The Alliance Center for Independence (ACI) joins other disability rights organizations and advocates in condemning the movie, Me Before You, which opens in theaters this Friday. Me Before You is a story of a wealthy young man who, after becoming paralyzed, chooses to end his life through physician assisted suicide means. He does this in order so that he is no longer a "burden" to his caretaker, whom he falls in love with.
The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), Not Dead Yet and the Center for Disabled Rights in NYC object to the way the film portrays people with disabilities: that we are a burden to the rest of us, that killing oneself is better than living with a disability and that people with disabilities can not have a fulfilling life and make contributions to the community like non-disabled people.
According to Not Dead Yet, "Me Before You is little more than a disability snuff movie, giving audience the message that if you're a disabled person, you're better off dead."
We feel Hollywood needs to stop stereotyping people with disabilities and misrepresent our lives and experiences! What do you think?
ACI is interested in organizing a protest at Menlo Park Mall Theater, in Edison, where the movie will be shown. To have a big impact, we would like to have at least 20 people to picket the movie theater and distribute flyers describing our opposition to the film. Would you like to join us? Please contact ACI or visit our Facebook page for more details. You can also contact Luke Koppisch at lkoppisch@adacil.org directly if you are interested.
In the meantime. please see NCIL's action alert on the movie: advocacymonitor.com
NCIL urges advocates to:
- Two or more people can peacefully hand out a leaflet (available on the Not Dead Yet website)
- Display a Me Before You protest banner (PDF), which can be made at local print shops
- Send a press release or use Not Dead Yet’s release (coming soon) to send to your local media.
- Join the worldwide social media Thunderclap.
- Tweet using #MeBeforeYou #LiveBoldly #MeBeforeEuthanasia #MeBeforeAbleism
Movies like this should not go unnoticed and it up to us in the disability community to challenge how Hollywood and the popular media portrays people with disabilities. See the following links for more articles on Me Before You from a disability perspective:
- Salon: Spare me, “Me Before You”: Hollywood’s new tearjerker is built on tired and damaging disability stereotypes
- Buzzfeed: People Are Annoyed About How “Me Before You” Represents Disability
- Dominick Evans: Hollywood Promotes the Idea It Is Better to be Dead Than Disabled
- Crippled Scholar: Why Are You Complaining? Some People Actually Feel That Way: A Critique of Me Before You
- Self: Why Some Disability Rights Activists Are Protesting ‘Me Before You’
