Englands Attitude Towards the Disabled

People attitudes towards the physically and mentally handicapped are a very personal issue to me, and my view is that many people should be ashamed of their attitudes on the topic. My mother is disabled and has been since I was about 12, and whilst i'm not claiming to be her soul guardian or anything - i'm lucky enough to have a very supporting family - there is still definitely an element of being a carer that many people my age will not experience.

There is an element of frustration to it that I think is not often picked up on by most people, and the reason for that is that it is caused by most people. My essential point in this post is that peoples attitudes to disability in this country are disgusting. It appears to be one of the few minorities that it is still largely acceptable to make jokes about - this is evident on a daily basis, at my college for example I frequently see people taking the piss out of a kid with learning difficulties who is sitting on his own or with his support teacher and am still fairly shocked every time when no one even raises a finger about it.

This horrible attitude does not only seem to be allowed, but even encouraged by the government in some cases. This is visible recently in the use of ATOS to assess disabled people on whether they are capable of working, with cases of people in comas being seen as fit for work and having their benefits rates stopped as a result. There has also been a massive increase in the suicide of disabled people, presumably as a result of this treatment by the government creating too much stress for them to be able to continue their already difficult lives.

I don't want this to be a long piece so I will finish by saying this: There needs to be a dramatic shift in peoples attitudes towards disabled. There seems to be a hysterical phobia towards those with mental and physical handicaps that can be compared with racism and homophobia, and needs to stop.

The "LAD" culture and sexism in England

Its very common to hear someone being called a LAD among people my age and slightly older. It seems to be the new trend among middle class male teenagers, and is often used to justify sexist and misogynistic behavior. It is a prime example of how the UK is still rife with sexism and homophobia, among other forms of discrimination.

One source in particular comes from the Facebook page "The Lad Bible", which while it contains some material that is purely satirical, a large proportion of it actively encourages the objectifying and discrimination of women. While scrolling through their website here are some examples I found...

"Thou shall never watch such programs as 'The Only Way Is Essex' or 'Made In Chelsea', as those programs are made for our wenches."

"Thou shall host FIFA tournaments with the LADpack, while thy WENCH makes sandwiches and gets the beers from the fridge"

 "Thou must never enter the kitchen, as this is the women's resting place."

You get the idea...

While this may seem like a bit of harmless fun or "banter" to some, it is this sort of misogyny that leads to harassment of women and women feeling like they ought to submit and allow this sort of thing to go on without questioning it. It is exactly this sort of thing that leads to much worse things such as victim blaming in rape cases, as has been demonstrated even by senior judges in court in recent days.

It is evident that many people think that sexism is no longer a problem in western culture, however these issues highlight as being just as big a problem as ever, and while legislation may be in place to try and prevent these things it will not achieve anything while people attitudes remain the same. The Amanda Todd case is a good example of this, with people saying a girl who committed suicide was better of dead because she was a slut etc. I was shocked at how many people I know and consider to be a part of the cause i'm arguing for took place in this "slut shaming", showing the problem is even more widespread than many perceive.

Another aspect of this issue I find baffling is how from such a young age children are exposed to this sort of stereotyping in the media, in everything from TV adverts for soft drinks to in music videos marketed towards 13 and 14 year old children. The female body is used to sell pretty much everything now. This clip from Bill Hicks sums it up quite nicely

This objectifying works in two ways. It not only ends up with men believing it is alright to objectify women, but also leads to women objectifying themselves and subjecting themselves to this sort of treatment, and feeling like they have an obligation to please men and to look and act a certain way, whether they are doing it consciously or not.

This is a problem that no amount of legislation will be able to change. The only way to stop this discrimination is by changing people attitudes, which it seems, is much harder than it ought to be...

Music in Context and Musical Development

The context in which music is written is something that it appears many people overlook when they are deciding whether they can appreciate it or not. I often hear people dismissing music from bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain or Sonic Youth all the way through to death metal bands such as Morbid Angel, by saying it is "just noise" or similar such remarks.

I think to appreciate certain types of music it is necessary to look at the social context in which it was conceived. For example the music of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, particularly their first album is dismissed by some people as nothing but abrasive noise. Yes the music may be noisy, however when one looks at Kurt's home life and the way in which he grew up, its no surprise that's how his music turned out! I think one of the problems caused by modern pop music, is that it is made purely for the purposes of people dancing to in shitty clubs, and for record labels to make money from and in this, the whole purpose of making music has been lost.

I see music as any sort of sound that has been created as a form of self expression, to convey an emotion or atmosphere to the listener. It seems the vast majority of pop music doesn't achieve this well, with the industry recycling the same sound over and over because people will, for some reason buy it. Now the emotions Cobain was feeling when he wrote Nirvana's first album certainly were not contempt and joyfulness, and so its no surprise his music came out sounding the way it did; full of white noise, feedback and teenage angst.

Music is also inevitably going to be a progression of what has come before it, with the new artists trying to push the boundaries of what has been done before (Another reason I think our current music industry sucks. There has been no noticeable progression in the general sound of pop music since the invention of digital recording and auto-tune.) This progression is very noticeable in rock music, where ever since the late 50s bands have been looking for new ways to re-invent the genre, by taking certain aspects and pushing them to extremes, and eventually forming new genres out of it. A particularly notable case of this is the "shoegaze" bands of the late 80s and early 90s. Bands like My Bloody Valentine surprised people by taking the standard arrangement of a rock band (Drums, Guitars, Voice and Bass) and creating an almost entirely new sound out of it.

When combined, these two factors can lead to sounds that people are not used to, and will often reject for a variety of reasons, but it is important to take music at more than face value and look at what an artist it trying to achieve in their music, rather than whether it sounds nice to your ears. I think when people start doing this more, it will lead to a great progression in sound and generally create a better surrounding for new artists.