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The Disability Studies Film Shameless

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In our society there is a big perception of what is normal and/or perfect, this is thought to be the traits that society thinks to be the most desirable, such as being skinny, but not too skinny, having long hair for girls, having no mental or physical disabilities, and so many more traits. In the first chapter of the Disability Studies Reader we are informed that this perception has evolved drastically since the 19th century, before this it was believed that there was no one perfect person. For example, old Greek sculptures were sculpted based off many models, each model was for a specific aspect of the sculpture. Now individuals are believed to need to have all aspects to be perfect.
One of the big movements for normalcy that has majorly …show more content…

This aspect was strongly acknowledged in the documentary Shameless. In this documentary they have a bingo night and watched a bunch of films showing how different disabilities are looked at as a bad thing. Another example is in the X2 movie when the man who can freeze things tells his parents about his abilities. When he tells then they feel pity for him and asked how they could get rid of his mutant abilities. This shows how they looked at him being different as a bad thing and they didn’t look at any of the advantages or at how you do not choose these things. A few ways that individuals have made strides to change societies view on disabilities are during the eugenics movement, HIV/AIDS crisis when it they made it such a stigma if you had it, and even now when Trump has mocked individuals with down syndrome and made them seem like they are not …show more content…

In the movie X2 it shows how you could look pass the fact that being a mutant is like a disability. Before this class, I would have never looked at these individuals as having a disability. This movie showed how you see this stuff constantly in all types of media that you start to not even notice it, because it is always there making it just a normal thing. Overall, mainstream society needs to step back and learn more about disabilities hands on and not judge a whole group of individuals based on one experience and the fact that they are different then

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209 Words | 1 Pages

While reading the book Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, two young boys, Max and Kevin, each thirteen and going into eighth grade, go on adventures together to explore the world. Although each of them have a different disability, they both live there life to the fullest they can. Max struggles with the disability of Dyslexia, while his best friend Kevin struggles with the disability of Morquio Syndrome, this doesn’t hold them back. All humans have worth- even those who may not seem “worthwhile” at first glance. Freak and Max both have different disabilities and are able to live through them as the story moves on.

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807 Words | 4 Pages

A disability can make someone look at a "disabled" person in a specific way, even though they are just as capable as others of doing things. Some people don't realize the impact someone with a disability can have on the world because they are limited and criticized for their issues. People without disabilities can show what they have, and those with disabilities will never even get past the starting line because of people's biased views on disabilities. After listening to the Ted Talk by Keith Nolan, a private cadet, he established ethos, logos, and pathos through his educational speech on the deaf in the military. In the Ted Talk, Keith Nolan backs up his story with emotion, statistics, credible information, and real-life experience.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Leaving people who have a disability out of things and forgetting about them hurts their feelings. For instance, in Mairs’ essay she says “…you might feel as though you don’t exist, in any meaningful social sense, at all” (14). No one wants to feel that way, but people who have a disability go through it all the time. The media’s influence may convince people who have a disability to feel as if they’re an outsider since they have a “shameful” part of

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1620 Words | 7 Pages

In the words of Lennard  Davis in the first page of Introduction: Normality, Power, and Culture, “The ‘problem’ is not the person with the disability, it is the way that normalcy is constructed to create the ‘problem’ of the disabled person,” (Davis 1). Everyone is different and to impose an idea of what is an expected or acceptable by labeling those who don’t conform as disadvantaged or handicapped, is artificial and

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

Nancy Mairs wrote a fantastic piece that has opened my eyes to how disabled people are affected by the media. Her writing, “Disability”, was about her struggles with how the media presented people with disabilities. She explains her frustration with how commercials, books, movies, and shows make people’s disability look like the only thing they are. She explains how the whole premise of some shows is the person's disability, instead of what they like and who they are on the inside. There are two main people groups that Nancy is trying to reach in this piece, people who don’t know much from the viewpoint of a disabled person, and people who are writing stories and ads about disabled people.

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364 Words | 2 Pages

Giving people limitations in order to make everyone completely equal does not work out, and that is displayed in “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. Making people handicapped until they’re at the same level as others is demoting them in a way that shouldn’t happen: “They weren’t really very good- no better than anybody else would have been, anyways” (Vonnegut). Since the ballerinas had handicaps to make them average, nobody knows what would classify as poor dancing versus extraordinary. Everyone has the same skill level and sets, but only because they are being weighed down. Additionally, equality is wonderful when it’s incorporated in the right ways.

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330 Words | 2 Pages

The main arguments that Davis Lennard has placed out for this introduction are the constructive views of normality versus disability. To summarize Lennard’s argument, he states that the majority of a population and/or society must be similar, to be recognized as “normal.” What is then “normal” is now seen as average, thus, creating a false illusion for one to “idealize” for something that is considered better than what is known as the average. And because we are constructed to have an ideal type of a body, we see a disabled body as the “problem,” even though that is not the case. Lennard states that the disabled body becomes a body that is less than an average body (aka normal body).

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358 Words | 2 Pages

So often we look at ourselves and aren’t satisfied which is exactly what we heard in Fixed when Gregor was the only person that wouldn’t change anything about himself, even though he was disabled while everyone else who doesn’t have a disability always wants something different that they think will enhance their body.

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857 Words | 4 Pages

When someone thinks of someone with a disability, they usually feel bad for them. They will also associate the word disability with a disadvantage. What if that wasn't true? What if instead of being at a disadvantage, people with disabilities just have to look at the task differently? As Oscar Pistorius, the

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442 Words | 2 Pages

The media portrays individuals with disabilities in a variety of ways, most coverage is positive. However, just like everything else, media reports can be negative. I read an article titled Zoo Proves Transformative for Teen with Severe Disabilities by Ted Gregory. He focused on both her disabilities and abilities along with the controversy surrounding whether or not human-animal interactions can be helpful. The article was written as a “feel good” article about how individuals with disabilities can lead successful lives along with finding the right placement that encourages and focuses on their abilities can be successful.

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469 Words | 2 Pages

There is still some equality; there are those with handicaps who want to get rid of their handicaps and those without handicaps who want to know what the handicaps are like. These handicaps are

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768 Words | 4 Pages

Disability in the Media The media can have a significant impact on the disability rights movement by shaping public perception and driving social change. When the media covers stories related to disability, it can bring attention to issues that might otherwise go unnoticed. For example, news stories about inaccessible buildings or discrimination against people with disabilities can raise awareness and spark action. The disability rights movement is a social and political movement that aims to secure equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities.

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642 Words | 3 Pages

Ableism is the “discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities”, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary and is felt by the entire disabled minority, This can include, but is not limited to; stigmas, feeling disadvantaged in the workforce, being treated differently in public, being overlooked by institutions, or the feeling of having specific needs blatantly ignored. Castaneda, Carmelita, Larissa E. Hopkins, and Madeline L. Peters. "Ableism." Readings for Diversity and Social Justice.

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774 Words | 4 Pages

Saniya Shah Professor Gehring LGST 173 8 June 2023 The Negative Portrayal of Down Syndrome in Glee (677) Society’s perception of disability is influenced by many things, but perhaps the biggest influence comes from the media and its poor portrayal of people with disabilities. A journal article, Deconstructing Disability: Three Episodes of South Park, indicates that 99 percent of American households have at least one television set, indicating that the media we consume shapes our understanding of the world. As a result, the media constructs reality instead of reflecting it, thus creating and fueling harmful stereotypes (Reid-Hresko and Reid, 2005). The alteration of reality through the media and the negative portrayal of people with disabilities

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1333 Words | 6 Pages

As the statistics shown above say, disabled people are considered an embarrassment to be around and considered unproductive people, and therefore are excluded from their society. This group of people is socially excluded in many ways: 1) Excluded from leisure facilities Disabled people are usually deprived from their rights of having fun and spending their leisure time like normal people. Have you seen cinemas with special seats for paralyzed people for example? The answer would be no probably. Disabled people find it difficult to enter leisure facilities like swimming pools, bowling centers and cinemas, although with simple adjustments these places could be suitable for

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