Characters With Disabilities Are Underrepresented In The Media

Stereotyping is an issue that affects all ages, genders, and races. Not all stereotypes are bad, but when you maliciously stereotype it becomes a problem. In S.E. Hinton’s young adult novel The Outsiders, stereotyping is a significant issue. There are two gangs in this novel, the “greasers”, and the “Socs”. The greasers live on the east side and are known as “hoods”. The Socs live on the west side and are known as the west side rich kids who have all the breaks. People judge their personality just based on where they live, and what they look like. Stereotyping is an unfair way to judge people because you never know their whole story.

The manner of perception demonstrated by the director, Lasse Hallström, of “What Eating Gilbert Grape?” is established towards people with mental disability but specifically autism. Arnie Grape who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio is a 17 year old boy with autism and shares everything with his older brother and carer Gilbert Grape who was played by Johnny Depp. Arnie elucidates basic behavioural and social aspects that a person with autism would have. Hallstrom interprets a person with autism as a minority by clearly separating the town of Endora, Iowa from not just Arnie but the entire Grape family. The media manages to incorrectly interpret the behaviour, social acceptance and understanding of people with a disability and this movie directly

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, she notes that the whites in America are taught not to recognize their white privilege as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. Whites were also taught to see racism as something that puts people at a disadvantage rather than something that puts people at an advantage as well. Therefore, McIntosh decides to unpack her invisible knapsack and list 46 privileges she was granted because of her skin color. In Audre Lorde’s essay, she argues that feminists must critically examine their own use of dominant concepts. She also mentions that academic knowledge is based on an institution that has excluded people of colour. In Eli Clare’s essay titled “The Mountain”, she writes about her disability and how societal attitudes about it affects her experience of her own body.

In The Memory Book by Lara Avery, Samantha has always been socially awkward, however, after learning about a new disease, she becomes insecure and unconfident. Samantha gets diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Type C, causing her to experience memory loss, incoordination, and other symptoms. She starts writing in a journal in order to remember important events and memories. Her closest friend and debate partner, Maddie, starts to drift away after learning about her disease. Samantha is in a similar situation with her boyfriend, Stuart, when they start having problems after she informs him of her disease. Critical Disability Theory examines of the representations of people with disabilities throughout literature and the construction of ‘normal’ bodies. Avery negatively represents disabilities by

The shows we normally view portray different groups of people in stereotypical ways. I watched different television shows to see how they portray people with disabilities. Some shows are more negative to people with disabilities than others. Kids start feeding of these ideas of certain people because of what they watch. If we are continuously exposed to stereotypes, that is when we starting putting people in different categories.

“The 4 Types of Stares I Experience Most as a Woman With a Disability” by Anna Riordan

Robert Zemeckis Uses ethos and Symbolism to tell a history of the United states from the mid to late 1900’s and to get across the point that anyone can do anything.

In the film Best in Show the owners of five show dogs are introduced that personify several well-known stereotypes. Meg and Hamilton Swan, owners of Beatrice the Weinaraner, are introduced in the very beginning of the film. The scene in which they explain how they met reveals their ‘all American values’ and their stereotype.

Disability is a topic that has been difficult for many to talk about. Many people have many different viewpoints on it, but the brilliantly written book, Flowers for Algernon, has put a new spin on the topic and opened up a whole new world of possibilities for new discussion. This is all because the genius author, Daniel Keyes, gave people a way to discuss the topic and the book in a third person point of view when they are really broadening and speaking their minds on how they think about miserable diseases that is burdening many in this world. In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two old man who has an intellectual disability. He works at Donner’s Bakery where he is met with many of his “friends”. He undergoes

Robert M. Hensel once said, “There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more.” The American Disability Act states that a disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. According to the Ruderman’s Foundation study, 95% of television characters with disabilities are played by able-bodied actors. It's a percentage that it doesn’t meet the standard when 20% of the US population is identified with some type of disability. While there are actors out there, with disabilities they're not always casted. Few are the exception to this rule, such as RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad), Daryl Mitchell (NCIS New Orleans), Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things), and Peter Dinklage

1.1 A negative stereotype in the movie “Lion King” is seen when looking at Ed, one of the hienas. Ed is part of a minority group that is not based on ethnicity. Mental ability is one of the 7 categories of otherness, mentally impaired is the subordinate group in this category. When I watched Ed, I immediately grouped him in with the mentally impaired group. When Ed displaid behavior like chewing on his own leg, he portrayed an exaggerated, generalization of what all mentally impaired people act like, silly, and out of it, almost dumb.

In this chapter I will discuss the change of representation of disabled characters in the Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo and the sequel Finding Dory. I will discuss how the representation of the disabled in previously mentioned films from the previous chapter differ from that of newer films mentioned in this chapter.

Disability theatre can give multiple opportunities to people with disabilities. It is not just about combating exclusion, but also to increase one’s creativity, making new friends, discover new talents and build one’s confidence and self-esteem. Enhancing such skills will give people with disabilities the opportunity to increase their independence and self-advocacy.

As society advances more and more into the modern era, media plays more and more of a role in children’s and young adult’s day-to-day life. Televised and online resources have allowed greater audiences to have access to the entire globe and all of its inner workings, creating more well-rounded citizens for the future. However, this nearly unrestricted media can lead to some deep troubles for younger societal members. Being raised with constant streams of media tends to lead to such networks of information being viewed as absolute. Those that do not fit certain views or ideas are snubbed or criticized for the archetypes that are constantly carried out in these networks. Through the societal tendency of assuming works of media to be completely factual or reliable, popular culture creates lasting stereotypes that greatly affect the way young men and women perceive the world.

I was introduced to Feminism in previous English classes, but have become even more passionate in Feminism while taking this class. With this in mind, the “Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory” article by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson touched upon material that furthered my interest in the theory. However, first glancing at the title of the chapter, I immediately thought, “Disability and Feminism relate?” But, as I dove deeper into the text, I was able to answer my initial question.