Casual ableism
Dec. 18th, 2009 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eruthrosI had a morning full of casual ableism, overheard on the street and on the bus and in PT. I'm a bus-eavesdropper, and bus social-pattern-watcher; sometimes it's really fascinating, and sometimes it really sucks. Today was ... sort of both.
Conversations reproduced here:
1. "My sister doesn't like to go out of the house, so sometimes we have to make her."
"Really?"
"Yeah, she claims she's agoraphobic or something, but she's really just lazy. She got a doctor to say she's depressed, but I think she just needs to get more exercise."
"Oh, absolutely getting out of the house will help with that."
"Yeah, like, the other day, we said we'd take her out to lunch, and then we said we couldn't drive in the snow so we would walk. And within a block, would you believe it, she said she was tired and her feet hurt and she wanted to go home! We made her go to the restaurant anyway -- she wasn't really tired, it was all in her head."
This conversation was between two people in my aquatherapy group: two people who, in fact, get tired when they walk. But they have physical diagnoses. Depression, as you know, is not a "real" thing, and can be "cured" with exercise. Also, you should always lie to people who are depressed, and refuse to believe them when they say they're tired, because they're not REALLY tired. You know better than they do! You can diagnose them from a distance! ARGH.
2. "She just won't go to sleep at her bedtime."
"Kids today!"
"Well, she's on some medication that makes her agitated."
"I don't care how strong the medication is, you have to make it clear that there are LINES that she can't cross. Bedtime is bedtime."
Yes, guys, side effects can be reduced if authority figures make rules! Also, rules and lines are the same for everyone, regardless of circumstances!
3. "Do you really need the walker?" the bus driver asked a young woman, when she asked him to kneel the bus.
"YES," she said, and waited for him to push the button.
He heaved a great sigh and rolled his eyes while he waited for her to leave.
He knows better!
Bonus 4: We had a substitute PT in aquatherapy today, who was all "but it doesn't really hurt, right?" at me when I said I couldn't do an exercise.
Unifying theme of my morning: you don't know your own mind, you don't know your own body, your affliction doesn't count. ARGH.
Conversations reproduced here:
1. "My sister doesn't like to go out of the house, so sometimes we have to make her."
"Really?"
"Yeah, she claims she's agoraphobic or something, but she's really just lazy. She got a doctor to say she's depressed, but I think she just needs to get more exercise."
"Oh, absolutely getting out of the house will help with that."
"Yeah, like, the other day, we said we'd take her out to lunch, and then we said we couldn't drive in the snow so we would walk. And within a block, would you believe it, she said she was tired and her feet hurt and she wanted to go home! We made her go to the restaurant anyway -- she wasn't really tired, it was all in her head."
This conversation was between two people in my aquatherapy group: two people who, in fact, get tired when they walk. But they have physical diagnoses. Depression, as you know, is not a "real" thing, and can be "cured" with exercise. Also, you should always lie to people who are depressed, and refuse to believe them when they say they're tired, because they're not REALLY tired. You know better than they do! You can diagnose them from a distance! ARGH.
2. "She just won't go to sleep at her bedtime."
"Kids today!"
"Well, she's on some medication that makes her agitated."
"I don't care how strong the medication is, you have to make it clear that there are LINES that she can't cross. Bedtime is bedtime."
Yes, guys, side effects can be reduced if authority figures make rules! Also, rules and lines are the same for everyone, regardless of circumstances!
3. "Do you really need the walker?" the bus driver asked a young woman, when she asked him to kneel the bus.
"YES," she said, and waited for him to push the button.
He heaved a great sigh and rolled his eyes while he waited for her to leave.
He knows better!
Bonus 4: We had a substitute PT in aquatherapy today, who was all "but it doesn't really hurt, right?" at me when I said I couldn't do an exercise.
Unifying theme of my morning: you don't know your own mind, you don't know your own body, your affliction doesn't count. ARGH.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-20 08:26 pm (UTC)THAT'S ALL.