Owning it
Overheard on the N train:
Man in a wheelchair: "Can I have a seat! I need to have a seat, it's a federal mandate you know!!"
The Muni driver said something back, which I couldn't hear from where I was sitting. The man in the wheelchair snapped back in a gruff voice, "I'm a wide body!"
A wide body? Is that some sort of official classification for wheelchair people? Like if you weigh more than 200 lbs. and you're in a wheelchair, you get to take up a whole row of seats? I looked over to confirm the size of his body and I learned 2 things: the body was indeed wide (very) and the person was female.
I don't think that anybody, wheelchair or not, should proudly declare to an entire train of innocent bystanders that they they are a "wide body." And if she was referring to the chair, she should have said "it." Therein lies the huge difference in personal pronoun usage.
Man in a wheelchair: "Can I have a seat! I need to have a seat, it's a federal mandate you know!!"
The Muni driver said something back, which I couldn't hear from where I was sitting. The man in the wheelchair snapped back in a gruff voice, "I'm a wide body!"
A wide body? Is that some sort of official classification for wheelchair people? Like if you weigh more than 200 lbs. and you're in a wheelchair, you get to take up a whole row of seats? I looked over to confirm the size of his body and I learned 2 things: the body was indeed wide (very) and the person was female.
I don't think that anybody, wheelchair or not, should proudly declare to an entire train of innocent bystanders that they they are a "wide body." And if she was referring to the chair, she should have said "it." Therein lies the huge difference in personal pronoun usage.
posted by Freewendy @ 9:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home