Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Not Horrible

Now that Halloween is over I've been thinking about the many portrayals of people with special needs as something to be afraid of.
Scary characters are often shown with scars and missing limbs.
Mental illness can create some dangerous behaviors, but that doesn't mean it's okay to depict mentally ill people as monsters.
And people with developmental delays are neither funny nor frightening, as they are often portrayed.
Even vampires and werewolf legends may be based on the rare diseases, porphyria and xenodermaphobia, which made people avoid light and crave blood.
That kind of Halloween costumes and decorations may make it more difficult for people with special needs to be accepted in our society.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Janet,

    Congrats! You were one of the winners at Pets & Their Authors. Please let me know your address so I can forward it to Tamar Geller's publicist and she can send you a copy of 30 Days to a Well-Mannered Dog.

    Thanks for participating!

    Best,
    Mayra
    mayra.calvani@gmail.com

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  2. Thank you, Mayra. I'll send my address privately.

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  3. Janet,
    This is a funny/not funny story. I'm in a wheelchair & have a hose that sticks out of my neck to help me breathe. I went to a wax museum. A section is in dim lights and strobe light effects with scary figures. I was holding up the line of people winding thru the museum.
    I pulled into a dark alcove so people could get by. Several paused and commented on how life - like I was. When I blinked I scared the BEJEEZUS out of a kid and he ran screaming. lol
    Blessings,
    J. Aday Kennedy
    The Differently-Abled Writer & Speaker
    Children's Author of Klutzy Kantor & Marta Gargantuan Wings

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  4. I agree that it's both funny and not but couldn't help laughing out loud when I read it. Thank you for sharing.

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