Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 8:58 pm Posts: 1148 Location: Green Bay
I found this amusing and thought I'd share it because it has nothing to do with either Terri Schiavo or the Pope...and I think we could use a bit of that around here right about now. Enjoy.
Ms. Wheelchair stands up, loses crown Wisconsin pageant winner found to be 'not disabled enough' The Associated Press
APPLETON, Wis. - Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin has been stripped of her title because pageant officials say she can stand — and point to a newspaper picture as proof.
Janeal Lee, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a scooter, was snapped by The Post-Crescent newspaper standing among her high school math students. The photo was not an expose.
“I’ve been made to feel as if I can’t represent the disabled citizens of Wisconsin because I’m not disabled enough,” Lee said Thursday.
Lee, 30, of Appleton, had planned to go to the national pageant with her younger sister, who also has muscular dystrophy and won the competition in Minnesota.
Students at Kaukauna High School, where Lee teaches, raised $1,000 for her trip to the national pageant.
The move by the state pageant officials, led by coordinator Gina Hackel, is supported by the national board.
Candidates for the crown have to “mostly be seen in the public using their wheelchairs or scooters,” said Judy Hoit, Ms. Wheelchair America’s treasurer. “Otherwise you’ve got women who are in their wheelchairs all the time and they get offended if they see someone standing up. We can’t have title holders out there walking when they’re seen in the public.”
Hackel said Lee should have been aware of the rules.
The crown now goes to first runner-up Michelle Kearney of Milwaukee, who will travel to New York in July for the national pageant.
_________________ When the last living thing Has died on account of us, How poetical it would be If Earth could say, In a voice floating up Perhaps From the floor Of the Grand Canyon, "It is done. People did not like it here.''
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
What did the rules say in advanced? I used to play wheelchair basketball and the guys/girls there were all in different states of disability. Some didn't leave their chairs, some could walk with crutches, surely this pageant had clear rules in advanced!
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 8:58 pm Posts: 1148 Location: Green Bay
just_b wrote:
What did the rules say in advanced? I used to play wheelchair basketball and the guys/girls there were all in different states of disability. Some didn't leave their chairs, some could walk with crutches, surely this pageant had clear rules in advanced!
I have no clue what kind of rules there are for this pageant, since I had no clue there even was such a thing. But this quote from the treasurer makes it seem like the rules are pretty vague.
Quote:
Candidates for the crown have to “mostly be seen in the public using their wheelchairs or scooters,” said Judy Hoit, Ms. Wheelchair America’s treasurer. “Otherwise you’ve got women who are in their wheelchairs all the time and they get offended if they see someone standing up. We can’t have title holders out there walking when they’re seen in the public.”
For what it's worth, it does sound kinda fishy. Their only reason for revoking her crown is that she was seen standing in a photograph. It's not like she was out for a jog or something like that.
_________________ When the last living thing Has died on account of us, How poetical it would be If Earth could say, In a voice floating up Perhaps From the floor Of the Grand Canyon, "It is done. People did not like it here.''
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
CommonWord wrote:
I still can't believe there's a fucking competition to see who's more invalid.
Yeah, that's the contest, dick.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
I don’t think they should discriminate against people that can walk. Imagine if they disqualified someone from the real Ms American pageant b/c she couldn't walk.
I'm annoyed that they are defining "disabled" only as a person who cannot walk/stand.
There are tons of disabled people who can walk e.g. a blind or deaf woman would not be able to enter this competition because their disability does not qualify?
How bizarre is that?
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
I'm annoyed that they are defining "disabled" only as a person who cannot walk/stand.
There are tons of disabled people who can walk e.g. a blind or deaf woman would not be able to enter this competition because their disability does not qualify?
How bizarre is that?
Don't be silly. It's the Ms. Wheelchair pageant not the Ms. Disabled pageant.
I'm annoyed that they are defining "disabled" only as a person who cannot walk/stand.
There are tons of disabled people who can walk e.g. a blind or deaf woman would not be able to enter this competition because their disability does not qualify?
How bizarre is that?
Don't be silly. It's the Ms. Wheelchair pageant not the Ms. Disabled pageant.
I just don't quite get why people in wheelchairs would get their own pageant, especially if the goal of the pageant is to spread the idea of beauty amongst the disabled.
It is just personally vexing...I work with disabled people and this seems weirdly exclusionary. I don't know what to make of it at all in fact.
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
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