Starting my Freshman year of high school, I signed up for a peer coaching class for students with disabilities. Immediately I found a special interest in the topic of disability and societies views on the disabled community. When telling my classmates about the class I was taking I always got strange questions like, can’t they hurt you? Do they yell a lot? Don’t you get annoyed? I never understood why these stereotypes existed around disabled individuals until I started paying attention to films and shows. As our digital age continued to evolve I payed close attention in media portrayal of disability. Different shows and movies would cast disabled individuals and poke fun at them or pity them which is when I realized that media was the cause of creating this common stereotype. We might not notice how much our views have been affected by media through subliminal messages or views put in films or news, but media is our main source of entertainment. Throughout this post, I will focus on the portrayal of disability in the media, explaining the social and individual model of disability and how it effects our societies views.
The social and individual model is commonly portrayed in the media playing a large role in the way society views disability. Advocate and author Mike Oliver talks about the definition and impact these models have in his article “The Individual and Social Models of Disability”. The individual model of disability is frowned upon in the disabled community since it sees disability as an issue that needs to be fixed. Mike Oliver advocates towards the social model since it states that society is the issue rather than the disabled community being the issue (Oliver 4). The media comes into play since disability is portrayed through these models without us even realizing it. In a scholarly article written by Stephan P. Safran titled “Using movies to Teach Students About Disabilities”, he talks about the effects media has on kids or young adults. Movies are a lot more entertaining to a younger audience compared to books or articles which is why disabilities must be portrayed positively in films. Safran states, “…disability-rights advocated believe that inaccurate representation in the name of ‘artistic license’ and pursuit of profit can reinforce prejudice and lead to discrimination” (Safran 45). This idea ties back to Mike Oliver’s argument that using the individual model in media leads society to have misrepresentation of the disabled community.
The popular outlet ABC recently aired a television show Speechless last summer in 2016. Speechless was created as a sitcom revolving around the main character named JJ, played by actor Micah Fowler who has cerebral palsy. This show portrays disability through the social model by removing any sort of pity that is commonly associated with disabled individuals. Neil Genzlinger, full-time editor for The New York Times wrote an article titled “How the sitcom ‘Speechless’ Understands Families Like Mine”. Neil having a daughter with Rett Syndrome, goes on to explain how he has enjoyed watching Speechless by the way it portrays disability and connects to his family. Neil states the following on past shows, “When such characters did turn up, they were frequently used as objects of pity or as catalysts that allowed able-bodied characters to learn an obvious lesson or feel better about themselves” (Neil Genzlinger). Having the show Speechless portray disability in such a positive light has allowed for society to advance in the way we view disability.
The representation of disability is crucial in order to make advancements for the disabled community and their rights. Stuart Hall, brings up important points of why representation is so important in his chapter “Representation”. Hall talks about how representation gives us meaning of someone else’s culture, in this case, the disabled community. Media is the main outlet we use to represent opinions, topics, and cultures. The more technology we gain, the stronger the media’s voice becomes, which is why representation is so important in our society. The way media represents disability has become a controversial topic. If the individual model continues to be portrayed in shows, movies and advertisements, society will continue to see disability as an issue that can be fixed by medicine or therapy. The popular movie Me Before You is an example of the ways media uses the individual model to portray these negative views of disability. In this popular film, the main character Will Traynor gets in an accident and becomes disabled. His mom hires a caregiver who later becomes his girlfriend Louisa Clark. Throughout the film, Will is portrayed as miserable and receives pity throughout the film. At the end of the film, Will decides on an assisted suicide giving the message that he would rather be dead than disabled. The way disability is portrayed in this film is considered a step back for the disabled community since it is implying the disabled individual needs to be “fixed” or “pitied” and that living with a disability is “tragic”.
Most of you might be thinking so why should I care about disability portrayal? Why should the social model be shown in films rather than the individual? Every year, just in America 2.35 people are injured or disabled in car accidents. Disabled individuals aren’t always born disabled anyone can become disabled any day. You could become disabled today. Films portraying disability as a burden through the individual model is not something we need our future generation to be thinking. In the reading from David Croteau “The Business of the Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest”, he talks about the public sphere model and how media is more than a profit but rather for information gathering and teaching purposes. Croteau states, “From the public sphere perspective, the potential contribution of media to such democracy is in the work of creating and sustaining a citizenry that is prepared for participation in public life” (Croteau 23). The way the public sphere model sees media is an outlet for citizens to recieve everyday information and use media as a daily source. Since media is growing every day, it is important for us to care for what is shown on television and in films, and care about how media depicts the disabled community. It is time for society to stop associating these common stereotypes to disabled individuals and start seeing them as a person rather than their disability. We can start this change by paying attention to how films and shows portray disability and practice the social model rather than the individual model.
Citations:
Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. “The business of media: corporate media and the public interest.” Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press, (pp. 15- 40) 2006. Print.
Genzlinger, Neil. “How the Sitcom ‘Speechless’ Understands Families Like Mine.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Sept. 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/arts/television/speechless-abc-comedy-nonverbal-child.html?_r=0. Accessed 1 Aug 2017.
Oliver, Mike. “The Individual and Social Models of Disability.” The Individual and Social Models of Disability (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage in association with the Open University, 1997. Print.
Safran, Stephen P. “Using Movies to Teach Students About Disabilities.” Teaching Exceptional Children., vol. 32, no. 3, 2000, pp. 44–47.
BISMCS 333 SUMMER 2017 