Category: Let's talk
I'm not sure where this topic should go, but what do you guys think are the most funny but stupid questions you have been asked by the sighted world? I have been asked by someone I used to live with how do blind people have sex? My best friend was asked if blind people masturbate with their canes. A common question is: how do we know where our food is when we eat? These questions really crack me up but sometimes they're rather annoying. What are your comments and opinions on this?
As part of my former job, I used to sometimes go into schools and speak to children about being blind. However, the saddest thing is that some of the stupidist questions I've been asked have been aske by adults.
Kids actually asked pretty good questions such as how do I count my money and how do I know if someone is cheating me when giving me my change back after I make a purchase.
Questions I've been asked by adults include how do I know if it's raining and do I count my steps every where I go.
Many things they ask us their sighted paleolithic ancestors did much as we do. The concept of really good, or even moderate, lighting indoors is a pretty recent phenomenon in human evolutionary history. So for example, with the fire outside the lean-to to ward off predators, they might do any number of tasks inside it like sewing skins together, sharpening stone tools, etc.
Usually if I tell people stuff like that it tends to dispel some of the mythology, unless they're somehow in need of clinging to it.
Even as late as the 19th century when Lewis and Clark were on their expedition, they referred to lighting the tinder (with flint and steel) as the bloody knuckles, since they quite often did this in the dark. Even 19th-century and earlier sailors would climb the yard-arm and do rather daring and dangerous activities many feet above deck during a raging gale, in effect blind as us bats.
Miltary and survival types often learn to do astounding things at quite a pace with no access to light. Spelunkers and miners know how to operate if their lights fail: you don't see the standard 21st-century flailing you do with most people when the power goes out.
Once reasonable people realize what many homo sapiens have done for most of our history / prehistory I think it's easier for them to conclude we're just doing as our ancestors did. After all, being blind, myths aside, just means limited or no useful access to light. Granted, I've never seen, but I have known perfectly functioning sighted people who do a lot of things as well as us in the dark. Most of the problem is mythology, in my opinion.
It's good that the sighted people want to learn about how we do daily things. That shows they are trying to understand us. But do you ever find some questions really annoying and bizzare? I do sometimes get amused by some of the questions.
How does a blind person know when he's awake?
How does a blind person know when he's done wiping himself when on the toilet?
Do blind people dream?
How do blind people dream?
Do blind people see in their dreams?
Do blind people dream in color?
Wow those are some interesting questions. Does anyone give sarcastic answers? When I was asked how do I read if I can't see, I told the person the same way they did lol.
the only question I can think of that hasn't already been mentioned here was: if you're blind, does that mean you know sign language?
I was once asked what I thought of the music of Stevie Wonder. I should have answered, "I try to think as little as I can about his music, there are much better choices." LOL!
Some more questions: how do you know where you're going if you can't see? How does a blind person take a shower? How do we know if our clothes match when we get dressed in the morning?
The one about clothes matching is a legitimate question. I usually try not to be sarcastic with my answers, especially if it is a child asking. If it is an adult, I still try to reign in my tendency to be sarcastic simply because I have to wonder if they are stupid enough to ask a really stupid question, they probably won't get sarcasm an need a straight answer.
My wife was asked once by a neighbor lady how she answers the door.
Lol. I often tell people just because we're blind, doesn't mean we're stupid. They think our other senses are better when truthfully we just pay more attention since we're lacking vision so we're more aware of our surroundings.
Oh, I know. I figure sighted people are so bombarded by visual stimuli that their other senses are there but are background noise and they don't pay attention to them unless their job or a given situation demands it. We use our other senses fully because we have to.
I had a friend who was also asked if we used our canes to take out our eyeballs at night.
Ewww! I mean, yes, some of us do have prosthetic eyes that need removing, but still, ewww!
I find the best way to deal with these inappropriate questions is the parenting method of redirecting. There's no practical reason why a perfect stranger needs to ask how a blind person wipes their ass, or has sex.
In fact, in one incident when a few of us parents had the kiddies at the bus stop when the daughter was about ten, a woman there started asking the ten-year-old rather inappropriate questions. I told her straight out she needed to keep her nose where it belongs, and mind her own business.
After a bit of stuttery stops and starts, she said, "I haven't heard that since, well, my father!"
It's not a blind issue, it's a poor-judgment and bad-behavior issue.
Godzilla challenged the so-called education thinking, where we are supposed to ingratiate all the graceless and senseless questions of strangers. I second that: since when has it had any effect? On the contrary, the effect of what I did caused her to afterwards straighten up and behave at least in front of the kids at the bus stop.
To my mind, a woman has no obligation to tell me how she's going to manage the emotions of her monthly cycle when in a work or emergency situation, and I have no obligation to them to tell them how I manage a photon-depleted situation either. There is no reason we should either tolerate, or give out, anything other groups aren't. And most of the time, it really comes down to a case of juvenile behavior or just really poor judgment rather than anything to do with photon usage.
I hate Stevie quote unquote Wonder, gives us a bad name.
Um, really? Masturbating with our canes? Lol! Was the cane supposed to be a tool for the job or a guide?
Someone once asked me if we wrapped our cane tips in toilet paper in order to wipe our ass after we went to the bathroom. I in turn answered, wouldn't that be a little painful?
What the hell is with people thinking we do loads of tasks with our canes?
While very few questions are legit, I think many arise from people not knowing how to use deduction, and lacking common sense.
Oh yeah, and the funniest question I was asked was: "What's the stick thing for?" I answered this question without sarcasm. I try to save that for my friends.
Lol. I don't know what's up with the cane questions. I think people are just very interested but maybe some are trying to be funny.
Imagine the questions guide dog users get. People think the guide dog does everything for the blind person, as if it's a human that somehow got trapped in a dog's body and can see and distinguish things similar to a human and doesn't have dog limitations. Dogs are a blind person's one and only friend in the world, their personal care attendant, can help them do homework, find the right clothes, and somehow can look at the traffic lights and distinguish the colors and communicate to you when you can cross the street.
Yeah they must get tons of stupid funny questions about guide dogs.
I'll have to ask my wife if she was ever asked anything odd when she had her guide dog.
I go to a school where I'm the only one blind, and the kids there pretty good, they're ask alot of questions and I answer them with out geting mad or anything, cuz there just trying to learn. But one question that gets me annoyed is "How many fingers do I have up?" lol. and Im like dude I all ready told u i can't see. But I think most questions are cool, they just really don't know about blind people. Like some people its just the first time meating a blind person. If there is a question thats really stupid i just say, Im blind, not stupid.
any of you parents out there ever got questions such as: how can you raise your children if you can't see? or eve how can blind people take care of children?
Has anyone gotten questions about if we can sing, play a musical instrument or how we can have any sort of special talent as a blind or visually impaired person?
Some drunk on a Greyhound bus assumed I was a pianist because he said he needed one for his country band. I mean, yeah, I did take lessons as a kid but doesn't mean I'm a natural. My ear's more musical than my fingers. LOL!
Lol.
As far as the questions about sex and raising children go, I've found that most times people have sinister motives when asking those kinds of questions. They're not asking because they don't understand how those things can be done, but rather, because they don't believe the blind have the right to experience normal human desires, emotions and pleasures. Plus, they think that any disabled person is an unfit parent simply because of their disability. People like that are not only stupid and ignorant, but dangerous.
This isn't really a question, but I get a lot of people coming up to me and saying how much of an inspiration/wonderful person I am, just because I'm out and about in the community. Crossing streets by myself, eating by myself, walking by myself, etc. I can understand sighted peoples' viewpoint on this to an extent, but I do get tired of it all the same. One of my friends said something I thought was hilarious to one of those people. Someone came up and was talking about how much of an inspiration she was crossing a street all by herself. My friend said, "That's funny, you walk across a street every day by yourself and you don't inspire me," lol.
Take care,
Dawnielle
hahahahahaha good point lol.
I never understood the inspiration bit. The one I get is how amazing I am. What, am I supposed to be climing walls and fighting crime? What exactly do I do that amazes you. I mean, I can understand the perspective a bit. People believe if they were one day just struck blind, just like in the soap operas, they would be helpless and what amazes them is that I can do ordinary things at all without two dogs, three horses and a gaggle of personal care attendants in tow. What they do not understand is that when we go do stuff, like crossing streets, we usually have to consult professional sighted people to help us learn routes or learn other skills that we would not know how to do as blind folks. We do not wake up one morning desiring a mocha drink and just start walking and by using our sixth sense and our mental contact with heavenly angels, we'll find that Starbucks just by strength of will alone. We had to be taught the route, taught which streets to cross and taught which landmarks to find whether it be counting driveways or lamp posts or whatever is available.
Yah, exactly.
Yah, exactly.
Yah, exactly.
I got asked if I dressed myself back in school. Now looking back on it I often think yeah I'm blind I'm not an invalid. But back then I just told the other student I did dress myself and moved on.
Just remembered this one: A blind guy told me that a sighted person once asked him, "did you know that you're black?" Words fail me.
Ah yes. I have cousins who once wanted to send me a drawing as a Christmas card. One of them remembered that I was blind, or maybe it was my aunt pointing that out to them. Their response was "well, his dog can tell him wat it is." THey then had to be gently told that A. I don't have a guide dog and B. even if I did, he or she wouldn't be able to describe a picture to me. I think the most absurd question I was ever ask wasn't how I eat or even how the blind have sex. Of all the strange things I've ever been ask, the one that takes the cake for me even five years after the fact was if I was blind did that mean I could see better. Uhm, seriously?
Ok, seriously, not knowing that you're black... lol. Um wow. That would be interesting. And also that's funny about people thinking that if you had a dog, it could describe a picture for you, Um, no, lol. And how exactly could you see better if you were blind? lol. On a side note, sorry about my previous post appearing like three times. i don't know why or how it did that.
Take Care,
Dawnielle
If I were black, and someone asked me if I knew, despite my earlier statement that I try to answer questions without being sarcastic, I think I would have to answer this one with a great deal of sarcasm. I'd try to look absolutely shocked and start screaming, "Why didn't someone tel me?"
lol...
Lol to the blind black thing, reminds me of the Comedy Central skit where the black blind kid goes to a all-white blind school, and so they never told him he wasn't white, and he became a white supremacist, always wearing a hood in public.
Anyway Black White Supremacist
I just think it's really weird that a blind black person gets asked if he or she knows they are black. I seriously doubt if a black person would ever walk up to a blind white person and ask them if they know they are white. I mean not only is it a rude question to ask, but the white person who asked is obviously a racist and is implying that the person should be upset to find out they are black.
exactly. most questions sighted people ask don't bother me, but a question like that would definitely piss me off.
Wow. Never had that one happen to me. I did have a kid try to tell me that my hair was on fire, as though being blind meant I wouldn't be able to feel that.
These posts are really great.
If I remember once at a party a guy asked me what I used that golf bat for which was a good laugh. I have also been asked by a taxi driver who was driving me home to my totally school book suburban looking house: Yeah and how many of you live there in this disabled comunity home? With all respect for people living in these comunity homes, (at least I think that's the word scuse me) I wonder how many people think that blind people cannot live allone. I think the reason why people are so intimidated by the thought of blindness is at least in part because when they stop using their sight like when they are blindfolded to see what it is like to be blind they really don't know how to react on their environment because usually they rely so much on sight. It's definitely not the same being blindfolded for 15 minutes and being blind. It actually supports the oppinion that's it's not possible to do any thing without sight. But people asking stupid or inappropriate questions is just something that happens and I don't think even those people would ask this kind of questions in every context. After all we all say some thing stupid or inappropriate some times.
Oh yeah, reminds me that once or twice a cab driver did think I was living in a group home when I was just renting a room. At that time I did not really know what a group home was, but I had a vague impression of what it might be. Nope, it's not a facility to keep the blind, the disabled and the otherwise unwanted from the public, it's just a house with a couple rooms for rent.
Has anyone been asked how we can enjoy pornos or any type of show for that matter since some of us can't see?
I recall I was waiting for a Greyhound bus and some young guy in his twenties who didn't seem all that bright asked me if I had pornos on my portable CD player. It was probably old-time radio, sorry, none of them diddly-daddly movies whilst I'm on the Greyhound. LOL! I've had people insist I say that I listened to something instead of watched it. Funnily enough, when I used to go to physical stores and buy pre-recorded movies and TV shows on VHS tapes and later DVDs, I was never questioned.
I used to encounter a jerk on the bus on my way home from work who insisted on sitting his smelly self down next to me every day and try to engage me in conveersation. He insisted that I use words such as "listen to" rathern than watch tv or movie or books. I kept trying to get him to understand that I had always used the same words as sighted people and was not going to change just because he didn't like to hear a blind person use words such as "watch" or "see."
I want to know why he felt he had the right to correct you, as if he knew you better than you did?
Yeah, I had a teacher who did that. She yelled at me whenever I wrote look or see in a paper. She told me I had no right to use words I couldn't possibly understand.
I hate when a sighted person says to us: "How can you see that" You're blind." I just tell them I see with the inner eye lol.
About porn. I have been asked if it isn't the same watching porn and women's tennis. I think it was a good question. :)
How about the question how can we cook? And something else which I forgot but I may think of it later.
I think that's a fair question. It wouldn't be immediately obvious to a sighted person how we don't slice our fingers off while chopping vegetables or burn ourselves every time we go near a stove.
Or use the bbq grill.
Understandable about the cooking thing, yes, but not all curiosities need be satisfied by total strangers or mere acquaintances. Learning when to ask questions and when to refrain is something the little tykes get in Kindergarten.
So, when someone is just plain wildly inappropriate with their questioning, it is an indication that even in Kindergarten, they must be grading on a curve now.
It's not our eyes, it's their lack of basic common decency. We all encounter things we've never seen before, people who do things differently than we're used to. That's when common decency should dictate how to respond: that's what common decency is for.
Haven't read through all of the posts on here yet, but have you seen "Shit Sighted People Say to Blind People" on YouTube? If not, it's a must. I'm sure if I listed every question I've been asked, I'd be repeating everything already posted here; but to comment on the cane masturbation bit, holy shit, talk about getting some kind of disease...t would be like eating a shoe. You never know what that thing touches lol...people are so stupid hahah.
I agree with Melissa about people being stupid but they are entertaining sometimes also.
well said, post 60. It seems as though common decency and respect are becoming obsolete in our society rather than the norm...
To post 54: I would have told that teacher to fuck off.
My Mom used to teach a 7th grade middle school class so she have me come in and talk about being blind and the class had to come up with questions. The worst question I've ever got was how do you eat? Really it wasn't even how do you know where food is on your plate but how do you eat. My answer was with my mouth lol. Everyone laughed at his question so I don't think most kids would ask that lol. On a radio show Preston and Steve they asked how to blind people know when there butts are clean after wiping. I called in but I was thinking really they are asking this on a radio show?
Wow. some questions are wa ytoo personal or just no brainers.
I don't think I've ever been asked how I eat, but in seventh grade a girl asked asked if I knew what I was eating the first time I bought school lunch.
Wow I have been asked a similar question. But it's not like we can't do normal daily tasks just like everybody else.
Damn, some people are just plain stupid.
If you ever get the classic question "How many fingurs am I holding up?" here is a answer 2 of my friends told me. You stick up your middle fingur and say I don't know how many fingurs am I holding up butt hole?
Do sighted people notice what their other senses tell them at all? See, we know things because of what our other senses tell us, that's the Reader's Digest answer to all of the "how do you know" questions. Does this mean that sighted people conclude that the only way to be aware of things is to see them?
Lol to Jeff's reply.
I wonder wy it is that sighted people think they even have the right to ask some of those very rude and inappropriate questions such as how a person knows when they are done wiping. I think if I ever get an extremely rude question asked of me again, instead of trying to be polite like I usually do, I'll turn it around and ask them how they would feel being blind and having such rude questions asked of them. This technique worked for a friend of mine, but it didn't have to do with being blind. He had gone to a high school reunion, and someone came up to himand put her hand on is stomach and exclaimed quite loudly about how much weight he had gained. He just said, "Do you even have a clue how incredibly rude you are being?" That shut her right up. So maybe that's what we should do when asked inappropriate questions, especially by strangers. I would answer almost anything a friend asked me, but strangers asking such rude questions need to be put in their place.
I'd be curious to see what happens if somebody actually does this. I wish I did more things out amongst people so I could test it myself, providing that somebody would actually say or do something rude. My expectation is at least from strangers one would get a lot of verbal backlash. I think, somehow, people find ways to justify in their minds to treat certain groups of people as if they had no boundaries. These people need to be told that their entitlement is over.
How many fingers am I holding up?
I dunno, but one of them smells like shit.
Wow. Actually being corrected for using words like watch and see? Anybody tried that with me they'd have wound up with a fat lip. And if it'd been a teacher and I got sent to the principal I would have told him wel, tell your teacher not to correct me for saying watched.
Agree with last few posts. Just because we're blind and/or visually impaired, doesn't mean we should be limitted in our vocabulary choice. We should be able to use the words "see, watch, look" etc just like anybody else. After all, we're all supposedly equal, right?
lol this is funny
back when i could see i never put my butt up to a mirror to see if i needed to go wipe again
i don't think most sighted people do unless they are like ocd or something so i don't knwo y they'd ask such a stupid question
i hope i never asked stupid qestions like that lol
It goes back to them asking how we eat. When I responded by saying the same way they do, they tended to respond with but you can't see your mouth. Well if you have to eat with a mirror in front of you so you can see your mouth then I'm sorry, but you have a problem.
I think the whole question of ass-wiping is people's attempt to be clever, failing miserably, but since people are sheep who lack originality, they spread the question. Next are all the questions about our dream life. And yeah, that's all people wantto know about us. LOL!
ok dreams are kind of hard to explain to a sighted person sometimes.
I'd think it is hard for most people to explain their own dreamstate. My impression is that people haven't quite figured out why we even do so in the first place.
I have never been asked how I wipe myself or anything like that but I've been asked a number of times if I dream and whether or not I have sight in my dreams.
I think what has me all baffled and puzzled is that there are so many aspects of our waking life that people could learn about and learn things from and yet they spend their time scratching their heads over the various properties of our dreamstate. Earthlings, you do puzzle me. Perhaps I should hop aboard my little flying saucer and zip on home! LOL!
Half the time I don't even remember my dreams.The most memorable one was running down the hallways of my High School carrying an unconscious Darth Vader over my shoulder wile being chased by Beavis and Butt Head. And Beavis was in full on Cornholio mode.
Lmfao.
Yep, I very rarely remember my dreams at all. However, that Darth Vader dream reminds me of the sorts of dreams my wife will have if she takes Advil PM. LOL!
Hi all,
After reading all of these posts, I think this deserves the funniest category of the Boards ever, since I have been a member of the Zone anyway.
The stupidest question I have been asked in my entire life is How do you brush your teeth? I responded the same way you do. How do you watch TV, the same way you do, except for I listen to it. I have never been asked about wiping my ass, but wow, that just sounds like an interesting question. As for how blind people have sex, many couples have sex in dark places anyway, so people who ask this question are kind of dumb. Sometimes, though, I wonder really how a blind person does have sex; it is basically just by feel. Hell, we are probably better sex-oriented than most sighted people!
I never remember any of my dreams; the coolest dreams I had were the ones where you would wake up in your bed, and would feel like you were falling. Those were freaking awesome!!! They only happen for a certain amount of time though. Other than that, dreams are dreams. I have heard of some people, who awake, and write their dreams down. Well, I couldn't do that because I never remember them in the first place. I'm getting a dog guide this summer, and while the dog will be a conversation starter, I am not looking forward to all the stupidity andquestions that will be asked.
Nathan
The dreams where you wake up in your bed and you're falling, scare me.
Lol I never think much of those dreams where you feel like falling, to me it's like flying or being on a ride at the fair, but I guess there are several interpretations for those dreams. Nathan, interesting thoughts about how we have sex. Most people all do it the same way. As I said to a friend of mine though she wasn't the one questioning it. This is how we should put it to the sighted world who don't think we can have sex: If there's a dick and a pussy, put two and two together, and one inside the other lol. My personal quote that started as an inside joke.
People asking how we have sex is a puzzler. What, are we amphibians or something? We're not a different species, for heaven's sakes, we're just humans with a bit of hardware that doesn't work well or not at all.
I usually only remember my dreams if they're particularly strange. As for people asking if we have sight in our dreams, I've gotten that one too, but that question doesn't really bother me. Sure, it's kind of stupid, but not as stupid as how we wipe our asses. I think it was Howard Stern, or maybe whatever guest he had on his show at the time, who said blind people must have the cleanest asses around because they would have to wipe obsessively to make sure they got it all.
Hahahahaha, Margaret, you make me laugh, hahahaha.
Lol. My fried and I laughed at that put two and two together comment for a long ass time. But really, we are no different from everyone else, we just do things in our own way.
These people who ask about how we have sex would just be floored to know that there are blind folks who live alternative lifestyles.
Love these!
On a variation of Godzilla-On-Toast's original question about knowing when you're awake, I once got asked by a six-year-old whose class I was supervising: How do you go to sleep? Still makes me smile every time I think about it!
My aunt once asked me (while she was drink, mind you) when I was going to apply for my driver's licence! I love to remind her of that form tiem to time.
The most frequent one I get is : "can you use the stairs?" or one other people who are with me get a lot is: "Can she manage the stairs?"
I know people mean well, but I've never understood the logic... if I couldn't climb stairs, and I'm not in a wheelchair, how would I manage to do anything? Just avoid all steps? haha gotta love it! :)
*drunk
has anyone been asked how we can get drunk or how we can get jobs?
Yeah, and I get drunk like anyone else does. Of course, a lot of people ask about jobs. I think in employment, the blind are discriminated against terribly.
Nathan
No argument there. I've been on the job hunt for ten years and, quite frankly I'm tempted to ditch the conventional job search. But getting back on topic I also remember another dream I had where I'd gotte a guide dog, though from what school I don't remember. Well one night took my dog and walked to a favorite restaurant near my apartment. I had dinner and went up to the counter only to realize I'd forgotten my wallet. So I was going to walk back home, grab my wallet, walk back to the restaurant and pay for dinner and then walk back home again. Well I was spared from having to do this by an elderly gentlemen who paid for my meal. That in itself was all well and good, but unfortunately from then on every time I took my dog out to go somewhere she kept trying to find him again. I woke up from that one thinking what the hell?
Wow. I've been asked how I can drive, and I answsered, I can't at teh moment, but I wish I could. Maybe some day.
For the question about wiping, my response: Well, I use a sighted person't face. Care to vollunteer?
Lol
At post 102, hahahaha!
As for the question about getting drunk, I never heard that one, but when I was in high school, I wanted to try pot, and my sister said, don't bother, you can't see so you won't enjoy it. In the end I never did try it, but that doesn't even make sense since as far as I know it's not a hallucinogen, so you wouldn't see any weird stuff anyway.
All I needed to turn me off pot was the stench. That stuff smells like dirty socks fried. Nor have I bee drunk, a because I'm not crious enough to find out what it would be like as blind drunk person and b because there are much more enjoyable things I could be doing.
This seems to be a pretty popular topic, lol.
Hi,
They asked my brother: Do you eat? he answered that, then they asked: Do you eat tomato? :D
When people give you guff and say they don't see how you can work out, don't get offended: instead ask them to join you! Then again, don't be surprised when you answered their challenge with an invite, and they refuse. See, just because they can run their mouth, doesn't mean they can run a mile! Genuine questions are all good and fine: it's the attacks and refusal to listen.
And know this: it's great to see them do that, because those who are truly confident in what they know don't do that. So image-oriented meth-infested raggedy-ass little squirt wants to give you trouble about you should work out, or can't work out, If you and her go run a mile, you're likely to hear some huffing and puffing from a long ways behind you, something akin to a historic steam engine.
Same thing goes for anything else you do: If you do it well, the insecure and incompetent are the ones who will complain about you. Those who are competent at whatever it is you're doing, be it software, working out, whatever it is you psychology and social service people do, stuff like that: Those competent ones may have understandable questions but are taking your answers all in: because they know what they're doing and aren't so childishly insecure as to hold onto what they want to believe. Just because someone can run their mouth at you, doesn't mean they can run a mile barefoot *WITH* you! So when challenged unfairly like that, just answer the challenge with your own: to join you in some activity, and see if they can show you what they really mean. Be prepared for some witherin' piddlin' back-pedaling action though. Some will actually join, and learn.
Has anyone been asked if blind people just sit around all day and get fat?
It's my first time seeing this topic and I was about to post something about it actually.
I once met a friend of my brother's who thought my cane was a stripper's pole. I never heard of the masturbation thing that blind people do with their canes, but it sounds rather fascinating.
I was also asked how blind people can have sex. I said it's just like having sex without the lights on. They asked me how I know where to put it, and I told them that's why God gave me hands. Not to just read Braille, but to use the same skills in many life situations, such as this one. I told one of my friends that it's just like an O&M structure discovery lesson. Real hands on and physical. Haha.
Ashley, yes. It was phrased, "But I thought blind people just sat around and got fat." To which I could only respond one way: "Is that a challenge? Care for a good run?"
Guess women have a easier time backing out of situations like that and preserving their honor than men do: were it a guy I'm afraid he probably wouldn't have been able to afford losing face, with several of us crossfitters there.
First, as to the question of sitting around getting fat, try asking that question of a thin and healthy-looking blind person and see what answer you get. Unless, that is, such a person is one of those who sees all other blind people as nothing but fat lazy unskilled uncultured clods and generally hates their own kind. Be careful.
Next, I have a suggestion. Next time any of you, and yeah, this is for both males and females, next time any of you are asked how you have sex, try offering to uncover the appropriate areas of your body to show the asker that yes, you are in possession of earth human naughty bits and not little green alien naughty bits so it can be assumed said bits function the same way. It's a little bold and quite risky, I admit, but I bet it'll teach people to think a little before they start quizzing us on how we do things. LOL!
Of course I'm not serious, boys and girls, but my mind really boggles that what I assume are decently sane and intelligent sighted folk really have to ask us how we have sex, as if being blind makes our naughty bits so completely alien from sighted naughty bits that our procreation process is something impossible to imagine.
I haven't been asked if blind people sit around and get fat, but i was told by my mom that she hoped I didn't grow up to be worthless and fat like most other blind people. So I guess I got the more hurtfully phrased version of it.
Gosh, that comment sure makes your mom look all full of sweetness and light, or perhaps not. Also, I know some housepainters that sure could use the broad brush she used to paint most blind people with. Great jumping caterpillars, what an attitude!
No kidding. Because most of the blind folks I've met are most definitely not! lazy and fat. Some small few of them were but only a few.
Agreed on the last several counts: I grew up with wild tales of woe about 'those' blind people. Like you all have said, most the ones I know in real life are hardworking folks, fitness across the American spectrum. I certainly got told I would be disowned if I acted like that. Obviously there are some who are slobs, or lazy, or any number of characteristics, but that applies to any population.
This is exactly the same behavior as those who claim all blacks are on wellfare, all hispanics are a load of wetbacks, etc.
If we started treating people who promulgate this mythology like the animals they are, rather than embracing it / them, things would change. None of us have actually benefitted from these foolish stories and childish outbursts: we, like anyone else, have benefitted from opportunity to succeed or fail, no more no less. And over the course of life I've met blind people on and off a majority were just a cross section of the populace, as one might expect, fully discrediting these numbnuts fools who come up with this propaganda. Nobody blames the stink of a homeless sighted person on his eyesight, and so it follows nobody ought to blame the stink of the occasional blind, presumably homeless, person on their lack of it. What a waste of energy, time and space those organizations are who promulgate this thinking. "Let their life be short, and their death slow."
I just saw this topic, and thought of something that happened to me about a year ago. I had signed up for a writing site. This site had a journal tag, so I posted an entry. A sighted person commented on it, and told me that I should have posted it as a fiction story "because a blind person wouldn't be using a computer" I was like really. I posted back with links to freedom scientific website. lol
Exactly. I think the reason my mom said that was because when I was in high school, I had a friend who was one of those lazy fat blind people. Obviously I saw more in her than that, but I got a wake up call about her in other ways, like when she went to college and started asking me to write her papers for her and stuff. That was when I ditched her.
It's not blindness or eyesight that makes one fat or lazy or whatever, it's just how some people are, that's all.
Godzilla's right. The people who used to ... ahem, pay us, to write their papers for them were usually full-ride scholarship sports people One could not call them actually lazy, as they played at sports.
Fitness or fatness has less to do with sight and more to do with how much and often you move. And there are really fit and lazy people too. It's justified by some, because it's about the blind. But you go try and do that to women: tell them not to melt down, not get all emotional, and see what kinds of responses you get. I have to wonder about all the people who supposedly know these massive numbers of fat lazy blind people. They must have a very active imagination.
After all, to be blind and survive you have to do more, not less. And surely there are a few who do less and don't succeed, but again, no amount of ass-beating or badgering would change any of that. The best any of us ever got is pure raw primal opportunity, no more and no less. I still say that those in your sphere who start in on blind being fat, or lazy, or whatever, challenge them to a good run, or maybe some pull-ups / push-ups.
Ironic: the people who never say any of that stuff? People I serve with. People who I presume also like myself keep themselves fit.
Being fit, or productive, or good at anything, it's like anything else: there's tho who do and are, and then there's those who talk about it. So BOOOYAAAH! Now if someone chooses not to be, the only people who could possibly get upset about that are people who themselves probably aren't where they should be, or are feeling guilty or inadequate somehow.
I guess it all boils down to the comparatively small population of blind people, and people with disabilities in general, in the world. We're probably the smallest minority there is. As such, there are many who have never met a blind person. This by no means justifies the stupidity of some of the questions people ask and the things people say. And, as others have said, the situation becomes much more serious when this ignorance leads to discrimination against the blind.
Personally, I don't mind answering intelligent or interesting questions about blindness, such as "How do you know if someone is cheating you when they hand back your change?" As someone else said, that's a legit question. I don't even mind the run-of-the-mill questions such as "Have you always been blind?" or "Do you have any vision at all?" But I recently had a conversation on Facebook about the truly annoying situations we often find ourselves in... being asked how we take care of ourselves, or having someone insist upon talking to us through whoever is with us, even after we've made it abundantly clear that we, can, speak, for, our, selves! I mean, even after meeting me one on one several times, there's a guy who still addressed my friend when he happened to be with me. Perhaps someone who is heavily involved in disability advocacy groups shouldn't say this, but I'm tired of those types of situations. I don't feel that I have to politely educate those people. I don't like answering stupid questions, and I'd much rather respond to stupid situations with sarcasm.
A lot of the questions sighted people ask could be avoided by their stopping for a second and employing some common sense. For instance, if someone wonders if blind people can see in their dreams, 30 seconds of common sense should dictate that in the case of someone who has been blind for his/her whole life, he/she has never known what it's like to see, therefore it follows logically that the subconscious of this person would not be able to create that scenario. Thankfully, some people are willing to learn and broaden their views. And let's face it, others are just ignorant.
I think that pretty much every question that a sighted person could ask has been covered here, but here are a few of my favorite personal experiences:
#3: A girl asked me if I dressed myself... when I was 15. Not sure whether she was joking.
#2: A girl came up to me and asked if she could bum a smoke. As we were standing in front of the library enjoying our cigarettes, she asked, "So what's the cane for?" I was so taken aback that the answer to this question wasn't obvious that all I could think to say was "... it keeps me from running into stuff." "Oh, you're blind?" she asked in some surprise. It turned out that she has an uncle who's blind, but his eyes look different than mine.
And the number one hilarious, and quite ironic, question I've gotten: "How do blind people have sex?" Thing is, the friend who asked this was a wheelchair user.
Becky
It's not just blind people that the public is ignorant about. Most people tend to see things only from their point of view, so those who believe themselves to represent normal ordinary folks are probably ignorant of anyone outside of the group they think they represent unless their work makes it so they come in contact with a diversity of people. That'll be a helluva lot of educating then and they wouldn't be able to get anything done or see their own families at that point. LOL!
Has anyone been asked if blind people can dance or be atheletic in any kind of way?