[Nfbmo] The glass ceiling for blind performers

Thu Apr 21 22:47:34 UTC 2016

Hi, Randy,

As to "which sighted people are misleading you", it happens all the time. 
Older hands in the Missouri affiliate will remember when we adopted our son 
Kevin, who was born with no eyes or optic nerves. A lady at the United 
Missouri Bank in Springfield told us we'd have to teach Kevin how to smile! 
Oh really? Believe  me, he has facial expressions! And if I'd have used some 
of Kevin's expressions when I was growing up...lol

Dick Morris

-----Original Message----- 
From: Randy Carmack via Nfbmo
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 5:33 PM
To: NFB of Missouri Mailing List
Cc: Randy Carmack
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] The glass ceiling for blind performers

Friends,

Ever since this subject was addressed at convention, I have been racking my
brain trying to remember the name of a fairly popular blind actor back in
the 80's.  Well today, I finally remembered his name (Tom Sullivan).  So I
looked him up on Wikipedia and was thoroughly impressed by all of his
accomplishments.  He seems to have a lot of insight on these types of
subjects and Julie or Gary if you could get him to speak at our next state
convention, I think it would be awesome (unless of course, he is a member
of another unnamed organization for the blind).

Sincerely,
Randy Carmack

P.S.
I don't have any idea of which sighted people are misleading you but I have
not met a blind person yet that does not have facial expressions.  May I
also note, that all of the facial expressions that I have noticed on blind
people match the feeling that the person is feeling as much as sighted
people facial expressions do.

On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 3:25 PM, Gary Wunder via Nfbmo <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hello, Julie, Dick, and Nancy. As you can tell from my initial post, I am
> extremely interested in this topic, but I am not at all interested in it
> focusing on what I think. I had my initial bite at the apple, so I think
> before trying to answer your questions that I'm going to see if other
> people
> have opinions about the subject. I also want some time to think about your
> questions. One of the advantages of the written word is that we can let
> what
> other people say and ask wash over us, immerse ourselves in it, and not
> worry about having to come up with an immediate response as we would in a
> face-to-face conversation. I hope more folks will offer their thoughts and
> opinions, and I'll be thinking about my debut on the big screen.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nfbmo [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Julie McGinnity
> via Nfbmo
> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 9:47 AM
> To: NFB of Missouri Mailing List
> Cc: Julie McGinnity
> Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] The glass ceiling for blind performers
>
> 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
>
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