Multiple Sclerosis is a real life disease, that effects real life people, so why is it not portrayed on television? Nancy Mairs life with Multiple Sclerosis was one thing she could not control. Showing people what living with MS can be like was something she might be able to change.
Nancy Mairs makes a point in her essay about advertising companies, that just because the person in the Coke commercial is in a wheelchair doesn’t mean they they’ll lose business. People with disabilities are real and live day in and day out just like “normal people”, they shouldn’t be excluded from what’s shown in the media. The media’s discrimination towards people with disabilities shown in television can effect those with those disabilities. How nice would it
More recently than ever, the treatment and the representation of the disabled has become an important topic of discussion, with many disabled persons speaking out on the stereotypes of disability and lack of proper portrayal in the media. In her essay “Disability,” author Nancy Mairs describes her life as a woman living with multiple sclerosis, and she examens the lack of accurate portrayal of disability, especially in the media. Similarly, Andre Dubus adds to Mairs’ argument in his essay “Why the Able-Bodied Still Don’t Get It” by elaborating on how his life changed after becoming disabled, an experience that allowed him to understand why the disabled are still stereotyped and how this causes the abled-bodied to not fully understand what it’s
In the essay, “Carnal Acts”, Nancy Mairs speaks about the difficulties of coping with MS and how her voice as a writer helped her through it. At first, she has difficulty making a connection between dealing with multiple sclerosis and how she discovered her voice as a writer. After deliberating for weeks about the connection between these two very different aspects in her life she gets to the realization that they are connected. She first describes the difficulties of dealing with MS and societies perception of a woman with a disability. Then she talks about the struggle of coping with the shame she feels about herself.
In “Am I MS?” Miriamne Ara Krummel talks about her personal journey she endured dealing with multiple sclerosis. Krummel further explains at the end how she was finally able to accept her diagnosis and to embrace it. She finds that it’s important to be open about the disease. She believes that, “it might be helpful if more people would talk about death and dying as an intrinsic part of life” (76-77).When she was first diagnosed, she had a difficult time coping with MS.
Even though she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, she is still able to have the strength to achieve anything that is possible to her. Because of having MS, the unpredictable course of the disease were terrifying to her. Each night she would get into bed wondering whether she will ever get out again the next morning. Whether she be able to see, speak, to hold a pen between, knowing that one day might come. With the horrible situation in Nancy's life she had the strength to overcome any obstacle.
While doing so, Mairs uses logic, humor, and an optimistic tone to break the societal attitude towards people with disabilities, portraying her success and the positivity throughout her life with multiple
We don't want to give people the idea that our product is just for the handicapped,'' he said.” ( paragraph 5). Nancy continued this conversation by adding,”If you saw my blind niece ordering a Coke, would you switch to Pepsi lest you be struck sightless? No, I think the advertiser's excuse masked a deeper and more anxious rationale: to depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it might enter anybody's life”( paragraph 5). To further explain, Nancy sought further clarification on the lack of representation in media from an industry professional, wondering whether a disabled person advertising a product would promote the idea that only disabled people could use it.
(Digital Sport News, 2) Kayla Montgomery, a runner with MS, a disease that can disrupt and block nerve signals that go between the brain and lower body, is happy when she runs because she feels safe from her disease which is an obstacle in her
Growing up with a cousin who is visually impaired, Amit, would often tell me about times he was mistreated because of his disability. Regardless of unfair treatment, Amit always tried to keep an optimistic attitude and would not let it bother him. One day, we were out with some friends and while walking to dinner, Amit told the entire group that it was time to cross the street. “How would you know. You can’t even see,” Shawn said from the back of the crowd.
As an individual who developed a serious case of multiple sclerosis, Nancy Mairs begins to see herself in a different way, not as a normal person but as a “cripple”. As she opens with “I am a cripple.”. The disease ripped away her ability to walk. The disease allowed her to realize the deeper meaning of derogatory terms, such as “disabled” or “handicapped, especially the term “cripple”.
Given that it’s a medical show, it shows disabilities many, many times and different disabilities other than paralysis or only people in wheelchairs. Specifically, the show deals with Alzheimer's disease and its implication on those
Murderball Autumn Ruffini Central Michigan University RPL 110: Exp of Disability and Soc Marginalization Shay Dawson May 10, 2023 Murderball Watching Murderball, the documentary by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro opens your eyes. While this documentary proves everyone’s stereotypes wrong and helps build people with a physical disabilities character. It proves to many people that physically disabled people aren’t just tied to a chair like a prison they can escape and do what they never though was possible. Stigma/Marginalization I think that this documentary fights against stigma / social marginalization.
Terry Fox showed the world what a disabled person could do, and that was anything he put his mind to. As can be seen, his disability did not define who he was; instead, it made him
n Nancy Mairs essay, “Disability”, she illustrates the lack of representation of people with disabilities in the media. While disability plays a major role in Mairs’ life, she points out the various ways her everyday life is ordinary and even mundane. Despite the normalcy of the lives of citizens with disabilities Mairs argues the media’s effacement of this population, is fear driven. She claims, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about the disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life” (Mairs 14). Able bodied people worry about the prospect of eventually becoming physically impaired.
Her carefully chosen words she uses to explain her condition is not to get the reader to sympathize with her, but to have deeper sense of what she is going through, and what people like her go through. She also uses pathos effectively when she talks about how “you can’t always get what you want” and adds “particularly when you have MS” (37). By talking about a serious disease that she believes cannot be cured, it grips at the readers’ despairing emotions, causing the reader to feel a deeper connection with her. Mairs
Disabled people are people who have mental or physical limitation so they depend on someone to support them in doing their daily life needs and jobs. Although disabled people are a minority and they are normally ignored, they are still a part of the society. The statistics show that the proportion of disabled people in the world rose from 10 percent in the seventies of the last century to 15 percent so far. The number of handicapped exceeds a billion people all over the world, occupied about 15 percent of the world's population, as a result of an aging population and the increase in chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, blood and psychological diseases that are related with disabilities and impairments. Every five seconds someone