Wednesday, December 20, 2006

this sucks

It's 4:30 in the morning and I'm getting ready for work. I have to be there at 5:30. I can't wait for the holiday retail season to be over.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Is it ok????

I've been meaning to write about this since Thanksgiving. Its a debate that Jean and I had at the MMC. Now perhaps we were only discussing this because we were delirious from the 12 pounds of turkey we had eaten, but somehow I think we'd have ended up debating this at some point regardless of the situation.
While at the MMC we saw a woman wearing the most delightful shirt. In fact I'm surprised that its not on Jean's Christmas list. It was a shirt that was covered in screen printed wolves. I believe that there may also have been glitter...it was hard to see. Naturally Jean and I instantly gave each other the "did you just see what I saw Oh My God!" look. But then we noticed that this woman had on a very large plastic back brace: clearly indicating some serious injury or disability. This poses the question: (I sound like I'm in an extemp round) "Is it OK to make fun of a terribly unfortunate shirt/clothing choice if the person wearing is clearly disabled?" I say yes and here are my reasons. We weren't saying "oh my god that lady is so ugly." We were saying "That shirt is so ugly." And it was...hideous...and not at all appropriate for the Thanksgiving holiday bar experience (anyone recall the Thanksgiving whore from last year?. We are making fun of the shirt. Not the woman or her disability.
I suppose it could go further. If, for example, I see a mentally challenged person wearing a screen printed sweatshirt (the kind with the fake polo shirt collar on top) can i make fun of that? Perhaps the mental disability makes her think that its a nice shirt! At that point am I inadvertently making fun of the shirt and the disability?

What do you think? Is it OK to make fun of a terribly ugly shirt of the person wearing it has some sort of disability? Inquiring minds must know!