Somehow You Exclude ("Somehow" Videos)

Music has always been a huge part of my life. Because of that, rarely seeing wheelchair user representation in music videos breaks my heart and makes me so frustrated and angry.

An example of this is “Somehow” by JESSIA.

This song doesn’t have a music video yet, but JESSIA has posted many different videos of friends and couples with the song on top to advertise it.

The thing is, none of these videos include a wheelchair user(s)…

It’s all friends and couples standing around, running, dancing, riding or driving in a car, sitting or lying on the beach.

I can’t believe this has to be said still, but someone being a wheelchiar user does not automatically mean they can’t do any of that stuff.

Also, we (wheelchair users) can - and DO - have friendships and romantic relationships. Whether it be with other physically disabled people or able-bodied or nondisabled people, we can have friends and hang out with them. We can be in happy, healthy, romantic relationships. We can even propose and/or be proposed to - AND get married! It’s an amazing wild concept, isn’t it? (Sarcasm)

It’s honestly quite possible to include wheelchair users (and show our chairs) without “ruining the aesthetic”.

We’re human beings and we exist in the world. Stop ignoring that fact.

(The cover or feature image of this article is the picture JESSIA has on this song on Spotify but with the words "Somehow you're still ableist" on the top that Azure added)