So, a couple days ago when I was doing my ritual headline reading while Joey gets up and I'm listening to her provider's words, I came across this:
Wicked star Marissa Bode condemns 'aggressive' jokes about her character's disability: 'Please be kind'
What the actual fuck? Without reading the article, I was pissed, then, I went down the rabbit hole. "Oh hell fuck no, I haven't blogged on our views on Wicked yet with doing Substance, but I came across this this morning, and it's time to get Wicked." So far, nobody's had the balls to even acknowledge it on FB, and I've got some friends, who respond to my stuff religiously. Hmmm.
I'd fully intended to do a Wicked review, but this...this will do.
Wicked tells the story of Glinda's (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba's (Cynthis Erivo) frienenemy relationship when they meet at Shiz U by chance while Elphaba's dropping of her younger sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), unintentionally setting off events when Miss Coddle, the headmistress of Shiz University (Keala Settle), rubs her the wrong way when Coddle tries to take control of Nessa, and she stops her with her magic.
Joey had a hard time wrapping her mind around the alternate universe from the one established in Wizard. L. Frank Baum never had a backstory for the witches. I took it as the Wicked Witch's take much like the book, Rhett, was Rhett Butler's take on the goings-on in Gone With the Wind until I watched the trailers. However, it wasn't until I found out this summer that one of the cast is a crip when we were watching the Paralympics during one of Marissa's interviews she pushed being in the movie, I was intrigued.
We liked it, me more so than Joey for the aforementioned universe change reason. We loved seeing Marissa, and knowing she did her own stunts, chair and all when Elphaba unintentionally lifts with her magic, added to our love of her as a person in general. Her scenes were adorable and there's subtle social commentary during and after the dance between Nessa and Boq (Ethan Slater) when Boq's trying to catch Glinda's attention. Otherwise, she was grossly misused, being relegated to a side character in crowds and such.
Here lies the problem I think. I understand Part 1's about Elphaba's and Glinda's meeting and sowing the seeds for Elphaba turning to the Wicked Witch of the West, so unless Nessa's part of sowing those seeds, outside of her intro and setting up her later story, which I've read'll come with next year's Part 2, she doesn't have much to do. Of course, being Elphaba's sister, she could've had more interaction with her. Her screen time's memorable and it says a lot about Boq's character as a nice guy dick, because he genuinely sees Nessa as pretty and enjoys dancing with her, but he's doing it for a dick reason.
Marissa says her DMs are full of people throwing "humorous" quips about Nessa needing to "stand up" for herself or she shouldn't "stand" for people trying to think for or undermine her when she says something. Marissa even said some comments called Nessa a VEGETABLE! THIS'S FUCKING UNXCCEPTABLE! These're crass jokes for a fictional disabled character, and there've been plenty of able-bodied actors who've played crips convincingly even for Joey and I to have to google it. James McAvoy and Steven Robertson in Rory O'Shea Was Here and Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot with characters with MD and CP come to mind. Marissa isn't one of them.
Marissa's a bonafide crip, who was in an accident at 11. With that in mind, she and Nessa've more in common than JUST a character, she's bringing life experience to Nessa as a crip character. I'd think with the press Wicked's gotten with her included, people'd see she's in a chair, it ain't just a prop. For better or worse, our chairs're extensions of us. I don't want to talk for her, but making jokes about Nessa probably makes Marissa take comments more personal than if she wasn't who she is just playing a character.
Now, words are just words, and, as crips, as we grow comfortable in our skin, they are just that, words from what I like to call the "blissfully" ignorant and sometimes prejudice pricks. HOWEVER, hearing the same "jokes" and offhanded comments repeatedly gets old FAST. Sometimes, you just can't ignore peoples' stupid shit, especially when it shows up in comments...from people who DON'T know you! It's been said it's easier to talk shit to others online. Friends know your boundaries, like personally don't call me handicapped or don't just cop a squat in my chair because it's a "JUST a chair", and respect them. We all have different triggers.
Respect's a funny word, because people demand it, but don't want to give it, and when the respectful people get tired and don't, the people who're disrespectful, get butt hurt worse than the respectful people getting disrespected. Funny how that works. The sad thing is until they get put in our position, they just won't get it, and maybe not even, they'll just be the victim, which those of us who've grown into our skin, don't.
Nobody drops comments about Glinda/Ariana being a Spanish bitch, and she's definitely a bitch in the movie or being a homewrecker in real life, so why does Nessa/Marissa get shit on about being a crip?
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