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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

My son is 6 months old and has recently been diagnosed with a disability

10 replies

Kandagray79 · 08/11/2011 07:10

Hi I need the support of mum's out there. My son has been diagnosed with Achondroplasia/dwarfism. He is beautiful and amazing, however I am very concerned about a new comedy 'Life's too short' that BBC2 are airing. It is co-written by Ricky Gervais.

Please read my campaign page and if you are able, please offer your support by liking my campaign page. (click 'like it' on the page) I don't have media and national television support, but I am appealing to you as mum's to help me with this campaign. Thank you so much. People like my son deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

www.facebook.com/pages/Dislike-BBC-2-comedy-Lifes-too-short/238484836207971#!/pages/Dislike-BBC-2-comedy-Lifes-too-short/238484836207971

OP posts:
RealityIsADistantMemory · 08/11/2011 07:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Proudnscary · 08/11/2011 07:22

I will read the link properly when I have time.

I'm sorry your son has been diagnosed with achondroplasia - I imagine you are in shock and feeling very anxious and down.

I hope you have lots of RL support xx

CogitoErgoSometimes · 08/11/2011 07:50

YABU. Sorry about your son's diagnosis, but I think your reaction to a comedy series simply because it features an actor with dwarfism is alarmist and premature. As said earlier, if the series was instigated by Davies, he would be the last person to create a vehicle to reinforce prejudice or tokenism. Usually, when actors with disabilities are involved in mainstream drama or comedy (rather than being consigned to niche stereotyped roles), the effect is largely positive.

TiarasTimeOutsAndTantrums · 08/11/2011 07:57

I agree with cogito.

GypsyMoth · 08/11/2011 08:06

Someone else started a thread on your behalf in campaigns. Did you know that op?

lassylass · 08/11/2011 09:25

I think you need to see it before petitioning against it. Kneejerk to the extreme.

But its understandable to feel a tad defensive on behalf of your son.

Grumpla · 08/11/2011 09:30

I think you should watch it before you judge it. Warwick Davies is a clever and outspoken man, I doubt he'd be involved with a project that humiliated people with dwarfism!

bonnymiffy · 08/11/2011 10:01

Ricky Gervais is a nob, and I wouldn't watch "Life's too Short" anyway.

DeWe · 08/11/2011 10:06

Dd2 was diagnosed at the twenty week scan as missing her left arm from below the elbow, so I do understand what you're going through.

When the row about Cerrie Burnell kicked off in the media, I was very concerned that it would effect dd2 because so many nasty things were being said about her. Actually within a couple of weeks it became very clear what a positive thing it was. Not only was there someone on CBeeBies who dd2's friends could relate to, it actually meant when out children were coming up wanting to be friends because dd2 was "like Cerrie".

For other children to see people with your child's disability on TV being treated as a "normal person" it helps them to treat your child as a "normal person".

Warwick Davis, from interviews with him I've heard, will very much treat your child and others like him with dignity and respect, but it is very normal to worry about it.

In the first few months I couldn't have seen the funny side of dd2's condition. However now I (and she can too) can chuckle at some of the situations it's got us into. Like the time an old lady raced after us shouting "your baby's broken her arm" when she'd got her prosthesis on backwards. When people are unsure how to treat dd2 often telling a few things that make them laugh can help them to relax round her and then she just becomes one of them.

Have you got contact with other people with the same condition? Do they feel the same way?

If they do, then I'd suggest you approach the BBC as a group and ask if you can view it ahead of its release. That way maybe you can discuss with them anything you find offensive. I think that is a more reasonable approach than just asking for it to be banned, and more likely to be taken accound of, particularly if you're doing it under a known group.

HTH.

WibblyBibble · 08/11/2011 11:35

YANBU as far as I can tell from the trailer, this programme is encouraging people to laugh at the actor (e.g. with things like him having trouble getting out of his car- ffs haven't they heard of physical adaptations that someone who was a well-off actor would obviously get so this kind of stupid slapstick didn't happen?)- it's not in any way 'liberating' or 'empowering' of people with the same disability and will probably encourage bullying. Really sick of the whole way that now comedians are trying to get off on being 'edgy' or 'non-pc' by picking on disabled people. BBC really need to explain why they think this is ok when people with disabilities are already being discriminated against and stigmatised in society, and they are aware of this as they have sites like OUCH etc.

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