Tim McCallum on The Voice Australia. Have a think about why you think someone with a disability inspirational.

When Jessie J cried upon hearing 34 year old Tim McCallum's performance of Nessun Dorma on The Voice last Tuesday night, I immediately thought of Stella Young's stance on inspiration porn. You know, disabled people applauded for doing ordinary things. Like banking or working.

Tim is a brilliant singer, who just happens to be in a wheelchair. That's his backstory. Like X-Factor winner Dami Im was born in South Korea and came to Australia when she was nine. Like Shannon Noll worked on the family farm prior to coming second to Guy Sebastian on Australian Idol. And like Karise Eden was a foster child. Those are the facts of their lives. Every successful reality TV star has a back story. That's the dramatic effect the producers employ. Contestants rising above adversity tug at the heart strings.

One thing I like about talent shows like The Voice and Masterchef is the diversity they showcase. Contestants are from different countries and religions, have various disabilities and sexual orientations, which represents the richness of our community more than fictional TV.

Tim was paralysed from the neck down after a surfing accident when he was 19. He only has use of his arms.

Tim told The Voice coaches "My level of injury is quite high and I don’t have the use of my stomach and diaphragm ... I invented different ways to hit the notes.” Singing is hard work for him. Ricky Martin called him a "miracle", which might make disability activists uncomfortable, but it IS really amazing that he's trained himself to sing using different parts of his body. That's his reasonable adjustment.

The late Stella Young did great work speaking up about inspiration porn. She wrote "[Inspiration porn is] there so that non-disabled people can put their worries into perspective. So they can go, "Oh well if that kid who doesn't have any legs can smile while he's having an awesome time, I should never, EVER feel bad about my life". It's there so that non-disabled people can look at us and think "well, it could be worse... I could be that person".

Stella continued: "My everyday life in which I do exactly the same things as everyone else should not inspire people, and yet I am constantly congratulated by strangers for simply existing.

It's a regular occurrence for people without disabilities to be wowed by every day actions of those with disabilities. And parents of children with disabilities are treated as superheroes for well, just being parents.

Have a think about why you think someone with a disability inspirational.

Is it because their situation makes you feel better about yours? Or are they actually doing something really amazing?

Tim McCallum is not just doing something ordinary. This guy isn't just buttering his toast or doing the groceries while in a wheelchair. He's singing opera live on national prime time TV. Being judged by international singers and social media audiences.

And I think we need to give him credit for his achievements. Making The Voice is a big deal for anyone. He's been a singer for years - and this program might just give him the break he needs.

Sarah Barton, founding series producer of No Limits - the community TV program that launched Tim's media career (and where he shared the desk with Stella Young) believes it is great we are seeing positive stories about disability in the media. "Anything that puts a disabled person in the spotlight alongside everybody else, achieving something is fantastic", she says. Sarah has known Tim for many years and says his aspiration has always been to sing.

Tim's not calling himself inspirational, telling The Today Show "I try to blow that myth out of the water that you can actually sing while you're sitting down."

We do need to question why Jessie J was moved to tears, and why audiences found Tim inspirational. Was it because Tim has a disability, or because he's got amazing talent? Perhaps it's also because the show's judges, producers and audience haven't been exposed to disability? And are they reacting the same emotional way to contestants without disabilities?

The ongoing problem with the portrayal of people with disabilities is they're only ever tragic or heroic, never just living an ordinary life. I think Tim just wants to sing - and working hard at his talent - and his talent is a part of his ordinary life. I don't think Tim wants to be a superhero in a wheelchair. I think he wants (and deserves) a record deal and a season at the Opera House.

This was originally published on Mamamia. 

Disability featured on My Kitchen Rules

The new season of My Kitchen Rules sees a contestant with a disability compete. Queensland sisters Sheri and Emilie will cook up a storm in season four of My Kitchen Rules - plating up for judges Pete Evans and Manu Feildel and their fellow contestants. 

(source)

Emilie has been deaf since birth. She says she has no hearing in her left ear and wears a hearing aid in her right. She’s open about her deafness, joking that people talk to her as though she can’t hear at all, dumbing down their language and tone of voice.

Seeing the funny side of her disability seems like a leveller for the pair. Sheri jokes that Emilie will think she’s whispering but she’ll really be yelling about how bad the food tastes!

(source)

Sheri and Emilie are fun, vibrant and beautiful women, and I will be cheering them on!

There has been a number of Australian reality TV contestants with disabilities on our screens over the years - John Hughes from season three of MasterChef has cerebral palsy, Gemma from season 11 of Big Brother has Marfan Syndrome (a condition that causes her to be very tall), Rachel Leahcar from season one of The Voice is blind, and Katrina from The Block in 2011 has Crohn’s disease (a condition affecting her bowel).

It’s so important that people with disabilities are included in the mainstream media - especially as reality TV contestants. Inclusion in media normalises people with disability. It takes them to viewers’ screens and allows viewers to see a full, fun and voluntarily challenging life lived, with varying interests and skills.

It breaks down the stigma of disability - allowing viewers to get to know the person, and perhaps making viewers reconsider judging others with disabilities.

One in five Australians have a disability. We need this to be represented on our TV.

Craig Wallace, president of People with Disability Australia says Australian TV lags behind with including disability on TV. "People with a visible disability are often invisible on Prime time tellie in Australia. This is in contrast to the US and UK where we have seen major characters with disability break out in shows like Breaking Bad or Eastenders as well as reality TV”, Craig says.

"Reality TV has really become a staple of Australian prime time TV so its great that Sheri and Emilie will be part of My Kitchen Rules this year.

"I love how the promotion so far has been around them cooking up a storm rather than just about Emilie being deaf. I'm looking forward to seeing them wow the judges”, Craig says.

My Kitchen Rules starts on Channel 7 on 2 February.

I originally wrote this post for Beamly, it's been republished here with permission from the editor. 

Is being a blogger like being Lara Bingle?

Some groundbreaking programming came to Channel 10 Tuesday night. I say groundbreaking with tongue firmly in cheek. The premiere of Being Lara Bingle. For those of you reading outside of Australia, Lara Bingle is a 20 something model, beautiful, a bit - errr - naive -and most famous for her relationship with Australian cricketer Michael Clarke. She gets photographed a lot, and seems to get caught out in the nude a lot. She is famous for being famous.

The show is a fly on the wall look at Lara and how she and her (now former) manager slash bestie Hermione are working on "Brand Bingle" ... to improve public perception of her I think.

The show didn't win me over. Truthfully I found it boring.

I commented "God this Lara Bingle show doesn't take much brain power to watch. It's all sideboob and teeth whitener." 

  

That was my impression of it. I thought about how scripted it was. Oh and that perhaps Lara flirts with fame - wanting the attention and then hating it when it gets too much - The Age writes about the contradiction Lara seems to have with privacy here.

There were equal numbers of fans hating on her and cheering her on through Twitter. While I believe she is ballsy putting herself on show on Being Lara Bingle, especially with the onslaught of criticism she is going to receive, I don't see her as courageous. Courageous is fighting for a cause or overcoming an illness or adversity. Let's face it - she's a privileged woman being paid to make this TV show and wear beautiful clothes.I found this an interesting angle taken by Molks TV talk:

 "The biggest difficulty surrounding comment of the entire show (and there is plenty, and most of it is unprintable – check the #BeingLaraBingle Twitter stream while you if you should choose to) is that criticism of the show is being misinterpreted as criticism of Lara herself – which is near impossible to separate as it’s not called “Being A Model In Modern Sydney” or “Being A Stupid Head Featuring A Bunch Of Different People Making Bad Decisions”. By having her name in the title and the focus of the show on her in a distinct reality genre means the ‘Lara the character in BLB’ and ‘Lara the actual person’ are going to be judged as one and the same, and from what is portrayed on the screen it’s not going to be flattering." 

As I watched the show - and decided that this would be the first and last time I do - I got thinking about how Lara's choice to be a reality TV star, and occupation as a model and dare I say it - socialite - is a lot like being a blogger. I thought about it in the context of my thesis studies. This is where I see the similarities, in the context of such a reality TV show.  

Note: when I write our and us when referring to bloggers, I mean me too. I'm ok to cop this observation of mine. I also think the blogs I read and enjoy are poles apart from the content of Lara's show. And I also think, on reflection as a blogger, some of the activities I am about to list are done subconsciously and without intention. It was only when the theories were put in front of me and I came to analyse them and my blog, and my behaviour as a blogger for my thesis, that I had the ah-ha moment. I do see this behaviour in varying degrees across the blogosphere.

Lara and bloggers use the media (reality TV and blogs) to define ourselves and persuade others to feel something about us. Cadle (in Bell, 2007) states:

"A blogger consciously uses visual rhetoric to persuade others and to define self."

On reflecting on why I blog, I considered that I want people to like me through my blog. I want to win others over. Other bloggers may want to persuade their audience to dislike them through writing controversial content and being mean spirited. My blog has also most certainly defined my sense of self - my whole thesis was on the way my blog has helped shape my identit. It has also helped define my self worth and purpose of raising awareness about Ichthyosis and the challenges of living with a visibly different appearance. Lara has used this show to persuade others she is not like the media portrays her. I heard alarm speak on Nova saying her show was a way of telling her story on her own terms (presumably with some savvy editing). Hell, I wrote a whole blog post about how good it is to have a blog to tell my story about my illness on my own terms. I get your aim, Lara.  

There is editing to project the best, and worst of our lives to draw sympathy, empathy and support from our audience.

In Online Diaries: Reflection on trust, privacy and exhibtion(2008), Paul De Laat writes:

"There is a need to get to know others, to develop a community of sympathisers. Otherwise there would be no point in publishing one's diary in the open."

As mentioned above, Being Lara Bingle's aim (from Lara's perspective) is to garner some public awareness and sympathy for her life. I am not entirely sure about why the public needs to be made aware of Lara's life when there are so many bigger issues to be made aware of, but that's profit for you. I also think that from the criticism she and the show is receiving, and the blatant contradiction of this reality TV show and then complaining she has no privacy. As someone told me, if I don't like the show, switch it off. If she doesn't like the attention she's receiving, switch those cameras - that she has agreed to be filmed by - off. I digress. Bloggers also blog for sympathy. I'm not writing this is a negative way. When I blog I want my audience to feel something. When I have moved them and made them think, I know I've done a good job. I don't necessarily want them to feel pity for me, but I do find comfort in knowing that I have support from my audience when things are difficult, and also praise from them when things are going well. I like that - I am very grateful for it. And I am sure other bloggers are too. Blogging creates a support network. And as we have seen on reality TV, even in Lara's case, viewers develop a liking of certain characters or contestants.  

Lara and bloggers put our lives on show and invite an audience in. We put out our most intimate thoughts (in Lara's case, the media takes pretty imprimatur pictures of her - consented and non consented).

Paul De Laat focuses on a concept called “extimacy” -  that bloggers “entrust the intimacies of their daily lives to the world”. As De Laat writes, bloggers have a one-to-many relationship with their readers, rather than a one-on-one relationship. Through writing a blog, the blogger invites readers into their lives – a concept known as “empowered exhibitionism”. This means the world is often privy to a blogger's most personal thoughts.

Bloggers can choose how much we want to share. Extimacy is a choice, and knowing that I am mostly in control of how my story is told is empowering. Sometimes we overshare. In a celebrity's case, it's harder to control how much of the self is shared with the world. Sharing ourselves with the world can give the expectation of being easily accessible by an audience too. For me it is a privilege to have people read my blog and contact me to give me praise or share their stories. Some of the things my readers have shared with me have been amazing. But I'll be honest in saying that sometimes the accessibility can get too much. 

Lara and bloggers open ourselves up for comment and criticism. 

Criticism is often not fair and unwarranted. It can be harsh. It can be downright mean. It is damaging, as I wrote last week. However, by putting ourselves out there means that everyone's going to have an opinion and their points of view may differ to ours. While we shouldn't expect or tolerate criticism, it's bound to happen, especially from those with a high profile.  

Lara and bloggers are self promoters.

The very essence of blogging and reality TV is self promotion. As a blogger, I promote myself in my blog content, and promote myself on social media by sharing my posts and engaging with others. It's done quite knowingly. I don't think there's anything wrong with self promotion but I also think that most bloggers have much more intelligent, purposeful and noteworthy content to offer than this type of TV show.

While Lara really isn't my thing, the love and defence I saw that some people on Twitter had for her reminded me of this quote (I used it in my thesis):

Cadle (2005 in Bell 2007, p 103) states “the beauty of a personal weblog is that it can act as a repository for the shifting conceptions of self so necessary for growth...it can also through its concentration on introspection, reflection and support from other young women through the comments feature, create the sort of 'women helping women' environment...” .

PerhapsBeing Lara Bingle will act like a blog does for bloggers. Maybe she will reflect and mature upon watching her show back, and maybe that 'women helping women' thing that's happening in her favour will help her grow too.

I am not saying reality TV is bad. Not everything has to be intellectually stimulating or purposeful. But it's just not an interest of mine. I know it has its place in the world. And I truly thank Lara Bingle for making me think about extimacy so much, and apply it to an actual situation.