Is "disabled" now an offensive label for the people we used to call "handicapped?" A group of faculty and students at ASU says so, as The State Press reports. They're making their point through the "Different From What?" three-day film festival running today through Sunday at MADCAP Theater on Mill Avenue.
I'm not really sure if this qualifies as a "political correctness run amok" story based on what ASU's student paper says here or not. While "spread(ing) the message that people with disabilities are not different and to push them to look through a new set of lenses" seems laudable, some of the quoted sourced do seem a little loony.
"What is a disability for a dancer who doesn't have any arms or any legs?" says Lisa Tolentino, the organizer and doctoral student. "It's just a different perspective."
Riiiiight.
Look, I was a philosophy major, so you're not gonna put any Matrix shit over on me. Even time is relative, of course, but having a word in our language which describes the condition of leglessness seems prudent.
"It's about changing mindsets," says JoEtta Gonzales, director of Equity Alliance. "Disability is a socially constructed idea."
Yes, perhaps it is a socially constructed idea (like any idea that's been articulated to another person and influenced by his or her perception or reply) and perhaps that socially constructed idea exists for a reason? Just playing Devil's Advocate here, folks.Other music and culture news from around the interwebs...
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