Jerry Lewis Sucks — sign petition
I didn’t pay much attention to the annual Muscular Dystrophy Labor Day telethon until I got involved in the independent living movement, and met people who had been poster children. I learned from them the humiliation of being drenched in pity, being considered less than human, and being commodified to raise money. I had known that the money raised mostly went for “the cure” but I came to understand what that meant for people living with those disabilities, and that services, equipment and advocacy to improve the quality of life for people with MD were very hard to obtain.
The telethon is, in short, a big racket, which lines the pockets of administrators and researchers, while perpetuating stereotypes of people with disabilities as less than human, and needing to be saved from themselves.
So now the Academy of motion picture arts and sciences wants to give Jerry Lewis an award for being a great humanitarian. The only problem is, the people he was supposedly helping — people with disabilities — think this is a very bad idea. They have started a petition demanding that the award be withdrawn.
Jerry Lewis has done far more harm than good for people with all kinds of disabilities. He’s also made plenty of sexist and gay-bashing remarks. And worst of all, he was never funny. This award is about non-disabled people patting themselves on the back at our expense, and we’re not going to go quietly into that night.
Explore posts in the same categories: disability, Disability Pride, disability rights, media portrayalsTags: Disability Pride, disability rights, Jerry Lewis, petition, telethon
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July 4, 2009 at 8:28 pm
I cannot stand Jerry Lewis. He used, abused, and took complete advantage of Dean Martin. When Dean decided to end the duo, Jerry got mean and nasty (watch the old vids)— Jerry actually said and did really mean things which were completely childish and uncalled for. There was a reason Dean didn’t speak to him for 30 years. He realized what a NASTY person Jerry was!!!! And, what is completely awful, is to listen and watch Jerry talking after Dean’s death about how close they were (joined at an umbilical cord??? — for goodness sake, Dean can’t respond and is probably turning over in his grave for this crap!!!) Get lost Jerry!!! Dean had much better friends – Frank, Sammy, good grief!!! — anybody but YOU. As the old saying goes, “with friends like you, who needs enemies???!!!)