The Disability Community Is Pissed AF About ‘Me Before You’

People with disabilities are over the way they’re portrayed in pop culture. So much so that disability activists have taken to Twitter to express their disdain over Hollywood’s latest offense, "Me Before You." Ugh. I'm seeing ads for Me Before You everywhere, and I'm also seeing a lot of able-bodied folks saying they don't get why there is outrage.— Kody Keplinger (@Kody_Keplinger) June 5, 2016 The film, based on a novel of the same name by British author Jojo Moyes, has been marketed as a quirky, opposites-attract love story between a man named Will, played by actor Sam Claflin, who becomes paralyzed from the neck down due to a motorcycle accident, and his bubbly caregiver, Louisa played by "Game of Thrones" star Emilia Clarke. To many, the mere fact that there was a major movie starring a quadriplegic character as a romantic lead was thrilling. As Ryan O'Connell, a writer who has cerebral palsy and who discusses having had low self-worth as a child, expressed in an essay written for Vulture: “I was like, ‘OMG, YASSSSSS! Disability is finally in vogue! Let’s get that shit trending on Twitter!’” What's begun to trend on Twitter is the hashtag #MeBeforeEuthanasia -- a blatant rejection by disability activists about the movie’s message: that life with a disability is not worth living. Will, who is a handsome playboy before the motorcycle accident that renders him disabled, wants to go to Switz...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news