MEST 3: REPRESENTATIONS OF DISABILITY

1. MEST 3: REPRESENTATIONS OF DISABILITY A2 Media Studies

2. Not normal..? • Disability in film is most commonly viewed as being 'not normal' physically or mentally. • Disability is seen as an impairment of the body or mind caused by the loss or long-term non-functioning of a physical, sensory or mental part or system. • Films usually show an individual response to disability.

3. Common representations • Struggling to overcome the impairment • Finding a cure • Being an object of pity • Being a passive victim • Having a chip on his or her shoulder and becoming an evil, aggressive avenger This view of disability is known as the 'medical model' of thinking

4. The Medical Model

5. The Social Model • There is an alternative, 'social model', which considers disability to be the organisational, environmental, social and attitudinal barriers that prevent people with impairments being included in mainstream society. • This 'social model' view is rarely seen in moving image media, but disability charities are campaigning for change and ‘groundbreaking’ representations of disability (within the social model) are on the increase.

6. The Social Model

7. Medical Vs. Social

8. Task • Think about films and other media texts that you have seen. How many feature disabled people? • What sort of picture do they paint of what it is like to be a disabled person in Western society? • Do these representation fit into the medical model or the social model view of disability? Spend 5 minutes mind mapping these media texts on the back of your handout. Be prepared to feed back!

9. What makes a disability? • Chances are, the majority of films you thought of portrayed representations of disabled people with physical impairments, i.e. those using wheelchairs or amputees, for example. What is a disability? • Mobility impairment • Mental health/psychological • Visual/audio impairment • Learning difficulties • Genetic/biological (e.g. diabetes)

10. Stereotypes There are ten main stereotypes of disabled people: 1. Pitiable and pathetic; sweet and innocent; a miracle cure • Charity adverts (e.g. one child in a school group 'under the shadow of diabetes‘) • ‘Poor’ Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol (1938) • David Merrick, the 'saintly sage' with huge growths on his face and scoliosis, exhibited as a freak in The Elephant Man (1980)

11. Stereotypes 2. Victim or an object of violence/deceit • Deaf Christine, cruelly deceived by two men in In the Company of Men (1997) • Blind boy who buys the dead budgie in Dumb and Dumber (2004) • Wheelchair-using Marty in Steven King's Silver Bullet (1985) 3. Sinister or evil • Shakespeare's hunchbacked and vengeful Richard III (1955, 1996) • Dr. Strangelove (1963) features a mad, wheelchair-using scientist; • Evil Dr. No, with his two false hands in the Bond film, Dr. No (1962) • Bitter and vengeful Mr Glass with his brittle bones in Unbreakable (2000, M. Night Shyamalan, USA).

12. Stereotypes 4. Atmosphere - curios or exotica in 'freak shows', and in comics, horror movies and science fiction • A whole cast of genuinely disabled people was used to create horror in Freaks (1932) • The facially disfigured Phantom, in Phantom of the Opera (1925) • The deaf, dumb and blind kid in Tommy (1975) 5. 'Super-crip'/triumph over tragedy/noble warrior • Christy Brown writing in My Left Foot (1989) • Blind Mathew Murdock has radar-like senses he uses to fight evil in Daredevil (2003) • The last item on the TV news (e.g.) A blind man climbing a mountain.

13. Stereotypes 6. Laughable or the butt of jokes • Dumb and Dumber (1994) featuring two men with learning difficulties in laughable situations • Forrest Gump (1994) where the lead character is a man with learning difficulties 7. Having a chip on their shoulder/ aggressive avenger • Captain Hook, the wicked pirate in Hook (1991) • The vengeful, hook-using, black ghost in Candyman (1992) 8. A burden/outcast • The facially disfigured boy Rocky in Mask (1985) • Despised outcast, Quasimodo, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1998)

14. Inside I’m Dancing (2004)

15. Inside I’m Dancing (2004) • The film stars James McAvoy (Atonement, The Last King of Scotland, The Chronicles of Narnia) and able bodied unknown actor Steven Robertson • The film revolves around two disabled young men who pursue physical and emotional independence in direct defiance of "protective" institutional living and their society's prevailing standards and attitudes, especially pity. • Members of the worldwide disability rights and inclusion communities have mixed opinions on the film, which divided opinion when it was released. • Some critics imply that the film does not quite go far enough in lampooning and dismantling pity/heroism attitudes, and some sectors of the film (mostly with relation to camera angles and music) actually play into those attitudes, possibly without realising it.

16. Inside I’m Dancing (2004)

17. Inside I’m Dancing (2004) Links to the videos in the folder... • Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2X4M3WT0W4 • Opening Sequence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuw6RfB0HeE&feature=related • Moving Out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73m0yFJCCCg&feature=related • Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL1duOVGEgk&feature=related

18. Cerrie BurnellCbeebies Presenter MORAL PANICS: Occurs when society sees itself threatened by the values and activities of a group who are stigmatised as deviant and seen as threatening to mainstream society’s values, ideologies and/or way of life. ‘Nine official complaints have so far been lodged with the BBC – plus many more blog postings – about 29-year-old children's television presenter Cerrie Burnell, who was born with only one hand. Parents have complained that they cannot let their children watch her because the sight will "possibly cause sleep problems", that she is scaring toddlers, and that they are being forced to discuss the issue of disability with their offspring before they are ready.’ (The Guardian 2009)