My Essay on CNN Opinion: “This New Holiday Movie Would Have Changed Everything For My Teenage Self”

So…did you all watch Lifetime’s new holiday movie “Christmas Ever After” last weekend??

I saw the ad for it a couple months ago and screamed with joy! We are FINALLY getting disability representation in these movies! THIS IS HUGE, especially for rom-coms! I’ve ranted and written about this so much over the years, so to see it actually happening is…WOW.

DOUBLE WOW

TRIPLE WOW

INFINITY WOW

ALL THE WOWS

And, I’m so happy that my last byline of 2020 is from CNN Opinion!! Seeing Ali Stroker starring in this holiday movie rom-com was a big win for disability representation and I was here for it!

Here’s an excerpt of the piece, in which I plead to give disabled people our meet-cutes already…

Indeed, this movie isn’t just groundbreaking because it stars a disabled actress. It’s also groundbreaking because the movie is about love and romance, which is something you don’t see much of when it comes to characters with disabilities. Disabled people are very often viewed as asexual by our culture and this is reflected in the ways we see people with disabilities portrayed in movies and TV.

These views are all too often made through the ableist lens by non-disabled people, leading to inaccurate and sometimes-insulting assumptions about how disabled people actually live. There’s this societal misconception that disabled people don’t or can’t fall in love and have relationships just like non-disabled people. The total absence of social messages when I was growing up that women with disabilities can be sexy constantly left me feeling like romance wasn’t something that could ever happen for me or that there must be something wrong with me.

I love rom-coms, but where’s the female disabled lead?

That was the question I asked in one of my very first published pieces this year. I’m so happy that I got to answer that question in my final piece of the year!!

These types of full-circle moments are my absolute favorite

You can read the full piece here and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to email me anytime at mellow1422@aol.com and let’s chat! And of course, feel free to share my essay on Facebook, Twitter or even your local refrigerator. If you share on Twitter, be sure to tag me @melissablake so I see your tweet and we can connect! I can’t wait to hear from you! Love you all… xoxo