Piss On Pity

"Piss on Pity" was a slogan coined by musician Johnny Crescendo (Alan Holdsworth) in protests of the Telethon in the United Kingdom.[1]

Piss On Pity is a rallying cry for those in the disability-inclusive circles of world politics. According to its proponents, the implication of the slogan is that pity, while seeming to be a positive, helpful emotion, actually is derogatory. According to them, it is based in conscious or unconscious aversion to disabled people and the ableism that that aversion consciously or unconsciously represents.[2]

Activists using the slogan will often explain that their ultimate goal in a militant, provocative slogan of this type is to get across the message that, like anti-racism and anti-sexism, they want to purge pity from worldwide social discourse on disability, at both the governmental and cultural levels, and instead foster disability-inclusive practices and equal power politics.