The representation of disabled people in the media often resort to stereotypes. Explore how disability is represented and how new media may be changing our views.
The people who make up the disabled proportion of the world’s population are subject to a wide number of representations throughout the media, which in most cases either create certain stereotypes, or are born from a particular stereotype. Although all representations can be seen to be true to a certain extent to at least one disabled person, they cannot be generalised to the whole population, as one such as the disabled person being seen as pitiable and pathetic, possibly the most common stereotype created through the media, may be over-ridden by a disabled person who can be seen as a super cripple due to certain senses being heightened through the loss of the use of other senses. This representation is seen in the media in very rare cases, and of these rare cases they are often seen through fictional characters such as Frank from the movie ‘Scent of a woman’ or even Dr Xavier from the movie ‘X-Men’ and so are less likely to become a stereotype within society. Throughout recent years there has been a rise in the amount of media exposure gained by the disabled population, and with this gain of exposure it can be assumed that the wider population have been able to understand this group in a better way, and some previous stereotypes are now vanishing, for example that of the disabled person being sinister or evil. A slight mockery of this stereotype is seen in the movie ‘My Left Foot’ when the priest has a talk with Christy. Christy appears to be fearing of the priest and trying to be as distant from him, and because of this the reaction of the priest puts across the idea that he sees Christy as having evil inside of him, when in actual fact he is trying to hide the porn magazines for his brother which are hidden in his wheel chair. This is a prime example of how the media is changing and with this how our views of the disabled population is changing, as once this type of mockery would not have been accepted within our society. A second stereotype which is becoming more widely accepted is that of the super cripple, again slightly seen in the movie ‘My Left Foot’ through the character of Christy. He plots the plan to steal coal for his family from a truck which turns out to be successful. This makes him appear to be smarter than his fully able brothers who help him pull off the plan. Although it is only a touch on the representation of a super cripple, it completely goes against the view that was once common in society, that all those with physical impairments are also mentally disabled too. New ways of representing disabled people are also being seen in the sport with the Paralympics being a widely watched and supported event. This shows disabled people as being much more able than some might assume and shows them as being people to look up to in society, possibly creating the representation as some disabled people being role models, for both disabled and non disabled people to look up to as figures of success.
