno2009/petition.html

There is also a Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40538392681