Still Ill?

Some people think it’s fun or newsworthy to mock legendary Smiths frontman Morrissey for all of his concert cancellations, but have you ever stopped to think about how your jokes and vitriol affect disabled people who have to cancel plans frequently? Obviously, Morrissey has health issues. Whether they’re physical or mental-it doesn’t matter. When you attack him for his cancellations, you’re being ableist and it hurts.

I’ve been disabled my whole life. I have a degenerative connective tissue syndrome (Ehlers Danlos syndrome), a bunch of comorbidities, and I’m a cancer survivor. As a kid and teen, I missed oodles of days of school. I even missed three months of junior high when I had my first of many surgeries. I had tutors and kept up with my studies. In college, I missed a whole semester but still managed to graduate with honors in three and half semesters (On the Dean’s List every semester!).

My whole life, I’ve dealt with jokes and discrimination because I’m “unreliable.” As a pre-teen, I discovered Morrissey and The Smiths. Morrissey’s music has always been there for me. Do I take issue with Morrissey’s inflammatory remarks from the last decade or so? Yes, I do. But when music publications try to make news items out of Morrissey’s reliability/health, it just makes me feel like crap.

In the comment above, there’s a lot to process: 1. Only drug addictions and “serious” medical conditions are valid excuses. 2. If one does have these issues, one shouldn’t work and should “get well.” (Honey-if Morrissey or I could magically “get well,” trust me, we would.) 3. If one keeps working and disappointing people, “you will pay.”

The only positive thing I have to say about that comment is, at least it was in response to a music publication, and not on one of Morrissey’s official accounts. I will never understand why people follow a musician/celebrity just to dump all over them. Do I follow Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees? Hell, no!

Does Morrissey have questionable politics? Yes, and that deserves debate. Can I separate the art from the artist? Well, I guess I really don’t know. But quit the easy, low-hanging ableism.