 And by the way, I think people in wheelchairs will back me up on this. Hi, I'm a part-time wheelchair user. You can see it right back there. And a full-time Bologna amputee. And I'm here to tell you, no we don't. Hello there, my beautiful, lovely internet friends. When I make response videos to anything controversial or in the media, I've always made a point to be very intentional in education and nuance and addressing ignorance with compassion. And I will be entirely honest, I have no desire to actually filter myself in today's video. And I think you may understand why as we get into it. I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and I came across a video from the one and only Candace Owens. Because you need God. You know her, maybe you love her. She's never been my cup of tea, but the comments that she said about a woman in a wheelchair in an underwear ad were appalling. And I actually filmed a whole video just kind of giving my thoughts and responding to what she said. But then I did a little bit more research because that's a good idea. And I found out that a day ago from the time that I am filming this, she actually responded to all of the backlash. First and foremost, let's debunk the idea that I am an ableist. And oh boy, her response is fascinating as well. So let's dive in. Roll the clip, I say to myself because I am the person who will be editing this. She's in a wheelchair, in a wheelchair and it says skims made for everybody available now. Really, what I'm gonna say is really, I don't really understand how far we're gonna take this inclusivity thing. I really don't get it. Look, I assumed that people that were in wheelchairs also have to buy bras and have to buy underwear. I didn't know that we need to see that in our face. I didn't know that now we're gonna have to look forward to campaigns where women that are in wheelchairs are now wearing bras and underwears because we as a society just cannot get to the bottom of our ridiculousness. Having to see women in wheelchairs on your feed, ridiculous is indeed the only word that I can think of. How far are we gonna take this inclusivity bullshit? You know, honestly. So let's break it down, shall we? In the original video, she talks about how utterly ridiculous we are being ridiculous, America. This inclusivity thing is, it is gone too far. So Candice is not a fan of the fact that a woman in a wheelchair sitting down is in an underwear campaign. Put a pin in the whole underwear campaign thing, we'll circle back around to that later. It's actually an adaptive clothing line made by not a great person, but that's beside the point of this video. Adaptive clothing is a very beneficial thing for a lot of people. In fact, 26% fun fact of the US population is disabled in some way, meaning that accessible things for people has a huge impact on our society. So in her response, Candice said that anyone accusing her of being ableist, obviously she's not. First and foremost, let's debunk the idea that I am an ableist. So I wanna draw some attention to this particular comment. Look, I assumed people in wheelchairs had to buy bras in underwear. I didn't know that we needed to see it in our face and look forward to campaigns where women that are in wheelchairs are now wearing bras in underwear because as a society, we cannot get to the bottom of our ridiculousness. That's what it is, ridiculousness. My puppies have left because they do not like this video, I understand. She ends it by saying that I think people in wheelchairs will back me up on this. And by the way, I think people in wheelchairs will back me up on this. I don't speak for the whole community, but no, we don't. So do you remember a thing called ugly laws? These are a thing that used to exist back in the day. In fact, not far enough back in the day to be comfortable, but basically they were a big fan of not allowing people who were different out of the house. Like, okay, they have a right to life, but we just don't want to see them. That's a very rudimentary explanation, but check out a link down below for more information. That is genuinely what she's advocating for. She knows that women in wheelchair need to buy bras in underwear, but oh my God, we don't need to see them. We don't need to see it. And the fact that a woman being in a wheelchair modeling something is newsworthy. First and foremost, you haven't been following along with the world then apparently because including disabled models in advertising is becoming an increasingly common thing. Personally, I think it's a good thing because I think representation is cool. There's a lot of benefits to it. Candace Owens does not agree with me on that. Representation, here you go, ready? Hear me out. Does not matter. And we will agree to disagree. But the thing that really, really pissed me off here is that she does not say, and she dances around the point of what I believe, she actually means. She never comes out and says, I don't want to see women in wheelchairs in underwear campaigns. Icky, no, gross, we don't want that. She never says that. She insinuates it. She leaves you to fill in the blanks so that she does not clearly say something that is pretty far over the line of socially acceptable. And this is what so many people do when discriminating against any group of people. You don't say it. You don't say, I don't want to see disabled people. You just call it ridiculousness when you see one in an ad campaign. And of like all of the things that could be labeled too far, too far with inclusivity, when a massive portion of the United States is disabled and a large amount of people use wheelchairs, both part-time and full-time, that's really what you think is ridiculous. Okay, I'm sorry that your skin is as thick as it appears to be. And I know that you are a big fan of telling everybody else that they have thin skin and they need God and they need to find values and morals. But what the hell? This is the thing that was so utterly ridiculous when all you're looking at is a model sitting down instead of standing up, modeling underwear. It's not difficult to decipher what you are actually trying to say there, which in my personal opinion is something along the lines of yes, we have a right to exist and pursue life. I just don't want to see you. The day before I'm filming this, she had a response video that I was interested to watch. Hey, we all say stuff. We all make mistakes. There's room for growth, absolutely. In the original video, she had said, you know, maybe I'm wrong. Educate me in the comments. And if I'm wrong, again, educate me today. I just want to be educated in the comments. And being pretty familiar with the kind of content that she creates, it's hard for me to take this seriously because I don't really think that she is particularly interested in learning. I think that her content is designed for a specific audience to evoke a specific response. I very much hope that I'm wrong there. But in her response, she made it very clear that disabled models, like allowing disabled people to model is patronizing. Patronizing, patronizing are both ways of saying that word correct? I don't know. She talks about a story where someone told her that they saw, I believe it was this ad and it made them realize that they could model as well. You know, being someone in a wheelchair, I am assuming. And her response to that was, okay, so what you're saying is that you want to be patronized. A woman wrote to me and said, I wanted to be a model growing up and seeing this woman made me realize that I could be one. Okay, so what you're saying there is that you want to be patronized. You want people to essentially hand up participation trophies. You're perhaps not the best person suited for this particular role. You want people to give it to you anyways. The idea that someone's seeing a disabled model thinking, oh, I could do that too, equates to if you achieve that, it is because people are patronizing you and giving you a participation trophy. If you watch the whole video, because I think it's important to do that, you know, get the whole context. Don't just take my word for it. It is abundantly clear. She gives a lot of examples of why people shouldn't be in certain spaces. Like short people aren't gonna be in the NBA. I mean, come on, it's obvious. No one should throw a fit about that. Come on, disabled people shouldn't be models. They're not built for it. Come on, I'm not being ridiculous here. I'm just speaking the truth. Don't be mad at me for saying it. And while there are a lot of things that could be said on that point, reality is that there is actually a large need for models with disabilities for disabled models. Many ad campaigns are now inclusive of that. There are also adaptive clothing lines, which in fact, this was Skims released an adaptive line that the head features and their undergarments making it easier for people with certain disabilities to get in and out of them, which she applauded, which I appreciate. Thank you, Taylor, Lindy, Noel. I really appreciate you explaining to me that Skims actually developed a unique technology and that is the reason why they were promoting these ads because it makes it easier for people that are in wheelchairs to get into a brawn underwear and that's something to celebrate. It really is. That was the one piece in her response video that she acknowledged that she didn't realize. This was about adaptive clothing, but the fact that she thinks it is utterly ridiculous for someone to be seated in a wheelchair modeling something, like that for that to be allowed is just patronizing someone is just really sad. That's just like a really sad and ignorant perspective to take. As I said, I happen to know from personal experience and from friends who model professionally, there is a large need in the industry for talented, hardworking models with disabilities who have worked hard to get where they're going. And the reason that I keep emphasizing the hard work thing is because of comments she made later in the video. Representation, here you go, ready? Hear me out. Does not matter. Contribution does. Actual talent does. Hard work does. You're never going to find out what it is that God gifted you with if you're wasting your time demanding to be led into other people's gifts. In fact, you're ignoring the gifts when you sit back and you envy somebody else's. Yes, hard work absolutely matters. But the fact that you prefaced all of that by suggesting, if I understand this correctly, if a disabled woman is pursuing modeling, she's neglecting the gifts God has given her because she wants to be modeling and that's not for her. However, I do very much agree with her on one point. She talks about the owner of this brand, Skims, is Kim Kardashian. And she asked the question of do you think that Kim Kardashian actually gives a rat's ass about inclusivity or expanding the beauty standard? No, I definitely don't think so. And having worked with a number of brands, having been peripherally involved in this industry, I can tell you, that sometimes the reasons why businesses choose to include disabled models is for that check mark. It's not because they actually care, it's because they want to look good. That is not every company. I have had so many positive experiences with organizations and companies and marketing campaigns that genuinely recognize the benefit and wanted to learn and grow and also recognize that they'd be reaching a whole new market because it's a really smart business decision to market to a large group of people. Again, disabled people are not a small amount of the United States regardless of what you think. And also it's the only minority that you can join at any time. Anyone can become disabled at any single moment. It is something that a lot of people face. So, including representation of models from different backgrounds, able-bodied and disabled is a smart business move. Does that always mean the company actually cares about the issue at hand? No, definitely not. But in my mind, at least at this current juncture, I still think it's a very positive thing. Holy shit, dude. What were you trying to do here? You're presenting to your audience of millions of people. How absurd it is to see a woman sitting in a wheelchair modeling an undergarment. What about that is ridiculous? Is that not something you relate to? Is that not something you find appealing? Is that not what you want to look at? Which seems to be the entire point and the fact that you said this so carelessly and casually indicates that you probably are expecting your audience to agree with you. You're like, yeah, it's ridiculous. God, this inclusivity thing is just disgusting. It's ruining our country. It is just a really sad and small-minded perspective to take. I'm talking like I'm talking to Candace here, but I know in your response video, you said that you weren't ableist. The comments that you have made 100% were that doesn't make you a horrible human being. It means that there's a lot of room to grow and learn and cease to be ignorant and that there's a lot of room to expand how you think about this. When I say that something is ableist, I'm not saying that, you know, that is a black mark on someone's soul that defines their entire character. No, I have ableist thoughts and tendencies that I am still working through as a disabled person. I think it is important to recognize that like, oh yeah, damn, growing up in the society and the culture that we've grown up in, we do sort of automatically discriminate against certain groups of people or we think certain things are bad or weird that we now have to question as we get older and learn. I do not know Candace as a person. I am familiar enough with her platform to know exactly what is happening here. She sets up thing, it gets a reaction. She gets content out of that. She gets more content by making a response to it. She plays to her audience and she does that very, very well. And so I don't think that this video is gonna make jack shit of a difference when it comes to what she's saying, but it was just so, so maddening to hear a video that was released like a week and a half ago, just so casually being like, of course we don't wanna see disabled people in ads. Disabled people can't be models and then to double down on that. You had a chance here. You had a chance to like listen and grow and expand and you didn't and that's a bummer. I haven't made a video here on YouTube like a long form video since December. I've been taking a break from that still doing like the short form content and this is not exactly the video that I expected to return with, but it just hit a nerve in me. As a disabled woman myself, with many disabled friends, it's really well understood that a chunk of society does not wanna surround. Like you'll learn that real quick through comments that are made, do things people say to you. This is not a shock. Yes, I am very well aware that there are people who think that I should not be seen. I'm very well aware of the fact that, I mean, certainly even a lot of people don't think disabled people should have a right to exist. I think that's a very small fraction of society. At least I hope so. But you know, this whole thing is not a shock, but it is still so angering and disappointing to hear from a person who has such a massive platform and voice. All right, that's all I'm gonna say on this. I'm gonna go work some of this like anxious anger out of my system and hope that you all are doing very well. I will be back soon with longer form videos. Long form videos on YouTube are my first love. They are what I most enjoy doing. And so I have some planned coming up in the future, but I hope you're taking care of yourself. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys.