Bohemian Crip Watches Movies--Maudie, 2017

Have to admit that even increased visibility of crips speaking out about our issues has not diminished my love/hate relationship with disability cinema.*

Yes, I agree that more actors, writers, directors and others with disabilities should be allowed to ply our crafts, but this movie is like many others and does not feature that, to my knowledge. That said, it is a unique addition to the genre for many reasons.

It is as understated and unsparing as the rough mountain scenery that the story takes place among, and maybe its being a Canadian-Irish joint venture counts for the absence of inspiration-porn style hype, or maybe because I didn't know the story of folk artistMaud Lewis so my brain wasn't prompted by rising music toward an expected crypoint or anything of that sort Maud's disability, while a challenge to her family's struggle to be and stay respectable, somewhat pales compared to a teenaged indiscretion that left her pregnant out of wedlock years before the story opens.(unique enough to find a movie that starts with a disabled woman, instead of someone giving bad news to her parents.)

.Both British actress Sally Hawkins, who played Maudie, and Ethan Hawke, playing against his image as her husband with his scars on the inside, delivered strong, if patently unromantic performances.(You might not like their relationship at first...he can be rough on her, but over time, I came to believe he does it more because he doesn't trust anyone to stay around, given his lack of attachment growing up...this made me feel more sympathy, but viewers' mileage may vary on that.)

Disability, while presented as an undeniable fact in Maud's life, made obvious as she struggles to walk long distances or do household chores without modern conveniences, is not a foe for Maudie to fight, any more than her artistic talents are presented as anything more than a sort of...side-hustle that interrupts an endless round of mundane chores. I find this viewpoint, on one hand, admirable and grounding, but also slightly disappointing because nothing Sets Maud Free or transforms her life.  Maudie would probably be surprised, much like the heroine of "A Patch of Blue" that anyone thinks her life awful enough to yearn for a transformation, anyway.Read more about Maud(and see some art)

Phone Follies...

Calling again today for Florida's Amendment 4, which will, hopefully, reinfranchise over a million Floridians. People are not picking up as they had earlier in the cycle, but one South Asian man was rude about my accent, which stung a bit as he took some time to get specific. On one hand, though, I get it...he is probably in the epicenter of bitching about Indian voices on customer service lines and the like...maybe he's waited half his life to say that to someone from the dominant culture(at least, allegedly) and I blundered right in. Once the insult subsided, it reminded me of when my mom got in a car accident with a dude on a motorbike and my name was on the paperwork.
The adjuster would call me all the time, trying to psych me out about how injured the guy was, and how he had a kid, and, you know...try to get me to admit something or something like that.(Which I couldn't have even done, even if it wouldn't have been both stupid and self-demolishing...I wasn't there.) Anyway, Justin The Adjuster wasn't great at research or something, because his final gotcha was something like "Ms. JaNECKE, you don't understand...this poor man's *life's* been affected...he can barely hop."
I  wanted to tell him that would have been an upgrade for me, especially once I found out that I didn't have enough coverage to get the lift fixed(My policy on current van does...the more you know!) but I'm not sure I had the guts to say it in real life.I was a very different Crip in 2001.
If I did, I'm not sure he would have believed me, because , you know, aren't there *places* for people like that? And I made sense on the phone...surely that means I can get around, right?
Ironies aside, I feel good about this part of my work, but there were some problems. To wit:
-Restoration sounds like "registration" enough that I'm sure I said it wrong a number of times.
-Sometimes those electronic dialling programs aren't All That.
-it can be difficult to cut through 150 years of voting history in the 40 seconds the average busy American gives you before deciding if you are a pain in her ass or not. Especially if you are really trying to project and sound warm and all that, at the same time that you don't want to sound like you are selling them something.

In Which I Make A Successful Pitch...

and will be attempting to write a blog post about Vote By Mail, specifically my state's PEVL, which I love, for @RootedInRights call for posts about disability and voting...it will be due close to the end of the month, and I almost talked myself out of trying something for possibly the millionth time. I decided to follow the Olbermann-Starbucks Cup advice and not do the naysayers' job for them, which worked at least partially as advertised.

Can't really call this a revolution in thinking, exactly, though because one thing I've learned from freelance writing is that people tell you "No," a hell of a lot, and that there doesn't seem to be much rhyme and reason for why. but for today, it's Talent 1 Low Self Esteem Demons 0.

Bohemian Crip Endorses...

Not that I'm like Obama, but if any Arizona members of Disability Nation want to know what I'm thinking about races and stuff, feel free to read it here.
_Definitely all in for David Garcia for governor not only because of his background in education, his take on choice(trust women), but because he has never given an interview wanting to "phase out" Medicaid  and Ducey has. Also, I don't see David getting invited to the Koch Compound in Palm Springs. Would really hate to see some of the racist framing against him win again too.

-January Contreras looks like our state's  best shot at criminal-justice reform, which I am excited about, but mainly I find her a good choice because, unlike Brnovich, she would not be a party to lawsuits that would wreck #ACA and pre-existing condition protections.Very important topics to your Bohemian Crip.

- The Sinema thing is the biggest saga, emotionally. Because I've gone from unreserved fangirl to almost total detractor, but I don't think either one is very healthy. I've finally gotten over thinking I'm inferior for lacking her polish and bursting CV, and I really do wish the Iraq war protestor would show up for the party a bit more often...Still, I'd rather deal with her depressing bipartisan fetish, than someone with her  knives out for our benefits like McSally(whose repellent lies about Kyrsten's background make me feel better about Sinema.

Anita Malik all the way over Schewikert.

Still haven't totally decided on the mayor's race. Valenzuela may have more heart-string appeal for me, but Gallego may have a better grasp on what the job entails.  Thoughts, anyone?

a "miracle" at 45...

Between one thing and another, I never imagined I'd be this age...kind of at the same time that I thought that one lucky break could catapult me into Trend Piece America, with its fads and vague jobs in media. I'm not sure if anyone ever got to live that story(Helen Gurley Brown, maybe) but I didn't, because my birthday is also literally an accident anniversary--as the years mount, I think maybe it's weird that I've always been so anticipatory of it(although these reflections aren't really about the size of the number...29 was actually the hardest to cope with so far because whenever I gave the digit anywhere, NOBODY believed me and thought I was being Coy Lady Who Doesn't like to Give Her Age, which is, you know, the opposite of what I'm about, but also, not sure why this is a thing.  I think your favorite movie might give you away one day anyway.(Too much John Hughes and I don't want an instagram...don't think I could sell 29 now!)  But that actually happened with a cop when I was a witness to a fender bender that year...not like I tried to work up angst about it, but turning thirty was actually a huge relief and, thankfully, no longer funny to anyone.

Maybe 45 will be like that, too. I already am glad to be experiencing so much political and disability solidarity.  I know what "we" are going to do for the next year or so, but as "me", I feel a little lost. i might decide what to do with "Somebody",but I ran out of big plans when "When I graduate. I am SO GONE" didn't happen or when nobody(mostly...there were a few exceptions) printed my attempts to write like an able-bodied person to show that I had Range(TM) Some of them were cute--I've found printouts in my dresser...thanks, Mom, but I guess I can see now why Perry White's heart didn't stop for those confections of airy wordplay wrapped around decidedly softball interviews with the occasional speck of insight that I usually didn't follow up.I wish somebody could have said the right thing to push me past all that, instead of marvelling that I was anywhere at all.

I almost died when I was born...my parents, on those few occasions when they talk about it, called my survival a miracle, but I think that made me think that there would be a point to all this somewhere, maybe even that somebody would say"Wow, lucky thing we know that girl who had oxygen loss to her brain!" or that I would have the kind of disabled life that makes it seem like mobility is for suckers...SPOILER ALERT: Nothing like this happened.  Unfortunately.  And I've never been to England, but I've driven through Oklahoma.

I wrote an op-ed...

Which I hope will appear in "a slightly different form" in our local newspaper.

I’m a published writer, but lately the little I’ve been writing all contains the phrase”as a disabled person, I…”which is hardly a phrase that would gain me fame or fortune. Historically, we’ve had things decided for us without a place at the table.That’s why I must urge Jeff Flake, as my elected representative in the Senate,  to consider the brilliant testimony of disability advocate Liz Weintraub. A vote for Kavenaugh is a vote against my bodily autonomy and self-determination, whether overtly, such as deciding that someone else should make my healthcare decisions, or in more of a slow-motion manner by undermining mechanisms, such as Medicaid, that provide healthcare in the first place.

Judge Kavenaugh has shown that he does not care about the rights that so many people(including  myself in some small ways) have fought so hard for, to live and work in our communities and stay in our homes: to be full members of our families and full and equal citizens. More than lesser concerns about secrecy and the hidden elements of Kavenaugh’s life and record(such as the mysterious benefactor who paid back all he owed for buying baseball tickets…may student-loan borrowers be so fortunate one day), lack of respect for my personhood as a disabled American woman has thrust me into this fight.

I understand that the odds are long, that a lot of shadowy people with deep pockets are really hoping people like me tear our hair out for sixty days. I also understand that, as someone whose upcoming birthday is something of an accident anniversary, my whole life has  been based around facing and surpassing long odds, even if I’ve never “overcome” my impairment in the classic sense. Maybe we can defend our nation the way we defended ACA…it seems like life-and-death to me, a humble activist and ink-stained wretch…shouldn’t it to my Senator too?

quick update...

Sorry, all, that it's been so long since the Bohemian Crip checked in. I had to put on my activist hat for a while, though I'm not sure I ever fully take it off now, and a few of the books i've read thinking they would make awesome posts seem less than crucial reading for perilous times, although I may revisit them.
--If you haven't called your Senators to oppose Kavenaugh, please do.(202) 224-3121
- Fitting in my writing around other stuff...fictionalizing an old 'nemesis" at Washington Post.