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continuity (nothing ever changes)

23/04/02 @ 11:48 p.m.

A few weeks ago BBC One changed its continuity announcements. Dumping the shots of its globe-like hot air balloon floating across famous landmarks, it decided instead to use images that represent the multi-cultural Britain the boardroom mongs seem to think we live in. I guess I’ve been a little off my game, because it’s only now that I’ve decided to be pissed off by them.
The one that got me was the three wheelchair users, two white, one black, (none openly gay, this is the BBC after all) using their chairs to dance to music. While the think-tank that came up with it must be proud of itself for its liberal genius, anyone who’s familiar with common sense will want to join me in the kicking of arse because this is really the only time you’ll see disabled people on prime time TV.
They’re represented in medical dramas, where they’re cast as patients, but otherwise you’re not likely to spot one. Your only real chance to see a disabled TV presenter is in a minority show about disabled people, where they discuss fascinating issues such as wheelchair access in shopping centres. After all, that kind of thing is all they worry about. Disabled people are practically obsessed with their disabilities. I know when I used a chair, I lost all interest in music, film, and whatever else I’d liked in The Before Time.
What you have to remember is that disabled people are less normal. They’re stupid, and probably crap in bed. That’s why you’ll never see a guy in a wheelchair as the lead in a romantic comedy. You’ll never see someone in a wheelchair reading the news, even though all you need to do is sit behind a desk and read. Sitting is actually a disabled person’s forte - some of them do it their whole lives - but they haven’t got the intelligence necessary to convince us they really know enough about the news to present it to us. Except news about wheelchair ramps, obviously. But that kind of thing is a minority interest that should probably get its own show in a crappy timeslot...
Inadvertently, certainly not in the way they’d imagined, the BBC’s new continuity sequences represent multi-cultural Britain perfectly; they remind disabled people that the best they can expect is tokenism, that they exist only as an object towards which normal people can direct their sympathy before moving on to more pressing issues such as who’s fucked who in tonight’s episode of Eastenders.

b o o k m a r k s-----r u d i e s-----u p d a t e s-----m y--i l l n e s s -----m o v i e--r e v i e w s

Content and layout © Yawner, 2001. Hosted by Diaryland. Best viewed with IE5, probably pants with Netscape.


o l d-----n e w-----l a s t-----n e x t-----m e-----y o u-----m a i l-----n o t e s-----r i n g s-----







continuity (nothing ever changes)
23/04/02 @ 11:48 p.m.
A few weeks ago BBC One changed its continuity announcements. Dumping the shots of its globe-like hot air balloon floating across famous landmarks, it decided instead to use images that represent the multi-cultural Britain the boardroom mongs seem to think we live in. I guess I’ve been a little off my game, because it’s only now that I’ve decided to be pissed off by them. The one that got me was the three wheelchair users, two white, one black, (none openly gay, this is the BBC after all) using their chairs to dance to music. While the think-tank that came up with it must be proud of itself for its liberal genius, anyone who’s familiar with common sense will want to join me in the kicking of arse because this is really the only time you’ll see disabled people on prime time TV. They’re represented in medical dramas, where they’re cast as patients, but otherwise you’re not likely to spot one. Your only real chance to see a disabled TV presenter is in a minority show about disabled people, where they discuss fascinating issues such as wheelchair access in shopping centres. After all, that kind of thing is all they worry about. Disabled people are practically obsessed with their disabilities. I know when I used a chair, I lost all interest in music, film, and whatever else I’d liked in The Before Time. What you have to remember is that disabled people are less normal. They’re stupid, and probably crap in bed. That’s why you’ll never see a guy in a wheelchair as the lead in a romantic comedy. You’ll never see someone in a wheelchair reading the news, even though all you need to do is sit behind a desk and read. Sitting is actually a disabled person’s forte - some of them do it their whole lives - but they haven’t got the intelligence necessary to convince us they really know enough about the news to present it to us. Except news about wheelchair ramps, obviously. But that kind of thing is a minority interest that should probably get its own show in a crappy timeslot... Inadvertently, certainly not in the way they’d imagined, the BBC’s new continuity sequences represent multi-cultural Britain perfectly; they remind disabled people that the best they can expect is tokenism, that they exist only as an object towards which normal people can direct their sympathy before moving on to more pressing issues such as who’s fucked who in tonight’s episode of Eastenders.
	b o o k m a r k s-----r u d i e s-----u p d a t e s-----m y--i l l n e s s -----m o v i e--r e v i e w s







	Content and layout © Yawner, 2001. Hosted by Diaryland. Best viewed with IE5, probably pants with Netscape.