Blog — Beyond the Silver Bullet

The reduc­tion of a per­son to an exter­nal fea­ture, a disa­bi­li­ty or ano­ther qua­li­ty that does not cor­re­spond to the norm is some­thing that fre­quent­ly occurs in socie­ty. This phe­no­me­non does not only invol­ve peo­p­le with disa­bi­li­ties – others are also affec­ted by it, for ins­tance as a result of racism or homophobia.

All of us have roles in socie­ty that we belie­ve we have to ful­fil. We get ‘pige­on­ho­led’, with the resul­ting fixed role models, ste­reo­ty­pes and pre­ju­di­ces. The­se roles are assi­gned to us on the basis of our exter­nal fea­tures, abili­ties, acti­vi­ties, atti­tu­des, pre­fe­ren­ces and much more. Some are obvious, others more subt­le. Some roles we choo­se our­sel­ves, others we do not.

Wel­co­me to my blog «Bey­ond the Sil­ver Bul­let». I’m deligh­ted that you have found your way here. If not now, then when? This is a ques­ti­on that I have often asked mys­elf recent­ly. The time is ripe to set up a blog and share a few thoughts with you, many of which have been on my mind for a very long time. The­se are thoughts and expe­ri­en­ces that rela­te to me per­so­nal­ly, in the world of sport and in my life as a per­son with a phy­si­cal disa­bi­li­ty. I will be explo­ring them here in a loo­se sequence of blog posts.