Today I have something very interesting indeed to flag up. I came across this short film yesterday, but wasn’t quite sure what to think about it. Having just rewatched it though, I think it’s safe to say that it is actually quite bold and brave. It stars my old friend/associate Katie Caryer playing two different people, who both have Cerebral Palsy. Both aged forty, one is a pampered, closeted woman who is highly infantilised and treated like a child by her parents; while the other woman is depicted as rebellious, independent, and fond of drinking and partying with friends. Thus we are quite nicely shown two completely opposite perceptions of disability: all too often I experience being spoken down to like a child, as though people assume I have the mental aptitude of a child; yet in reality I am a guy with a MA who enjoys a beer in a pub and James Bond films. So I really think Caryer’s film says something which needed to be said quite well. At just five minutes it’s only short, but is very well made thanks to Channel Four. Through it’s use of a rather unsubtle juxtaposition, it articulates a reality which guys like me face all the time: the mismatch between how people see us – as mentally incapable overgrown children who need to be spoken down to – and the complex, mature, fully formed people we actually are.