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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