la_vie_noire (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_vie_noire) wrote2010-06-05 05:35 pm
la_vie_noire) wrote2010-06-05 05:35 pm
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There is an anti-smoking campaign at my faculty, the people who organize this work at the Ministerio de Salud.
The thing is this:
In one hand, these anti-smoking campaigns are plain ableist. They devalue, objectify and exploit disabled bodies. The posters I have seen on campus are sensationalist images about gorgeous models hiding or sporting some kind of "ugly cancer." The talk this Doctor gave was mostly about showing "awful" images of people with cancer, appealing to "No one wants to end like that." One teacher said that showing these images was the best form of "conscientization" because "even if they are ugly, it's the only way to make people pay attention." And of course they are effective: we live in a very ableist society, very focused on physical appearance. The same teacher said, "if you don't care about your health, at least do it [don't smoke] for vanity!". Campaigns like these contribute to the dehumanization and devaluation that disabled people live every day, most of these messages read as "you don't want to end crippled, sick, dying and ugly like these people." And of course, disabled people's identities don't even matter for these campaigns, let alone disabled people who never smoked in their lives.
In the other hand, this is a very poor third world country and a lot of laws regarding free-smoke spaces, advertisement and warnings just aren't carried out (or obeyed) because big tobacco companies put a lot of money in authorities (and smoking is a big industry here). As it was said in the talk, a lot people don't know that these laws exists, and don't get education or information about their healths. Again, this is a country where people are poor, and a lot of working able-bodied people can't afford losing their jobs due to health problems that smoking gives them. Disabled people or people with health problems (like asthma) sometimes don't even get the chance to chose if they don't want to be exposed to smoke. Most people, able or disabled, have a hard time paying for expensive medication. Also, this campaign here is, economically, a very poor one and probably the most important being carried at the moment. I don't want say they don't have merit, who am I to talk? The woman who gave the talk is the one leading the project, she is a doctor who works in the public sphere and worked a lot to make some laws pass, while fighting the big Tobacco Companies.
But the anti-smoke information has been running at my faculty (Chemistry faculty), and still just helped to stigmatize people who smoke and can't afford quitting. The man who works in the photocopy service is an avid smoker, he also had had health troubles due to smoking; but the anti-smoke campaign here just contributed to make him feel self-conscious. He works 07:00 am to 09:00 pm Monday to Friday and sometimes Saturdays, can't afford an effective quitting method because, of course, doesn't have the money or the time. Conversely, the students and teachers who smoke don't feel a lot of pressure because they are in a more privileged position.
So these things show and underlying problem: being disabled in a poor country. A lot of disabled people can't work and won't get work and thus are living in extreme poverty, not only they can't be informed and chose about their health; they are devalued, discriminated and dehumanized by people who are supposedly there to help them.
The thing is this:
In one hand, these anti-smoking campaigns are plain ableist. They devalue, objectify and exploit disabled bodies. The posters I have seen on campus are sensationalist images about gorgeous models hiding or sporting some kind of "ugly cancer." The talk this Doctor gave was mostly about showing "awful" images of people with cancer, appealing to "No one wants to end like that." One teacher said that showing these images was the best form of "conscientization" because "even if they are ugly, it's the only way to make people pay attention." And of course they are effective: we live in a very ableist society, very focused on physical appearance. The same teacher said, "if you don't care about your health, at least do it [don't smoke] for vanity!". Campaigns like these contribute to the dehumanization and devaluation that disabled people live every day, most of these messages read as "you don't want to end crippled, sick, dying and ugly like these people." And of course, disabled people's identities don't even matter for these campaigns, let alone disabled people who never smoked in their lives.
In the other hand, this is a very poor third world country and a lot of laws regarding free-smoke spaces, advertisement and warnings just aren't carried out (or obeyed) because big tobacco companies put a lot of money in authorities (and smoking is a big industry here). As it was said in the talk, a lot people don't know that these laws exists, and don't get education or information about their healths. Again, this is a country where people are poor, and a lot of working able-bodied people can't afford losing their jobs due to health problems that smoking gives them. Disabled people or people with health problems (like asthma) sometimes don't even get the chance to chose if they don't want to be exposed to smoke. Most people, able or disabled, have a hard time paying for expensive medication. Also, this campaign here is, economically, a very poor one and probably the most important being carried at the moment. I don't want say they don't have merit, who am I to talk? The woman who gave the talk is the one leading the project, she is a doctor who works in the public sphere and worked a lot to make some laws pass, while fighting the big Tobacco Companies.
But the anti-smoke information has been running at my faculty (Chemistry faculty), and still just helped to stigmatize people who smoke and can't afford quitting. The man who works in the photocopy service is an avid smoker, he also had had health troubles due to smoking; but the anti-smoke campaign here just contributed to make him feel self-conscious. He works 07:00 am to 09:00 pm Monday to Friday and sometimes Saturdays, can't afford an effective quitting method because, of course, doesn't have the money or the time. Conversely, the students and teachers who smoke don't feel a lot of pressure because they are in a more privileged position.
So these things show and underlying problem: being disabled in a poor country. A lot of disabled people can't work and won't get work and thus are living in extreme poverty, not only they can't be informed and chose about their health; they are devalued, discriminated and dehumanized by people who are supposedly there to help them.
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In the other hand, this is a very poor third world country and a lot of laws regarding free-smoke spaces, advertisement and warnings just aren't carried out (or obeyed) because big tobacco companies put a lot of money in authorities (and smoking is a big industry here).
This, so much. And:
So these things show and underlying problem: being disabled in a poor country.
THIS!
It's very draining talking about disability issues in the Philippines because inevitably someone in the US will enter the conversation and say "yeah, we have that too" -- but I think while some fundamental issues are the same, some are very different. Definitely, your last sentence summed it up so well. It's impossible to separate the issues that affect being disabled in a poor country, because the support system is very weak (if it's there at all) and a lot of medication is inaccessible for many people, not to mention the opportunity to get work is absent in many cases. (Some disabled people become street beggars and use their disabilities -- if visible -- as a sort of -- ugh, I'm sorry about this word -- attention-draw, playing up being seen as grotesque, and aklsdhaf the system and what people have to do to survive within the system -- it's all so messed up, I don't know what to think about it.)
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Yeah, I know, it extremely complicated with the intersection with being and disabled in a already poor country and all the shit people do to survive, and you still can't get people to treat you as a human being. But you are so right how issues like these are very different here, where there are no medical insurance for poor people.
Some disabled people become street beggars and use their disabilities -- if visible -- as a sort of -- ugh, I'm sorry about this word -- attention-draw, playing up being seen as grotesque
Well I think that's mostly what able-bodied people think of what disabled people do. I think that beggar disabled people just are beggars because there really is no acceptance for them inside the working system, but the "using this image..." is not something I have heard people saying. I think it's mostly what able-bodied see.
(Because there is this whole rhetoric of "they are pretending to be crippled/disabled/whatever so they get money without working!" that a lot of privileged able-bodied people here put, and of course it's very troublesome.)
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Re: using this image -- Ah, yes. I am sorry about that! I will do my best to be more careful and examine myself in the future. I think there's a tendency to reduce a person in such instances (e.g. on the street) to "someone who's missing a body part", or at least home in on the disability, rather than looking at hir as a whole being, which is very wrong but also not something I have learned to fully root out from my thinking. I think what I wanted to say was... I have also met people who said something like, please spare me some alms, look, I don't have hands anymore. Or: look at my baby, she's blind, please spare me alms. It's very hard to know what to think when speaking to people saying that. I've once been tempted to tell a woman who was begging in congested traffic with a very sick child to please take the child somewhere safer/less polluted, but what if she didn't have that option? So I don't know what I can think about such situations, and thank you for taking the time to talk me through that part of what I said.
I didn't mean to imply that rhetoric re: just pretending to be crippled/disabled/etc, or even the more general "too lazy to work" argument, I'm sorry if you got that or I said something that might have implied it. Admittedly that argument is very common here. I do disagree with it -- actually, the way our society deals with begging overall is very problematic. Begging is fine-able in many areas and people are discouraged from giving alms; the reason given is that known crime syndicates operate a system of begging, but I don't think the criminalization of it is an honest solution.
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please spare me some alms, look, I don't have hands anymore. Or: look at my baby, she's blind, please spare me alms. It's very hard to know what to think when speaking to people saying that. I've once been tempted to tell a woman who was begging in congested traffic with a very sick child to please take the child somewhere safer/less polluted, but what if she didn't have that option?
Yes, yes, of course. But yeah, I don't find that dishonest at all because of course, begging is already a hard situation by itself. I also think able-bodied/not-begging people aren't in a position to question anything, because you are right, a lot of people don't have choices at all. Mostly, yes, I think it would be better to examine the situation and help for structural changes that will really help people first when you are in a position of privilege.
And thank you again for answering!
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So, thank you, too, for giving me a lot to think about! I really love having these discussions with you.
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Yes, exactly. It's a no win situation because able-bodied people will judge him no matter what.
Yes, I love having them with you too. &hearts
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There are more important things to consider when smoking than 'OMG you'll end up with yellow teeth and hideous', which is what annoys me about anti-smoking campaigns. Most of them don't even seem to try and make it seem about health. Oh, no, it's always about the vanity.
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