How to Look Good Naked…………..With a Difference

[JohnRambo]

Some of our UK members may know of a TV show called "How to Look Good Naked". The concept of the show is that they work with a woman who has a negative body image and take her on a journey to improve her self esteem and confidence through fashion and through posing naked (well almost) and doing a runway show at the end. The fashion stuff is by the by, but the journey and watching these women confront their insecurities and getting a sense of how others view them is really interesting.

Quite by accident I stumbled on last night's show which featured a disabled women, a wheelette. It's the first in a series of 3 featuring disabled women, the other two are not wheelettes. The show brought together some topics that are very familiar with people with disabilites like clothing for the disabled, self esteem and confidence, how you view some of your body parts, the lack of positive depiction of the disabled in advertising and the media, how to deal with the stares and how disability affects females. The theme going through the show was "disability does not mean invisibility".

One of the most interesting things that came out is that often what we feel is the most negative about us others do not view negatively at all. Others can see positive attributes in us where we cannot and being disabled certainly does not make you sexless or ugly. This woman went from being totally self conscious to having a nude picture taken and displayed for all to see, having a picture in her underwear displayed and for all to see and appearing in sexy clothes and (almost) naked on the runway in front of thousands. By the end of it she was beaming.

Now of course we don't see the stuff they edited out and her journey of 3 weeks was condensed into an hour. Sure there would have been a lot of tears on the way. Was I inspired because she was disabled - heck no.........was I inspired because she was a women who deserved to be free from her own self imposed limitations and conquered them ... hell yes...!!!!

Here's a link to the website which discusses the episode. It's well worth a watch, if it comes on in your country. Even if you don't see it or never get to see it the fact that Gok finally used a disabled model is noteworthy and it highlights some of the issues faced by disabled females. Next week's episode also takes a look at the creation of a fashion ad campaign using disabled women models and the AB guys that create it get it totally wrong. It's like men buying lingere for women - it always misses the mark.

OK so some of you might be wondering what this all has to do with a escorting website, well for a lot of disabled people self-image, self-esteem and not having a partner or thinking they can not or will never find one brings them to a point in which to receive any form of physical or sexual contact to visiting escorts.

Just one last thing, in case there’s anyone reading this thinking this has got nothing to do with me just remember, as the show said, only 17% of all disabled people in the UK alone are born with their disability the other 83% acquire their's during their lifetime, so as the old Lotto saying used to go, “It Could Be You!”

Hope you enjoy the show.

How to Look Good Naked - 4oD - Channel 4

[Patricia]

A very good post. And I hadn't realised before that 83% of disabled people in UK acquired their disability. I suppose it makes sense when you think about it, but it is one of those things a lot of people never think about I suppose.

[JohnRambo]

A very good post. And I hadn't realised before that 83% of disabled people in UK acquired their disability. I suppose it makes sense when you think about it, but it is one of those things a lot of people never think about I suppose.

Believe it or not Patricia but it’s the opinion of a lot of disabled people that the reason why some people find it difficult around a disabled person is because they are actually faced with the fact that the person they are talking to in the chair or on the crutches could in actual fact be them one day.

Too uncomfortable of a thought for some people.

“There but for the grace of God, go I.”

[Patricia]

I don't think I've ever felt like that towards disabled people, but I suppose what I would fear sometimes is behaving stupidly myself, I mean saying something really stupid or insensitive, treating them like a disabled person rather than just like another human being. It's hard with all the different disabilities to know what a person can do also. I mean if you go to a party and there are lots of disabled people there, I'm always thinking "Can he push himself or does he need me to push him?" or "Does she need a straw if I'm getting her a drink?". I worry as well that disabled people might think I am only being nice to them because they are disabled, if that makes any sense, or that I'm acting like I feel sorry for them. I think it can be hard and this probably put a lot of people off.

Going a bit OT but I do love the Internet, the way you can talk to people without physical appearances coming into it at all. It is great to be able to talk to people without there being any issue of who is fat or thin or young or old or disabled or not etc. I don't know what I did before the Internet, but I couldn't live without it now, that freedom of logging on and not being judged yourself by appearance and not judging others by appearance either.

Pat x

[JohnRambo]

To be honest it is and can be a head fuck.

Even after nearly a life-time of living it myself there are aspects of the whole thing I can’t figure out and perhaps never will.

I think I need to write a book one day Pat and don’t worry I’ll have at least one chapter with all my experience with E-I in it.

[podgegun]

thanks john for the original post. Ill keep an eye out for the show as I feel many of the issues would be the same for a disabled man. Patricia I understand what you are saying but most disabled people, unless just out of rehab, are not that sensitive about a freudian slip or a person using just common sayings like 'wanna go for a walk?' we would just appreciate someone cominb for a chat.