Differently Abled Representations and Stereotypes

Disabled: 

• A person who has a physical or mental condition that limits their movements, senses and/or activities

TV shows that have differently abled people in them:

• Glee: Artie Adams

• Silent Witness: Clarissa Mullery

• Breaking Bad: Walter JR

• Walking Dead: Herschel 

• Game of Thrones: Hodor, Bran and Tyrion

• 90210: Riley and Dixon

Facts about Disabilities:

• There are 770,000 or 1 in 20 disabled children under 16 in the UK
• 1 in 5 working adults have a disability 

Paul Hunt (1991): 10 disability stereotypes

• Unable to participate in daily activities
• Sinister or Evil
• The super cripple
• Non-sexual
• Used as atmosphere 
• A burden
• Laughable
• Their own worst enemy
• Pitiable or Pathetic
• An object of curiosity or violence
• DESSABLE PC

Shakespeare (1999): The Medical Model

• The media throughout history has depicted disability as an impairment, Shakespeare point out in his article about disability in film.
• "Impairment is made the most important thing" and disabled characters are "objectified and distanced from the audience".
• People that represent disabled people in the media tend to depict them as pitiable people

The Imbetweeners

• Why is the clip funny
• Display of actions not going to plan 
• Ending up hitting someone in a position who stereotypically isn't able to defend themselves
• How is the disabled girl represented
• Helpless
• Unintelligent
• Burden
• Problematic
• Helpless
• Are we meant to be laughing at the disabled girl?
• Yes - she is being presented at the person who is the victim of an unfortunate situation. From a cynical point of view, some could see it as funnier as she is disabled
• No - you're supposed to be laughing at Will not her because he is the one who had the Frisbee throne at her and is not in an awkward situation
• Are they the butt of the joke
• Yes - she is the one who the Frisbee hit
• No - Will is now the one in the awkward situation with loads of guys chasing him
• How would disabled people respond to this?
• Insulted - they're only represented as a person who gets into trouble and is in an embarrassing situation
• How does this comply with Shakespeare’s stereotype?
• The disabled girl in the media text is shown as someone who is in a situation that makes the audience want to feel sorry for her
• Are we being conditioned to feel sorry for the disabled people?
• We are either being conditioned to feel sorry for them or we're being conditioned to laugh at them

Life's Too Short

• Why is this clip funny? 
• Because people around the main character are being and unhelpful
• How is Warwick Davis represented? 
• He's presented as a person who is trying to get on with normal activities
• He is still shown as someone who needs help but he is still able to get on with activities on his own
• Are we meant to be laughing at the disabled person? 
• In a sense. You’re mainly laughing at the situations that he gets himself into.
• Are they the ‘butt’ of the joke? 
• Yes but only because of the situation that he is put into not because he is disabled
• How many of Paul Hunt’s (1991) stereotypes does this clip comply with? 
• It complies to the theme of being their own worst enemy due to no body taking him seriously and trying to be able to complete normal tasks in spite of his disability 
• In what way does the representation comply with Shakespeare’s Stereotype
• He is presented as pitiable as he is trying to go about normal actions but is facing difficulty due to the people around him
• Are we as society being cultivated to think that we should pity disability?
• From this clip, no