AS Media Studies, Disability, Representation, Stereotypes.

1. LO: To understand theories
about disability
Task one: remind yourselves
of the different disabled
stereotypes (next slide
recaps them all).

2. 1. Pitiable and pathetic; sweet and innocent; a
miracle cure
2. Victim or an object of violence
3. Sinister or evil
4. Atmosphere - curios or exotica in 'freak shows',
and in comics, horror movies and science
fiction
5. 'Super-crip'/ triumph over tragedy/noble
warrior
6. Laughable or the butt of jokes
7. Having a chip on their shoulder/ aggressive
avenger
8. Burden/ outcast
9. Non-sexual or incapable of a worthwhile
relationship

3. Colin Barnes (1992)
Media continues to use stereotypes to portray disabled individuals in a
negative/un-empowering way.
Colin Barnes (1992) Disabling Imagery and the Media explains the stereotypes
of disabled people in the media:
• Object of violence
• Sinister and evil
• Atmosphere or curio
• Super cripple
• Object of ridicule
• Their own worst and only enemy (having a chip on their shoulder)
• Burden
• Sexually abnormal
• Incapable of participating fully in community life (Pitiable and pathetic)
• Normal

4. Jenny Morris (1991) argues that cultural portrayals of disability are
usually about the feelings of non-disabled people and their reactions
to disability, rather than about disability itself. Disability thus becomes:
“...a metaphor...for the message that the non-disabled
writer wishes to get across, in the same way that ‘beauty’ is
used. In doing this, the writer draws on the prejudice,
ignorance and fear that generally exist towards disabled
people, knowing that to portray a character with a humped
back, with a missing leg, with facial scars, will evoke
certain feelings in the reader or audience. The more
disability is used as a metaphor for evil, or just to induce a
sense of unease, the more the cultural stereotype is
confirmed” (Morris, 1991).

5. Hannibal
• In the clip, Agent Starling
goes to see Lecter’s victim
who is in bed, hidden in the
shadows and surrounded by
curtains.
• How is disability represented
to us?

6. Representations of disability in different media formats
Hannibal (film)
The light is raised to give a horror view of his face. The character here is
evil too, so we associate his facial scarring with punishment for his evil
nature, and also with the visual manifestation of evil (we expect evil
people to look evil, thanks to generations of fairy tales). We are supposed
to be shocked, to recoil in horror.
How do you think this affects people with facial scarring?

7. Villains…!

8. Katie Piper…?

9. 9
4 Models of Disability
• Moral
• Personal Tragedy
• Medical
• Social

10. 10
Moral Model
• Two Parts
– Religious and Spiritual origin
• Punishment from God (ie: due to displeasure)
• Evil spirits (possessed)
• Witchcraft
• Bad Karma (did something evil in the past)
• Gift from God (cross to bear, angelic)
– Character weakness
• Corruptness
• Immoral-ness
• Examples: villains in movies, refrigerator mothers, faking,
unmotivated

11. 11
Personal Tragedy Model
• Disability is considered a tragedy
• Society needs to take care and protect persons
with disabilities
• If someone with a disability achieves something
that a “normal” person does, then the person
with a disability is looked at as inspirational
(super crip)
• This is often mixed with the Moral and Medical
Models
• Examples: inspiration news story, telethons,
charities

12. 12
Medical Model
• An individual with a disability has a physical or mental impairment
• The disability is within a person
• Media has always depicted disability through the use of
impairment “Impairment is made the most important thing” and
disabled characters are “objectified and distanced from the
audience.” - Tom Shakespeare, Disability Discourse, 1999
• Media focuses on portraying impairment through the influence of
the medical model of disability
• Medical model: ‘Disabled people’s inability to interact in normal
daily life is direct result of their physical and/or mental impairment’
• Example: Tiny Tim in ‘A Christmas Carol’ - crippled child is defined
by his disability and will only survive through medical intervention
• Call for adopting the social model of disability has seen
improvements, although media’s been slow-moving

13. 13
Social Model
• Instead of disability originates within the
person, disability originates from society
• Disability results from barriers in society and
the environment
– Physical barriers
– Attitudinal barriers

14. Social Model
• “...disability is caused by the way society is organised,
rather than by a person’s impairment or difference” -
Scope, registered charity no. 208231
• “It looks at ways of removing barriers” so that “disabled
people can be independent and equal in society, with
choice and control over their own lives” – Scope
• Example: wheelchair user wants to get into a building with
steps. Under social model solution, a ramp would be added
to the entrance so the wheelchair user is free to go into the
building with ease.
• Using medical model, there are very few solutions to help
wheelchair users to climb stairs, which excludes them from
essential and leisure activities

15. The Inbetweeners
(5.18) Character is:
• mocked
• irritable
• self-involved
• self-pitying
• there's a theme of not being able to say anything
negative about him because he's disabled
• "other"-ing

16. The Undateables
• The Channel 4 series received
both positive and negative
praise.
• Why?

17. Sam Wollaston – The Guardian
• "I don't think there's anything exploitative
about The Undateables. It's sensible, sensitive,
kind. Not too kind though, not worthy, not
head-on-the-side, sad-face, we feel so sorry
for these poor people."

18. Disability Arts Online
• "Disabled people are portrayed as lonely,
desperate and overeager to find that ‘special
someone’, often pushed by their mum. I have
yet to see another dating show where mums
are as ubiquitous as in this one."

19. Sheldon
• Sheldon is one of the main characters from the
extremely popular comedy The Big Bang Theory.
• Sheldon is a socially awkward physicist with
Aspergers syndrome. Asperger’s is a type of
autism.
• This show uses his Autistic traits to make people
laugh. This works because what people find funny
is usually things that our outside the social norm

20. • In this clip, Sheldon is having trouble breaking his
usual routine. This is very common in people with
autism. They usually have stereotypical,
compulsive behaviour.
• This is a serious problem in which they must
follow a very specific routine they cannot be
broken or else they have temper tantrums or
even go as far as to self harm. This ritualistic
behaviour becomes very dangerous because it is
extremely difficult for them to do anything that
they aren't familiar with or in locations that they
aren't used to.

21. • This entire show is based on Sheldon's social
awkwardness which is another serious issue
that autistic people have. They see his lack of
social understanding as funny because he
doesn't realize that people are making rude
comments about him or being sarcastic. This
makes him look ignorant in the same way a
"dumb blonde" stereotype would.

22. Huntemann & Morgan, 2001
• They point out that members of society who do
not see representations of people ‘like
themselves’ in the media learn ‘a fundamental
lesson about their group’s importance in society.
Daily, they are being sent a loud and clear
message that they do not count for very much in
society’
• In this way the media functions to define what
counts as ‘normal’, ‘central’, and ‘valuable’, and
to make under-represented or misrepresented
groups feel that they have little worth.

23. • Although it is unlikely for a character in a show
to have a disability, sometimes when they do,
the actual actor playing the part does not
have a handicap.
• This makes it even more difficult for people
with an actual handicap to fulfil their dream of
becoming an actor.

24. Visible Disabilities
• Lauren Potter (Glee)
• Jamie Brewer (American Horror Story)
• Luke Zimmerman (Secret Life of the American
Teenager)
• Sean Berdy (Switched at Birth) – Deaf
• RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad) – Cerebral Palsy
• Herve` Villechaize (Fantasy Island)
• Peter Hayden Dinklage (Game of Thrones)
Downs
Syndrome
Dwarfism

25. Cerrie Burnell
• The CBBC Presenter caused a stir when she
first appeared as a presenter for the children’s
TV channel.

26. Finding Nemo
• Variety of characters suffer from
'abnormality‘
• Nemo has 'lucky fin‘
• Dory has short-term memory loss
• Marlin has emotional disability and anxiety.
• Gurgle has OCD
• Gill has facial deformity
• The film presents an accepting view of
disability and abnormalities that differs from
most narratives

27. Disability Studies Online
• "'Finding Nemo' becomes an act of rescue,
maturation, and acceptance of self and others
for all the characters. Marlin learns to trust
Nemo and his self-defined abilities, as
prescriptive stereotypes of disability are
tested and disproved and the protagonist's
triumph is enabled." (2004)

28. The R-Word
• Language used in media to describe disabled
people offers a good indication whether social
change has occurred.
• However, language (especially colloquialism) is
also becoming a barrier to this change.

29. TESCO & ASDA
• Mental health stereotype Halloween costume taken
off the shelves.

30. Despite this…
Newspaper photographs do not help remove
these stereotypes
• The tabloids are a particularly potent source of disability
representations. The Daily Mail, featured a Muslim cleric who had his
hands blown off in Afghanistan.
• He was pictured with his hooks on prominent display, described in
the article as ‘metal claws’.
• The article aimed to expose the supposed glut of ‘bogus asylum
seekers’ who are also ‘terrorists’ and who are claiming social security
benefits funded by taxpayers in Britain.
• It thus combines iconic images of Muslim fundamentalist masculinity
with disability in order to create and to maximise the fear of
‘foreignness’ associated with post 9/11 society.

31. Television documentaries
• Recent examples include Amputee Admirers (channel Five) which
purports to discuss Internet-based groups who run dating/social groups
for amputees and those who are attracted to them.
• In this case, an academic who is also an amputee is questioned in order
to give an element of political correctness to a programme which is
essentially about voyeurism.
• However, the camerawork exposes the subtext by zooming in on the
academic’s stumps and scars as she speaks.
• Also see ITV’s The Unluckiest Faces in Britain which utilises stark
lighting and mise-en-scene and big close-ups to emphasise the facial
differences of its subjects, while they are interviewed in a supposedly
sympathetic manner.

32. Television drama and film
Wheelchairs tend to predominate here, since they are an iconic
sign of disability. Most actors playing disabled characters are,
however, not disabled.
The wheelchair allows the character to be obviously disabled,
whilst still looking ‘normal’, and does not therefore present any
major challenges for audience identification.
A good example is Artie in Glee.

33. Difference
It has been argued that dominant notions of ‘normality’ and beauty do
not allow for the natural range of difference in human form. These
notions are not only prejudicial to the acceptance of disabled people,
but also increasingly impact on non-disabled people. Charlotte Cooper,
for example, applies the social model to obesity, and concludes that
there are some important categories through which obesity can be
defined as a disability:
• A slender body is ‘normal’
• Fatness is a deviation from the norm.
• Fat and disabled people share low social status.
• Fatness is medicalised (e.g. jaw-wiring and stomach-stapling).
• Fat people are blamed for their greed and lack of control over their
bodies.
Consider why it is that fat people or disabled people are rarely
portrayed as sexually attractive.

34. To conclude…
• The media is guilty of "other"-ing disabled
people and widening the gap between people
with impairments and those without.
• Although it's evident that attitudes are
changing and high profile media coverage of
disabled people without the stereotypes are
slowly becoming more frequent.