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TryHarder™ Magazine: The Takeaway on What I Learned From John Hockenberry’s #MeToo Essay, “Exile on Crip Street”

/ Ingrid Tischer / 2 Comments
TryHarder™ Magazine: The Magazine for People Who Need to Try Harder, 2 cents

Issue No. 2: The Takeaway or Please, Take This Essay Away

In which The Crip shares 2¢ takeaways from John Hockenberry’s 7,000-word essay about the loss of a high-status career identity that was purchased and published by a pretty damn high-status periodical.

2 cents symbolTHE TAKEAWAY! Hockenberry says none of this is justification for offensive behavior toward women but it sure seems like he does:

“Being a misguided romantic, or being born at the wrong time, or taking the wrong cues from the sexual revolution of the Sixties, or having a disability that leaves one impotent at the age of nineteen—none of this is a justification for offensive behavior toward women. But is a life sentence of unemployment without possibility of furlough, the suffering of my children, and financial ruin an appropriate consequence? Does my being expunged from the profession in which I have worked for decades constitute a step on the road to true gender equality?”

2 cents symbolTHE TAKEAWAY!  Hockenberry thinks “unemployment” is the same thing as “not getting the same high-status work I once had and still want.”

Did You Know?

You may be working three jobs but those aren’t real jobs if they’re not prestigious. Take note of this, low-wage workers. #CripTips

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TryHarder™ Magazine: Ableism Speaks

/ Ingrid Tischer / 3 Comments
TryHarder™ Magazine: The Magazine for People Who Need to Try Harder, 2 cents

Issue No. 1: Ableism Speaks 

In which The Crip gives very special ableist remarks the 2¢ they deserve

“If you’ve got your health, you’ve got everything.” 

2 cents symbolSure, health is important but if you’ve always lived with a chronic condition and/or a progressively degenerative one like I have, hearing this most common of platitudes leads to a waxy bummer build-up in the psyche. It is no pleasure to ponder the possibility that you regard me as having…nothing.  Nor do I want to reprise my role on Emotional Labor: Special Cripple Unit where I tell myself you don’t actually mean anything bad by that. I would prefer instead that people express gratitude for what health they have (I know health is a nice thing!) without making such a sweeping generalization about what a good quality of life requires.

Did You Know?

A disability does not necessarily mean “sick.” Unless you mean, “sick of discrimination.” Then — oh yeah.  #CripTips

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