The Next Generation Who Needs to See Disability as Dimensional

I think we need more models that represent more than one thing.

We want people to be just one thing, but my “hashtags” have ‘The Two Fridas’ duality that I have often felt ashamed of.

“Beauty” and style must evolve beyond a singular token.

I say it in quotation marks because I do not consider myself the former willingly but that is not the point. The point is that: The world should consider more things beautiful that are more than one thing.

Please share this if you think that scars and robot parts and trauma can become strength, and SHOULD make its way into mainstream media and photography for more than one minute; Some representation check next to the dotted line.

(Hell, share and tag some brand or agency or director that you think will or should care because very few will and do. It won’t change anything but it sounds kinda renegade.)

Once, Frida couldn’t attend her own art gallery physically- bed rest and the year to which she lost her leg- but she demanded to have her bed taken INTO the gallery instead so she would not miss the meaning in her moment purely because her body could not meet her means.

My body cannot meet itself right now… but I am still myself inside. A fervent, fallible storyteller who needs to find new ways, right now, to be delivered to ‘the gallery’.

I am a profoundly Deaf woman who was set free by finding ASL later in life… though was raised within and loves a family that is hearing and English speaking. 2 things.

I am a human surviving Cystic Fibrosis, which has hit my digestive system and degenerative spine the most- missing organs and an abundance of add on artificial parts- but I also have been a working ballerina with many an audience none the wiser. 2 things.

I am possibly considered past my “peak”- if looking at the old model for how old someone could be to be relevant in modeling or artistry beyond - but my (very young) age of 38 is actually a tremendously spoiled privilege as it only recently was the average life expectancy for the illness. 2 things.

We are not just 1 thing, and neither are the next generations who need to see disability as dimensional…

A bed that’s in the room where feet could not tread.

The work here is reader-supported. To receive new words, videos and art, kindly considering supporting, even though I know that funds and free-time is precious and should never be taken for granted

Thank you for keeping words in the world! If you can’t give, get some for free every week by leaving your email at the link above, and kindly consider suggesting this space to a friend?