“The Kids Are Alright” is a short documentary filmed with the intent of showing the efforts of “Jerry’s Orphans”, a movement created by Mike Ervin. Ervin began the movement based on his experience as a poster child for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and their yearly telethon. Ervin and his friends, other people with muscular dystrophy or close ties to it, began protesting Jerry Lewis’ yearly telethon that was produced by the MDA in the early 1990’s. Their efforts remained unrecognized and scorned even after sharing their personal experiences and how the telethon and the MDA were hindrances to their experiences, rather than boons.
During the documentary, Ervin explains how early TV icon Jerry Lewis created slanderous narratives toward the muscular dystrophy community and how the MDA’s efforts are more for personal gain than the gain for people with muscular dystrophy. When Lewis called those with the disability “half a person”, Ervin, born with mild muscular dystrophy, was outraged and disgusted that someone with no experience could ascribe such a concept to his life. Ervin and his friends, nicknamed “Jerry’s Orphans” as a satire of “Jerry’s Kids”, call attention to the fact that the MDA, TV station, and the volunteers involved with the yearly telethon have no right raising money for an effort that will not directly affect people with muscular dystrophy. Their pleas for people to stop pitying them and to actually learn about where the money raised by their efforts actually goes often were brushed aside. Audiences could not imagine why people who live with muscular dystrophy would be so against an organization working to fund a cure.
Those outside of the muscular dystophy community do not understand what it is like to live, and to thrive, with the condition. Volunteers for the telethon believe that they are raising money to find a cure, to put an end to this genetic disease, an act that they believe is charitable and good-natured. However, the constant dehumanization put forth by the MDA and its constituents remained an active agent of harm against people with muscular dystrophy. This film challenges the audience perception of these mass fundraisers and organizations that are often run by people with no ties to the disease. Jerry’s Orphans ask that instead of searching for a cure, we might instead start developing accommodations and changing the narrative of how we view people who have visible, or invisible, disabilities.
While “The Kids Are Alright” pulls no punches describing the affect of years of dehumanization from the MDA, it sparks a powerful thought that audiences should consider: am I listening to narratives of people with first-hand experience or am I trusting in pseudo-benevolent organizations with ill intentions? The film can be viewed for free on Ervin’s website, earning it a 5-star rating for accessibility.
Thank you for drawing out the question of authorship here–who is telling you what this experience of having MD is like? Who is giving it emotional weight? And who is benefiting from these narratives. It’s very hard to change a narrative that is so entrenched as the telethon’s, so the film often feels quite frustrated, to me. You get right at the exigence of the protesters here: to get people to think twice before donating.