Disability Is Not What It Seems When It Comes To Hollywood

When watching tv or a movie, you can quickly tell if a disabled character is well written: whether or not they are still interesting without their disability. When I first saw the immensely popular show Glee, I was entertained until I learned about the character Artie Abrams, and I was saddened by the poor representation. There is a striking scene in Season one, episode nineteen, “ Dream On,” where Artie is dreaming about what he truly desires. In the dream he is in a mall in his wheelchair when abruptly he realizes that he has the ability to walk; suddenly he is able to carry out a very intense, choreographed dance routine. This choice by the writers suggests that Artie’s true desire was to be able to walk and have the ability of an able-bodied person. Artie’s character arc was questionable because it sent the message to disabled viewers that they should have a desire to be able-bodied. Glee’s young viewers, who are mainly exposed to disability in their consumption of media, received a negative example of what aspirations a disabled person might have.

By having Artie dream of losing his disability, the writers imply that Artie’s only goal was to become an able-bodied person, while the other characters on the show got more personal goals that reflected their personality. While, there is nothing wrong with attempting to portray disability in popular media (in fact, it is a good thing), however it is unjust to misinterpret disability by having a character with a physical disability be written by abled-bodied writers and portrayed by abled bodied actors, when the character’s only goal is losing their disability. If more disabled people were invited to be a part of the creative process in any media, not just shows like Glee it would allow for a more authentic viewpoint.

At one point, if an actor played a disabled role in a movie, they had approximately a fifty percent chance of winning an Oscar. Almost all actors who did win an Oscar for their portrayal of a disabled character were not, in fact, disabled themselves. When frustrated, it’s easy to assume that an actor will take a disabled role not because they think it will be a benefit to the disabled community, but instead it will be a benefit to their personal career. This kind of casting leads to actors putting disability in a box and making their characters usually sympathetic and not in control of the story. There are many examples of this, but a particular stand-out was Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of the autistic character Arnie Grape in the 1993 movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Arnie Grape is a character who has Autism and constantly needs the attention of his family in order to survive. While this situation might be a reality for many people across the world who have Autism, the movie displays many negative stereotypes and misconceptions about autistic and disabled people in general. Arnie was defined by many harmful stereotypes including his speech and mannerisms, despite DiCaprio not having the disability. In addition to the questionable portrayal of Arnie, the movie also has a very sad and bleak tone, which is a common media interpretation of living with a disability. Disability representation should be more about empowerment than about overcoming what an abled person believes to be a disabled person’s journey. What made the character arc more egregious was the fact that Arnie Grape is never taken seriously by anyone in the story and is frowned upon for existing. While the movie did receive backlash for the poor representation of disability, Leonardo DiCaprio still earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in A Supporting Role.

The most dangerous issue of misinterpretation of disability in the media is the way it affects the interactions of the disabled population in society, especially among the adolescent generation. When I was born sixteen years ago, I had a cerebrovascular accident, also known as a Stroke. Because of that Stroke, I have had complications with my body, and have had to face the day to day differences with being a disabled person. Most teenagers don’t have an intense, personal relationship with disabilities and have not had the opportunity to expand their reach of the world and meet a wider range of people. Instead, they gain an understanding of different walks of life through representation in the media. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing; I am just saying that this is the norm when it comes to getting information on different walks of life. Unfortunately since the representation of disability has been focused on a bleak and sympathetic approach for the most part, teenagers with disabilities have gained a sad and an unfortunate stigma. In my personal experience, whenever a person would find out that I had a disability, approximately nine times out of ten I’m met with an overly sympathetic response, such as the phrases “I am sorry,” “That is terrible,” “ I hope you are okay,” “ I thought that only happened to ….”. Now, these responses are not bluntly rude or disrespectful, and I am not saying that the people who have said these phrases to a disabled person are bad people. I am saying that there needs to be a re-education of what it means to be disabled, and that education can start in popular media.

When you think of characters that have had a Stroke, you probably imagine generally old characters who are not essential to stories while they are Stroke survivors. They always end up either leaving the show, or they do survive but never come back to what they were before. A lot of times the whole point of a character having a Stroke is to impact another character, usually the main character. People could really benefit from seeing different aspects of Stroke, such as a Stroke survivor being the main character. It would be the best for these characters to be portrayed by people who actually experienced or are recovering from a Stroke. If I had been exposed to a good and authentic representation of a Stroke survivor character, that would have been an immense boost of confidence, because it would allow me to have a beacon of positivity about how I saw myself as a Stroke Survivor. If people were exposed consistently to that type of good representation, then my day-to-day interactions with people about my stroke experiences probably would no longer be defined by pity or confusion.

Although the essay to this point has mainly criticized popular media interpretation of disability, there have been strides made recently to have authentic representation in modern popular media. A character who made everyone rethink disability is Tyrion Lannister on the hit show Game Of Thrones. The representation checked off many boxes for potential good representation of disability. First, the actor portraying the character, Peter Dinklage, actually had been born with dwarfism. Second, if you described the character without dwarfism, he still would be a very interesting and compelling character. Third, the character is treated with respect and not just sympathy. Fourth, he uses his dwarfism to his advantage as he would use his time to become more calculating and was forced to have to create a new skill set and a more fierce mentality to cope with the world, despite his disability. What made this representation so powerful was the popularity of Game of Thrones, as many people saw the show. And since the character was so popular among the television audience, it allowed for more producers of future media to look into how conditions like dwarfism could be represented in good, empowering, and authentic circumstances like that of Tyrion Lannister. Since the popular portrayal of Tyrion Lannister, there have been increasing opportunities for better representation of disability in media, with representations such as Speechless (which is a sitcom about a family with a child who has Cerebral Palsy, in which the actor also had Cerebral Palsy), and the Peanut Butter Falcon (which is about the story of a man who has Down syndrome, and his dream to become a professional wrestler).

The media representation of disability in the past has not traditionally been great and to the standard that it should be, as there has been much emphasis on detailing mainly the potentially dark and depressing aspects of having a disability, rather than giving audiences an authentic, well-rounded representation. Now that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added the new requirements for eligibility of nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture, there hopefully will be a category soon for disability representation. With more authentic representations of disability in the future, the next generation of people, disabled or not, will undoubtedly make the treatment of disability in the world better, because that is how powerful representation in the media really is.

References :

Robyn Powell, “What Hollywood Gets Wrong About Disabilities,” Huffington Post, March 7, 2018, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-powell-what-hollywood-gets-wrong-about-disabilities_n_5a9ef0ffe4b0d4f5b66b1882.