LO: To understand theories about disability

Task one: remind yourselves of the different disabled stereotypes (next slide recaps them all).

1. Pitiable and pathetic; sweet and innocent; a miracle cure

2. Victim or an object of violence3. Sinister or evil4. Atmosphere - curios or exotica in 'freak shows',

and in comics, horror movies and science fiction5. 'Super-crip'/ triumph over tragedy/noble warrior6. Laughable or the butt of jokes7. Having a chip on their shoulder/ aggressive

avenger8. Burden/ outcast9. Non-sexual or incapable of a worthwhile

relationship

Colin Barnes (1992)Media continues to use stereotypes to portray disabled individuals in a negative/un-empowering way.Colin Barnes (1992) Disabling Imagery and the Media explains the stereotypes of disabled people in the media:• Object of violence• Sinister and evil• Atmosphere or curio• Super cripple• Object of ridicule• Their own worst and only enemy (having a chip on their shoulder)• Burden• Sexually abnormal• Incapable of participating fully in community life (Pitiable and pathetic)• Normal

Jenny Morris (1991) argues that cultural portrayals of disability are usually about the feelings of non-disabled people and their reactions to disability, rather than about disability itself. Disability thus becomes:

“...a metaphor...for the message that the non-disabled writer wishes to get across, in the same way that ‘beauty’ is used. In doing this, the writer draws on the prejudice, ignorance and fear that generally exist towards disabled people, knowing that to portray a character with a humped back, with a missing leg, with facial scars, will evoke certain feelings in the reader or audience. The more disability is used as a metaphor for evil, or just to induce a sense of unease, the more the cultural stereotype is confirmed” (Morris, 1991).

Hannibal

• In the clip, Agent Starling goes to see Lecter’s victim who is in bed, hidden in the shadows and surrounded by curtains.

• How is disability represented to us?

Hannibal (film)

The light is raised to give a horror view of his face. The character here is evil too, so we associate his facial scarring with punishment for his evil nature, and also with the visual manifestation of evil (we expect evil people to look evil, thanks to generations of fairy tales). We are supposed to be shocked, to recoil in horror. How do you think this affects people with facial scarring?

Representations of disability in different media formats

Villains…!

Katie Piper…?

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4 Models of Disability

• Moral• Personal Tragedy• Medical• Social

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Moral Model• Two Parts

– Religious and Spiritual origin• Punishment from God (ie: due to displeasure)• Evil spirits (possessed)• Witchcraft• Bad Karma (did something evil in the past)• Gift from God (cross to bear, angelic)

– Character weakness• Corruptness • Immoral-ness

• Examples: villains in movies, refrigerator mothers, faking, unmotivated

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Personal Tragedy Model

• Disability is considered a tragedy• Society needs to take care and protect persons

with disabilities• If someone with a disability achieves something

that a “normal” person does, then the person with a disability is looked at as inspirational (super crip)

• This is often mixed with the Moral and Medical Models

• Examples: inspiration news story, telethons, charities

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Medical Model• An individual with a disability has a physical or mental impairment• The disability is within a person• Media has always depicted disability through the use of impairment

“Impairment is made the most important thing” and disabled characters are “objectified and distanced from the audience.” - Tom Shakespeare, Disability Discourse, 1999

• Media focuses on portraying impairment through the influence of the medical model of disability

• Medical model: ‘Disabled people’s inability to interact in normal daily life is direct result of their physical and/or mental impairment’

• Example: Tiny Tim in ‘A Christmas Carol’ - crippled child is defined by his disability and will only survive through medical intervention

• Call for adopting the social model of disability has seen improvements, although media’s been slow-moving

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Social Model

• Instead of disability originates within the person, disability originates from society

• Disability results from barriers in society and the environment– Physical barriers– Attitudinal barriers

Social Model• “...disability is caused by the way society is organised, rather than

by a person’s impairment or difference” - Scope, registered charity no. 208231

• “It looks at ways of removing barriers” so that “disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives” – Scope

• Example: wheelchair user wants to get into a building with steps. Under social model solution, a ramp would be added to the entrance so the wheelchair user is free to go into the building with ease.

• Using medical model, there are very few solutions to help wheelchair users to climb stairs, which excludes them from essential and leisure activities

The Inbetweeners

(5.18) Character is: • mocked• irritable• self-involved• self-pitying • there's a theme of not being able to say anything

negative about him because he's disabled• "other"-ing

The Undateables

• The Channel 4 series received both positive and negative praise.

• Why?

Sam Wollaston – The Guardian

• "I don't think there's anything exploitative about The Undateables. It's sensible, sensitive, kind. Not too kind though, not worthy, not head-on-the-side, sad-face, we feel so sorry for these poor people."

Disability Arts Online

• "Disabled people are portrayed as lonely, desperate and overeager to find that ‘special someone’, often pushed by their mum. I have yet to see another dating show where mums are as ubiquitous as in this one."

Sheldon

• Sheldon is one of the main characters from the extremely popular comedy The Big Bang Theory.

• Sheldon is a socially awkward physicist with Aspergers syndrome. Asperger’s is a type of autism.

• This show uses his Autistic traits to make people laugh. This works because what people find funny is usually things that our outside the social norm

• In this clip, Sheldon is having trouble breaking his usual routine. This is very common in people with autism. They usually have stereotypical, compulsive behaviour.

• This is a serious problem in which they must follow a very specific routine they cannot be broken or else they have temper tantrums or even go as far as to self harm. This ritualistic behaviour becomes very dangerous because it is extremely difficult for them to do anything that they aren't familiar with or in locations that they aren't used to.

• This entire show is based on Sheldon's social awkwardness which is another serious issue that autistic people have. They see his lack of social understanding as funny because he doesn't realize that people are making rude comments about him or being sarcastic. This makes him look ignorant in the same way a "dumb blonde" stereotype would.

Huntemann & Morgan, 2001

• They point out that members of society who do not see representations of people ‘like themselves’ in the media learn ‘a fundamental lesson about their group’s importance in society. Daily, they are being sent a loud and clear message that they do not count for very much in society’

• In this way the media functions to define what counts as ‘normal’, ‘central’, and ‘valuable’, and to make under-represented or misrepresented groups feel that they have little worth.

• Although it is unlikely for a character in a show to have a disability, sometimes when they do, the actual actor playing the part does not have a handicap.

• This makes it even more difficult for people with an actual handicap to fulfil their dream of becoming an actor.

Visible Disabilities

• Lauren Potter (Glee) • Jamie Brewer (American Horror Story)• Luke Zimmerman (Secret Life of the American

Teenager) • Sean Berdy (Switched at Birth) – Deaf • RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad) – Cerebral Palsy• Herve` Villechaize (Fantasy Island)• Peter Hayden Dinklage (Game of Thrones)

Downs Syndrome

Dwarfism

Cerrie Burnell

• The CBBC Presenter caused a stir when she first appeared as a presenter for the children’s TV channel.

Finding Nemo • Variety of characters suffer from

'abnormality‘• Nemo has 'lucky fin‘• Dory has short-term memory loss• Marlin has emotional disability and anxiety.• Gurgle has OCD• Gill has facial deformity • The film presents an accepting view of

disability and abnormalities that differs from most narratives

Disability Studies Online

• "'Finding Nemo' becomes an act of rescue, maturation, and acceptance of self and others for all the characters. Marlin learns to trust Nemo and his self-defined abilities, as prescriptive stereotypes of disability are tested and disproved and the protagonist's triumph is enabled." (2004)

The R-Word

• Language used in media to describe disabled people offers a good indication whether social change has occurred.

• However, language (especially colloquialism) is also becoming a barrier to this change.

TESCO & ASDA

• Mental health stereotype Halloween costume taken off the shelves.

Despite this…Newspaper photographs do not help remove these stereotypes

• The tabloids are a particularly potent source of disability representations. The Daily Mail, featured a Muslim cleric who had his hands blown off in Afghanistan. • He was pictured with his hooks on prominent display, described in the article as ‘metal claws’. • The article aimed to expose the supposed glut of ‘bogus asylum seekers’ who are also ‘terrorists’ and who are claiming social security benefits funded by taxpayers in Britain. • It thus combines iconic images of Muslim fundamentalist masculinity with disability in order to create and to maximise the fear of ‘foreignness’ associated with post 9/11 society.

Television documentaries • Recent examples include Amputee Admirers (channel Five) which purports to discuss Internet-based groups who run dating/social groups for amputees and those who are attracted to them. • In this case, an academic who is also an amputee is questioned in order to give an element of political correctness to a programme which is essentially about voyeurism. • However, the camerawork exposes the subtext by zooming in on the academic’s stumps and scars as she speaks. • Also see ITV’s The Unluckiest Faces in Britain which utilises stark lighting and mise-en-scene and big close-ups to emphasise the facial differences of its subjects, while they are interviewed in a supposedly sympathetic manner.

Television drama and film Wheelchairs tend to predominate here, since they are an iconic sign of disability. Most actors playing disabled characters are, however, not disabled.

The wheelchair allows the character to be obviously disabled, whilst still looking ‘normal’, and does not therefore present any major challenges for audience identification.

A good example is Artie in Glee.

Difference It has been argued that dominant notions of ‘normality’ and beauty do not allow for the natural range of difference in human form. These notions are not only prejudicial to the acceptance of disabled people, but also increasingly impact on non-disabled people. Charlotte Cooper, for example, applies the social model to obesity, and concludes that there are some important categories through which obesity can be defined as a disability: • A slender body is ‘normal’ • Fatness is a deviation from the norm. • Fat and disabled people share low social status. • Fatness is medicalised (e.g. jaw-wiring and stomach-stapling). • Fat people are blamed for their greed and lack of control over their bodies. Consider why it is that fat people or disabled people are rarely portrayed as sexually attractive.

To conclude…

• The media is guilty of "other"-ing disabled people and widening the gap between people with impairments and those without.

• Although it's evident that attitudes are changing and high profile media coverage of disabled people without the stereotypes are slowly becoming more frequent.