I Don't Love Exclusion ("Skin and Bones" MV)

Some time ago someone sent me the music video for “Skin and Bones” by Morgan St. Jean.

I absolutely adore the song, but the music video really upsets me.

“Skin and Bones” is about loving people for who they are in their soul and who they are as a person and not for their physical appearance.

As a pansexual nonbinary person, I personally love that concept.

However, as a wheelchair user, I don’t love there not being a single wheelchair user in the music video. Honestly, it really saddens me. To me, that says you don’t care about people’s physical appearance…unless they use a mobility aid.

The music video shows the majority of people all wearing white t-shirts and are all seemingly make-up free/”completely natural”.

The video also shows couples. Romantic, able-bodied couples, of course.

You love people equally and for who they are…as long as they’re not a wheelchair user? Physical appearance doesn’t matter as long as they’re not physically disabled and don’t use a mobility aid? What?? (Rhetorical question.)

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: wheelchair users can be in romantic relationships. Whether with another wheelchair user or with an able-bodied or nondisabled person, it’s a thing that happens. And it deserves to be seen. We [wheelchair users] deserve to have our love and happiness proudly shown and seen.

We’re human beings. That doesn’t automatically make a nondisabled or able-bodied person unworthy of being loved. The same goes for wheelchair users.

We can be jerks and/or amazing people - JUST LIKE NONDISABLED PEOPLE. That doesn’t make someone incapable of receiving or giving love.

If you can’t love someone simply because they have a disability or they’re disabled, that’s a you problem. You need to look inside and figure out why and work on that. Do not make it other people’s problem and exclude us based on your feelings.