Tiktok Comments Talk

CW: dehumanizing comments, mention of being called a nasty name, mention of being told to die

About a month ago I posted a Tiktok. And people are pissed.

I duetted a video of a blooper from the show "Superstore" where Colton Dunn stands up from his wheelchair and walks away. And I said nondisabled people should not play disabled people. Since then, I have gotten a lot of nasty comments.

I've gotten everything from "it's just acting it's not that deep chill out" to being told to die. I've gotten people making excuses saying "maybe there weren't any good disabled actors that auditioned", I've been called a cunt a time or two, and my favorite (I say with the utmost sarcasm), people have compared what I'm saying to corpses, serial killers, etc (sarcastically) saying they should only be played by real corpses and serial killers.

There's a lot of dehumanization in those comments and it doesn't feel great to hear/read them, but, at the same time, it proves to me how much work is still to be done. How little disabled people are listened to.

All of this to say, a quote I like is "More rights for someone else does not equal less rights for you, it's not pie" and I think that sums up this situation perfectly. Some people are upset disabled people want more authentic representation and equal rights.

(I did learn some things from some comments though. I learned, when talking about specifically wheelchair users vs. able-bodied people, I should word it as such instead of saying disabled and nondisabled. I acknowledge that and am doing better going forward.)