Jon22: The Website of Jonathan Dobres

It’s amazing how much you can learn in the space of five minutes. For example, it hadn’t occurred to me that the BBC might broadcast something called CBeebies, a British equivalent to our own Nickelodeon, or that CBeebies might recently have added a new host to its roster, a woman who happens to be missing part of one arm. More interesting still is the news that, apparently, some people find this new host disturbing.

My gut reaction is, of course, to draw my sword and cue the music.

But let’s try to be a little less dramatic about this. The new host, Cerrie Burnell, was born without a right forearm.¹ This, it seems, is scaring the children of Britain. By “children of Britain,” I of course mean “the parents of the children of Britain,” as it seems unlikely that the average British four year-old would be capable of typing up an angry email (average South Korean four year-old, on the other hand, I’m not so sure).

The BBC should be applauded for making the hire. Television is, as everyone well knows, an endless parade of perfect bodies and perfect faces (Stephenie Meyer: You Are Not Helping), and it often alienates those who don’t (or can’t) fit the mold. The BBC could have very easily passed on Burnell. Actors are routinely denied jobs because they don’t “look the part,” (after all, you wouldn’t hire Zack Efron to play a mobster on The Sopranos) and it would have been virtually impossible for anyone to prove that Burnell’s case was any different. Weighing the pros and cons of presenting a more diverse image to its audience, the BBC decided that the high road was worth the risk of offending some of its more squeamish citizens.

But squeam they did—at least a few of them, anyway—and the noise made news all the way to the United States. Writes one mother: “How do I explain this to my three year-old?”

Let us now imagine how such an explanation might have proceeded in the woman’s home, and produced the message quoted above.

CHILD: Mummy, why does the lady on telly only have one arm?

MOTHER: Stares at CHILD in dumbfounded silence. Panicking, she runs to the kitchen to prepare Jello while tapping out an indignant email to the BBC.

Now let us imagine an alternative.

CHILD: Mummy, why does the lady on telly only have one arm?

MOTHER: Well, she was probably born that way, dear. Just like some people are naturally short and some are tall. Her body is just a bit different.

CHILD: Oh.

I submit that this is a far better option, despite the lack of Jello. The conversation is in no way difficult or complicated, and even worrisome follow-up questions like, “Can I lose my arm?” can be handled in a fairly simple, age-appropriate manner. The parents’ discomfort comes from their own lack of exposure to the disabled population, making their unwillingness to educate their impressionable children on such matters both ironic and sad.

Burnell’s presence on television is important. Mere exposure can really work wonders on perception. After two years of working in physical rehabilitation, there is little that I still see as ugly or shameful. You meet a person on the street going about his life, and the missing leg is just a fact, one of many that led him to this part of the sidewalk at this particular moment. Have you ever seen what it takes to freak out a doctor? Nothing short of watching a man pull out his own eyeballs will stir the heart of the average MD, because believe me, they’ve seen it all.

Children who grow up having seen Burnell will probably be less likely to view a missing limb as something freakish or horrifying.² Instead, they might associate an amputee with the woman who cheerily sang them to sleep when they were kids. This is the sort of thing that moves society forward. The trick is to overcome your discomfort and address what’s on the TV, and recognize that by doing so, future generations will never experience that discomfort in the first place.

1. She lists her favorite game as “Twister,” presumably because she’s the sort of lady who loves a challenge. ∧
2. Good thing, too. Limb amputation is somewhat more common than you might think. ∧