I realise that I’m probably overreacting, but things like this really seem to aggravate me. We all know that Facebook is now full of pages and support groups for all kinds of things, from Star Trek fan groups to groups for people with epilepsy. It’s great how it brings people with common interests together and allows us to communicate. One such page which I came across a while ago is called Cerebral Palsy and Disabilities. I’m a member of lots of similar groups for the disability community on Facebook, so naturally I joined it. The thing is, it wasn’t actually a group, but turned out to be a page set up and ran by a young woman with CP in America. Only she could contribute to the page. It was the classic con trick where something is misnamed to draw people to it.

I suppose I should just let things like this slide, but it sort of feels like the girl behind this page has taken it upon herself to speak for everyone with cerebral palsy. By giving her Facebook page that title, does she not cast herself as the only person with cp, kind of like setting up a page called Star Trek fans but only it’s owner could contribute? She claims it is a support page for disabled people, but seems to use it entirely for self promotion, often posting pictures of herself in her wheelchair.

I hope I’ve made it clear why this gets to me, but I don’t want to be spoken for. She could have given her page many other titles, but by naming it after a disability she shares with many other people, she frames herself as speaking for everyone with that disability. I could have just dropped the matter, but what makes things worse is the fact that she has started to post nauseating memes about things like disabled children being angels and so on – things I, as a disabled man, find actively insulting.

On top of that, even though I have asked the young woman repeatedly to retitle her page, she blatantly, arrogantly refuses to do so. I know I’m one disabled person – ‘a cripple’ – of many; but if I had titled my blog something like ‘The Cerebral Palsy Hub’ and tried to speak for the entire CP community, as well as just using the page to promote myself, people would rightly tell me not to be so presumptive. By giving her personal page the title she has, not only does this young woman draw people in on a false premise, but she presumes to speak for an entire community when she has no right to do so. Am I wrong to be so agitated over this?