The title of this blogpost is a rather poor effort at a catchy streamline I grant you, but the message in no way belies what is an important issue for physiotherapists, health professions, or anyone who cares about the way disabled people are portrayed in the popular media. There has been some serious criticism of the new English film Me Before You in recent days. The film portrays a millionaire disabled man, played by non-disabled actor Sam Claflin, who strikes up a relationship with his carer, Emilia Clarke, after being paralysed in an accident. The depiction of a man with so much, wanting to die, has enraged some disability rights activists because it offers yet another negative … [Read more...] about See Me Before You go
Health as pornography
Drawing a long bow, I know, but with a few minor amendments, Loïc Wacquant could actually be talking about physiotherapy...or medicine...or any of the other health professions that adhere to the medical model: '...the [physiotherapy] merry-go-round is to [health] what pornography is to amorous relations: a mirror deforming reality to the point of the grotesque that artificially extracts [deviant movement] from the fabric of social relations in which they take root and make sense, deliberately ignores their causes and their meanings, and reduces their treatment to a series of conspicuous position takings, often acrobatic, sometimes properly unreal, pertaining to the cult of ideal … [Read more...] about Health as pornography