Disability Studies and Video

Jason Palmeri / Eng/IMS 171

Disability: A Central Concern

• Over 10% of the world has a disability.• Many disabilities are not visible. • “Able-bodiedness” is a temporary state.• Many people with disabilities are excluded

from participation in workplaces as consumers and workers.

Defining Disability I

Individual Model:Disability is a personal problem (to be overcome)

or a medical problem (to be fixed)

Defining Disability II

Social Model:Disability is constructed by social views of “normalcy.” Environments--rather than medical conditions-- are “disabling.”

Critiquing Biased Language

Biased / out-dated terms: Cripple Afflicted with… Confined to a wheelchair Special Negative Metaphors:

Deaf ears Blind to the issue

Dumb / idiot

Ableism

• Bias and discrimination against people with disabilities.

Overcoming Narratives

People often talk of “overcoming” a disability, but:

--overcoming narratives assume that is unusual that people with disabilities would be successful.

--overcoming narratives place all the focus on the individual and not on ableism.

Four Gazes of Disability

• Wondrous

• Sentimental

• Exotic

• Realistic

(Rosemarie Garland-Thompson)

Wondrous Gaze

• Oldest mode of representation• Viewer occupies “ordinary position, looking

up in awe at “difference” (figurative pedestal)

• Admiration drives the gaze

Sentimental Gaze

• Places disabled figure below the viewer; diminishes

• “sympathetic victim or helpless sufferer needing protection or succor”

• Pity drives the gaze

Exotic Gaze

• Gaze not necessarily up or down but one of distance

• Subject viewed as alien, sensational, erotic, entertaining

• Viewed for amusement, amazement, PROFIT

Realistic Gaze

• Minimizes distance; creates relation of contiguity

• Normalizes and minimizes the “mark” of difference/disability

• Often commercial or journalistic, urging political or social action