Category: Columns

Box-Ticking Exercise: Ellie Simmonds’ Inclusion on Strictly is Hard Fought

Post author By Melissa Parker
Post date 3 October 2022
1 Comment on Box-Ticking Exercise: Ellie Simmonds’ Inclusion on Strictly is Hard Fought

Box-Ticking Exercise is the new monthly(-ish) column by Melissa Parker in which she dissects ableism and the portrayal of disability in tv film and media. Being M, this is of course all done with her pen as a scalpel.

Columnist Allison Pearson’s piece about the new series of Strictly Come Dancing expresses an often loud, profoundly entrenched privilege – the right to spew bile mindlessly and without consequence.

“From mis-matched same-sex couples to the show’s first contestant with dwarfism, it’s clear producers value ‘inclusion’ over entertainment.”

She persists elsewhere in the piece, “but fans I have spoken to already worry our much-loved dance competition is turning into a box-ticking exercise.”

In a world where disabled people have been hidden away for so long, our equality will always feel like their oppression.

Tags ableism, ableism in media, ellie simmonds, rose ayling-ellis, strictly come dancing

all Columns opinion Pain Chronicles

Pain Chronicles: Ethical Fashion is Harder When You’re Disabled

Post author By Caroline McDonagh-Darwin
Post date 29 September 2022
1 Comment on Pain Chronicles: Ethical Fashion is Harder When You’re Disabled

Pain Chronicles is a monthly(-ish) column from Caroline McDonagh-Darwin about coming to terms with living with a chronic illness. It will include funny stories and brutal honesty, with some thrown-in chats with her mum Shaz, and other friends too, along the way.

Note – where possible, I’m including ethical comparisons of clothing brands from goodonyou.eco.

Last night I ate spag bol while wearing a white vest top, you can imagine what happened next. Only one of my £3, fast-fashion, I have about 4 of them, vest tops though.

As it spins now in the washing machine, I am not all that invested in if the stain remover will work because it’ll be relegated to a PJ top if necessary.

In recent years, I’ve moved away from fast fashion. I haven’t bought a vest top that costs less £8 for a long time, because I know that £3 is not adequately paying the person who stitched it. I obviously haven’t gotten rid of the fast fashion stuff with wear still in them, but I’m trying not to buy any more. Trying. Because my disabilities mean I run into issues.

Tags ethical fashion, fast fashion

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The State Of This: How Much is the New PM Going to Screw Disabled People?

Post author By Rachel Charlton-Dailey
Post date 3 September 2022
2 Comments on The State Of This: How Much is the New PM Going to Screw Disabled People?

We don’t know about you, but it feels like the world is slowly imploding and with all the chaos going on, it can be quite tricky to keep up with it all. And news affecting the disabled community seems to fall between the cracks. So we decided to do something about it. Rather than rage to each other in WhatsApp, we (Rachel, your Editor-in-Chief and Cath, your Deputy Editor) decided to do something about it.

And so this column was born; “The State of This”, because well, have you seen the state of it all?

Tags ableism, austerity, fuck the tories

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Editors Notes: It’s Hard to get out of “Work Mode” When it’s Your Life – but I’m Trying

Post author By Rachel Charlton-Dailey
Post date 16 June 2022
2 Comments on Editors Notes: It’s Hard to get out of “Work Mode” When it’s Your Life – but I’m Trying

I’m very lucky that I get to make a living out of something I’m passionate about. However, the fact that my job is so connected to such an important part of my life, is often a detriment to me.

I always wanted to be able to give my community a voice and be able to shout about the issues disabled people face on big platforms, but in doing so, I use a lot of emotional and mental energy. It’s almost impossible to stop focusing on the things that I do for work.

We’re always told to have a healthy work-life balance but this isn’t always the case when your work is about your community and directly about the issues you face.

Tags burnout, Mental health

all Columns Disabled and Sexual

Disabled and Sexual: We Don’t Want Ableists at our Sex Parties

Post author By Hannah Shewan Stevens
Post date 12 April 2022
1 Comment on Disabled and Sexual: We Don’t Want Ableists at our Sex Parties

Disabled and Sexual is a column by Hannah Shewan Stevens which explores all the challenges, comedy, and fun that disabled people experience as sexual beings, even while we are desexualised by a predominantly non-disabled society.

The desexualisation of disabled people is a tale as old as time. In my first column for The Unwritten, I outlined the historic battle disabled people have fought against rampant desexualisation. Sadly, the presumption that none of us are interested, or capable, of sex endures largely unchallenged and is now openly supported by fellow disabled people. The latest a Twitter user claiming to speak a thought preying on everyone’s mind,

Why would anyone bring a wheelchair user to a sex party?

To state the obvious: disabled people are sexual beings. A physical, mental, developmental, or intellectual disability does not spell the end of sexual pleasure, romance, or partnered sex.

If you’re one of the people who readily agreed with this hellishly rambling Twitter thread, then it’s time to broaden your horizons.

Tags ableism, internalised ableism, relationships, sex

all Columns Pain Chronicles

Pain Chronicles: Two Generations of Fibromyalgia

Post author By Caroline McDonagh-Darwin
Post date 16 March 2022
1 Comment on Pain Chronicles: Two Generations of Fibromyalgia

Not long after I graduated from university, I was at my GP looking for an answer for what was causing my pain. It had started five years or so earlier, just in my knees at the time, but it had become increasingly more widespread.

The young GP looked at my history, asked me some questions, and ordered some blood tests, just to be certain. Then he asked me a very simple question: “What do you know about fibromyalgia?”

Tags diagnosis, fibromyalgia, generations

all Columns Disabled and Sexual

Disabled and Sexual: Allowing Myself to be Vulnerable in Dating

Post author By Hannah Shewan Stevens
Post date 27 February 2022
1 Comment on Disabled and Sexual: Allowing Myself to be Vulnerable in Dating

Disabled and Sexual is a column by Hannah Shewan Stevens which will explore all the challenges, comedy, and fun that disabled people experience as sexual beings, even while we are desexualised by a predominantly non-disabled society.

I am in pain, like always. Except, now, I am lying in the dark beside someone that I barely know, wondering whether they are capable of handling the knowledge that every nerve in my body is screaming in agony.

I can hear the subtle tug of breath that says they are seconds away from falling into a deep sleep. Part of me is thankful because I can mask symptoms far easier next to a sleeping partner, instead of a fellow insomniac. Another part feels the loneliness and frustration knocking at the door, informing me that they will be accompanying the pain until dawn breaks.

Tags ableism, dating, internalised ableism

all Columns Pain Chronicles

Pain Chronicles: What a Massive Pain

Post author By Caroline McDonagh-Darwin
Post date 8 January 2022
2 Comments on Pain Chronicles: What a Massive Pain

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you may be aware that I broke my ankle in November. I think I may have mentioned it once or twice. With a bit of luck, by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be pretty much back to “normal”.

I know I’m on my way back to “normal” because my regular pain is starting to come back to me. My usual fibromyalgia problem areas are my shoulders, my lower back and hips, as well as overall fatigue. Of course, other parts of my body tend to get worried they’re missing out and jump in on the action, so you never really can tell what’ll hurt, but they’re the primary problem areas. The other night, my lower back hurt more in bed than my foot did.

Tags broken bones, Co-morbidity, fibromyalgia, pain

all Columns Pain Chronicles

Pain Chronicles: I Discovered I had Vaginismus Because of my First Cervical Smear

Post author By Caroline McDonagh-Darwin
Post date 1 November 2021
1 Comment on Pain Chronicles: I Discovered I had Vaginismus Because of my First Cervical Smear

TW: blood, medical insensitivity, medical procedure (cervical smear). Resources are available at the bottom of this column.

I still have the knickers I wore to my first attempt at a smear test, it’s been 4 years now, and the blood hasn’t ever come out. Despite the guidance saying my risk was low on account of my HPV vaccine and my never having had sex, I still wanted that peace of mind.

Tags cervical smear, vaginismus

all Columns Disabled and Sexual Essays opinion

Disabled and Sexual: The Met Police Guidance on Women’s Safety is Useless to Disabled Women

Post author By Hannah Shewan Stevens
Post date 19 October 2021
1 Comment on Disabled and Sexual: The Met Police Guidance on Women’s Safety is Useless to Disabled Women

TW: This article discusses sexual violence, domestic abuse and abuse towards women and femmes, in particular disabled women and femmes. It also mentions police misconduct as well as the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa. Please practice self-care.

Disabled and Sexual is a monthly(-ish) column by Hannah Shewan Stevens which will explore all the challenges, comedy, and fun that disabled people experience as sexual beings, even while we are desexualised by a predominantly non-disabled society.

This month, the Metropolitan police’s misguided advice on women’s safety, reminded every woman and femme of the inescapable knowledge we live with daily: none of us are safe.

The Met advised anyone concerned about being approached by a lone male police officer to ring 999, “shout out to a passerby, run into a house or wave a bus down” for help. It also suggested quizzing the officer on their reasons for the stop.

In the wake of the trial of Sarah Everard’s killer and the murder of Sabina Nessa, the police’s PR face has been an undeniable mess but for disabled folks, the latest advice felt particularly ignorant and exclusionary.

A blind person cannot easily flag down a bus for help, a wheelchair user may not be able to run for their life and a non-verbal person is incapable of quizzing a police officer.

Tags ableism, sexual assault