The Kids Are Alright

Piss on Pity

unsureunderwaterobot2 Comments

The Kids are Alright is a short documentary breaking down the inappropriate and dehumanizing nature of Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day Telethon for folks with Muscular Dystrophy. Mike Ervin, an ex-poster child for Jerry’s fundraiser, speaks up about being exploited as a source of pity to raise money. The conflict of this film is the mistreatment of disabled folks and the saviorism that exasperates this mistreatment. The rhetor of this film, Ervin, explains his first hand experience in the field of disability activism – as a disabled person. Ervin tries to amplify the voices of folks living with MD in hopes of abolishing pitiful fundraisers like those held by Jerry Lewis and the MDA. Throughout the film Ervin uses storytelling as a means to get his point across. He addresses his own ethos, as a man living with muscular dystrophy. He uses pathos, by expressing his human reaction to being pitied. Ironically, the fundraisers he fights against use a false pathos (pity) in order to sell charity. Ervin’s logos show up through statistics of poorly used MDA funds and the wrong “cure”. What I mean is, the telethon only supplies 30% of the MDA’s annual funds and of that so much is allocated to fancy scientist conferences and advertising campaigns. Ervin questions the viewer what “a cure” for MD even looks like and how do we get there. Is it funneling money into politically charged conferences? Or is it providing disabled folks with chairs, ramps, autonomy, and resources? This film really had me questioning where “charity” funds are going and from whom they are requested. I couldn’t help but think, if this is how a white, seemingly financially stable, man is treated in the world, how are QTPOC disabled folks feeling. As mentioned in the film, disability is not a monolith, every disabled person is a human with individual complexities, and I’d love to continue to learn more from different facets moving forward.

Overall the film was 4/5 due to only focusing in on one man, rather than getting a few perspectives. Although, it almost feels backwards for me, as someone without MD, to be rating how MD is portrayed in a film. Hmph.

Unintended Orphans

turtle1 Comment

The film The Kids Aren’t Alright gives us an inside look at what it is like to suffer from a disability and get unwanted and unhelpful assistance. The film centers the story of a telethon created by Jerry Lewis and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) that is meant to raise money and donations to help look for a cure to this condition. The film highlights that this telethon is counterproductive. The telethon is created to get people to pity and feel bad for people with Muscular Dystrophy, to guilt them into donating. Jerry Lewis and the MDA paint this unrealistic picture that people with this condition are suffering, that they are not able to live life to the fullest. That these people desire a cure for their condition, as if it is a requirement to live a full life. Jerry’s Orphans challenge this perception that Jerry Lewis and the MDA has created. They bring to light the fact that they can live happy lives full of love, happiness, and fulfillment and they are not looking for anyone’s pity.

The rhetor in this documentary is the creator, Mike Ervin, and his goal with this film is to bring to light the misconceptions and truths of living with Muscular Dystrophy. Ervin establishes his personal authority by speaking about his personal experience as someone with Muscular Dystrophy, he gets people to empathize with him by sharing personal stories of discrimination and hardships he has faced while bringing to light a corrupt system and organization. Him, and the rest of Jerry’s Orphans, go about trying to accomplish this by leading non violent protests during these telethons, handing out pamphlets, making phone calls to people in power, and simply educating people on what it is to be a person with this disability and what we can do to actually help them.

I give this film a four out of five stars. I think the film did a great job highlighting the voices of those with Muscle Dystrophy and explaining what is offensive, disrespectful, and ignorant about Jerry Lewis’s yearly telethon. It did a wonderful job depicting the actions and success but also the obstacles that Jerry’s Orphans have experienced and taken. The one thing I wish the film did was tell the viewer how to be of assistance. By watching the film I am know educated and enlightened on these people’s struggle and experience but the film does not tell me how to take action or in what way they would like us to help them with their cause.

Child Abandonment: How Jerry’s Orphans Sparked Thought

DellFrog1 Comment

“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.