Also are you aware of the term war porn–and the novel of the same name? The author was on NPR before he published the book, when the title was still under question. The notion of war porn kind of the same thing as inspiration porn–people who’ve not experienced war fetishizing soldiers, for example.

Oh thank you, I know Young’s TED Talk VERY well, saw it soon after it was posted. I was just unsure if she really coined the term–hearing her use it was merely the first time I’d heard it.
“Exploitation” is a touchy thing in CancerLand–many patients willing sign up to be in those “inspiring” ads/PSAs for donations–which are ostensibly meant to fund research for cures and etc. Are they “pimping” themselves out? I mean these PSAs are certainly USING patients, selling patients who beat cancer–but then how else do we, ALL patients, hope to benefit from research that relies on donations? It’s a pickle. I realize I’ve benefited from these things I consider exploitative, so it is a very tough issue.
I realize your essay here is about the random person on the street who approaches, not actual PSAs–but have you tackled that?

Exactly!

Good point. I hadn’t thought about it within the cancer community (which is ironic because my 25 year old niece is currently battling stage 3 breast cancer), but yes, inspiration porn can be applied when any group is exploited so that another group (usually the healthy, non-disabled) can recognize their “luck” in avoiding what they perceive as someone else’s “misfortune”. If you Google the term “Stella Young TED talk” you can see the speech she gave where she originally popularized the term. It’s an excellent talk, and it’s what inspired (for lack of a better term) me to write this article. Thanks for your comment. 🙂

Definitely. When it comes to inspiration, I feel that how the word is used is more important than actually using the word. I find some people with disabilities inspiring. I inspire myself if that makes sense. If I’m crossing the street, I’m not inspiring but if you see some of the activities I do just to be with everyone else, I can see why that might be inspiring. So it all depends. I don’t like being used as an inspiration if it is done in a condescending manner. Sometimes people don’t realize they are doing it. I’m glad you’re surviving! 🙂

Hi Cheryl, I’m Nathasha the founder of AudacityMagazine.com I love this video! Thanks so much for sharing it. Would you please contact me at nathasha @ audacitymagazine.com I laughed and laughed.

Philip — Thanks so much for taking the time to comment on the article. Like I mentioned to Koala (below), I fully agree with you that there could have been a better term coined than one that contained the word Porn. I wish Stella had given this phenomena a less “shocking” term, but the fact is that “Inspiration Porn” was the term she coined. As such, I had to mention the term in the beginning of my article, since I was referring to not only her speech and this particular term, but also to the debate that ensued after the video went viral within the disabled community. Believe me, if I could have figured out a way to reference the term within the text of the article without using that actual word, I would have. Unfortunately, a direct reference of the term was the only way to say it. If I hadn’t used it, then people who had not seen the video would not have known what I was talking about.