Disability on Strictly come Dancing and other reality shows

[Fiz]

Anyone watching strictly? Having heard about Rose Ayling-Ellis being a celebrity contestant, although I don't have a TV licence so can't watch the show, I have watched her dances on YouTube. She's amazing and such a lovely person. I didn't know her before, not watching EastEnders.


What's interesting is that perhaps in an attempt to help mainstream viewers connect with her signing as well as the fact that she speaks what she's saying/signing, she's using SSE more than BSL but I absolutely love that she is sparking interest in society about BSL and how so many in the deaf community feel she is an inspiration to them. She's amazing and I loved Saturday's dance with the "surprise" element.


(thread title amended as other TV show also discussed) - KK

[Sunny Clouds]

I don't watch Strictly, but I saw a Last Leg interview with her on Youtube and she came across as really bubbly.

Chatting with others in my over-50s group, the non-deafies were talking about it and really enthusiastic.  One of them raised the subject when they saw me and a couple of others comparing our hearing aids.  Currently, I think about a third of us in the group are hearing aid users, but we don't usually discuss it.

So in addition to being a general topic people could discuss, her success is being used by some as an opportunity to reach out.

I think that something she's achieving well is getting the message across that deafness doesn't necessarily affect people in the way we think.  I'd like it if she found opportunities to mention that deafness affects different people differently, but being famous doesn't mean she has to do that.  She's a dancer, not a deafness advocate.

[Fiz]

She's said that in many interviews. She's frequently asked how she can dance when she can't hear the music and her answer is every deaf person experiences music and movement differently. For her it's less about the vibrations she feels in her body and more to do with timing and counting eg one-two-three etc but she does explain the diversity within the one disability really well. She's currently second favourite to win.

[Sunny Clouds]

That sounds brilliant, her explaining things to people.

[SashaQ]

Yes, this series of Strictly is really good - I hadn't watched it for a few years, but I'm enjoying it this year.  Rose gets some of my votes 

[On the edge]

I don't watch dance shows.  My Mum loved 'Come Dancing' a forerunner of this tasteless and over-hyped program, which is smoke, flashing lights, and mirrors mostly.  All BBC shows are biased and tokenistic inclusion so I wouldn't watch on that basis, I stopped e.g. watching East Enders 10 years ago, I was getting overdosed on inclusion and then couldn't relate to anyone on it.  The BBC is off my viewing list. I'm no angel but not a rapist, a child killer,  a drug addict or pusher, a violent criminal, a homosexual,  black, a gay Asian, a prostitute, a white Muslim, or... (You get the drift,) if that is London be afraid, VERY afraid!  You can only hope they emulate Emmerdale Farm and let a jumbo Jet crash on Walford to spare us all. 


My mum made me watch come dancing because it was a genuine competition of grassroots amateurs who competed with each other.  She did ballet classes too, as well as Formation dancing and all that stuff.  Watching failed celebs and no mark weather reporters falling over isn't as I would see dance compettions. Which are bear pits really.  Too many egos given too much air time.   THe only comment I would make as a deaf person is the token deaf woman there never signs in her usual soap opera part, and only started signing when she went on the show, she was an excellent lip-reader, else she would not have got the part just signing.  Same as the token deafie in Coronation street, and a false CI implantee on the same show as this dancer.  They used to take bets which side he would wear his CI or hearing aid on this week I gather.

[Sunny Clouds]

If you have cochlear implants on both sides, you don't have to wear your external aid on both sides, and they are also compatible with hearing aids, so if you want to wear an ordinary hearing aid at the same time, you can choose whether to wear one in the same ear or the opposite ear or both.

It would appear that people with cochlear implants face the same situation I used to have when my rods weren't working.  Gosh, a white cane but not totally blind.   Must be something dodgy.  Or when my father used a walking stick.  Gosh, doesn't always use it on the same side?  Must be dodgy.  Or when I've gone to activities where I've chosen to wear one hearing aid or not the other.  Must be dodgy.

I must tell the woman I meet at my local church centre that she must always wear both implants and never alternate according to activity and to reduce skin irritation.  And I must make sure my hair's never swept back so that no one can tell whether I'm wearing both my aids, and if so, which.  I couldn't possibly take one aid out if I'm planning to go somewhere later where I'm going to not want an aid on the side of me with more background noise.

Gosh, we crips have to always be totally consistent in our behaviour, unlike non-crips.  I face this sort of judgementalism in the street and in non-disability circles but had never faced it from other disabled people.

It simply doesn't compute.

[Fiz]

I don't have a TV licence currently but have really enjoyed Strictly in previous years. I love that most of the celebs have never danced before and they're beginners and I enjoy watching their styles and skills progress and it's an opportunity to get to know the real them rather than the characters they act or their public roles. I admired the BBC for keeping Bruce on longer than the time when he was an asset to the show. I loved Darcey as a judge and miss her. I know so many people that really enjoy Strictly, it's a good job there's programmes for all tastes. I miss some things about the BBC but not enough for me to pay the licence fee.


Soaps all have ridiculous storylines, it keeps people watching. I enjoy Corrie but recent storylines have been so extreme it's laughable but unlike EastEnders, Corrie does throw in some comical moments that make me laugh.


Oh I have discovered that Michael McIntyre's Big Show which is BBC made is currently on Channel 5 so I start each day by watching an episode. I'd started watching it after it had been on a while so have never seen season 1 before. I literally cry tears of laughter each morning, that man is so funny and such a lovely bloke. It's the best way to start the day, I shall be sad when I reach episodes that I have seen before!

[Sunny Clouds]

...I'm no angel but not a rapist, a child killer,  a drug addict or pusher, a violent criminal, a homosexual,  black, a gay Asian, a prostitute, a white Muslim, or... (You get the drift,) if that is London be afraid, VERY afraid!...

I'm trying to see why you think that's a reason to be very afraid.  I can understand why you might be afraid of violent criminals, but being afraid of people on the basis of their sexual orientation or religion or ethnicity?  And where I live, I cannot recall any incidents where prostitutes were a threat to anyone else.  More often victims of crime.

It does seem rather stereotypical to put 'rapist', 'child-killer', 'homosexual' and 'gay' on the same list.  Also, it seems particularly pointed to refer to both 'homosexual' and 'gay'.

If anyone else here thinks having LGBT+ people or people with foreign in them makes a place somewhere to be afraid of, let me know and I'll find a different board to post on.

[Fiz]

I can't remember whether I linked to Rose's couple's choice dance from the Saturday before last


https://youtu.be/Zk-JY9Q4RNc

[Sunny Clouds]

I've never watched Strictly.  I've seen short clips from it online but it didn't appeal.  It's not that I don't enjoy dancing, but the sort of dance videos I  like are ones showing you how to do a dance or ones showing people/groups doing a dance in what I'll call a community or cultural setting, or the odd clip from a film. 

But then I don't usually watch other television competitions, be that things like Britain's got Talent or Quiz shows.  I do watch the odd clip from BGT, though.

As I type this, I feel lucky that with modern technology and the internet I've got so much choice what to watch.

Have fans of Strictly come Dancing been generally unhappy about Rose or is it just a few?  I haven't come across anything negative about her online, but maybe it's just a question of which sites I visit.

[Fiz]

I haven't seen anything negative about her and I have a deaf friend who teaches signing and is also employed to interpret songs at concerts and she does that in BSL not SSE and she's still really enjoying Rose and Strictly and wishing her well. Which is lovely. Ballroom dancing is not my thing at all so I am surprised that I have enjoyed Strictly.


The only other reality competition show that I watch is I'm a Celebrity get me out of here. I love that. Ant and Dec are so good at that.

[Sunny Clouds]

Maybe it's time I had another go at watching stuff like that.

I love it when you get someone different in some way who does something because it's what they're good at and can discuss their difference without that being the primary issue. 

Mind you, sometimes it leaves the red-tops and their online equivalents very confuddled.  Hmm.  Do they put this person on a pedestal for overcoming their disadvantages, thus giving them an opportunity to bash others that don't, or would doing that, in the case of whichever person's success it is, alienate their readership?

It's like those delicate decisions they have to make as to which members of the royal family to exalt and which to bash. 

[On the edge]

...I'm no angel but not a rapist, a child killer,  a drug addict or pusher, a violent criminal, a homosexual,  black, a gay Asian, a prostitute, a white Muslim, or... (You get the drift,) if that is London be afraid, VERY afraid!...

I'm trying to see why you think that's a reason to be very afraid.  I can understand why you might be afraid of violent criminals, but being afraid of people on the basis of their sexual orientation or religion or ethnicity?  And where I live, I cannot recall any incidents where prostitutes were a threat to anyone else.  More often victims of crime.

It does seem rather stereotypical to put 'rapist', 'child-killer', 'homosexual' and 'gay' on the same list.  Also, it seems particularly pointed to refer to both 'homosexual' and 'gay'.

If anyone else here thinks having LGBT+ people or people with foreign in them makes a place somewhere to be afraid of, let me know and I'll find a different board to post on.

The point made was the BBC's farcical inclusion policy is sidelining the UK majority.  Statistically, the inclusion doesn't compute.  These areas represent in my locale less than 12% of the whole, representation is 34%.  The BBC must be higher than that!  It does seem every time the news is on e.g. yer average roving reporter also has a name that isn't British and the reporter is ethnic or black or Asian.  I am relating the facts not giving an anti-view of it.  I suspect this may represent London not elsewhere, as London has 45% who are non-british, 4 times my own city.  This is inclusion overkill on a 'national' TV channel. 


This is mooted as an inclusive policy, it isn't.  The BBC dumped us at OUCH, didn't it, because they want us seen but not heard.  Personally I don't actively engage with ethnic or gay areas at all, that is simply because I don't move in those areas or socialize in them, they don't move in mine.  Various campaigns and laws tell me best to stay the hell out of it, as someone is sure to call you names at some point.  I adopt the stance of 'Cest La Vie' to suggest I agree with all of it, even if I may have reservations some need to get out more, but, I represent I think the majority, and at least honest about it.


So anyone expecting a LGBT+ discussion from me is going to be disappointed.

[KizzyKazaer]

Personally I couldn't care less what race or sexual orientation (or religion) a human being happens to be, I'm more interested in how a person behaves towards others - and a gay Muslim woman or a straight white man, say, are both no better or worse than anyone else.  They're just people, I can't see any issue one way or the other about this.

Fiz, I love 'I'm a Celeb' too, and they have a disabled campmate this year, a Paralympian, though can't recall half their names yet