It’s not just celebrities who need bodyguards
On the 10th of March, David Askew a man with learning difficulties collapsed and died after years of abuse from youths. Terrible news. The BBC followed this up with this piece on Broadcasting House which you can hear here (it starts 7 minutes in but be quick because the podcast will be withdrawn soon) foregrounding the experience of one disabled man living with harassment, home invasion and violence. He ended up sleeping rough. The Department of Health’s Co-Directors for Learning Disabilities describe such experiences as shocking but not unsurprising.
Tom Shakespeare, one of the leading thinkers and writers about disability, wrote a column in the Guardian where he describes his own struggles to recognise these acts for what they really are. Referring to others like Askew, vulnerable and disabled, exploited, humiliated, and finally killed, he describes these acts as a very British problem and not something to be dismissed as bullying. See it for what it is: disability hate crime.
While watching the Channel Four documentary ‘Sticks and Stones’ with my kids (watch it here) my 7 year old daughter observed: ‘if you have a disability, you should have someone living with you all the time’. Interesting idea this. Care and support aside, having a disability may mean that you need a bodyguard simply to live a life free of threat.
March 18th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
An interesting and very loving idea indeed. But this solution puts the responsibility on the individual to protect themselves. Rather than saying society needs to change its attitudes, and it is everyone’s responsibility to do this.
I’m reminded of the criticism some women get who are attacked in sparsely populated places. Such as a woman travelling home alone on a train who was raped. And the question was posed – ‘what was she doing there alone anyway?’ (i.e. ‘wasn’t she asking for trouble?’). We might equally ask – ‘what gave the man the belief he had the right to abuse another human being?’
But that would mean questioning the mindset of society, and accepting we all have a responsibility, rather than placing the burden of responsibility on the victim.
March 18th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
I agree. Just as disability is as much about the nature of society as individual capacity. My daughter’s comment put the bodyguard image in my mind which I found provoked thoughts on what a short term solution for this problem could mean in practical terms. It’s depressing too. After all, maybe we haven’t come that far and attitude change will take a long, long time.