Me Before You

I started writing this post about a year ago after a particularly traumatic “breakup” with some people who had been close friends, but I didn’t finish it and sort of moved on, like I have in life.  But the topic has been brought back up again with the release of the movie “Me Before You” [...]

Recently I wrote a post on my blog about “Me Before You.” Although the movie has received a lot of negative attention recently, I felt like the topic was more complex than people realized. I was also concerned about the message behind the movie. It essentially says life is not worth living if you have a disability, and I wanted to [...]

Like many people with disabilities, I won’t be going to see the film “Me Before You.” I heard about the premise a few months ago and was immediately repulsed. It’s yet another film where actors without disabilities pretend to be us with no understanding of the realities of our lives. Even worse, it’s another in [...]

I am a daughter, sister, niece, granddaughter, student, EMT, skier, lifeguard, first degree black belt, Netflix addict, and I happen to fight a few chronic illnesses. I wear a lot of different hats. Multitasking is one of the things I do best. I mention multitasking because I am constantly hiding my severe pain from the [...]

(Warning: Spoiler alerts ahead!) When we see suicide in the media, the typical reactions are sadness, tragedy, grief, and feeling a life was taken too soon. We start movements to combat suicide. We discuss issues of mental health. We mourn the losses of those not able to be saved, those who couldn’t be convinced that [...]

“Rain Man.” “Boys Don’t Cry.” “Philadelphia.” “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Books and movies have the power to change society and how we view the human condition. They give us the opportunity to put a name and face to something we might not otherwise encounter in our day-to-day lives, and allow us to reconsider our own [...]

Our family A disturbing hashtag is circulating on Twitter: #BetterDeadThanDisabled. A closer look identifies the tag as a protest of the “Me Before You” movie that opens June 3. It’s based on JoJo Moyes’ fictional book with the same title. The main characters are Lou, a young woman who can’t believe she is falling for a man in a wheelchair, and Will, the [...]

You are part of the problem. I mean that in the kindest way possible. Of course you don’t mean to be part of the problem. As Emilia Clarke said to The Guardian, it wasn’t your “intention” to create a story that says disabled people are burdens and better off dead, to perpetuate the notion that [...]