[Nfbmo] The glass ceiling for blind performers

[Julie McGinnity]

Hi all,

Thanks for bringing this back Gary!

Nancy got it right.  I have unique facial expressions, but they are
quite clear.  Many of my friends have told me that they just like to
watch my reactions to stuff because the faces I make entertain them.

When I was at Webster, they tried to mold my facial expressions into
what they believed to be a more normal set of expressions.  I did
everything they told me, but none of it ever felt natural.  And then I
felt like a failure because I couldn't do what my professors wanted.

When I came here to Mizzou, I had a lot of anxiety about facial
expressions, gestures, and movement on stage in general.  I believed
that I looked stupid, that everyone was judging me because I could not
move like a sighted person, etc.  Then I learned two things: A.
Everyone (even sighted people) are convinced that they look stupid on
occasion.  And, B. Everyone is unique.  Blind people might express our
feelings on our faces and with our bodies slightly more uniquely than
sighted people, but it doesn't change the fact that all people do not
look or act the same.

What does that mean for me and other blind performers?  I don't
know...  Because we've never explored this topic.

Let me ask this question: how would you want your blindness
represented on screen?  If you were an actor, and you had the training
to star in the latest prime time drama, then what would that look like
to you?  Would your blindness be central to the character you play?
Would it be there but as an afterthought?  Or would you ignore it
altogether?  Wait, one more or...  Would you find a way to play a
sighted character, relying on special effects, other characters, and
other adaptations to make you look and act completely sighted?

Before we decide what would be discrimination, we need to figure out
what would be acceptable in our minds.  And I understand that many of
you don't have acting experience, but that's not a concern to me.  We
all watch tv and movies, and we all think about what we watch.  What
I'm asking is for us to think about what we watch and put ourselves in
it in whatever way makes sense to us.  :)

On 4/20/16, Nancy Lynn via Nfbmo <nfbmo at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I'll talk a bit about facial expressions. You don't have to see them to
> display them naturally. I'm told I have a rubber face and shouldn't expect
> to do well at poker. Sometimes my face says things I don't really want it to
>
> say. I guess to be able to display the facial expressions called for in a
> particular role, you'd have to really feel the emotions so deeply that the
> appropriate expressions show up naturally without your having to control
> them or produce them intentionally. I remember my mother saying that she was
>
> worried that I wouldn't have facial expressions when she found out that I'd
>
> be blind. She didn't have to worry about that long, apparently.
>
>
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-- 
Julie A. McGinnity
President, National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division,
Second Vice President, National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
"For we walk by faith, not by sight"
2 Cor. 7