Ruining The Greatest Showman for everyone

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I refused to watch the movie because I knew how much PT Barnum sucked. I cannot stand that the movie acts like he was the only person kind enough to hire disabled people/POC when in reality he was just one of many people exploiting them.

when your son grows up he won’t remember that you couldn’t play with him for as long, he’ll remember the times you did play, and how much you love him. that’s what really matters

I mean, the romantic ballad was a Black woman trying to explain racism to a white man who won’t take her concerns seriously, so—the bar was not high.

I once had an Uber driver say: "You don't look autistic and like you have bipolar disorder" these are both mental disabilities. I went off on him. I was having a really awaful day and I just wanted to get where I was going. I told him: "Don't say this to anybody with disabilities that cannot be seen or to anybody with disabilities that can be seen or just people with disabilities at all. It's rude and insensitive."

As a disabled person, every one of your tangents is SO relatable. Inferiority Complex. Inspiration prn. Laziness. Conversations about having to prove our disabilities or explain them to strangers. It's all there. I've volunteered with Special Olympics since I was a kid - long before I was disabled. The year I showed up to an event in a wheelchair, no one batted an eyelash. Some of my disabled friends that knew me well asked what was going on with the chair. And when I told them that we didn't know, yet, what was wrong, everyone just nodded. They understood how this sort of thing goes. It literally made me cry to be finally so understood. <3

depicting disability as "inspiring" also tends to make a contest out of it, or pit different types of disabilities against one another. Like "Oh, you're StRuGGLinG with your ADHD? Well, look at that man without legs--he's doing fine!"

It's nice to have it called out that saying: "They can do it, so anyone can!" is a bit toxic sometimes, because say if you have no disabilities, it can still be pretty discouraging when you try so hard and you can't, but all you're hearing is that you should be able to. So just imagine how toxic it can be when the group you're part of is meant to be exceptional but you're not that. You're human . It's a really toxic idea around disability, sadly society is just like that sometimes I guess.

I’m a single disabled mum. I can’t go to certain restaurants because the chairs hurt so much I can’t stand it and I often lose circulation to my legs and can’t walk or drive correctly afterwards. I can’t go to parks without proper seating or stay as long because the pain becomes unbearable. I can’t have people come over because the house is often a wreck because I can’t maintain the house to “normal” standards. The disabled mum guilt is so real. ❤️

It’s a bit of complicated one. Martin Couney had a ‘sideshow’ on Coney Island where people paid to view premature babies in incubators who had been previously written off as ‘weaklings’ and because people were paying he didn’t charge the families for their care. It’s estimated that Couney saved 6,000 lives. I was an incubator as a baby it saved my life.

Imagine if someone watched Simone Biles or Michael Phelps win gold in the olympics, and then got genuinely frustrated at you for not doing the same because you "just weren't trying hard enough." That's what it's like pointing at "inspiring" disabled people in order to tell other disabled people that they could and should try harder to "succeed." Like, not everyone has the right circumstances to be the next Stephen Hawking or a paralympian, assuming that they would even want to in the first place.

I knew PT Barnum was a grade A asshole before I watched the movie. The only reason I watched it was because I like most of the cast. They should have put a disclaimer at the beginning though for those not aware.

I like using "Prawn" for the demonetizing word because it instantly makes many things hilarious out of context.

The Doctor Who complaints are actually insane if you actually WATCH the three episodes. The character is shown briefly standing at a desk and moving between chairs and it's not hidden in the background, it's pretty prominent. I really appreciated how clearly they wanted to show that disability is a range. The episode also has the villain manipulating people's minds so that they act on their most hateful, destructive impulses that exist somewhere in their mind. A sympathetic character has this happen and she lambasts the disabled character for being "secretly able to walk", and when she's brought back to her senses, she apologises and says that's not what she really thinks - people can have leftover biases that they know are incorrect and would never normally act on. So the show literally demonstrates how and why this thought of someone not being "really disabled" is wrong.

Regarding the “modern freak show” I can’t help but feel some reality tv shows exist to fulfill that societal need of witnessing “otherness” that existed in the 19th century and persists today. People still stand and stare when they see human beings who don’t fit their schema for “person”. There are reality tv shows which main premise is showcasing people with unique disabilities especially ones that are physically unusual. It all comes down to the fine line between “educating” and “sensationalizing”

Connecting to when you started talking about disability inferiority complex. I have this stupid thing where I either feel like I’m too disabled or not disabled enough. Like “I can hold down a job and I did really well in high school, I must be faking my disability” or “I can’t keep up in college and working a forty hour work week makes me physically ill because I don’t have the energy for it, but other disabled people can so I’m just being lazy”. I never feel justified in in accepting my limits as a disabled person and I also feel like an imposter calling myself disabled. It’s this weird dichotomy we’re I (and sometimes other people 😑) perceive myself as both too disable and not disabled enough. It’s incredibly frustrating and I wish it was acceptable to just be without having to be compared to others with the same disabilities. 24:20

my dad was physically disabled and i remember very fondly playing catch with beanbags with him in bed and me in the doorway when i was six your child will remember what you did do and the time you made i have acquired a disability myself later in life and it helps me to remember that- that what i can do for my loved ones is more important than what i can't

I love how you talked about not wanting to explain to non-disabled people "what's wrong with you." As a disabled person, I find it exhausting that non-disabled people just expect us to be willing to share that information. Like can't we just exist without being bombarded with questions? Great video!

I'm DID... and no where in modern media have I seen this portrayed honestly... we are often mixed up with Schizophrenia, which is also not often portrayed well. We are ironically less likely to be criminals then the normal population... but we are often a villain or criminal trope. It's disheartening.

Celebrities with disability can set such inaccurate expectations. Money makes a huge difference! If I could pay someone to cook for me & clean my house, plus pay for every possible treatment to see what helps, then I too would be """achieving""" a lot more.