Quote Of Yesterday: “I don’t watch gay movies. I like action movies.”- Random Blind Woman Who Was Unfortunately Called On To Speak From The virtual Audience. I didn’t get a chance to respond, which is probably a good thing. So, here we go… dear Karen, you felt comfortable labeling gay movies as a broad genre, instead of a special interest group, so the question begs would you have been comfortable saying you didn’t like black movies? is it OK for me to follow up with I don’t like girly movies? Or, I don’t watch films with women? get back in that kitchen and make me my dinner. Your answer is deeply telling and incredibly regressive. it isn’t so much that inside your head you know that you would never choose to watch a film about the LGBTQ community, but to vocalize that out loud is a form of hate speech. Granted, it is more of a micro aggression, but these are the kinds of little things we face daily. not just as part of a broader queer community, which was so quickly dismissed, but to come from a blind person, who must be deeply unaware of how uncomfortable her blindness makes society. to be disenfranchised, and then to not have the self awareness that you are disenfranchised, and instead push that stigma onto another marginalized group is so deeply ignorant. We shouldn’t be jockeying to make sure we aren’t in last place. She’s blind and a woman, and there are people who not only don’t want her around (google eugenics) simply based on her disability, there are also people who believe her place as a woman is seen and not heard. We can play this game all day long, but every single time we stand up and believe our power is to further discriminate and promote prejudice and hate simply for someone existing as they are, you are removing another rung at the bottom of the ladder of society. So, in her world, if there are no “gay movies”, does she truly believe a utopian state will be reached, or is it more likely that the same level of disregard will then be shifted to a new target, possibly one that affects her. It is an important question, because MAGA is legislating disability and accessibility right now. On July 1st, schools in the state of florida are getting extra areas of focus, designed to make kids more aware. This passed a MAGA state legislature and Governor, so don’t think this is some liberal policy, but students in K-3 will learn about bullying, 4-6 will learn about autism spectrum disorder, 7-9 will learn about deafness, and 10-12th grade will learn about intellectual and physical disabilities. The troubling thing here is the interpretation of blindness, as being so separate from deafness as to potentially be considered a learning disability. if the state of Florida believes that we are grouped in with people who often cannot take care of themselves, the insinuation could be that we cannot take care of ourselves alone without help. if our state legislators believe that we are so vividly different to lump us in with the final catch all, then how will they treat us as adults? so, Karen, you may not like gay movies, and I’m not telling you to start watching them. But what I am pointing out, while the Department of Energy seeks to go after a law that requires federally funded facilities to be fully accessible, that perhaps self reflection is necessary. If you are a part of a disenfranchised or marginalized community, it simply doesn’t help you to stand on the throats of another just because part of you wants so badly to be seen as normal, and “normal” means that someone is abnormal, and then therefore must be below you. It is a larger problem we haven’t addressed out of the bully politics we live in, but it is one that the Latinx community is reckoning with,as they voted for a man who sought to deport people who looked like them, and now legal American latinos aren’t so happy about being harassed by ICE because they look like they don’t belong here. Gay people might make you uncomfortable, I might make you uncomfortable, but I can promise you, that you make people uncomfortable as well. it isn’t until we start embracing the idea that we are all different, and those differences make us who we are, and stronger in our acceptance as that, that we can finally start to make meaningful and lasting roads to accessibility for all. You are standing in your own way, and you don’t even know it.

And now for something completely different:

TV Shows Watched: Stick: S1E4 (Apple Plus) with audio description, iron Heart: S1E3 (Disney Plus) with audio description, the Bear: S4E2 (Hulu) with audio description, Adults: S1E4 (Hulu) with audio description, tires: S2E4 (Netflix) with audio description, No Man’s Land: S1E8 (Hulu) with audio description, Scrubs: S1E2 (Peacock) no audio description, Pop culture Jeopardy: S1E22 (Amazon) with audio description, Sherlock and Daughter: S1E3 (MAX) no audio description

Best Episode: The Bear, Runner Up: Stick

Best Audio description: iron Heart, Runner Up: The Bear

Best Performance: Abby Elliot (The Bear), Thomas Haden church (Tires)

best Moment Of Audio Description: Cloak Of Invisibility (Iron Heart), Texting (The Bear)

Stick- I knew when she told him that he didn’t understand because he didn’t have a son, that the emotional gut punch payoff for her was right around the corner. I didn’t think it would be the same episode, but it was worth it. Zero is a bit much. The scene at the quarry made me viscerally dislike she/them, and I’m not totally certain what her age is in this show, but in real life I have plenty of kids who use pronouns like Zero, and are not nearly as insufferable as that. They feel like an interpretation of what someone thinks that character should be, for comedic purposes, which doesn’t do a lot for true representation. For much better representation check out Billions, which platformed a brilliant non-binary character for most of the run of the series, and never made it kitschy.

Iron Heart- I went into this show with the willingness to stand up and fight the trolls, and while this show is not nearly close to the apocalyptic levels they make it out to be, it does feel compressed, and some character choices don’t make sense. RiRi isn’t 100% sure if what she’s doing is super villain level or not, but she approaches it from this altruistic approach that the ends justify the means based on the tech she will build. So she buys her brother a new pair of Beats? And why did joe come to her house?She already needs to go to him, so what was the point? And, I know this is shocking, but it turns out… Joe isn’t his real name. We did get a well described fight scene where Parker turns invisible and fights a bunch of people.

The Bear- A solid second episode expanding on the desire and necessity to get that Michelin star. i thought Abby Elliot had some nice moments as Natalie, stuck at home, and trying to figure out if she wants to text someone, and if she hates or misses that person. The texting scene is purely visual, and well described.

Adults- Everyone in the group ends up with a task as voted on by the whole group, and basically everyone fails at their job on some level. Pretty funny, and the description surrounding the air tag was nice. I almost put that in with the moments.

tires- Thomas Haden church needs to be upped to series regular right now. Having him guest as Shane’s dad was perfect casting. he felt like he was the kind of guy who would produce Shane, and he’d be such a great addition to the show. it’s like when the It’s always Sunny team added Danny Devito. Do it.

No man’s Land- Out of the 60+ shows I’m watching, this is the most sobering show. of course another character died. I’m so surprised Hulu looked at this, and gave it a second season, but some of the other shows they have cut off after one made far more sense. This feels limited.

Scrubs- The characters continue to find their group chemistry without audio description.

Pop Culture Jeopardy- Some of the answers made me laugh. like, Jennifer Coolidge as an answer to a Muppets Take Manhattan question.

Sherlock and daughter- Still needs audio description, and better casting. I’m starting to enjoy the one-note Sherlock character. He somehow feels like if all the previous Sherlocks reached their final form, and their final form was just an asshole.