Although this was the second time I’d seen Francesca Martinez, her show was still my highlight of Normal? 2018. Francesca’s experiences of school and life beyond mirrors my own. She describes how school ground the confidence out of her and how bullying, by both pupils and teachers, affected her mental and physical health, and then describes how she found a way out of the course that had seemingly been set for her.
Her description of her life draws empathy rather than sympathy.
She doesn’t want to be patted on the head and told 'Poor little thing'. She totally rejects the description of herself as ‘disabled’, preferring instead to call herself 'wobbly'. The stories she tells are laugh-out-loud funny, but she is also a campaigner and educator, addressing school children to give them the confidence that she was robbed of. Martinez points out that society deliberately makes us feel inferior, or, as she puts it: 'Society breeds self-loathing'. Many of us can remember being told, during our teenage years, that ‘how we look is not important’. But, of course, at that stage of our lives, how we look can seem to be the most important thing in the world.
Martinez’s show emphasizes :
‘Don’t fear difference’
‘Being different is important’
‘Only care what you think of yourself’
‘Life is too short to be spent doing something that you hate’
- Keven Blake
Links relevant to this diagnosis:
Francesca Martinez - Russell Howard's Good News (YouTube)
A Wobbly Girl's Battle Against the Last Taboo - The Independent
Martinez and the WOW Welfare Bill - Disability News Service
Francesca Martinez on Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4
