Blind Leading ‘Blindness’ Protests
By Craig Kennedy - September 30th, 2008; 9:18 pm
Some people are so blind, they can’t see a metaphor even when it’s right in front of them.
I thought the protests over Tropic Thunder were the silliest ever, but now blind activists are planning on picketing the release of Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness, a film about society crumbling when it’s hit by an epidemic of sightlessness.
Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind fears the depiction of suddenly blinded people as monsters will make it harder for the real blind to integrate into society.
Where do we show up to picket stupid people?
Source: THR
Filed under: News, Opinion
Tags: Blindness, Fernando Meirelles, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo
I had to click the link in order to make sure it wasn’t a parody of some kind. It’s absolutely unbelievable.
hahahaha…that is amazing.
Wow…seriously I think the whole world has gone fucking insane. Depicted as monsters? Really?
Maybe they should actually see the movie first before judging…oh wait nevermind.
Yes I’m going to hell. But there is no excuse for this level of stupidity.
I bet The Onion writers were pissed that they had this one stolen from them.
Nice headline, Craig.
I’d make a joke but am afraid someone would throw a brick through LiC’s front window.
… is this from The Onion?
Last night I saw How to Lose Friends and Alienate People with a local critic. A blind woman had called him earlier in the day to discuss Blindness, as she and others in the blind community were going to the preview yesterday morning with him and they wanted to make their voice heard. Anyway, she saw the movie and then I guess he invited her to Friends last night, where I met her.
She is probably in her 50’s and has been blind since birth. Along with another guy with us, we ended up discussing how she perceives objects, etc. I’ve obviously met blind people in my life, but for some reason the way she explained her visualizations of things to me was something I hadn’t heard before. Her thoughts on color were pretty fascinating, too. Anyway, she ended up just saying “why does it even matter?”, meaning, she’s been able to live a fully functioning life for all these years (and it was beyond me how she navigated her way on a really busy city street after we left the theater with only a cane). So I think the point behind the uproar about this movie (and she only alluded to it) is that the blind community has been making their way around just fine forever with blind “leaders”, and the idea that society would fall apart because of it is ludicrous. I haven’t seen the movie yet (or read the book), but I’m willing to give a fair thought to that idea.
I suppose I’ll also forgive her for unfortunately telling me how Blindness ends.
I think the real question should be where do we show up to picket Julianne Moore?
I think it’s pretty safe to say that, if everyone went blind all together during the course of one week, society would have a tough time dealing with that. There are only so many Braille schools.
Good point, Daniel, but I think that woman and anyone else with blindness would agree that going from having sight to not having sight overnight isn’t something you instantaneously get used to. If the world’s population became predominantly blind in the span of a few days, weeks, or months, that chaos would ensue.
Think for instance of how this woman feeds herself. Does she slaughter the cow, reap the corn, and pasteurize the milk herself? Does she make her own medicine? Does she pump the water she drinks? Does she carry a gun and protect herself from crime?
It might get resolved over time, but in the short term it would be a colossal freak out. I’m pretty sure that’s what the book/movie is addressing, which is even more apt in a time of threat levels and international paranoia over global terrorism.
If this is what the blind are protesting, they really need to rethink their position.
Jeff made my point. The problem is sudden, widespread blindness. People who are born blind learn to live blind, that’s great, but if most of society suddenly had it thrust upon them, it would be chaos.
I can’t believe any sane person would walk out of Blindness (haven’t seen it) and say “wow, blind people suck.”
I’d like to also remind those folks that both the book and the movie are WORKS OF FICTION.
I loathe any kind of discrimination, but that’s not what the author intended when he wrote this, and certainly not what Meirelle’s intention is in adapting it.
Sometimes I think people take themselves and life way too seriously.
Right, it’s not about blindness as much as about society’s reaction to the chaotic fear—it’s really about human nature, good and bad, in times of mass crisis and the fragility of the civilized lives and structure we depend on. If anything, I think people would come out of it having more compassion and empathy for the blind.
It’s absurd to picket the movie for its portrayal of the blind, though the misunderstandings and misinformation behind are fantastically ironic, given the material.
I don’t know that I’ll see the film. If it doesn’t do the book justice, I might have to picket it myself on those grounds.
I hesitate to get all upitty about stuff like this, because yes I agree that blind people should be treated like everyone else, yet it’s an uphill battle for them to be taken seriously. As Daniel noted, they function just fine though most people probably would be surprised to learn that.
However, as JB points out, this isn’t about blindness, it’s about society.
So, as always, I support everyone’s right to bitch about whatever they want, but I reserve my own right to mock them when I feel like they’re being ridiculous.
I suppose I should just be content with the fact I can see and I don’t have to worry about it.
I agree with all points here, and again, my biggest concern is not saving society from blindness but from another ghastly performance by Julianne Moore. I haven’t even seen the trailer and I have no idea who her character is, but chances are she cries as usual, and I can tolerate few people’s crying scenes less than hers. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know why. I guess I’ve been blind to the performances that everyone loves her for.
i want to protest ‘blindness’ since i’ve seen the trailer over 50 times (so it seems) seems any movie i”ve seen at the angelika for months/and months..and well months..has sneaked a ‘blindness’ trailer in the preveiw. thing. make it stop….
….and the next movie to get protested…. ben button ???? ;)
so much oppurtunity. thir. hope it’s not wasted.
so from the blidness trailer it’s refed that 90% of the population go blind. so i’m guessing it’s the blind/exploiting the blind in whatever setting their being held in.
would it more exploitive/offessive if the non blind were exploiting.
somehow if a sitution like this popped up. you know a large amount of the 10% with site woud.
i never had ‘blindness’ on see list. and seeing the trailer 163 times i feel i most avoid seeing it on principle (yeah i’m weirdly principled/and i can’t spell either. oh yeah…)
and if the next will smith movie has him saying ‘no.hell no’ can i protest that. i’d really want to go after someone’s head. ;)
Daniel, I support your hatred of Ms. Moore 100% even though I don’t share it. :)
What’s the Ben Button protest for Glimmer literal reverse age discrimation?
Aside from her interpretation of Joan Baez in I’m Not There, it does seem like almost every Julianne Moore performance in the past five or so years have been the same character placed in a different film.
As others have said, if an epidemic of blindness occurred and it began to impact everyone, things would not be looking so good, not that that would matter so much, since nobody could see those things very well anymore. (I hope my irreverent comment doesn’t inspire any protests.)
A fellow who lives in my neighborhood was born blind, and a few weeks back when the first TV spots were being shown, he said to me, “This Blindness sounds interesting! The more the merrier!”
I’m going to picket Coleman’s Corner in Cinema…
Ahahaha, oh no…
I would like to hold a protest over reverse age discrimination. That would be awesome. Really awesome. If someone brings coffee, I’ll bring the posterboard.
I’ll bring coffee and plenty of misplaced righteous indignation.
Sweet. I’ll also bring the sharpies. We can sniff them when there is no one around to misplace our righteous indignation upon. Also, monkeys. Protests are always better with monkeys. Especially when they aren’t potty trained.
Yes, I find a protest is just not a protest unless there is poo throwing and public masturbation.