Viewpoint: Representation matters for people with physical differences
Imagine being a little kid, about 5 years old, staring in the mirror and viscerally realizing that you’re alone in your difference. Not only are you alone, but the only thing in your world that looks like you are The Muppets. After a moment of loneliness standing there in the corner of my parents’ closet, rapidly realizing that I was clearly not human, but in fact a close relative of Kermit the Frog. I remember feeling a tangible, heavy shift within my 5-year-old self. I was a Muppet in a world of humans.
Representation matters, especially to the youngest; they’re our future change makers and place holders. Imagine never seeing yourself in a magazine, up on a billboard or flashing across the TV screen. Never seeing yourself or someone like you represented in the tangible ways that society has deemed you valuable.
It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I saw someone else with the same limb difference as myself. I spotted them across a sidewalk leaving a popular Midtown, coffee shop. It took everything I had within me not to sprint over and tell them, “Hey it’s me, I’m just like you.” I rapidly thought through all the things we’d talk about, like how each other did ponytails, played softball or swap stories of proving to the world we are in fact completely capable. In that moment I was too shy to go say hi.
Can you imagine going your entire childhood and early adult years never coming across someone like you? People like me obviously existed; I had just never seen them.
Shane Burcaw, a writer, blogger and activist who has written about living with the disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy, recently shared in a video, “The way that I look is something that has always been at the forefront of my mind. And to the point where 10 years ago, I would go to the beach and not take my shirt or pant offs because I was programed by society to be ashamed of the way I look.” And “It took a while to overcome that belief that my body is shameful.”
Things are changing, in big part due to social media and large media outlets. Whether it’s TikTok or Target stores, individuals, as well as brands, are stepping up to show that physical and visible differences are in fact good and worthy of being seen in advertisement. Imagine what it would feel like to a child or even adult with differences, that if when they watched television or movie, played a video game, or went to a store they saw themselves in the glossy advertisements instead of seeing what the world perceives as the desirable. When we see something, it becomes familiar and normal. Shouldn’t the same be said for physical and visible differences?
I’ve still not seen “me” in media just yet, but I’ve seen a lot of people like me and that tells me if we stay confidently on this path the future “me” out there, will be all right!
Jacquelyn Farris Musgrove is an Oklahoma City mother, wife, artist and athlete who describes herself as first and foremost "adaptive." Her column addressing issues that affect people with limb differences will appear here monthly.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Representation matters for people with physical differences
