Blogger Widgets Ender-Chan's Thoughts: The Mighty Practices Temperamental Discrimination

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The Mighty Practices Temperamental Discrimination

Every time I go on The Mighty, I see very little variety to the content and the way it flows. The stories tend to focus on emotions. They are clearly edited to fit a temperamental pattern. The Mighty claims to promote diversity, but they seemed to overlook temperamental diversity as an integral part of life with a disability. The stories seem to all come from multiple with the same reason for why they act the way they do. Thus, I think The Mighty is discriminating against writers of certain temperaments.

As a DiSCability blogger, I find it important that all temperaments get represented in the disability community. Most of The Mighty's content is posted by allies sharing their experiences as parents or those who are grieving the loss of their children. This alone concerns me because I would not run a violin store as a flutist who has never picked up a violin. Lists of things you wish others knew, not to say, and other compilations as well as the occasional "embracing myself" post penned by disabled writers are also common. Photo shoots are also popular pieces. 

But with such diversity, how can you possibly accuse them of the lack thereof?

All of these are clearly meant to appeal to people of the melancholic temperament. Sensitive, perfectionistic, and passionate, melancholics seem to make the perfect typical voice to drown out the disabled, right? At least The Mighty thinks so. The Mighty favors the meticulous melancholics while ignoring social sanguines, commanding cholerics, peaceful phlegmatics, and their perspectives. Even if one of these temperaments happens to slip under the editors' eyes, it is usually because they write with a melancholic style. 

In an already strongly predominantly melancholic community, temperamental diversity should be promoted and not squelched by publishing stories that follow the same archetypes that are clearly meant to appeal to the same temperament. Phlegmatics can write about how their "go with the flow" approach to life with their disability. Cholerics can contribute pragmatic, objective viewpoints as well as mobilize others to execute their visions. Sanguines can use their lighthearted sense of humor to prevent others from thinking of disability as an inherently sad or pitiful experience. It takes all four temperaments to show true diversity, not one. If you work for or support The Mighty, take the time to truly show "real people" and "real stories". This includes allowing each contributor to show their temperament. If you are actively protesting against The Mighty, use the tags #NotSoMighty and #TheMelancholy on your main mode of social media and talk about the systemic temperamental discrimination that runs rampant on the site.

Image Description: White text on a red background that reads "Real people. Real stories. Only melancholics' perspectives are real, though. Sanguines, phlegmatics, and cholerics need not contribute." "People" and "Stories" are bold. This is a satirical parody of The Mighty's slogan.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting perspective! I've had several of my submissions turned down for publication in the past. The only one they excepted was about Bethany's victory over a brain tumor. I've since stopped writing for them or supporting them since their distasteful post abut autism, but I'm not sure if I want to actively and publicly protest against them, though!

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    1. Just ignore them if you're not into active protest. (I am all for temperamental accessibility.) I knew there was some sort of temperamental pattern to The Mighty, but, until I knew about temperament theory, I couldn't identify it. I felt like it was the same archetypes repeated across a variety of people, so it was not true diversity to me.

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  2. Hi,

    This issue brings up what the disability community wants from a news/opinion website.

    I am conducting a survey into the news and opinion / journalism needs of the disability community and would really appreciate your help with designing a new service and website:

    http://mydisabilitymatters.com.au

    Dale.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for informing me of the survey. I took it. Having a disability blog is the perfect channel for my extroverted intuition.

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