What's so "special"?

My Random Rantings for the Night

I haven't written in a while on the Voiceless minority. I've been busy dealing with some medical issues and capturing and taking advantage of several opportunities that have come my way. More on that later –



However, the point of this blog is to get on my soapbox. Before I do so, I must say that this blog is a straight opinion piece, and it comes from the point of me being extra picky when it comes to semantics.



The other night I was watching one of my TV shows – the WWE- when they announced a partnership with the "Special" Olympics. When I first heard this, I went all noble, and my mind took over. I said, "Oh, here we go again, the mainstream media and the able-bodied community using the disabled as 'inspiration porn.'" For those who don't know what that is, the term inspiration porn was coined by disabled activists and comedienne Stella Young. It is the idea that the able-bodied community uses their disabled counterparts' achievements to inspire them. They use simple achievements, such as getting out of bed, and they see it as extraordinary. When I first heard the announcement of the partnership with the "Special" Olympics, I made the connection between that and inspiration porn immediately, and part of me believes this idea to have merit. It needs to be further explored, which I hope to do throughout this blog.



Once I had calmed down, I reflected on the "Special" Olympics concept as a whole. The overall idea is a good one. It gives people with developmental and intellectual disabilities an outlet for an athletic competition which they may not get otherwise. My issue with the whole concept is again, I'm picky on semantics, but why do we have to call it "special"? If we look at the "regular" Olympics, the emphasis is on athletic achievement and bringing the world together, to forget all our problems for a little while. To recognize a segment of the disabled community's accomplishments, we have the Paralympic games after the Olympics. This is an excellent concept as it recognizes disabled athletes for their physical achievements, and at no point are they referred to as "special." Instead, their achievements are looked at from an athletic standpoint despite their obstacles.

The Paralympics do not get as much attention as the regular Olympics, but they still draw considerable attention. My problem is with the media's treatment of the "Special" Olympics. As I said before in this blog, the concept is a great one as it allows people with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy and Down Syndrome to participate in athletic events. The problem comes when the media capitalizes on the concept in the wrong way. Rather than treating these athletes like their able-bodied counterparts, in this writer's opinion, most of the able-bodied community infantilize an entire population through the way these games are presented. I am not saying this from the point of no experience. I participated in these games when I was younger. In my experience, every athlete gets a medal; to illustrate the absurdity of this point, I got an award for my driving ability. Anyone who knows me knows my uncanny ability to end up in the bushes or hitting a wall when I steer myself. The medal I received was for going correctly through an obstacle course. My opponent, a good friend of mine at the time, ended behind me but received the same medal I did. It has been a long time since I competed in the "Special" Olympics, and hopefully, this practice has ended. I am skeptical. If it has not, it is a further illustration of my point that the "Special" Olympics are not designed for athletic competition. Instead, they are intended to pat participants on the head and say, good job, buddy. These participation trophies do nothing to spark a healthy interest in competition and might do just the opposite. If anyone reading this still participates in the "Special" Olympics and can prove me wrong, I gladly welcome the correction and admit my error on this blog in a future post.

Even if this is not the case, I assert that organizations like the WWE, who greatly influence the media, use their platform to showcase individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities inappropriately. Glorifying these individuals simply because they have a disability goes back to the idea of inspiration porn. On this particular episode of WWE, they highlighted one athlete in particular who was a participant in speed skating. The only problem with the way they highlighted him is that the athlete himself did not speak throughout most of the piece. Instead, members of his family and his coaches spoke for him. As a readers note, I have a family who participates in the "Special" Olympics to this day. My cousin does get great enjoyment out of the games, but our family does not treat her as extra special. They look at what she has accomplished. For them, it isn't about the medal; it is about the fun she had.

In closing, the "Special" Olympics concept is a great one, but I raise this question and point – why are the people who participate "special" just because they participate?