If you’re a movie person like I am, then I’m sure the hype of the newest romantic movie “Me Before You” (based on the book by JoJo Moyes), has not escaped your notice. Basically the story revolves around Lou Clark who is a quirky woman that gets hired to take care of a paralyzed man named Will Traynor. And while the story itself is kind of a basic "boy meets girl and they fall in love" type story, what sparks a lot of the surrounding hype is the controversy the film has in its wake.
Disability rights activists are fired up and even attempting to boycott this movie because of a perceived message that "disabled lives are not worth living to the fullest," and as a girl who has lived with a physical impairment for my whole life and who also actually read this book and has seen the film four times I can’t disagree more with the critics.
Like I said, I’ve lived with a disability my whole life. I had a stroke before I was born and that makes it a little tough for my left side to move like my right side does. But make no mistakes: just because this is the hand that the universe decided to deal me does that mean that I think my life is not worth living. Society has shoved down my throat that just because I’m built a different way I should just stand in the corner and be inspiring while my able bodied peers do all the living. I’ve got a single word response to that sentiment: no.
Going back to the movie, the disability community is outraged that such a message would still be present in the media that is just now starting to embrace diversity. But honestly, when you watch the movie or read the book you realize that the critics have it all wrong. The hash tag the movie uses is #LiveBoldly and in that simple and hip hashtag lies the true message of the film that people are missing or not wanting to see at all.
I should live boldly even with my physical limits, just as you should live boldly no matter your physical capabilities. The hash tag never specifies who should live boldly, does it? The mentality that disabled lives are worth nothing and better off not being lived at all is called ableism and it is one form of discrimination not many choose to recognize, but is just as deadly as racism or homophobia. Ableism is one of the oldest and as I mentioned one of the most overlooked prejudices we face in the modern world, yet it is overlooked most of the time because it’s done in such a discreet way and often people don’t realize their words towards the disabled reek of prejudice.
I can’t tell you how many times someone has come to me and said something along the lines of, “Wow you get around so well for a stroke survivor,” or, “You’re such an inspiration!” This is ableism, people. These are able-bodied people coming up to me and discreetly saying, “I don’t know how you do it every day,” or, “I would rather die than be in your position.” This is the face of ableism in America: a nation so afraid on the surface of being offended but won’t consider how their words (that might have good intentions sometimes), do the very thing to the disabled that the able bodied are afraid of being done unto them.
This is modern ableism. This is discrimination. This is saying disabled lives shouldn’t be lived.
I’m calling for an end to it.
“Me Before You,” if anything, should be seen as a film that aims to lift up everyone and encourage him or her to live as fully as possible no matter his or her capabilities.
