An article title caught my eye when I was exploring the Yahoo sports section. (I call it, “checking my scores.”) Read all about it, “The girl with the ‘zebra leg’ wows hog country,” written by Eric Adelson on September 17, 2012, a feature  writer for Yahoo! Sports. Here’s the link: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf–the-girl-with-the–zebra-leg–wows-hog-country.html

The focus of the story is a cheerleader, Patience Beard, who has a prosthetic leg due to a childhood illness that necessitated the amputation of her left foot and ankle.

The article begins with a description of Jean Nail who is the “Spirit Coordinator” for University of Arkansas cheer leading squad. She began coordinating 30 years ago and  is said to have very tough standards, “so, her heart did not melt earlier this year when she saw the DVD application of a blond Texarkana girl names Parience Beard.” So, I ask myself, why would this application make someone, who is not as tough as Ms. Nail, “melt”? The simple answer is pity. We pity Patience and believe she is deformed, disfigured, damaged, disabled. If faced with a situation where one would have to use a prosthetic leg, many people speculate that they would see their life as a tragedy, their body useless, something to be hidden. So, when we see an amputee trying to do something “normal” people do, it makes us emotional.

The article continues, “Nail knew thousands of people whould go ‘wow’ when they took a look at the girl, and not in the way most red-blooded males say ‘wow’ when they look at a cheerleader.” So what comes after the “wow” in people’s mind? Is it “she has a fake leg,” or “she only has one leg,” or “she  does not look like any cheerleader I have ever seen” or  “I can’t believe they let a cripple be a cheerleader”?  The article says that Nail knew people would say “wow,” and she knew what that would mean. The author implies that red-blooded men would not think that she was beautiful or sexy.

The article continues,”Patience was different than any other applicant Nail had ever seen.” Different in this case refers to her use of a prosthetic device. Nail may claim that it was her spirit or determinations that made her different, butthat is bullshit. When I see a statement like this one,  the first thing that comes to mind is: “What does this say about our culture’s perceptions of disability?” A lot of folks use prosthetic devices and, over the last 30 years, not one of them has applied to be a cheerleader on the Arkansas University team. I think this speaks to our deeply-seeded, narrow notions of ability and beauty. There are those who are “normal” and then there are those who are “different”. Culturally, we cannot envision a woman with a prosthesis as a cheerleader. Is that notion so beyond our consciousness?

“The coach would offer ‘no special consideration’ here. Beard would have to do all the stunts, and do them perfectly. There would be no charity for Patience.” These words from the coach speak volumes about how disability is viewed by a large part of our culture; that is, people with disabilities want “special” consideration or treatment.

How did Patience ask for “special consideration” in her DVD application? I suspect that she did not ask for it, but the coach, seeing she has a prosthetic leg, viewed her as less-than, as broken, as not whole, as not normal, as not as able as the other girls who have applied over the past 30 years. Patience’s “difference” in this case was viewed in an entirely different way than another difference like being a brunette or having a facial tic.

“There would be no charity for Patience.” How does one act on a cheerleading audition tape to inspire charity? It is so obvious that the coach, and, in turn, the writer of this article, think of this woman as less-than. The inspiration comes in her efforts to overcome her less-than-ness and be just like the whole, normal women on the team; to be the natural and normally-able person we all must aspire to be.

Patience merely submits the audition tape and waits to see if she makes the team. I doubt she sits and hopes for special consideration and charity. I suspect that when she made the team, she did not think, “Great, now I can inspire others.”

Later in the article, in describing the relationship Patience has with her disability, the author again reveals his feelings about disability. “Instead of hiding her disability–and that term should be used quite loosely here–she was happy to draw attention to what she could do.” The implication is that one would want to hide their disability, of course, because it is so tragic and wrong. I’ve heard similar versions applied to myself: “He is the least disabled person I know.” Patience should be thrilled that some people only think of her as being loosely disabled; the clear dichotomy being stated, in the same way one says, “I never thought about his color,” or “I never considered her gender.”

The article also quotes the male cheerleader who holds Patience up when they do some of the cheers, Kevin Ellstrand, who says, “She’s the most positive person I’ve ever met. I’m inspired every day.” So, it seems to me that he is saying, despite her less-than-ness, her diminished status, her tragic illness and loss, her “difference” as the coach said, she is still positive. We might expect her to sit alone in her room weeping because she was forced to have this “difference” which ruins her life and makes it impossible, no matter how hard she tries to be whole, to be able, to be the ideal. The fact that she keeps trying to be normal, to do the things that normal, able people do–despite her tragic loss–is an inspiration. We view her issues as so negative that under her circumstances we might give up and stop trying.

The answer to many of these questions is difference is normal, there is no normal. It is a cultural construction. We created it, and we have gone about making it seem like it has always been this way and that it is how it should be.

It is not.