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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed that disabled woman have no air time on TV?

64 replies

RedSuedeShoes · 29/10/2010 14:24

Like a previous poster I am getting really annoyed about the ancient ugly men on TV and the thin pretty women. Good to know our lives are over by the time we're thirty.

Anyway, for a while I've become aware that there are no women with disabilities on TV. The News has a blind guy and a guy with a stammer but have you ever seen a disabled woman? NO, because woman have to be pretty, bubbly and size 10! Angry

OP posts:
Original poster
RedSuedeShoes · 29/10/2010 14:58

Redflag, you obviously care that I care! Now that is trivial! Hmm

OP posts:
Spero · 29/10/2010 15:00

good for you Redflag, you don't care.

Other people do. If you really can't get your head round that, find another thread.

As I have said, it is not an issue which compares to war and genocide etc, etc, but that does NOT make it trivial.

redflag · 29/10/2010 15:01

Oh sorry i was under the impression that this was a discussion forum! You know to discuss!Hmm
Or are you annoyed i don't agree!

redflag · 29/10/2010 15:03

Find another thread because i don't agree? This is AIBU

Ok i will leave you all to pat each others backs and say the world is not fair good luck

BikeRunScream · 29/10/2010 15:08

I do think that CBeebies is serious TV. It influences the very youngest children and Cerrie is showing them that her disability is normal. D Niece was visiting from abroad and asked why Cerrie only had one arm. I said "I think she was born like that" (later checked up). D Niece said, very matter-of-factly "Oh, XXX at home had to have theirs cut off because a machine squashed it". To D Niece, it was no big deal, she was just curious.

MaMoTTaT · 29/10/2010 15:09

to be fair redflag I think by saying "well it's no war, genocide etc so you don't care" is a bit Hmm

I do hope you're not supporting any of the MN campaigns.......because they're not life or death.....

redflag · 29/10/2010 15:17

Is that supposed to be a quote from me? Because its not!

I was told things i care about will be trivial to the op, so i listed some things i care about! I said i don't care because i don't, like i said i am not represented, neither is my husband, and i am not really interested in being represented.

And i don't understand why people care, no one has actually been giving reasons why they are upset about it.

redflag · 29/10/2010 15:20

And by the way, i don't only care about life or death i care about many things, this is not one.

Just because you don't see it from my view, please do not try to patronise me, its not very becoming.

amothersplaceisinthewrong · 29/10/2010 15:26

WHo are all the disabled men in serious roles?? The only one I can think of is Frank Gardiner, BBC defence correnspondent

MaMoTTaT · 29/10/2010 15:27

so you only care about major issues like war and genocide.

FWIW - There are 1.3 million people of working age in the UK who are available/want to work.

1 in 5 people of working age have a disability.

1 in 7 of the entire population have a disability

1 in 20 children under 16yrs of age have a disability.

We're not talking about insignificant numbers of people who are being denied the opportunity to work in field they are capable of because of the "ideal" (from the broadcasters and industry professionals) about what the viewers "want" to see on the TV

MaMoTTaT · 29/10/2010 15:31

I don't understand why people care about lots of issues that are brought up on MN (and in the "real" world as well)

I don't find the need to go up to people and say "well I don't care - why do you?"

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 29/10/2010 15:32

For me it's about saying people with disablities are the 'norm' in society and are more than capable of working in the media and in the public eye. On the downside however it can mean that only certain models of disabiliy are 'promoted', that is, the physically visible disability.

cat64 · 29/10/2010 15:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

BalloonSlayer · 29/10/2010 16:08

If you didn't happen to know what had happened to the BBC journalist Frank Gardner you would never guess he is disabled from his TV work.

There might be women like him.

To be fair, he was disabled during the course of his work for the BBC so he didn't have to overcome prejudice to get the job, as he already had it.

2shoeprintsintheblood · 29/10/2010 16:10

yanbu
I would love to see more disabled people on tv

Spero · 29/10/2010 17:42

Redflag, I gave you reasons why it annoys/upsets me. I said that I think more positive representations of disabled people in all sectors of the media might make disabled people's lives a bit easier as it would open the eyes and the minds of the able bodied.

I am not telling you what to think; but all you seem to think about this issues is that it is trivial, you don't care.

That point is only worth making one time. to keep on repeating it is just boring for those of us who would actually like to have a discussion about it.

Am I wrong or is op wrong to be annoyed. Well, according to you, yes because it is 'trivial'. Ok, you've made your point. If you can't elaborate on it, why keep on repeating it?

sarah293 · 29/10/2010 17:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Glitterknickaz · 29/10/2010 19:13

I moaned about Cerrie initially. Mainly cos I thought she was utterly crap, and I thought the same of Alex and I wanted Chris and Pui back!

Mind you they did film Show Me Show Me as a result of not doing the links any more.

So yeah, it was presenter preference. Nothing else came into it.

Pseudo341 · 29/10/2010 19:53

OP did you genuinely mean to say that being disabled makes it impossible to be pretty bubbly and a size 10? I?m a size 10, I admit I can?t be the best judge of the other 2 but I?m pretty sure I?m not ugly, and if I were presenting the news I?d be sat behind a desk so you wouldn?t be able to tell there was anything wrong with me.

Spero ? An employer is obliged to make sure they can evacuate everyone in the event of an emergency, the fire hazard question was nothing to do with prejudice and everything to do with obeying the law. When I worked on the 7th floor of a building I had to have a special procedure in place to get me out in case there was a fire on one of my bad days.

I haven?t seen the one armed woman on TV, but in my experience children accept whatever?s in front of them as normal since they don?t have anything to compare it to, I?m astonioshed there were complaints, it?s not as if they?re not going to see disabled people in real life. My eldest nephew was 3 ½ before he thought to ask what was wrong with me despite having been playing with my walking sticks for years.

Serendippy · 29/10/2010 20:01

RedSuedeShoes Fri 29-Oct-10 14:53:32
There must be an amazing singer with one leg who could be a judge on "I'd do anything".

I can't think of one. Maybe this is why there is not one on the show.

YANBU to want people with disibilities to be fairly represented, however in RL the proportion of people with a physical disibility, especially one which can be seen when the person is sitting stationary, is small. I do not agree with people being discriminated against for having a disibility, however nor would I approve of giving a job to someone disabled because it looks good.

thefirstmrsDeVeerie · 29/10/2010 20:12

May I slightly hijack the thread for a mo?

I agree with OP BTW.

I have recently sent an email to the BBC making a few helpful comments regarding their daytime show Doctors. Being a lazy mare i often watch this programme and have noticed they are fairly fond of storylines featuring bereaved parents.

Without exception these parents are totally and utterly bonkers. They kill people, hallucinate, steal children, stay indoors for 50 years and the lid on the biscuit tin? A recently bereaved mum used the ashes or her dd to throw over her ex husband as he got remarried!

I did get a reply to my email, ironically on the day the show finished its week long storyline regarding a serial child abductor. Turns out this woman was da da da daaaaaahhhh a bereaved mother.

I am sorry for the shamless taking over of your thread OP but I dont think if I started my own, many people would take much notice and it is a bit related Grin

Personally I would like to see loads more disabled people on tv, so many that it no longer becomes noticable. Years ago my OH's family would gather round the screen if a black person appeared, we dont do that now (that would be odd and rather time consuming). I would like to see disabled people 'normalised' in the same way.

thefirstmrsDeVeerie · 29/10/2010 20:42

Sorry Blush

PaisleyPumpkin · 29/10/2010 20:46

I'm confused about the serious intellectual roles like judging 'I'd do anything' Confused

MsSparkle · 29/10/2010 20:54

I do not agree with people being discriminated against for having a disibility, however nor would I approve of giving a job to someone disabled because it looks good.

I totally agree with that. I sorry but whenever i see a disabled person on tv, i can't help but think they have that role because they have a disabilty and someone somewhere has ticked a box.

Serendippy · 29/10/2010 20:59

MsSparkle this is the problem. You don't want to argue the case so much that you then feel that people with disibilities are being given roles they do not deserve, but you do want the point to be made. I would hate to think that it is a common assumption when someone with a disibility is on TV that they are only there because of that disibility.

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