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A pretender who doesn’t pretend
Written by Claire on Thursday, July 17, 2008
I met a pretender today who had an interesting approach to it, I thought. My last post stirred a couple of people up, so I went back into the annals of the late, great, wheelchairpretenders group to read the old posts once again. One guy had said something interesting, and I could also see that he was online. So I sent him an instant message, to see what he had to say about his motivations for pretending. He turned out to be really cool.
He’s not a wannabe, doesn’t have BIID, just one of those people who for some mysterious reason loves to wheel. Needs to wheel. He can’t say why. He can only say that it’s relaxing. So I’m still in the dark as to why non-BIID pretenders need to wheel. But I did take a great idea away from the conversation.
What interested me so much was his approach to pretending. He has joined several wheelchair sports clubs (basketball, rugby, etc.) as an able-bodied person and plays with them. Many wheelchair sports clubs welcome able-bodied players because there are not enough disabled players to fill out the teams. He does this regularly, weekly, and it seems to fulfill his need to wheel. He doesn’t pretend to be a para, he doesn’t lie to anyone. You can’t even call it pretending. He just wheels openly with other wheelers, and has a great time doing it.
I think that’s really cool. :o)
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Tags: pretenders, wheelchair pretenders, wheelchairs, Wheeling
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4 Comments
Well gee…for a long while now, that is basically what I have done, yet it seams that I receive judgment from the group for it. I wheel because I am a pretender. I don’t go around claming to be a para…I don’t transfer, I don’t remain perfectly still, I don’t do anything like that…I get up from my car…I walk to the trunk I get my chair out and I sit down and wheel. If I need to stand up for something, I do…I use my wheelchair because it is who I am…I am a pretender. I don’t clame to be disabled, I don’t lie constantly about it in fact very rarely do I do…I have told everyone who comes in close contact in my life, I can’t even begin to count the number of people who know about me.
-Wheelman
I’m not exactly sure if this is the right place to put this, but I came across a blog entry yesterday that might be of interest to people who don’t claim to be BIID but still wheel, such as Wheelman.
The link is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/2007/08/the_wheelchair_choice_1.html and basically, it was the last paragraph that caught my eye:
“It shouldn’t even matter whether you choose to use the wheelchair because you just enjoy it more than walking. It’s your choice.”
Quite an interesting read.
4 On 21 July, 2008, Claire said:
Excellent find, Gordo. A great blog post, that.
If only it were that simple, though. It’s just not that simple.
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1 On 18 July, 2008, Brice said:
I guess I’d be tempted to question whether he’s got BIID and is in denial.