XXXXX Writing 102 2/17/2020 Disability Myth Proposal 1. The disability myth I have chosen to focus on is disability as a sign of internal flaw. I am examining this myth because I remember drawing evil characters as a child and often I would give them a disability in order to make them more scary or evil seeming. The fact that children are influenced by this myth shows just how pervasive it is in popular culture. In the paper I will examine how the 2012 James Bond movie Skyfall perpetuates this myth in the portrayal of the antagonist Raul Silva. Silva is the driving force of the plot in the movie, he kills many British secret agents and steals an important document from MI6. When Silva is captured halfway through the movie it is revealed he is an ex-MI6 agent seeking revenge for the disability he accrued due the the MI6 director’s decision. 2. The chief goal of this project is to show how using this myth promotes harmful stereotypes about disabled people. I will start the paper by discussing the bad things the villain, Raul Silva does in the first half of the movie. I will explain how these things build up to the “big reveal” of character motivation, a trope common in Bond films. I will then discuss how it is revealed Silva’s motivation is his disability, he says he is both angered by having the disability, and set on revenge for the people he feels are responsible for it happening. I will explain how this is the embodiment of the disability as a sign of internal flaw myth. Silva is “mad at the world” for his disability, which is why he is willing to kill those who weren’t involved with his accident. This perpetuates the idea that people with disabilities are embittered by their fate, and resent the non- disabled. Will also discuss how the movie changes Silva’s voice to sound deeper and more menacing when his disability is visible. This reinforces the myth that physical deformities are an emblem of evil. I will also discuss how the backstory of Silva reinforces the myth. Director M’s defense of putting Silva in the situation that led to his disability is that he wasn’t following orders. This plays into the trope that disabilities are punishments for evil actions. I will also discuss how Silva appeals to James Bond and tries to turn him but Bond refuses. This is an example of how a disabled character is meant to contrast with the protagonist to show how virtuous the protagonist is. I will explain how these tropes hurt the disabled community by reinforcing negative stereotypes. 3. Source 1: The Politics of Staring: Visual Rhetorics of Disability in Popular Photography. This book discusses the ways in which disabled people are portrayed visually in media. The author argues that the way media visualizes disabled people can be put into the categories of the wondrous, the sentimental, the exotic, and the realistic. I think her discussion of the portrayal of the exotic disable.

1. XXXXX
Writing 102
2/17/2020
Disability Myth Proposal
1. The disability myth I have chosen to focus on is disability as
a sign of internal flaw. I am
examining this myth because I remember drawing evil
characters as a child and often I would
give them a disability in order to make them more scary or evil
seeming. The fact that children
are influenced by this myth shows just how pervasive it is in
popular culture. In the paper I will
examine how the 2012 James Bond movie Skyfall perpetuates
this myth in the portrayal of the
antagonist Raul Silva. Silva is the driving force of the plot in
the movie, he kills many British
secret agents and steals an important document from MI6. When
Silva is captured halfway
through the movie it is revealed he is an ex-MI6 agent seeking

2. revenge for the disability he
accrued due the the MI6 director’s decision.
2. The chief goal of this project is to show how using this myth
promotes harmful stereotypes
about disabled people. I will start the paper by discussing the
bad things the villain, Raul Silva
does in the first half of the movie. I will explain how these
things build up to the “big reveal” of
character motivation, a trope common in Bond films. I will then
discuss how it is revealed
Silva’s motivation is his disability, he says he is both angered
by having the disability, and set on
revenge for the people he feels are responsible for it happening.
I will explain how this is the
embodiment of the disability as a sign of internal flaw myth.
Silva is “mad at the world” for his
disability, which is why he is willing to kill those who weren’t
involved with his accident. This
perpetuates the idea that people with disabilities are embittered
by their fate, and resent the non-
disabled. Will also discuss how the movie changes Silva’s voice
to sound deeper and more

3. menacing when his disability is visible. This reinforces the
myth that physical deformities are an
emblem of evil. I will also discuss how the backstory of Silva
reinforces the myth. Director M’s
defense of putting Silva in the situation that led to his disability
is that he wasn’t following
orders. This plays into the trope that disabilities are
punishments for evil actions. I will also
discuss how Silva appeals to James Bond and tries to turn him
but Bond refuses. This is an
example of how a disabled character is meant to contrast with
the protagonist to show how
virtuous the protagonist is. I will explain how these tropes hurt
the disabled community by
reinforcing negative stereotypes.
3. Source 1: The Politics of Staring: Visual Rhetorics of
Disability in Popular Photography.
This book discusses the ways in which disabled people are
portrayed visually in media.
The author argues that the way media visualizes disabled people
can be put into the categories of
the wondrous, the sentimental, the exotic, and the realistic. I
think her discussion of the portrayal

4. of the exotic disabled person is relevant to my myth. By
portraying Silva as exotic and less
human, the movie is making Silva more of a villain, and causing
the audience to side against
him. By making Silva’s disability less realistic and more
strange and unusual, the movie is
perpetuating the myth of disabilities as a sign of internal flaw.
4. Source 2: Victims and Victors: Representation of Physical
Disability on the Silver Screen
This source is a study done by two researchers of University of
Hawaii at Manoa. The
study examined disability myths in movies made from 1975-
2004. One of the myths is the
disabled character as sinister, evil, and/or criminal. The study
discusses how wide spread these
tropes are, and how they can negatively impact the perception
of disabled people. One
particularly good quote that is useful for my understanding of
the myth is “Additionally, by
giving disabilities to villainous characters, three common
prejudices are reinforced: (a) disability

5. is a punishment for evil; (b) people with disabilities are
embittered by their "fate," and (c) people
with disabilities resent the nondisabled and would, if possible,
destroy them.” (Black 68). This
source will help me explain how Skyfall fits into a larger
pattern of tropes, and how these tropes
can be bad.
Working thesis: In the 2012 movie Skyfall, the villain Raul
Silva is revealed to have perpetrated
his horrible acts because he is angry from having gotten a
disability rather than death. His
disability is shown to be the cause of many of his worst
character traits and actions, this is a trope
common in movies and Skyfall perpetuates this myth which is
harmful to people in the disabled
community.
Works Cited
Thompson, Rosemarie Garland. The Politics of Staring: Visual
Rhetorics of Disability in
Popular Photography. Bedord/St. Martin, 2008.
Black, Rhonda S., and Lori Pretes. Victims and Victors:
Representation of Physical Disability

6. on the Silver Screen. Research & Practice for Persons with
Severe Disabilities, os, vol.
32, no. 1, 1 Mar. 2007, pp. 66-83.
Surname 3
Layan khalil
May/26/2020
English 102
Annotated Bibliography
Barney, Liz. “Bethany Hamilton: Surfing With Only One Arm
Isn't as Hard as Beating the Stigma.” Thegaurdian, 25 Aug.
2016, http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/25/bethany-
hamilton-surfing-espy-award
This is an article by Liz Barney that discusses Bethany
Hamilton’s surfing life. The author starts by discussing the
capabilities of Bethany despite the life tragedy that changed her
life completely. However, the article discusses the tragedy as
less agonizing in comparison to the stigma that Bethany
undergoes. According to Bethany, she was able to live with the
fact that she lost her arm and she learnt to surf with one arm.
She was able to control the fact that her life had changed and
trained herself to work with the changes. However, she faced
more challenges as people perceive her differently. She still
struggles as she cannot change how people perceive and treat
her. She wishes to be treated as a normal person and not
categorized even through her attainments in life.
This article illustrates further on the agony that the disabled
undergo as they try to feel normal and live a normal life.
However, the harder they try they are brought down each time
to the narrowed category of the disabled despite their abilities
to function normally. She faces more challenges as a surfer as

7. she has to peddle twice as hard in comparison to when she had
both arms. However, with the unique challenges that she
undergoes she still manages to inspire other people. Through
this article I will be base my argument on how the disabled are
degraded both consciously and unconsciously. According to
Bethany, the thought of being categorized and described as
disabled was degrading. The term disabled diminished her and
she encouraged the name to be changed to Best Adaptive
Athlete as the athletes had adapted to the unique life situations.
The article described how she adapts to the changes and inspires
others to do the same while living a normal life through their
unique ways.
“Bethany Hamilton - White Chair Film - I Am Second.” I Am
Second, www.iamsecond.com/seconds/bethany-hamilton/
This article described the life of Bethany Hamilton as surfer. It
begins by recognizing her abilities before her traumatic injury
that altered with her dream as she was a rising surfing star at
the age of 13. This article described how the injury changed her
life completely but did not change shutter her lifelong dream.
The author described how her strong spirit helped to change her
course and turned to be an inspiration to many people. The
article discusses how the injury brought Bethany down but
found unique capability to retain her capabilities. It is an
illustration how her life turned into an inspiration through
surfing. The author also described the challenges that she
underwent and the ways that she used to overcome them. It
illustrates her growth as an inspiration through communities and
cross the world.
It is also accompanied by the film SOUL SUFFER and is an
inspiration of what one can do when their outward passion and
purpose in life is seemingly taken away from them. The article
focuses on how an entity can transform his or her life into a
whole new being and still retain the dreams or even dream
bigger. I will use the article to base my argument on how the
renewal of spirit of an individual can raise a whole new being
and can also restore a person’s abilities. I will illustrate how a

8. disabled person can be able to live a normal life and attain his
or her dreams through unique capabilities.
Dolmage, Jay. “An Archive and Anatomy of Disability Myths.”
Disability Rhetoric, Syracuse University Press, 2016, pp. 31–
61.
This is an article by Dolmage and Jay where they focus on the
myths of disability. This article focuses different perspectives
through which various people view the disabled. Among the
myths that are discussed through the article include pathology,
overcoming or compensation, isolation and individualization. It
also discusses how they perceive disability as an object of pity
or charity. The author of the article discusses Stranger Things
which is an American science fiction horror web television
series. Through the discussion by the author they discuss how
people view the disability as compensations among other myths.
It is illustrated though the disabilities overcoming their
impairments through hard work or through some special talents
that offset their deficiencies.
The authors through the article try to change the perception that
people have regarding disabilities as most are myths. It breaks
down the stereotypes and the myths that run across the minds of
various entities. It encourages the disabled to embrace the
condition that they have thus making the best out of their lives
through their unique ways. However, the authors indicate that to
some it remains a challenge as they do not feel the same way.
Through this article I will be able to base my argument on how
various people with the disabilities are represented as sad and
impotent. That is illustrated as objects of pity and charity.
Many people try to demonstrate how the problem of sadness can
be solved through charity. However, through Stranger Things
Dustin is not a platform of charity. Instead, it is an opportunity
to increase the visibility of the disability and Dustin uses the
chance to inspire others like him. This leads to the rethinking of
disability. There is an attempt to normalize the disability.

9. PAPER #3: Proposal (10%)
Length: 600-900 words
1. Purpose: To propose your ideas for the longer paper (DMP
#1), including your primary text/source, and at least two critical
sources.
2. Outline: Your paper should roughly follow this format:
3. On the first page, you should indicate the myth your paper
will focus on, why you find it to be of interest, and the primary
text you want to use as an example. Include some basic but brief
information about your primary text. If your primary text is a
movie, book, or TV show, pick a particular scene (or character)
to focus on, not the entire work. Use your ideas from your
summary to help you with this part.
4. Explain how you plan to develop your ideas. What are your
critical goals for the project? After these introductory
ideas, pose a few questions that you want to answer in the DMP.
Your questions should be open-ended and designed help you
explore and develop your topic in depth.
5. Finally, discuss at least two critical (peer-reviewed) sources
that you will use. What arguments do they make? How will they
be helpful to your project? Try to stick with scholarly sources
(i.e., from academic, peer-reviewed journals) rather than blogs
or news articles. Two scholarly (peer-reviewed) sources are
required for this assignment. The purpose of this is to see that
you are using appropriate and helpful sources. You may change
your critical sources – or I may ask you to find new ones - but I
strongly encourage you to run any new ones by me before
putting them into the paper.
6. Explain the disability concepts you will use to interpret your
primary text, and the issues they bring up for scholars. Include
a preliminary/working thesis.Your thesis may change by the
time you write your final paper; that is okay. I want to know
that you have thought about your project, and how you will
approach it.
7. Include a Works Cited page using the MLA guidelines.

10. The primary source is Soul surfer movie
The second sources are In the other file
The overcoming/compensation myth is the expectation that
society often has of disabled people. Many movies/films/books
will use a disabled person as a source of inspiration, stating that
the disabled person has ‘overcome’ his/her disability. What they
are really saying is that the disabled person is acting more like
‘them’ or like a non-disabled person. It is a way in which non-
disabled people try to ‘normalize’ a disabled person. It is
insulting in two ways: one is that a person may have low
expectations of the disabled person (like Stella Young, who was
given an award for not really achieving anything, or someone
congratulating her for knowing her name or getting out of bed).
Or high expectations, where a disabled person will
‘compensate’ in some way, through hard work, to be more
accepted. An example of that would be praising a deaf child
because his speech is clear and ‘is almost close to normal.’ That
child will never have perfect speech, so it is a no-win situation,
and the focus is on sound when it should be more about the
child learning language. It is also about expecting a disabled
person to be a ‘supercrip,’ which is unfair because a disabled
person should not have to go above and beyond in everything
they do just to be accepted, get a job, etc.
Overcoming obstacles, in contrast, is something that disabled
people do every day because they do not have a choice – they
have to find ways to adapt or make their world work for them:
this is not the overcoming/compensation myth. For example, a
wheelchair user might use a pair of barbecue tongs to pick
something up from the ground or a person with dyslexia may
choose to wrap their left index finger with a ribbon during a

11. driving test to remind themselves which way is left. Or
someone with dwarfism will place a few wooden stools around
the kitchen, so he or she can work on the counter.
Remember a disabled person cannot 'overcome' their disability.
They can only try to overcome the obstacles in their social and
physical environment. Their disability is with them for life.