Coming back in with Another Thought: One thing that drives me up the wall is that many people can't imagine a Disabled *Hero* in a story, beyond a tragic or inspirational framework (see Tiny Tim in a Christmas Carol, for an example). But they have no trouble at all imagining a Disabled *Villain* with the power to get things done and have an active role in their own destiny.
The number of people who think I'm my blind spouse's caregiver is aggravatingly high. Including his own grandmother, who lived in the same town as him until we moved out of our respective parents' places and saw him all the fracking time, but somehow missed that he knows how to cut his meatballs, if you just let him be to get on with it. His therapist was the worst, tho; she flipped out when she found out he is on solo-parenting duty regularly & sent him in a spiral that lasted for far too long. His clinical-level anxiety is a bigger problem than his extremely short sight. i am hearing-impaired, though it isn't very obvious in most circumstances, especially since a hearing aid can't help me. they just think I'm a stick in the mud for avoiding noisy situations and kind of going quiet if i end up in one. I've stopped hearing is all. Not literally, but it's all a giant white noise machine, or like the snow on old televisions from the 80s when you could only get a partial signal. White out.
You should do a sequel to this video covering media's depiction of folks with intellectual disabilities. I work with a professional theater troupe for people with disabilities- in most cases they're cognitive- and I find it endlessly interesting thinking about how they process the world (of course, I can only make educated guesses), much of which is not really portrayed in media.
As a person with Diabetes and arthritis, I never saw myself as disabled or that there was something wrong with me. In college I had a theater class where the teacher had me do this monologue. At one point she told me to reach for the bitterness of having Diabetes as a child. But I wasn't bitter. I did the things other children my age did. I went out with friends, attended school fairs, and even went trick or treating every Halloween. Yes I had a strict diet and I had to check my blood sugar and give myself shots, but that was just an aspect of my life. I would compare it to someone who has a food allergy or a religious reason for not eaten certain foods. It's an aspect of them, but it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them.
Have you read anything about the social model of disability? It's basically saying that it's not an issue with the person, but rather the environment. A silly example, I open cans with my left hand, and can't use right handed can openers (mostly due to joint pain, but even before that, I never could get it), and if I'm in a space where I have to open a can, and don't have an ambidextrous can opener, that can be a disability, as I can't open the can. Same with wheelchair users trying to get into a building that doesn't have a ramp or lift. The problem isn't the wheelchair, it's that the building is missing another way in. Of course that's just one way of looking at things, but I feel similar. I have allergies and have to wear masks with filters in most stores due to allergens like perfumes and cleaners, I have to wear special socks and braces to avoid dislocations or getting blood pooling in my feet, and I have to be really careful with what I eat and when, as well as avoiding sensory overload. I'm perfectly fine in my house, but put me in a shopping mall without a mask, and without places to sit down, that's an issue. So it's a balancing act between society's faults, and my own struggles, but I'm not to blame if someone refuses to meet my needs, that's their issue.
Same here. I have both diabetes and Osteoarthritis and I have not been bitter or angry about either. it's just a fact of my existence, and since I like myself, this is just a regular aspect of me.
Ah geez. That’s just. That’s not okay for that professor to have done. In the interest of clarity, I don’t deal with diabetes, just asthma and undiagnosed chronic pain/joint issues (due to childhood injuries). So I can’t even fathom what it must have been like to have your professor say that to you. The only standpoint I can speak to this situation on is from my POV as a theater major. To that end, it *seems* like your professor was trying to teach an aspect of Meisner’s acting technique, (definitely not trying to explain away what the professor said or make it seem less sh*tty), which, vastly simplified, involves trying to get the actor to connect with genuine emotional depth under fictional circumstances. But what that professor did ENTIRELY MISUNDERSTANDS AND MISUSES THAT ACTING TECHNIQUE. The point is for the *actor* to choose a semi-true, semi-fictional scenario that allows them to connect to genuine emotion without causing any lasting trauma. NOT for the instructor to bring up any perceived “issues” or triggers that they believe the actor MIGHT have. That they misused something that *can* be so affirming and cathartic for an actor or student in general just to be sh*tty, (doesn’t matter if they mean to be or not), makes me pretty p.o. ‘d on your behalf. That doesn’t mean much but, yeah. I really wish you didn’t have to deal with that and that it had been a better experience for you. This comment seems a little pointless and I’m sure I made some mistakes here, so if anyone is up for correcting me after reading this doozy of a rant, please please feel free! ❤️
As a writer with a disability (cerebral palsy / wheelchair user), I've put some thought into a Bechdel-Wallace type template for stories (I've decided to call such things "templates" instead of "tests"). I've named it the '1,001 Problems Template," and it goes like this: 1) There's a Disabled character, 2) Who wants something, 3) *Besides* Revenge, Cure, or Death, and 4) Tries to get it (as opposed to a normate ally vowing to get it for them). As for positive Disability Rep, even though it's not a *real* disability in a real-world context, I'd count Disney's new movie _Encanto_ as fitting my template. The protagonist *is* Disability *Coded* (being the only one in her family who didn't get a Magical Gift). And her character arc is about being accepted as she is, rather than finding a cure for herself. And from responses I've seen from other disabled folk online, her character resonated with a lot of us.
The charactr raphaleo i think, who is in a wheelchair, but is not needing a character, and while he yeah overcompansates about andvertercity, in a really brutal tet who gets to live on an island, because th rich live there and it a poor country, so pretty much any charact wants something ad i think he , yeah he is smart, but got trained by someone, An yes he over compasate and ants to challeng the tet, but evryoone does. And doe not need a caregiver who takes away in a meaningfful way. There is also joanna who is great, she is amazing but i think raphael is really not defined as in a wheelchair per se. More he had a entor who really wanted him to pass the pretty brutal test , i dint atch the later seasons so far , but he definitly is not defined by the wheelchair alone.
As someone with cerebral palsy, though not in a wheelchair yet, I've been looking at this too. Not to play devil's advocate because that is a really bad way to really discuss something. I have glasses. Now today glasses and poor eyesight are not considered a disability by the general masses unless its full out blindness or impairment so severe that glasses or treatments cannot correct it. This is still a disability but its shown in our real world that we do actually follow the mentality of fixing the disability or coming up with ways to make the disability lesser rather than change the world around someone to make it easier. I have 20/1500 vision according to the doctor doing my eye exam. I am incredibly nearsighted and I cannot read this even on a fairly large monitor if I were to remove my glasses. I can see colors, general shapes, but everything is incredibly out of focus. But it made me think about what Vera was saying when it came to characters trying to find ways to either fix or make a disability effectively not exist. Its not quiet the same because glasses are so wide spread, so widely seen and merged into our culture that we do not see them as a medical prosthesis, I know its not a proper body part replacement but I could not think of another word. If we put someone in a wheelchair, someone missing an arm, and someone wearing glasses into a lineup and asked the general public to identify the disabled people virtually no one is going to pick the glasses wearer. I am hoping in the future, with advancing tech that those who do have medical prosthetics become as merged into the culture so that a prosthetic arm or leg is as unremarkable as a pair of glasses are in the modern age. I think a template to compare for disabled characters should be in effect. I am disabled, though I hate to say this because I know those like yourself have a much worse instance of this same disability, I would like to see people who don't get magically cured or their conditioned used to invoke pity.
@@TheLastSane1 Oooh that’s a good point! It is fascinating to think about how nearsightedness is essentially a physical disability, but since it‘s so commonplace people hardly ever consider it as a “real” disability. But when you think about it, in the technical sense it really _is_ a disability, after all it’s an impairment of vision that requires a prescription medical device, much like someone with impaired hearing using a hearing aid, or someone who is missing a limb using a prosthetic.
Encanto is also great in that it has a character (Julieta, Mirabel's mom) who can heal people and Mirabel and her dad, Augustin, still have poor eyesight and require glasses. This version of healing doesn't take away disabilities. It only heals the current immediate injury that is needing to be addressed in the moment. The creators have actually said that Julieta had control over what gets healed. She doesn't view disabilities as something that needs to be fixed. I think that's a wonderful thing in their world building. Especially since it's a kids movie at the end of the day
I'm really glad I'm not the only person who read Mirabel as disabled. I went on this whole thing to my brother about passing and forced disclosure in the song The Family Madrigal (I also have cerebral palsy, but I pass as able bodied so long as I'm careful about how far I walk and wear my boots all the time, so it was a rare case of seeing a character dealing with that trade off of 'disabled but not immediately obviously')
As someone with quadrapledgic cerebral palsy, I found this an incredibly cathartic & informative watch. The tropes such as villain, plot conviniant disabilities and the framing of disabilities in the "triumph over adversity" narrative have always been tropes that I've noticed and am consistently shocked at the amount of times they are implemented in entertainment without being challenged and I'm glad more people such as yourself are addressing them as I feel people hesitate to do so out of a fear of getting something wrong (which I understand but I feel if done in the right way as you have done can be extremely helpful to the overall conversation) so thanks for doing this I really appreciate it.
Amen! I particularly detest the triumph over adversity trope. When my alarm clock goes off, I don't give a crap about trying to overcome adversity. I'm just trying to figure out how to get an extra 15 minutes of sleep. Not once in my daily life do I encounter any of the normal difficulties and think " now how can I try them overcome these?" Normally I think the exact same thing able-bodied people think, namely, I'm annoyed at the inconvenience and then I just figure a way around it.
I was born with Cerebral Palsy as well, though a much less severe case. I am able to walk (though with pain) and able to move my limbs (though again with pain and muscles becoming spastic or feeling like they are always held in tension) so I relate to this greatly.
Do you know about Zach Anner the comedian? He has cerebral palsy and shows the humor in the ridiculousness of how much harder it is for those disabled and for him wheelchair accessibility! His intelligence makes it always a joy to listen to him.
I was disabled for 8 years. Some days I'd need a wheelchair, some days a cane, some days I was ok without any aids. I'm personally tired of the "oh my gosh! They got out of the wheelchair! They were faking all along!" trope. There are many many wheelchair users who are not wheelchair bound. I particularly remember going to the zoo and having to get out of the wheelchair almost every time i reached an enclosure because from a seated level I couldn't see shit. Got a lot of "looks" everytime I got up
THANK YOU! Glad someone said it. My mom has had back and leg issues since childhood, so whenever we go to places that require a lot of walking (a museum, amusement park, etc.) she often uses a wheelchair instead of her usual cane. Does she need one 24/7? No, but in certain situations it keeps her from being in pain, and that's what really matters.
So, love this. I’m a wheelchair user who became disabled in my mid 20s due to an inherited condition, and a complication arising from that condition that wasn’t caught in time to prevent permanent nerve damage from the waist down. I was having an argument with an abled (of course) about why it’s such a problem that so many disabled characters are played by abled actors. “Well the disabled actor wouldn’t be able to play the before part” they said. And isn’t that telling? That they just assumed that any story about disabled people must include a before, that the framing of the story must be about becoming disabled? When I pointed that out, they said “well that’s the only interesting part” and it made me think- I became disabled at 24, exactly 10 years ago. It did take me a little while to adjust, a couple years. But then what? I’m still in my mid 20s amd nothing interesting would happen to me for the rest of my life? Just that grieving process. Oh, and I should work harder on being an inspiration, I’m a bit too much of a burden because I can no longer work and earn my own money. Though according to one person a few years ago now, I’m super brave, because if they were me, they’d have killed myself by now! Anyway, this comment isn’t going to become a vent about all the ignorant things the abled say to disabled people (though if people could stop talking to my cater instead of me that would be great). Just- great job on the vid, I’m so happy that you tackled this issue, it’s really rare to see anyone talking about it. Though Snappy Dragon (normally a dress history/costuming channel, and very funny) has done an excellent video on disability tropes in media. Also Jewish tropes in media, as V is both disabled and Jewish. And for anyone still reading, I want everyone to go watch the TedTalk that Stella Young did on Inspiration P0rn. It’s the best TedTalk that has ever been. She is greatly missed.
That reminded me of how upset the autistic and neurodivergent community got with Sia over her movie... That was so bad I didn't even watch it, I couldn't. But I've been watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine, and one of the characters loses a leg in it, and watching him struggle with the mental effects of becoming disabled was really helpful to me. I have genetic conditions (still waiting to find out if it's EDS, or something else), and they got worse during puberty, so now in my 20s, dealing with multiple chronic conditions (allergies, food intolerances, POTS, and joints going out of place somewhat frequently). It's obviously not the same as losing a limb, but the process can be very similar with coming to terms that you have limits, but that doesn't mean you can't still do things to enjoy. It's taken me longer, but I get a degree this year, and I found ways to work around my challenges to still be able to sew my own clothes which I enjoy. It just took a while to figure out what works, and what doesn't.
As a disabled person, physically disabled with cerebral palsy and fibromyalgia, I am glad to see those outside the community discuss disabled representation and asking a person who they know to help rather than going it alone. That's good to hear from the start. Glad to see the patterns and issues being brought up, the villain trope, and disablity from birth or gained during life and those degenerative over time. I have greatly enjoyed the video and the way the topic is discussed.
Ay! I have cerebral palsy and fibromyalgia! there’s two of us! I have spastics diaplegia and fibromyalgia and sleep apnea! I have some many questions. When did you get fibromyalgia ? I got it at 26, 31 now, I saw your comment randomly whilst looking for this topic, never seen anyone else or heard of it with both! I hope your doing okay. I know it can be tough.
I've long named Walter Jr. from Breaking Bad as one of the best disabled characters ever created. Not only is he played by an actor who actually has cerebral palsy (albeit not to the same severity as the character), but it never once feels like the condition is all there is to him, while still making clear how big a part it is of his and his family's life.
I know that riding 'Breaking Bad' has become an easy way to score points with strangers, but sometimes, this show feels as close to perfect as I could see happening; at least, within the next generation. Skyler is the only major, socio-political issue I have and they pull a *hard* correction for the audience on that shit when you realize what's really happening. And, I suppose, as an opioid user for chronic pain, there could be more to the drug legalization argument which Gale makes, but that's all I count.
@@acidsupernova Which is a weird thing I didn’t notice until I talked to people who watched it on a streaming service but now, can’t unsee. Season 4, in particular, felt very different to me over time. It’s the first, full season where I had begun watching everything weekly, and at the time, it really felt like it dragged and that Gus being Walt’s target kept getting bounced from one week to the next. But watching it all in sequence (I’d guess that I’ve done this about 7 times? Something like that) you see just how much happens over that period and how well-earned the story is. The cereal/breakfast thing was so funny to me because you really see just how absent Walt is from everyone’s lives after about 8:30 am each morning.
Completely unrelated but I had the pleasure of meeting RJ Mitte once and he was completely charming and still enthusiastic about breaking bad and his role on the show. Lovely guy and very funny
Yes and honestly love how Walt Jr. is so nice when he is hanging out with Holly and looking after her. One of the best TV Brothers ever. Aside from Ed on Fma
I really appreciate you mentioning albinism. My husband has albinism and one thing he mentions frequently is “the albino is always the bad guy.” He was bullied relentlessly as a kid for it and remarked that he still can’t really think of a positive role model or character with albinism. There certainly are some but they’re so small in comparison to the vast amounts of “bad guy” albinism. Hence, in my writing, I always include a positive or “good guy” with albinism and I always encourage the inclusion of more in media.
right right! they did that in black lightning and they Really did not want to humanise that man... they were just thrilled to have a """white""" (hes not white) villain amongst the black heroes, someone who was allowed to be racist basically. But krondon is an icon and he did a fantastic job in the show, despite the ridiculousness they put him through
You see a lot of positive stories for albino main characters in a whole lot of asian comics. White hair, red eyes and fair skin are often considered the strongest characters or characters with the most magical abilities and so on. In Asia the paler your skin the prettier you are too. They got skin bleaching practices thanks to it which is a bit extreme.
There's Elric, protagonist of Michael Moorcock's Elric series. I really wouldn't call him a good guy, but he was the closest thing to a hero that poor doomed world got to have. Very pulp fantasy.
The existence of cinema sometimes feels like it’s abysmal… It’s a 30-min drive from my house. With an autoimmune disorder and a surgically repaired hip and shoulder, those theater seats are sometimes just a non-starter. I’ll never let go of the way that so many supposedly progressive-minded people I know just said, “It doesn’t matter if you’d be better off renting ‘Spider-Man No Way Home’ from your house; *I* enjoy the theater experience and my choice in venue should negate yours.” Pretty funny how quickly people will whine about fairness while claiming that their preference can’t even co-exist alongside yours; that it has to eliminate it for them to be content.
I am very fortunate. The Regal Cinemas near my home all have captioning glasses. So I am able to watch films. Prior to that, I always had to wait for the DVD to drop or fo r streaming to be available.
@@micheledeetlefs6041 I’ve recently been exploring the different captioning devices at the theatre. The caption glasses don’t fit over my glasses. They had this one that went in the cup holder at cinemark that I really liked. I’m going to ask if they have one of those for the movie I’m going to tonight.
@@anthonykerr3509 Yikes! I have contact lenses so that hasn't been a problem for me. Without them, my husband has to tell me what is going on in the film. He hates doing that.
YES. I only have mild hearing damage but it would be a blessing to have that in theaters. Wish they could have that in live theatre too. I've seen something like captions done at an opera production before, so I KNOW they could make it happen
Okay, final comment now that I've watched: No, you didn't screw up. :) I agree with pretty much everything said here. In particular, the section on the overcoming adversity trope. I am blind (I can see light, "blind" is rarely an absolute, but seeing light does me little good). I am a massage therapist, and according to my clients I'm pretty good at it. But I absolutely hate being praised for having a career as a blind woman. Or when people claim that I am good at it because I'm blind. No. I'm good at it because I put a lot of work into first learning and then perfecting (not that I'm perfect) my chosen career. Not because I overcame a disability. And don't get me started on inspiration prn. I'm not here to be anyone's source of inspiration.
My best friend when I was a kid was blind & her parents used to have her sleep on a mattress on the floor because "what would happen if she fell of the bed in the middle of the night" and she would yell "the same thing that would happen if I fell off my bed in the middle of the day, I'm blind, not stupid!" I get that they were concerned for her, she was newly blind, but jeez, think things through
@@ahlimahs that makes me genuinely sad. Although my own inner Snark has a different answer. The same thing that would happen to you, dumbass. Who can see in the dark? Note: I am not calling you a dumbass, just the theoretical person telling me that I should sleep on a mattress.
@@CapriUni I think that's an excellent way to get some anger and/or frustration out of your system and put the other person on the defensive. I don't think people are maximally receptive to your ideas when they're on the defensive. Do you think the venting function would be served less well if the word "your" was replaced by the word "society's"? I think that might be more efficient at changing attitudes. Not that I have hard evidence to back it up, just horse-sense. And maybe your priority is just to vent, in which case it doesn't matter.
Almost 21 years living with chronic kidney disease caused by Lupus, most of them spent in dialysis. I'm sick and tired of movies and shows where some character has an unspecified kidney condition and "it's a race against time to get a transplant so they won't die". I have no doubt there are cases like that, but most of us spend years and years in dialysis, waiting for a transplant. I was in dialysis for seven years before I got my first transplant, which worked for eight years, and now I've been in dialysis for almost 6 years, on the waiting list for a second one. I guess that having to get connected to a machine 3 times a week, usually for four hours each time, and then going on with your life is not as sexy for a movie or show as the "race against time".
Another example, of a somewhat heroic character with a severe facial disfigurement. Spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender below. Zuko could definitely be considered one. He definitely starts out a villain, but his scarring is never really used as an element of fear, and is more the result of remnants of abuse from his father than a direct motivator from him, as his banishment is the motivator rather than getting revenge for what his father did. And while he starts out a villain, it quickly becomes clear even in season 1, that Zuko's natural instincts are to be a good person, but he was trapped in an upbringing that didn't allow him to be until he could get away from it, and even when he did, it took time to unlearn what his father taught him. You strangely root for him even in season 1 when he is almost always in direct opposition to the heroes, hoping that he becomes a better person, and by the end of the show he goes from anti-villain to full on hero. I wouldn't even call him an anti-hero by the end; he really does become a full-on hero. Also, I don't know how far Nathaniel is on season 2 of Avatar, but Toph is definitely an interest example of someone with a disability that has an unrealistic aid, but unlike most such examples, she is still hindered by her disability in ways that feel pretty natural with the rules they set up from it. It's not that Toph's disability flairs up because the plot needs more tension, it's more that the characters naturally end up in a situation through the plot, and Toph's disability naturally gets in the way of getting out of the situation because of its nature. Examples that come to mind include them getting trapped on ice in the middle of the water in The Serpent's Pass, or them becoming trapped in the desert. It may be the best use of both tropes that I've seen.
Remember when Ryan Sinclair was advertised as Doctor Who's first disabled companion, and Chibnall forgot how dyspraxia worked by episode 2? I was so excited to have some kind of disabled representation on my favorite show, being a fan with cerebral palsy, but by the end of it I was just waiting for him, and for Chibnall to leave.
Chibnall so was so clueless when it came to representing dyspraxia. Firstly, his Nan in the first episode essentially pressured Ryan into 'overcoming' his disability in order to ride a bike. Then his disability was completely forgotten about except for the odd scene here and there, often to add greater tension as an extra thing Ryan needed to 'overcome' (e.g. jumping onto the railways in Kerblam). When it was brought up it was always framed as a negative and never a part of who Ryan is as a character.
Would Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender be considered a good representation? Within the universe's framework, it's easy to equate her to Daredevil in that she compensates her blindness with her earthbending, to the point they feed into each other in a sense, but every so often, they do show instances where that is not the case. Despite being from a rich family, in a world with no equivalent of braille she is illiterate, she has some self-confidence issues trying to not think about her appearance, and there are often instances where her earthbending can't fully or partially compensate for blindness, like when there's stuff in the air or when she's in non-earth/non-firm terrain. There are other characters with disabilities in the franchise, but I singled her out as hers is more in the forefront of the character. She's not the protagonist, but is a main character, and while being blind is a big part of her character, it's not really what her character is about.
I am not blind so take this with a grain of salt but I would say yes. It is acknowledged when relevant but doesn't take up every scene she is in, creates realistic limitations but still a strong character
Off topic but Toph talking about feeling insecure about her looks stuck out to me so much when I was younger. I was also tomboyish, but in that label I limited myself. I felt insecure in my femininity so I never engaged much with it. I pretended I didn’t care about being pretty, but of course everyone wants to be beautiful. I like seeing a “tough girl” open up about that issue.
I’m not blind but have a physical disability and toph is my go to good disability representation, because there is a lot more about her than just her blindness and although she is super powerful they still show us her clear limitations (she can’t earthbend/“see” things in the air) which is regularly shown. Compare that to the deaf character in eternals, she didn’t actually show any signs of deafness apart from sign language speaking and that (at least to me) did fall into that flaw of superpowers fixed it category.
Someone on twitter pointed something out that I never considered before, I am disabled. I have glasses. I need them to see and navigate life but the pair I have is almost 10 years old because exams and glasses themselves are expensive. Finding a pair that fits my face right is hard. I never considered myself disabled because my disability aid (my glasses) are so normalized that people don't see it as such. Hell, vision insurance isn't considered health insurance. It's different. That said I understand how having a visual impairment that's easily compensated for can seem innocuous. Even so there's still that trend of "glasses as fashion items" and games not having them available from the start. I become all too aware that people consider glasses "accessories" and not something people need in everyday life.
Also although it is in comparison extremely minor, there arguably even exists something like a very mild form of ableism concerning glasses. While glasses have become a bit of a fashion accessoire in recent years it has been pushed in media for many years before that wearing glasses basically makes you ugly and completely unattractive. There are tons of examples in movies where people get a make-over to get from "ugly" to "beautiful" and often the most obvious thing that changes about them is that they just don't wear glasses anymore. Also as someone who has needed glasses from a very young age (since I was 4 I think) I got made fun of for it by other children quite a bit. As a result of both of those things I've always felt very uncomfortable/ugly wearing them and switched to contact lenses as a teenager as soon as I got the opportunity. It just gets more normalized as people get older so seeing someone wear glasses gets more common as more people start to need them.
I think it’s awesome that glasses have become a fashion item. It’s made them far less stigmatised, and increased the variety of frames available, as new trends come in as trends tend to do, and glasses manufacturers extend their ranges to accommodate them. It’s made it easier to find glasses thst suit me, especially as I need lenses with prisms, which can’t be fitted to a lot of frame styles. The more frames the merrier! I’m sorry you live somewhere where it’s so expensive to get corrective lenses though, that’s not fair at all. When I found out the cost of prism lenses I was so glad of my prescription! Here in the U.K. there are lots of places that offer 2 for 1 on prescription glasses including frames and lenses and starting from £60, so it’s not expensive to get regular lenses, and a lot of folk are eligible for free eye exams. Even when you’re not you can usually find a voucher in the paper to get an exam for £15 or £20, so we’re very fortunate. But it turns out none of those offers for cheap glasses include prism lenses. I’m eligible for a free pair once a year, and I have no idea how I’d afford it if I weren’t, but stories like yours certainly remind me how fortunate I am.
One of the most famous examples of the Villain With A Disability, Shakespeare's "Richard III" is problematic not only because the historical Richard of Gloucester didn't actually have all that serious a disability - he had a slight curvature of the spine, which was so minor it still allowed him to ride and fight and all of that - and his minor disability was preposterously exaggerated by Shakespeare *in oerder to make him seem more villainous* . A huge problem is the fact that he is usually played by perfectly able-bodied actors who wear fake humps and stuff like that for that purpose - "donning crip-face", I have seen it called. What I'd love to see is a producton of "Richard III" with the title character played by an able-bodied, handsome, muscle-y guy as an able-bodied, handsome, muscle-y guy, to show that his villainy is actually rooted in his narcissism, his Incel-esque delusion of supposedly being hard done by. What the hell, have him do the "Now is the winter..." soliloquy shirtless or fully nude, showing off a body that exposes his self-justifications for the horsehockey they are, that has the audience going: "Bro, what are you on about?" Sorry, gotten really off-topic here, but I really hate this "I'm not conventionally attractive and I have a disability, therefor I get to be evil!" thing.
Richard III was a pure piece of political propaganda that was designed to make the Tudors look better. It is pretty disgusting in it's portrayal of the disabled.
i find it really funny that you dislike the character because hes a villain and is disabled but then you go and say that instead of having a physical disability the character should be shown as a villain because he has symptoms of mental health disabilities, narcissism and delusions
I find it funny - and by funny I mean ignorant and ableist - that you assume that a distorted self-image automatically means that someone has a mental health disability. This is not the case. And the character IS a villain due to his distorted view of himself and his position in society, that's literally in the text: It's not enough for him to be as high status as he objectively is, being fourth in line for the throne and all, and a war hero to boot, it's not enough to be as powerful as he is, no, he MUST be the most powerful person, even if that means he must murder his brothers and nephews to be so.
@@gozerthegozarian9500 are you seriously going to argue that narcissism isnt a symptom of mental health disorders?? in the book the character is a villain due to his symptoms of physical disability and you dont live that and instead say its ok to demonize symptoms of mental health disabilities. tell me how is it ableist to think its wrong to demonize symptoms of a mental health disability? narcissists are not automatically evil or bad people just like how people with physical disabilities aren't automatically evil, so unless your ok with them both being shown as the route course of someones vilanry you are the one being ableist. you learn what narcissism and delusions are instead of misusing them and perpetuating stereotypes and stigma
I know recently in the dnd community there was a big argument about ramps being used in dungeons. About "its a fantasy world, why would you add something like that? It's supposed to be a fantasy!" While they also have things like slaves in their world building.
Of course, it makes perfect sense for there to be ramps and mechanical elevators in dungeons because the people who dug them out needed a means to get rid of all that rock and dirt they were removing, and ramps/elevators for carts are just more practical than anything else. In addition to the obvious of "disabled people want to play games too, and why wouldn't they want to see people like them as possible heroes?".
I think this boils down to whether a swords and sorcery setting is trying to lean into being fantastical, whether it's trying to be a historical recreation of the Middle Ages (often with certain conceits like magic and monsters added into the mix) or aiming somewhere in between. There's no right or wrong approach in a D&D game so long as everyone is enjoying it.
It should logically flow out of what that society is, what stage of development it's at, that kind of thing. For instance, a society that uses slaves has a class system and may have litters to get people around the city. If the nobles' primary transportation are litters then you don't need ramps--as seen in ancient cultures here on earth. Litterbearers can manage stairs and no one else other than nobility have needs that matter. And it depends how that society treats their disabled too. Many subsistence cultures have a tradition of euthanasia that may or may not be altered once the culture becomes more sophisticated. Also, how advanced is their medical treatment? Do people even have access to anything like a wheelchair? Ours wasn't invented until 1655, developmentally well after the scope of many fantasy worlds.
@@maurinet2291 the main issue is people that: 1. Act like a dnd world could never have ramps for any reason 2. Don't add a little thing for people that are playing amd disabled. Like maybe someone has a character with a wheelchair like them and wants a little smidgen of rep in some way. I dont think it's that big of a deal.
As someone with a couple of invisible disabilities who struggles with internalized ableism I think you did a great job breaking down the trends and tropes in media around disability representation and how much of it can be harmful to the disability community. It’s something that needs a lot more attention and amplification from everyone - disabled and non disabled alike - so that more people begin to be aware of how our society blocks people with disabilities from participating as much as they could if access were the default. And access helps everyone.
I have dyspraxia (I'm sure you can see *exactly* where I'm going with this), and while there isn't that much representation for people with our disability, the only example I have seen (Ryan Sinclair) was used purely as a "Hey, this thing exists, love us now" type of deal. While I don't believe that disabilities should define a character, they also shouldn't be ignored. I feel like a decent example of Disability Representation is probably Walt Jr. from Breaking Bad. (Before I continue, I do not have Cerebral Palsy, nor do I know anybody who does, so I am speaking purely objectively here). [Spoilers for Breaking Bad] Walt Jr. is shown to have a disability, but it doesn't get brought up outside of when it would *naturally* be brought up in real life situations (Take when Hank is paralysed after being shot, and Walt Jr. tries to convince him to get over his ego and move or, or when Walter is refusing Cancer Treatment, and Walt Jr. uses the fact he never gave up as a reason he disagrees with the decision). Now, I'm not saying you *can't* have a story focused on the disability, but the disability should *not* define the entire character.
The unfortunate thing about Ryan was not the depiction, but the reaction I saw among supposed fans of the show. SO many people didn't want to hear about Ryan's dyspraxia in the show because it was too "political" and they just wanted to "escape." It was really frustrating to me because although I'm physically disabled and don't have dyspraxia, their reaction was essentially saying that disabled people don't have a place in fantasy or science fiction, or media in general. And it wasn't even like his dyspraxia played a huge part in the show. Other than a few casual mentions, it hardly came up at all. So now I'm on a low-key mission for the Doctor to have a companion who uses a wheelchair and kicks major ass.
Thanks so much for doing this! And I appreciate that you noted a disabled friend of yours consulted on this. I'm a disabled person with Usher's Syndrome (I was born hard of hearing and am gradually going blind) which means that not only do I have two disabilities, but I have two different disability experiences. I am well aware of how differently those things affect a person emotionally and shape perspective so I'm particularly glad you noted that disability isn't simply, "person has x" but that there are so many factors that shape a person's experience with disability. One thing I would love to add to the conversation which doesn't really fit into this particular video because then the scope of it could become unwieldy, but just how often disability representation is done by white, cis, straight people [full disclosure: I am white, cis, and straight] but how many disabled characters who were the lead or co-lead of a story were POC? How many were LGBTQIA+? There's a whole issue of intersectionality that needs to be addressed in disability representation.
Doctor Who's latest series, Flux, has a character who is the new companion's love interest, who has a malformed left arm. Not only is it not central to her story, she's still seen as desirable romantically (and by implication physically). It's never remarked upon, it's just there, like her hair color or her height. Representation as a normal human being, not "the disabled chick".
If you're looking for a show with really good disability representation, the anime Ranking of Kings has a main character who's deaf and it's handled with a lot of respect
I was wondering if they handled it well. Although, to be fair, his story is textbook Overcoming the Adversary and currently going straight into "superpowered disabled person". And then on the villainous disabled person side, there's you-know-which lady, at least in a magical way. I do like Ousama Ranking, and I'm able-bodied, but that's how it looks to me.
@Kaworu Nagisa, I really like ranking of kings! and in a show where Giant and Demons and Magic Flat Disc People exist, I don't see how giving your main character a unique power is a bad thing? it's not tied to his disability, as far as I remember, so I don't quite get your point
You did it!!! You're covering this!!!! OMG, thank you! I am hearing impaired and my husband is wheelchair bound. We flinch so often when able-bodied content producers think they're being inclusive by tossing in some disabled characters, but because they haven't researched reality with those disabilities, they end up being exclusive or offensive if not both.
As someone who is physically disabled and autistic, I have to say you did do a good job on this video. One of the things I've always loved about this channel is how thorough you are in your research when doing this type of video. It's not easy to do a video on a topic you're not familiar with due to you not being part of the group you're speaking about. Sadly, disabled people aren't well represented in any medium, especially because writers don't know how to write action scenes with disabled people in them, and many of the entertainment that we consume are action oriented in some form or another. Which is why I loved seeing Freddy Freeman in Shazam! and why I love Barbara Gordon as Oracle. Basically I don't have high hopes for good representation of disabled people in any form of entertainment.
As a person with Cerebral Palsy, and other health conditions; I'm SO happy and relieved someone is finally stepping up and talking about this. It's because the media portrays us in such a negative light people think it's ok to look down on us. Thank you for sticking up for us, Vera.
I've always hated the trope of someone with chronic back pain as being someone who abuses drugs and alcohol and is either negligent or abusive to their children. Made me feel like I needed to put up with excruciating pain rather than go on medication.
9:32 I haven't finished the video yet but hearing this hit me hard. TW: thoughts of unaliving myself ... ... I recently got into an argument with an ableist on Reddit (rookie mistake, I know). They had come to the autism subreddit to ask about their autistic friend's behaviour but whenever someone would offer a possible explanation for their friend's behaviour and suggested that they just talk to their friend about what was bothering them, they would get mad. Their view of what autism is was essentially this: there are two types of autism. One is when someone is "essentially normal" and the other is when someone is "like Rainman bashing your head against a wall." They wouldn't accept that their friend might not automatically know that what he's doing is bothering them because of their autism, because their friend was "high functioning". I tried to explain to them that functioning labels are problematic and used myself as an example. I am considered "high functioning" and lived nearly two decades before anyone realised I was autistic, but I am also currently unemployed because working full-time in an office distressed me and burnt me out so much that I wanted to not be alive anymore. When I return to work, I am going to be limited in how many hours I can work and what type of work I can do in order to not have a repeat of this. I haven't felt very "high functioning" for a couple of years. I can't even chop vegetables right now without burning myself out. This person somehow interpreted this as me saying that all autistic people are the same and then called me lazy. I should have stopped here but I was incredibly angry at this and continued (again, rookie mistake). I told them that they had no idea what they were talking about when they called me lazy because I was s**cidal while I was working. They then replied, "You called yourself lazy when you said that all autistic people are the same (I never said that) and that every autistic person who works is struggling but acting like they're not (I never said that). Maybe be a better actor?" If one disabled or neurodivergent person makes it work under capitalism, people suddenly think all of us can and tell us to work harder or "be a better actor".
Based on what I heard a hearing impaired youtuber Jessica Kelgren-Fozard state,, Clint and Echo/Maya in Hawkeye are a decent depiction of hearing impairment. Alaqua Cox who plays Echo/Maya is deaf. I think that an important part of disability depiction seems to be about including people with the condition depicted. They know how it is to live with the disability. Most fully able people need to listen instead of project their own feelings
I think you did pretty well. :) I have multiple chronic illnesses and I was born with a spinal condition (Also I have multiple mental health issues and I'm autistic). So I've come across a lot of different kinds of ableism. I think the worst one I've seen in media and in real life is the assumption that a life that isn't "normal" isn't worth living. I hate it when a character is disabled and the "happy ending" is when they die. Often so they can cease being a "burden" on their loved ones, or because they don't believe they can have a life of value with their disability. I had back surgery in 2018, it was a very long healing process, and sometime just after I was able to leave the house but wasn't very mobile and couldn't move without a walking frame, I was resting in a public place, and a random older lady rocked up and told me that I was brave, that if she was as disabled as I, she would have killed herself. I think out of all of the ableism I've personally encountered, that sort is the worst. Just because I have a lot of pain in my life, just because I'm 43 and need a mobility scooter and a walking frame to get around when I leave my house, doesn't mean my life is worth nothing. And seeing a story with representation that directly counters that specific form of ableism is one I would love to see. And is one I'm working on in my own writing.
As a disabled person, I appreciate that you stressed repeatedly that you don't know a lot about this subject but that you tried to address it anyway. Because you had a few off points and a few good points. You even mentioned some disabled characters being villains that I didn't notice at the time. Like the stuff with Arcane. I hadn't thought about those as being problematic before. But they definitely are. So thanks for bringing that up. There is one thing I wanted to bring up, that you kind of didn't really say yourself but that I wanted to mention because you got kind of near it... And that's the idea that "Disabled people don't need to be cured! There's nothing wrong with them!" And... yes? If the disability is autism, or deafness, or blindness or something else that doesn't actively in and of itself put the disabled person's life at risk. Because that's actually a dangerous statement when it comes to chronic illnesses. That's the kind of statement that leads to books like "The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue". A story with a disabled person going after a cure, then turning it down. And the disabled person in that story has epilepsy. A disease that can cause a lot of pain and suffering. And the message there ultimately winds up being that if you're chronically ill, it's more noble to suffer. Or to use another example, there's x-men. And the concept of the mutant cure. And the mutant cure is always sold as a bad thing, right? That all mutants should be proud to be mutants and the cure is just and only a tool of suppressing mutants. But then that statement is said by characters like Storm. Whose mutant power is controlling the weather. To mutants like Rogue. Whose mutant power means she can never, ever, ever touch another person skin to skin without killing them. Or mutants whose powers cause them even worse pain than that. And it's really not fair to lump the two together. People who aren't in constant pain shouldn't tell people who are that it's better for them to just live in pain. This doesn't mean that in all sci-fi and fantasy settings that all chronic illnesses should be hand waived away, but... blanket statements like all disabilities don't need cures are really not good.
I still don't see the Arcane as a bad representation. It's not like you see all the disabled characters become bad or villains. The main point the show points out is that if you are from Piltover, even if you have a disability or are different, as long as you're from there you'll be fine. If you're from the undercity there's no such thing as treatment or support. They're the slums and the poor. The people there can't afford to help themselves most the time. Hell you need fresh oxygen in some parts to be on the safe side hence they wear the masks. And people topside live on the believe that especially undercity people should die young. It's literally mentioned by their leader at some point. And why do undercity people get sick and die young? Because of the polution. Viktor's degenerative condition is literally poison from the undercity. It's mentioned a few times. And him becoming desperate to cure himself originally starts out as the changes to society he wants won't happen if he dies. If he stops being a voice for the undercity, topside. Literally Heimmerdinger says he has to submit to his fate to die young cause he is from the undercity. Heimmerdinger said that cause he fears the thing where Viktor can find his cure. But basically Viktor gets told to die quietly like he's supposed to, like the people from the undercity are supposed too. In that moment he realizes he has to live to bring change. And in a sense that cure will eventually be his downfall. Like the saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That sentence can be applied to almost all characters of the cast not just Viktor. Jayce destroying the shimmer factory and killing a kid? He wanted to help undercity without understanding the situation. The reason Jinx takes the Jinx chair? Because Vi wants Powder and can't reconcile the differences just yet and hurts Jinx irrepairably in doing so. Hell Jinx is mentally disabled. Literally has a mental illness. It goes untreated because of where she lives. She won't get attempts at help like Viktor had. Viktor had some options. She had none, She had a guy that was a little mentally ill himself and he figured out how to survive but not solve and tried to force the same changes upon her so she can survive on her own too. The whole show is a good example of how society shapes and makes people. Jinx is a lose canon cause she won't survive otherwise, she embraces the madness and lives. Viktor has some support and options so he doesn't instantly go off the deep end. But once he's told to roll over and die. You see a shift. Because that's prejudice against him being from the undercity. He's told he has no right to live a long, happy and healthy life. Just like everyone else from the undercity. And he was already fighting against that notion. Jayce is a goodie two shoes with a magic obsession that acts before he thinks. And he gets to face real actualy consequences for that, but he doesn't really learn until someone dies. Heimmerdinger is practically an immortal that lives in fear of magic and doesn't think about how his actions can harm others. He willfully ignores the undercity. Ekko becomes the leader of a group of misfits because he has the freedom to do so. He's traumatized but not a mentally ill person with no help. He has his followers, he's not isolated. His good intentions lead him to push Jinx to pull the pin on the bridge. It's a very realistic representation of action equals to a reaction.
Hmm in terms of characters with magical disability aids, one of my Pathfinder character uses Necromancy (she's true neutral, it's chill, not evil at all) to animate basically a wheelchair made of finely carved and painted bones (with some added perks like being able to go up stairs or smooth out rough terrain.) but at the end of the day this undead companion is ALWAYS very fragile for her level, so if it were to say, die (again) in combat, suddenly her being unable to use her legs comes back in full force. It's lead to some interesting challenges for our party and has just in general been really fun and interesting. It being something that is easily and regularly destroyed (temporarily, she is a necromancer and those are still bones) helps it remain a little more regularly relevant than "just when the plot demands."
I am not someone with a visible disability myself, but several members of my family are/were, including my dad who was missing one leg from the hip down and his right hand. He's also where I got my love of movies from, and he's the one who instilled the importance of media literacy in me from a young age. These specific issues with portrayals of disabilities were never raised by him, or at least rarely were, but I don't know how he really felt about them, either. But there have been a few shows that he really enjoyed that showcased disabled characters, the one I most remember was the anime One Piece. For all its shounen anime tropes, it has multiple depictions of characters with various disabilities who are all still treated as full characters with lives and motivations that extend far beyond that one aspect. For some, it's not an issue that ever comes up and doesn't seem to affect their ability to function at all, while for others it has affected the course of their lives. Some are heroes, some are villains (though honestly, most characters in the series exist in some gray area), but the disability itself is not a factor in such distinctions. It's never a subject that gets delved into or even acknowledged most of the time, but my dad found that sort of refreshing. Like he could see characters missing arms or legs or who had prominent scars who still got to be interesting and strong, and never looked at with pity, so it was a nice sort of escapism for him, I think. Two other series that he never got to see but that I think he really would have resonated with were Game of Thrones, particularly Jaime Lannister and his entire journey, and Doom Patrol. The latter of which really resonates strongly with me as an outsider but who recognizes a lot of the internal and external issues with disability from multiple characters in the series as looking a lot like issues I remember my dad dealing with. And I've also seen reviews from people online with disabilities giving the show high praise for how it portrays these things as well. Every main character on the show deals with different sorts of disabilities and has different challenges and experiences with them. Some are very visible, some are not, and all of them are handled with a level of nuance that I find really rare in any sort of media. Plus it's just a really great show in general and I wish it got more attention. But yeah, it's one that I wish my dad could have seen because I think it would have meant a lot to him. But, like you, I'm an outsider looking in and ascribing feelings to someone who can't speak for himself, so I dunno. Regardless, I'm always really happy to see people with platforms raising awareness on these topics, as they really do get sidelined quite a lot, despite more onscreen representation over the years.
as a disabled person, I really liked your video! you did a very good job of being educated and respectful. Also, (I'm a big fan of arcane, so please note that this is my personal opinion!) I think Viktor is pretty decent representation over all. Obviously he has some issues and plays into some tropes (Mysterious Coughing Disease, for example) but since he is based off a villain from the game, it would've been very easy for the show writers to really play into the whole "evil disabled guy is jelous of his business partner" thing. Instead, they made him a genuinely good, smart guy who wants to help himself and others. Anyway, good video!! :)
(obviously he does end up turning evil still, but its a lot more "gets carried away trying to achieve his goal and then realizes what he's done after" and less "oooo he's evil because his leg is messed upppp"
A subject I was wondering would come up was House MD. Throughout the 2000s it was must watch television and the focus was on a disabled character. At the same time, it was a disabled character who you usually liked for the wrong reasons (his obvious antisocial and insulting personality) and at times didn't like at all (the finale to second to last season, a finale thst made me stop watching). Now granted it's shown that he was this way before his accident and his condition involves chronic pain to severe degrees. Still, now that we are almost a decade removed, I wonder what view is on its portrayel of disability and having such a character type portray it.
Interesting point on "tragic framing" I often feel people think I'm strange/not "normal" for my feelings that my fibromyalgia actually brought some positive stuff into my life (including my own business instead of 30+ hours a week as a care assistant!!)
I have spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. I wanted to say great job with the video! I tend to watch/read more science fiction than anything and as a young kid watching Star Trek TNG, the character of Geordi was one of those watershed moments for me because he was a disabled person with a career. (That's not something I got to see growing up in the 90's and there were hardly any children's books about disability to be read.) However, I don't think I had paused to consider the impact of technology and how much fixing the disability was apart of the narrative. It just goes to show how much we all internalize the media we are given without really analyzing it with a critical eye.
Geordi seems to be an interesting case because on one hand there’s Vera’s point about making the character functionally not have a disability, but I’ve also seen people make the point they like him as a futuristic blind character because in a futuristic setting they could’ve “fixed” his eyesight but instead gave him an assistive device. So to combat the issue Vera brought up would you give the device some limitations? Sort of like Toph from AtLA where for the most part she can functionally see but still has the limitations of reading and being in areas like the desert? Genuinely very interested in this case specifically
I actually thought the wheelchair bound character in Sex Education, Issac, was well done. His brother is his main caretaker and does his job fine, but is very much a side character. Issac is not particularly sympathetic, which I don't know that you dealt with head on, but it took me by total surprise. Even villains with disabilities are painted that way for depth, as an easy way for the audience to empathize. Issac is a real person who has had a hard life and makes questionable decisions and does some crummy things. It's up to you whether you feel for him or not. (I can't remember if you said you'd watched Sex Education, but you absolutely should. It's on Netflix.)
I largely agree with you here, but one big thing I'd point out that bugged me about Isaac is that virtually every other character in sex education is having sex and Isaac doesn't really. Sure he has a couple of moments with Maeve in the 3rd season, but when every other character is having a lot of sex (except the one asexual character who was entirely forgotten the 3rd season), leaving Isaac out seems to perpetuate the desexualization and infantilization of disabled people. For all the other teachable moments in the show about various ways to have and enjoy sex, it would have been a cool opportunity to show how disabled people can and do have sex. That said, I do like a lot of the other aspects of Isaac's character and agree with your assessment about the rest of his personality and characterization. And in any other show I think that would have been great. But in a show so focused on a lot of people having a lot of sex in a lot of different ways, leaving Isaac out of that was obvious and not ideal in my personal opinion.
Hey so many disabled people prefer identity first language. I'm disabled and while I dont mind persom first I dont use it personally. Being disabled is a core part of who I am and when people say "with" it distances it from me. Sort of like when someone says I see you not the wheelchair. When they do that they dont think about my access needs.
I tend not a be a fan of person first either. Two main reasons, first is that my disability is not "with" me, like some baggage I drag around behind me. It IS me. Secondly (and this is the most important one to me), the most common reason I hear for using person first language (and this is always from ableds, mind) is "to remind us that we are talking about a person, first" And hoo boy does that make me angry! Because if someone needs to say "person with" in order to remind themselves that I am indeed a person, that seems like a major problem that a little change of language can't fix. But anything is better than differently abled or handicapable! I'd almost prefer actual slurs over those. Ugh. So incredibly patronising, (as if I'm some 5 year old that needs to be patted on the head and told that I'm "special") and greatly increases the stigma of disability. At least person first allows for a handy little acronym (PWD).
I was actually thinking about the whole "disability is always tragic" trope recently, since I'm in a wheelchair myself. When I tell people that (assuming we don't meet face-to-face and they immediately see the chair), they tend to be a bit taken aback and sad. Which is fair enough and not something I mind terribly, but it also misses a huge part of my own relationship to the chair. It is a tool that allows me to be more mobile than I was previously. If you want to be sad about anything, be sad of my life prior to having the chair. While I lived my first 27 or so years without much trouble, some kind of disease began setting in after that and gradually weakened my muscles (especially in my legs) to the point where I couldn't walk. For quite a few years, I became more and more immobile. The wheelchair was, in many ways, a savior from that state of being. I can't do everything I could do before my troubles began, but I can do a hell of a lot more than I can without its help. My goal is still to get back up on my feet and leave the wheelchair behind me, but it is nonetheless not an instrument of tragedy in my symphony but rather one of joy. Great video overall. I think the main thing is to write disabled characters well. If I were to write a story about my life, I would probably dip into a lot of these tropes myself. You just have to navigate them with care and be cognizant of the pitfalls within them.
I mean it's the same for people born with a disability. Like you can't miss what you never had. You grow up with your problems and the more you learn to handle them as you grow up the less of a problem they become. You are still you at the end of the day. And it's not gonna change. People tend to pitty me cause I got diagnosed with autism at age 13, why? Because they think I'll amount to nothing other than a waste of tax money. (words of my teacher not me). Anyways before the diagnosis I was told I'd make a great therapist. My special interest is human psychology. And after the diagnosis I got told it's impossible for me, again by teachers, because I got autism. Even if my grades where above the class average. I had to take a detour in studying my dream cause I had to find a school willing to teach me first. I'd say the prejudice in my case was a bigger issue than me getting the diagnosis. Because I can work on my own problems now. I did some training, I learned psychology slightly differently now and I am learning how to be indepedent from a great coach (my mom). But I can't change society and I can't just magically make people see me for me. Hell up until last year I felt like the autistic kid in class. Not Robin the student of the class, cause of how people and teachers treat me. It's dehumanizing. And I still got no clue what people mean when they tell me to act normal. Because from my POV I am more normal than that bunch of weirdoes.
Good video, a couple of negative patterns I've noticed that you didn't really touch upon: Disabled characters are rarely allowed to have a sexuality. Unless it's handled as part of a general 'disabled villain' thing in which case the sexuality is framed as part of their general villainous degeneracy. That isn't to say disabled characters shouldn't be asexual - An openly ace disabled character would be wonderful - but the way isn't actual asexual representation, it's an infantalizing way, and one that mirrors how disabled people are often assumed to not have a sexuality by society at large. On the cybermen, since you brought them up - It's not just the Cybusmen origins that has some pretty iffy context, Cybermen generally are part of this weird . They were originally a response from the screenwriter to news about artificial hearts - They're based upon the idea that medical technology might one day go too far. And that's another thing that you touched upon but didn't really dive into - The villainization of assistive technology. The way media dealing with cybernetics sometimes looks at things that are fairly similar to modern day prosthetic limbs and suggests that these future prosthetics are a sign that Mankind Is Losing Its Humanity. The framing of medical technology as being bad - That living with a disability isn't something worth doing often comes up in media. I've seen in discussion people horrified by the fact disabled people are opting for prosthetic limbs with better functionality or which are more comfortable, but which are more artificial, compared to prosthetic limbs with less functionality, or which many find less comfortable, but better resemble real limbs at a distance and which 30 years or so ago were the default, if not the only, option for an example of how this can manifests outside of media.
It’s interesting that in mainstream cinema the How To Train Your Dragon films went above and beyond that trope and continued giving the disabled characters humanity. It genuinely is refreshing.
This is why I don't particularly like that Zuko's scar is more subtle and smaller in the live action show. It's so rare to have hero characters with major facial scarring.
I can tell you some good ones, Saved! With McColly Culkin The Guild, with Felicia Day- watch for the character of Venom Avoid the film Avatar, it blows. Or, watch it if you want to see some tropes.
I'm curious to people's thoughts on All Might from My Hero Academia. Would he be considered physically disabled? His injuries resulted in loss of organs like one lung and stomach, which over time left him emaciated and unable to continue acting as a superhero in the long term. That being said, his ability to "flex" and appear like his muscular form could almost have it fall into an invisible disability, or maybe masking. It takes on a toll on him and the time he can hold that form gradually decreases as his condition worsens. Thoughts?
I was thinking that too. I've only read up to volume 12 (my library takes forever to get them in), but I related to him a lot. I pretended to be "normal" for so long, and it ended up making things worse. Now I can barely fake it, and just stopped caring what people expect me to look and act like, and started to find out why I was getting worse pain, and what to do about it (thanks to a good physiotherapist for that).
I’d say yes, because it is a physical condition that affects his quality of life. His chronic injury exists all the time while he has his powers and when he is losing them. One thing I’d like to note is that his losing his powers in the story is not directly caused by his condition getting worse, but instead his chosen successor growing stronger. I’m not sure how that falls into disability representation, but it sure is different from that pattern in the Marvel movies where the trade is “have powers” or “be cured of disability”. His powers are treated more like a job he used to have that he just can’t do anymore, so he’s moving on to other things.
I'm a little surprised to find that you don't consider yourself disabled since you have ADHD. Not a physical disability but something that I would consider falls in the invisible disability camp. I really liked your video can't speak the physical but plot movement for flair ups is definitely there and the whole disabled villian is definitely there seen both physical, mental, and invisible there. Would love to hear your opinions on Orphan Black.
It’s not that I don’t consider ADHD a disability, but rather depictions of neurodivergent and mental health conditions carry whole other set of tropes and patterns (with some cross-over issues, to be sure).
To add to this, I have a heart condition, migraines, and a bunch of other minor issues. I tried and failed to get financial disability pension TWICE, before being diagnosed with ADHD which is apparently more of an official disability than the other abundance of things that prevent me doing daily tasks (i.e. Migraines are insta-death for my week) So id say ADHD is, at least by Australias officially recognised disabilities, disabling enough to count. But I get where you're coming from. Just wanted to throw my two cents in as someone who wasnt recognised with disability except for ADHD specifically.
Hawking didn't invent String Theory, he worked on cosmology and Black Holes in particular. String Theory was a collective effort by different groups of physicists across the decades.
Given the subject of the video, I imagine there will be some who'd like to know this: if you're disabled and wanting to get into creative media, looking for help or support, look up 1in4 Coalition (for the US) or if in the UK, try DANC (Disabled Artists Networking Community).
If you don't list any examples of it being done right, your points all fall flat. Based on this video all I can take away is that you feel depicting the disability in any way that affects the story or is even aknowledged is wrong... but so it any story that just has it as a background element because then its "Token", and thus not true representation? Like even as I tried to think of instances where disibilities would fall into your crieria, you'd later list THOSE as problematic for increasingly arbitrary reasons. The criteria feels so rigidly specific that any story that got it right would either be boring, or derail the plot to focus on their disability for some oscar bait, neither of which feel like sincere depictions of the character. Making the persons condition nonspecific seems even odder to criticize since it means people with similar conditions feel represented. To be clear though, I don't think all the things you listed aren't problems, I just don't like the implication that any attempt to aproach disabilities in a creative manner is bad, and should instead be more reflective of reall life, when not every writer is going to KNOW someone in real life who has a disibility that would work with the plot. Because unless the whole world is structured around a specific disibility (which I've never seen done and might be a neat premise to explore) , the disibility itself would have to be a chekovs gun or major plot elements. Otherwise it'd fall into tokenism, which is aparently bad? Like I'm having trouble imagining where this would fall into acceptable standards. I would have thought Jonah Hex or Geordi were acceptable in their respective universes (especially since geordi is effectively a merging of hearing aids and seeing eye pets). Again, don't disagree entirely, just feel more confused on the point now then I did before the video. Feel like your point wasn't really all that clear, and basically comes out more as "don't write about disabilities at all" then "Think more critically about how you depict them"
Well if you want a couple of ones I’m inclined to praise: Walter Jr. from Breaking Bad - character with cerebral palsy, depicted by an actor with the same condition, focus on him as a character first and foremost. Massimo from Luca - the character openly rejects the tragic framing of having only one arm, and the audience is able to see how he works around it. How to Train Your Dragon - I honestly go back and forth on this one as it does brush up against the “prosthetic so good they might as well not be disabled” issue, but it has three visibly disabled characters (including the two leads) and it does highlight the ways in which they live with their conditions without excessive tragic framing.
Thank you. THANK YOU!!!!! You have done a beautiful job here. In fact, you even opened my eyes to the realization that Bucky Barnes is disabled, something I never caught on to before. It may not seem like it, but dialogues like this help. Now. Now the next step would be for people who have seen this video, and who go to Comic-Con and other events where they have an opportunity to talk to writers and actors and producers, even if just for a few seconds, to bend their ears. Their ears. To show them these videos and say okay you're guilty, what are you going to do to make it better? Once Hollywood realizes it can no longer hide behind its shield of ableism, you will see disabled content producers, writers, directors, producers, and actors making realistic stories in which characters are disabled. And that is when we will say true change I will leave you with my husband's personal suggestion for two of the best representations of his own disability of cerebral palsy, Jimmy and Timmy from South Park. What he loves about them is that yes they are disabled, and occasionally the disability is addressed, but mostly they're just shown as two of the boys doing this sort of things the boys in South Park do. And that is ultimately what I hope to say one one day, people with disabilities being shown as people. We don't make a big to do about people who wear glasses, even though that means they are visually impaired. We don't make a big to do about people who are redheads, unless you're in England and then you call them gingers and insist they are soulless. One day being disabled will be like that too, just other case of red hair or glasses, not a defining characteristic. I'm not really a big deal. Oh and before I forget, my example of the best person with my disability, hearing loss, is undoubtedly the A Quiet Place series. Not insignificantly, the producers of that film allowed the disabled actress to have agency to change, not just the character, but the film itself to be more realistic. As a result, we get a fabulous piece. Her hearing loss does provide the family a better means of survival because they know sign language, but in the end she herself is not defined by her hearing loss. Rather she is defined by her cleverness her bravery and her love for her family.
This is just me, but to be honest, as someone with a couple of invisible, degenerative disabilities I never minded "disability as motivation" storylines, in fact I often find them very relatable. I know why they're problematic, and I know that a lot of people are comfortable with their condition and the main problem is the world not accommodating differently abled folks. But as for myself, there's not a lot I wouldn't be willing to do to get rid of my conditions, or at least stop them from getting worse. :/ It's not a world vs me thing, I just don't want to get cancer or go blind.
I'm kinda confused now what makes for good disability representation? Like if it's a plot point it's bad but if it's just there and not a plot point that's also bad because it's turns into tokenization? I don't mean to be dismissive I just don't know what's good representation anymore 😬. Like Lifetime cast Ali Stroker as the romantic lead in a Christmas rom com? Is it good because she's a romantic lead in a movie not about her disability or bad because it's never mentioned at all and could just not exist in the script? What About Kaz in Shadow and Bone (granted he was written by someone with a very similar disability to him)?
Yeah, I thought this too. It kind of seems from this video like you can't win with any kind of disability representation. But from what I've seen, having token characters usually means characters who are defined by a particular trait, which is the opposite of what Vera has said here, where she uses it for characters whose disability has little impact on them. IMO the best way to go is to have disabled characters whose disability has some impact on what they can do, but doesn't have to be a story focus, ie a hacker in a wheelchair or something. But I'm not an authority at all so...
Yeah, looking through the comments I seem to be one of the *very* few disabled people who watched this and mostly thought "Okay, now I understand why transgender folks might not really want to hear me talking about their representation." No harm being done here... but for so much of this, I was thinking to myself "Wait, people think that disabled people feel like this? People think disabled people do (A) because of (B)?" ... that sorta thing. And it comes back to what both of y'all are saying... disabled people, even when they have the "same" disability, will all have different takes on that disability. Now gather all disabled people of all types together, and imagine how many unique people and experiences and traumas and interpretations there are... and it does make a person wonder how anyone could expect that representation be done "the right way" when everyone's "right way" is likely different from the others. Many things that she was talking about almost as if it is shameful, how it was done... were things that didn't bother me at all. And, ironically, some of the "better" ways of doing things... they would rub me the wrong way more than the ways I've usually seen it done. *laugh* Just goes to show the complexity of the issue, I suppose. Oh, and as for "normal" ... or I suppose I'd use the word "typical" for my example... when we're talking about how the world is designed for normal people or typical people... I don't think that's a sin. My personal disability, while it presents itself as a huge PITA almost every day, I'd never expect the world to have to change *as much as humanly possible* to suit me. And again, looking at the vast range of disabilities... imagine if we all had to change our lives, change our homes, change our cars, change our businesses... because we *must* keep every disabled person in mind. Meh... I know that's not really what she was calling for, but I've seen people doing so. Meh... I dunno... this video has obviously done a lot of people a lot of good, judging by the comments... but, and it might be hard given the likely typical channel subscriber here... but I wonder how many physically disabled people there are out here who hear all of these things and think "My gosh... she's thought about / is concerned about more things in this 45 minutes than I have in the near-20 years of my life that I've actually been disabled." :-) I kinda hope those people make up the majority, but I'm understanding now that this video is really for those of us who just have what we have, do our thing as best we can, and don't really think on the topic much more than that.... heheh
Eventhough I am a supporter of representation of all groups including LGTBQ which this channel talks about alot, I'm not part of that community I have in deed been in a constant argument over my 20 years of existence with my legs and they are not talking to me. That's a stupid joke anyway I am disabled and this video has put problems with Disability representation in a great way that I would never be able to do so I'm am thankful for that alot.
I love the analogy. To continue it, I also talk to my legs a lot. Sometimes they talk back, sometimes they don't hear me at all, and sometimes they speak back, but in a completely different language ( I have permanent nerve damage from the waist down, but I'm not paralysed)
Moving forward it is important for media to have people with disabilities be part of the making of that piece of media both in front of and behind the camera. that way stories will have more nuance and will show a more accurate depiction of that disability.
I’ve been watching Netflix’s Daredevil recently and although I love the character ever since i read the comics, I’m aware that the history of the character isn’t necessarily the most progressive (similar with many other comic book characters). However, I like the way that Matt is portrayed in the show. (I’m not blind so take this with a grain of salt.) His blindness was never the focus of the show or most plot points (tbf he’s also got super senses that compensate his lack of vision so blindness is less of an issue). Also, even though Matt is sort of a tragic character, his tragedy didn’t come from his blindness, but what happened to his father and his own inner demons.
I'm autistic, and as a children's librarian I see a lot of 'representation' of autism in book media being written by doctors and parents of autistic people and not by autistic authors. Most of those stories wind up being 'feel good pat on the back we know they can be a burden but you got this' stories, where autism is the terrible wrecker of family life and whatnot and all the neurotypical characters have to learn to cope with it. It's really annoying, and even as an adult these stories make me feel horrible for having a disability like ASD, so I can't imagine how it would feel to an autistic child reading these books and think, 'I'm the problem that everyone else would be better off without'.
I don't really understand the point trying to be made about not knowing Freddies exact disability? Noting the term wouldn't give more insight, it wouldn't help the disabled person and usually isn't relevant to moments of mobbing. It's as well something that is rather rude to bring to the table. Had a train ride in Germany and two ladies asked if they may take the seats opposite from me, which I was blocking because the person previously sitting there went to get a coffee. Thus they got to sit down. Once the previous seat owner returned, she took off once the explanation was repeated, yet there was an audible claim of "oh, they are just pretending, posers or exaggerating". Bioth of them took the criticism quite to heart, because they couldn't just stand throughout the train ride. It didn't matter that they had leg prothetics and it shouldn't matte that they got them or how they got them. It's similiar to my experience and my observation during my time at a preschool (Kindergarten) for heavily disabled kids. There were some kids who had to use crutches, with whom I was good friends. Never exactly learned why they had to use them. It wouldn't have changed anything how other treated them. I am as well confused about the characterization of Freddy. It's a while since I saw the movie, but I thought he had more relevance? Like wasn't he got with computers and then helped Billy with figuring his super powers out?
Naming the condition/diagnosis/impairment matters because REPRESENTATION MATTERS, and because a public perception of a fictional character can educate and inform able-bodied people. Saying that growing up you had disabled friends and didn't discuss their disabilities with them (implying that disabilities are irrelevant) is akin to saying you grew up with friends who are POC, and because their race never came up conversationally, identifying as a POC is irrelevant. Individuals have a right to state and share their identifiers, and whether or not that influences YOUR perception of them or not is moot; marginalized people deserve clear representation in the media, on their own terms.
@@megcossaboom2932 I think there's a misunderstanding, I didn't grew up with friends who had disabilities, but I was in a Kindergarten (playschool?) for heavily disabled children (physically and mentally). For which the prerequisit is, to have a disability. [The type of Kindergarten got etablished after the Thalidomide scandal and because all kids need a Kindergarten] I haven't mentioned my own experience as I wasn't there for physical but for mental health reasons. Though they did lead to systemic discrimination with trying to get into a normal schoold and extended mobbing for the first 9 years of school because the kids got told "this person might be contagious" or "this person might be violent because of their time at a place for heavily mentally(physically) disabled." It's a reason that I several decades to be able to engage with the health system again. (Am currently since about 1 3/4 years in therapy including various clinics) Thus, from my very own experience as well from the experience with fellow disabled people, I do hold that naming the issue does neither help with representation nor does it stop people from hurting people with disability. People don't give a f* if you got leg prothetics because of a medical condition and which medical condition, because of an accident, because of abuse or whatever happend, they will be ignorant and start mobbing. Well, and I hold that it shouldn't have to be explained or matter, just don't be an asshat to people who because of their disability need (or have the right) to get a seat. In the train example it was literally what put further distress on the two women. Because the person who cleared off said "I don't believe they got a disabiliy, they are just pretenders". Which was f*ing hurtful to them, because they didn't feel inclined to point to their (very well hidden) prosthetic and explain how it came to it. It's the opposite of representation.
I think for this type of video (i.e. making a video about a demographic that you're not a member of), the format used by "Xiran Jay Zhao" regarding South East Asian representation is a good one to look at. Being East Asian and not South East Asian, she was convinced by South East Asians to use her Raya video as a platform for South East Asian voices on the topic of representation of their demographic in the movie industry. She gathered an array of SEAs and together they created presentations that formed the format of her video. She even got some of them to speak in the video it seems, although the audio quality wasn't amazing because they weren't professional content creators with good microphones.
An artifact of my long-ago Soviet upbringing was my family members using "not normal" as a delicate way to avoid unspoken things. "Did you hear? Mina's baby was born... not normal." "The last house before the big road, the dad is not normal. Just, I don't know, something." It drove me into a rage. Is it pertinent? Then name it. If it's not, just ignore it. "Normal" really can be a four-letter word. Metaphorically. Thanks, Council dude. And I mean dude in a gender-free sort of way. Your deep dives make for a good listen.
I am disabled. I have multiple disabilities. What I love doing is proving people wrong, or exceeding their expectations. At the same time it also sucks that I have to do that. It is something I love, and hate.
You honestly did a wonderful job with this video and even brought thing up that I didn't even realise as a disabled person in a wheelchair. I think one thing that does stand out to me sometimes is that it would be nice to see more disabled actors getting roles. Where as there are many instances it is abled bodied and more well known actors playing the parts, especially if it is a lead role.
Rather than give examples of good representation of physical disabilities in fiction, I'd like to add some that at least leave room for interesting and productive exploration. To start off with science fiction: The player character in Crysis 2 is saved from death by being put into a nanosuit that gives him superhuman abilities. Giving contrast to being physically dependant on something that makes you superhuman for your survival. There's also ludonarrative cohesion with gameplay when your low on health and struggling to breath and move. Another is the setting in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Where people with physical disabilities (and others) have the option to get advanced prosthetic augmentation (as it's named in the game). This is an instance of missed opportunity for exploring that what if beyond some tidbits. For a more grounded genre, the depiction of Tommy Flanagan's character in Sons of Anarchy. The fact that the actor has what's called a Glasgow smile is used to inform the character's backstory without explicitly stating it or using it as a plot devise. Those that know the common origin of the scar and correlate it with the actor's accent can make their own connotations and references. Finally, I'd like to just mention the depiction of eunuchs in media. Here, there's a historical connotation to how they where treated in a variety of cultures and civilisations in the past. Stories set in those eras is where we see most of these depictions. With the rest being fantasy settings with heavy historical inspirations (i.e. Game of Thrones).
With "Orphan Black" it was a ticking clock flaw that happened with all of the sister/clones and something that they are all going to eventually die of if they don't find the cure for in time. It is just that each sister/clone was at different stages of the clock, and the character you talked about was at a very late stage, and that added to the urgency to find the cure and all of the answers to the sister/clones. They even showed other minor sister/clones dying of it over the course of the show. I am not saying this is good representation, but you characterized her condition as some random thing that was just there to make us feel bad for her at random times, when in fact it was a major plot point that was part of the main driving force of the show.
Agree and disagree. Cosima is the only character who has to deal with the condition. Sarah and Helena are presumably immune because they both as capable of fertility. Allison and Rachel never develop symptoms at any point in the show, even though both of them are at risk of doing so. Katje and Jennifer both have the condition, but they are killed off before we can get to know them as people or really explore how it affects them. We see some video journals that Jennifer made, but that is, like, two minutes of screen time, tops. And Cosima's condition comes and goes when its convenient for the plot, which they sort of lampshade later in the series but that doesn't change that she starts showing symptoms as soon as it is necessary to motivate her and is really only used to punctuate dramatic moments from then on out.
With the lack of accommodation and access to public spaces, I've gotten some people to understand by pointing out it's a type of segregation. If a shop, doctor office or restaurant don't bother to adapt; they are making a decision about who they feel are valuable people.
Thanks so much for turning your always-interesting analysis to disability in media! I’ve got cerebral palsy and sundry other physical disabilities, chronic illnesses and mental illnesses, and you’ve really covered most of the tropes and pitfalls beyond inspiration porn. One major gripe is that for most of the history of film and TV, disabled characters have been played by able-bodied actors and, much like straight actors playing gay, crip drag was almost a surefire way to be noticed come awards season. We are just starting to see a bit more portrayals by disabled actors, but it’s so slow. I think most temporarily-able-bodied folks are discomfited by the idea that everyone will become disabled at some point if they’re fortunate to live long enough. We’re the biggest minority and we’re growing every day, but no one wants to think it will happen to them. Some of my favourite representations of disabled characters are RJ Mitte in Breaking Bad (of course), Geri Jewell in Deadwood, and the sitcoms Speechless and Special. They all, not coincidentally, feature actors with disabilities. In the theatre, I’ve been fortunate to see several productions with Deaf protagonists (though I recognize that many Deaf people don’t view it as a disability, but they still live in a world not designed for them). Deaf West’s production of Spring Awakening made it to Broadway, and I’ve seen Deaf actor Joshua Castille play Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, with a sweet added scene of Juliet trying to learn ASL. There are clips of all these plays on RUclips, and I highly recommend them!
I think it would have been useful to have a small contribution of well done disability representation. For example, West Wing. Although all of the issues you mentioned are used to a small extent in that show, it's done realistically. As someone living with MS, I appreciate that.
Same here. I have only recently discovered that I very likely have ADHD, and really appreciated her video on procrastination - related to it A LOT. It would be lovely to see a full neurodiversity-related video.
I always kinda thought it would be better if the Enterprise had a voice navigation system to help Geordi get around without needing his visor all the time. He does say one time that it physically hurts to wear, so I feel like the supposedly enlightened Federation would try to design the ships to minimize how often he needs it. Heck, they could have more and more accommodations appear as the show goes on, demonstrating that the Federation is actively trying to help him out (and other personnel like him). Another Star Trek disability depiction that kinda bugged me was when Deep Space 9 had everyone get together to install ramps for a disabled person who was coming to the station (well, actually an alien from a planet with low gravity who was effectively disabled in earthlike gravity), and then they TAKE THE RAMPS OUT when she leaves. Like, what? You just improved the accessibility of the station. Give everyone a few days to get used to the ramps and it'll just be better. Why would you take them out again? DS9 is originally a Cardassian station, so it does make sense that they wouldn't care about accessibility and therefore there wouldn't be ramps already in it, but the Federation absolutely should care beyond the bare minimum. Full disclosure, I'm not disabled, so if I've said something weird, let me know. These just struck me as a bit odd for the supposedly enlightened society depicted in Star Trek.
My mother has lupus and scoliosis. My grandmother and father both have diabetes. I had never really thought of diabetes or lupus as invisible disabilities since my parents are both visibly struggling, to *much* different extents, of course! 😅
Your thing about disfiguring scars being resevered for villains makes me thing about how fucked up it is they changed Hester Shaw's face for the Mortal Engines movie,
I love your content, both because we share several points of view, and I find you respectful in your presentation when we do disagree. There are two things I'd like to point out here. First, respectfully, you are a disabled person. You wear glasses. It's worth keeping in mind that your disability is so thoroughly compensated for in society that it's no longer seen as a disability, even though people with glasses are still the victims of bullying specifically because of the presentation of their disability in media. There's also a conversation to be had (beyond the scope of your video) about how we determine disability. With things like facial deformities which don't hamper a person's capabilities, they are assumed to be disabilities, either because of out group bias, or how the person is treated by society. Is this qualified as a disability? Does that mean race, gender, gender presentation, sexual orientation, or a host of other qualities which do not affect a person's intrinsic abilities should fall under the umbrella of "disabilities" because of the way society responds to those qualities? It's a question worth considering. Almost the inverse of someone who needs glasses to see being considered "not disabled", someone who isn't part of the in group majority might be treated the same way as a differently-abled person by society, thus creating a structural disability. Thank you for your content and your opinions. I always find you engaging.
I know some people don´t like it, but I´ve always felt that the way they treated Bashir on "Doctor Bashir, I presume" was beutiful. I don´t have a learning disability and I don´t know what exact disability Bashir had, but I´d have arthritis, fibromyalgia and had been neurodivergent since I was very little, my diagnostic came when I was 11, but I had syntomphs since I was 6 and my legs used to be very crooked. What do I feel is that good about the way they depicted Bashir that speeks directly to me? They acknowledge that he had a problem, that living on a society with that kind of problems is very difficult because it´s not ment for different people, that he really tried but still couldn´t overcome it, that he had to deal with feeling that his parents didn´t feel he was good enough and not being able to understand why wasn´t he good enough for them, pointing out that it is difficult taking care of someone like that, and that it wasn´t his hole personality but it was still a big part of his life even if he wasn´t disabled any more.
To be fair, Viktor's experiments with hextech were always to help those who were in need, he was in need so he tried to use it to help himself. So he didn't "betray" any of his morals, he was following them to a T. And it would have worked if he continued to use shimmer during the experiments but Jayce cut off any way of him getting any when he closed the bridge.
Vera, I nearly snorted my soda when you got through the “why are you stealing this gag?” joke! As an Abigail fan I was not expecting that, but I loved it. Great job on a very important topic.
can't believe i only just watched this! as someone who has ehlers danlos syndrome and often used kt tape, braces, and a walking cane, i loved your take on these movies/shows and the issues within them. it was so refreshing to hear someone else talk about disabled characters in a positive light :)
35:15 Super nitpicky and I don’t mean to detract from the extremely valid point, because villain looking character a hook is an archetype, but I thought that the joke there was that people don’t expect someone with a hook hand to become a professional pianist because playing piano is something most people need two hands to do. That and also putting “evil look” and “hook” as two separate points is sort of presenting them as separate things, not the same thing.
I'm a huge Bond fan but I'm the first to admit there is some very problematic depictions there. But there's also an easy way to do better in future; Felix. Remember the shark maiming from Licence to Kill? That was taken from the novel of Live and Let Die, the second book in the series. So for the majority of the novels Felix is a disabled character and a fairly positive one. He's Bond's best friend and is still depicted as an agent who's good at his job. If they could cast a real disabled actor for the next reboot then I think that would send and strong message.
As someone who has various physical disabilities, I think you handled the topic well. I'd like to highlight one example of a series that I personally think handles disabilities well, which is the Manga/Anime series "Demi-chan wa Kataritai" (Translated to English as "Interviews With Monster Girls"). The majority of the main cast of characters have fictional conditions, rather than real disabilities and are referred to as "Demi-Humans" or Demi's. For example Kyoko Machi, is a Dullahan girl who carries her head separate from her body. A lot of thought is put into how their fictitious conditions would affect them in the real modern world. The setting is pretty much like real life modern day, outside the existence of Demi's who are a minority. Despite the fantasy element of their conditions, many of the issues & challenges the characters face across the series resonated with me as someone with disabilities, its my personal favourite Manga/Anime series.
I am a big comic book nerd and lately I have been thinking about how many of the villains are disfigured or "ugly". It feels like it's drawn from that medieval mindset that if you are disfigured then it's an outward sign of God's disfavor. (Another commenter mentioned Richard III and there's literally a line in there about how if he can't be a lover then he'll be a villain and go hardcore at it, which always made me feel badly for him.) Tyrion Lannister was for a long time one of my fave disabled reps. But things got weird in both the books and the show. I was sad they cut Penny from the show. I don't always love those scenes in the book but it is interesting to see two different perspectives on the same or similar disability. I would love to see more movies or shows that show GROUPS of disabled people, since many people experience different things with the same illness or condition, instead of acting like there is no such thing as support groups and everyone must go it alone in a world full of ableds. I have a chronic illness but am not yet physically disabled, I should note.
I have Cerebral Palsy that affects my Hearing and Motor Skills on the left side of my body. Unlike many forms of Cerebral Palsy, I consider mine to be Invisible, since often, people don't realize I have them, unless I tell them or having a bad/hard day. This was a good video :) If my life was a movie, I could see why critics would consider my condition a Plot Convenience, that's not a criticism of the video, just wanted to say, like Sexuality, Gender, and other conditions, Cerebral Palsy is a Spectrum (even though movies and television treat it as just Debilitating). I actually like the Disability as Superpower tropes, because part of the reason my form of CP hasn't killed me, is because I viewed its "upside conditions": in my case (definitely not all) I have a higher tolerance to pain than most people, overcompensating with the Right Side of my body, makes that side, according to friends and family, "ungodly" strong. 😁 So yeah, bring on the "My Disability is My Superpower" Heroes. 😁 Speaking of Heroes, I related to Claire the most from Heroes, because, I have been in situations where I broke or damaged myself and didn't realize it (see "CP is a Spectrum"). :)
Mad Eye 👁 Moody is a interesting Case: he is one of the Good Guys, but he is very Creepy, paranoid and a „villain“ in „Goblet of Fire 🔥“. A lot of Mixed messages here.
It’s been great to see what’s happening with Channel 4 in the UK since the 2012 Paralympics. They made a conscious decision to work with presenters who had disabilities. And since then I think there has been more representation with comedians and presenters. I see it a bit on the BBC too. It’s not enough but people like Ade Adepitan, Alex Brooker, Rosie Jones, Francesca Martinez, Nikki Fox and George Webster are putting themselves out there and changing the conversation. I think being comedians, presenters and journos also means we’re seeing real people and not just a representation in fiction. Of course, that I can pluck out a few people and name them doesn’t mean it’s enough or broadcasters get it right but the progress since I was a kid is night and day.
This video explains why maybe sooo many people like the mcu Makkarai. She doesn't fit these common tropes like having to overcome her disability it be so outstanding that society has to change nor even like Daredevil or Bucky does her power basically make it do she doesn't have her "disability". Not does her fellow Eternals or villian joke about it target/bully her. Nor is her disability a liability. She needs more screen time though and a big focus
Your essay's get better each time! keep up the good work! But you got a few of the specifics around the characters wrong, so hopefully this will get som extra engagement from their stans XD
As a cartoonist with autism, I use the word "normal" only to mean "without superpowers," which includes every ethnic group, including the disability community.
Thanks for your thoughtful solidarity. I have cerebral palsy. i really appreciate the fact that you took the risk of maybe getting something wrong but chose to speak up anyway. We can't progress if people stay silent. And actually, I think you did a brilliant job. Thanks.
Stephen hawkins as example , why is he the als example, he got pretty lucky with his version. Relative, had an uncle who had to fight with ok he had good support and good healthcare which did help a lot, and lott work, boy was he really deterninated to do what he can , and had the peviledge of support,, and did not last that long, he drew it out a lot, but hawkins, its "lucky" to become that "old" with als. While its an example, additional to that he got the luchk of knowing influencal people in the tech sector. Also he didnt wanted pity. But do what little he can. Like he did travel in europe. Well good finmancial situation and sold land.But thats, Hawkins is not an average als person at all. And "lucky" with his version. Its just not a good portrayal of als and while i get positive can be, its inspiration porn in praxis with a person really having a lot previledge. .I would say my uncle had i guess, but hawkins had , not everyone has a good support system, healthcare or even a family to support. Hawkins is inpirational porn for all the good he did to mak it known i mean.
Coming back in with Another Thought: One thing that drives me up the wall is that many people can't imagine a Disabled *Hero* in a story, beyond a tragic or inspirational framework (see Tiny Tim in a Christmas Carol, for an example). But they have no trouble at all imagining a Disabled *Villain* with the power to get things done and have an active role in their own destiny.
Yes I agree we need disabled Heroes and villains Beyond a tragic inspiration framework
This is one reason why Daredevil is great. He takes action and no one suspects him because they underestimate the blind man
@@theshire9173 I think this is also why people adore Edward Elric so much.
@@johnvinals7423 I love Edward Elric. He’s the only character with a prosthetic limb who actually has real struggles with it but he’s still badass
@@theshire9173 You know who else are really good examples of disabled heroes in fantasy? Toph Beifong and Bran Stark and Tyrion Lannister.
The number of people who think I'm my blind spouse's caregiver is aggravatingly high. Including his own grandmother, who lived in the same town as him until we moved out of our respective parents' places and saw him all the fracking time, but somehow missed that he knows how to cut his meatballs, if you just let him be to get on with it. His therapist was the worst, tho; she flipped out when she found out he is on solo-parenting duty regularly & sent him in a spiral that lasted for far too long. His clinical-level anxiety is a bigger problem than his extremely short sight.
i am hearing-impaired, though it isn't very obvious in most circumstances, especially since a hearing aid can't help me. they just think I'm a stick in the mud for avoiding noisy situations and kind of going quiet if i end up in one. I've stopped hearing is all. Not literally, but it's all a giant white noise machine, or like the snow on old televisions from the 80s when you could only get a partial signal. White out.
You should do a sequel to this video covering media's depiction of folks with intellectual disabilities. I work with a professional theater troupe for people with disabilities- in most cases they're cognitive- and I find it endlessly interesting thinking about how they process the world (of course, I can only make educated guesses), much of which is not really portrayed in media.
OMG, as soon as you started the "define our terms" bit, I was like, wait, Abigail's thing? and then you did the joke. Very nice xD
As a person with Diabetes and arthritis, I never saw myself as disabled or that there was something wrong with me. In college I had a theater class where the teacher had me do this monologue. At one point she told me to reach for the bitterness of having Diabetes as a child. But I wasn't bitter. I did the things other children my age did. I went out with friends, attended school fairs, and even went trick or treating every Halloween. Yes I had a strict diet and I had to check my blood sugar and give myself shots, but that was just an aspect of my life. I would compare it to someone who has a food allergy or a religious reason for not eaten certain foods. It's an aspect of them, but it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them.
Yah the bitterness/suffering paradigm is rough. The “ suffering “in my life is more exhaustion from these tropes
Have you read anything about the social model of disability? It's basically saying that it's not an issue with the person, but rather the environment. A silly example, I open cans with my left hand, and can't use right handed can openers (mostly due to joint pain, but even before that, I never could get it), and if I'm in a space where I have to open a can, and don't have an ambidextrous can opener, that can be a disability, as I can't open the can. Same with wheelchair users trying to get into a building that doesn't have a ramp or lift. The problem isn't the wheelchair, it's that the building is missing another way in.
Of course that's just one way of looking at things, but I feel similar. I have allergies and have to wear masks with filters in most stores due to allergens like perfumes and cleaners, I have to wear special socks and braces to avoid dislocations or getting blood pooling in my feet, and I have to be really careful with what I eat and when, as well as avoiding sensory overload. I'm perfectly fine in my house, but put me in a shopping mall without a mask, and without places to sit down, that's an issue. So it's a balancing act between society's faults, and my own struggles, but I'm not to blame if someone refuses to meet my needs, that's their issue.
Same here. I have both diabetes and Osteoarthritis and I have not been bitter or angry about either. it's just a fact of my existence, and since I like myself, this is just a regular aspect of me.
Ah geez. That’s just. That’s not okay for that professor to have done.
In the interest of clarity, I don’t deal with diabetes, just asthma and undiagnosed chronic pain/joint issues (due to childhood injuries). So I can’t even fathom what it must have been like to have your professor say that to you. The only standpoint I can speak to this situation on is from my POV as a theater major.
To that end, it *seems* like your professor was trying to teach an aspect of Meisner’s acting technique, (definitely not trying to explain away what the professor said or make it seem less sh*tty), which, vastly simplified, involves trying to get the actor to connect with genuine emotional depth under fictional circumstances. But what that professor did ENTIRELY MISUNDERSTANDS AND MISUSES THAT ACTING TECHNIQUE. The point is for the *actor* to choose a semi-true, semi-fictional scenario that allows them to connect to genuine emotion without causing any lasting trauma. NOT for the instructor to bring up any perceived “issues” or triggers that they believe the actor MIGHT have.
That they misused something that *can* be so affirming and cathartic for an actor or student in general just to be sh*tty, (doesn’t matter if they mean to be or not), makes me pretty p.o. ‘d on your behalf. That doesn’t mean much but, yeah. I really wish you didn’t have to deal with that and that it had been a better experience for you.
This comment seems a little pointless and I’m sure I made some mistakes here, so if anyone is up for correcting me after reading this doozy of a rant, please please feel free! ❤️
@@lizabee484 wow this is well written & thoughtful.
As a writer with a disability (cerebral palsy / wheelchair user), I've put some thought into a Bechdel-Wallace type template for stories (I've decided to call such things "templates" instead of "tests"). I've named it the '1,001 Problems Template," and it goes like this: 1) There's a Disabled character, 2) Who wants something, 3) *Besides* Revenge, Cure, or Death, and 4) Tries to get it (as opposed to a normate ally vowing to get it for them).
As for positive Disability Rep, even though it's not a *real* disability in a real-world context, I'd count Disney's new movie _Encanto_ as fitting my template. The protagonist *is* Disability *Coded* (being the only one in her family who didn't get a Magical Gift). And her character arc is about being accepted as she is, rather than finding a cure for herself. And from responses I've seen from other disabled folk online, her character resonated with a lot of us.
The charactr raphaleo i think, who is in a wheelchair, but is not needing a character, and while he yeah overcompansates about andvertercity, in a really brutal tet who gets to live on an island, because th rich live there and it a poor country, so pretty much any charact wants something ad i think he , yeah he is smart, but got trained by someone,
An yes he over compasate and ants to challeng the tet, but evryoone does. And doe not need a caregiver who takes away in a meaningfful way.
There is also joanna who is great, she is amazing
but i think raphael is really not defined as in a wheelchair per se. More he had a entor who really wanted him to pass the pretty brutal test , i dint atch the later seasons so far , but he definitly is not defined by the wheelchair alone.
As someone with cerebral palsy, though not in a wheelchair yet, I've been looking at this too. Not to play devil's advocate because that is a really bad way to really discuss something. I have glasses. Now today glasses and poor eyesight are not considered a disability by the general masses unless its full out blindness or impairment so severe that glasses or treatments cannot correct it. This is still a disability but its shown in our real world that we do actually follow the mentality of fixing the disability or coming up with ways to make the disability lesser rather than change the world around someone to make it easier.
I have 20/1500 vision according to the doctor doing my eye exam. I am incredibly nearsighted and I cannot read this even on a fairly large monitor if I were to remove my glasses. I can see colors, general shapes, but everything is incredibly out of focus. But it made me think about what Vera was saying when it came to characters trying to find ways to either fix or make a disability effectively not exist. Its not quiet the same because glasses are so wide spread, so widely seen and merged into our culture that we do not see them as a medical prosthesis, I know its not a proper body part replacement but I could not think of another word.
If we put someone in a wheelchair, someone missing an arm, and someone wearing glasses into a lineup and asked the general public to identify the disabled people virtually no one is going to pick the glasses wearer. I am hoping in the future, with advancing tech that those who do have medical prosthetics become as merged into the culture so that a prosthetic arm or leg is as unremarkable as a pair of glasses are in the modern age.
I think a template to compare for disabled characters should be in effect. I am disabled, though I hate to say this because I know those like yourself have a much worse instance of this same disability, I would like to see people who don't get magically cured or their conditioned used to invoke pity.
@@TheLastSane1 Oooh that’s a good point! It is fascinating to think about how nearsightedness is essentially a physical disability, but since it‘s so commonplace people hardly ever consider it as a “real” disability. But when you think about it, in the technical sense it really _is_ a disability, after all it’s an impairment of vision that requires a prescription medical device, much like someone with impaired hearing using a hearing aid, or someone who is missing a limb using a prosthetic.
Encanto is also great in that it has a character (Julieta, Mirabel's mom) who can heal people and Mirabel and her dad, Augustin, still have poor eyesight and require glasses. This version of healing doesn't take away disabilities. It only heals the current immediate injury that is needing to be addressed in the moment. The creators have actually said that Julieta had control over what gets healed. She doesn't view disabilities as something that needs to be fixed. I think that's a wonderful thing in their world building. Especially since it's a kids movie at the end of the day
I'm really glad I'm not the only person who read Mirabel as disabled. I went on this whole thing to my brother about passing and forced disclosure in the song The Family Madrigal (I also have cerebral palsy, but I pass as able bodied so long as I'm careful about how far I walk and wear my boots all the time, so it was a rare case of seeing a character dealing with that trade off of 'disabled but not immediately obviously')
As someone with quadrapledgic cerebral palsy, I found this an incredibly cathartic & informative watch. The tropes such as villain, plot conviniant disabilities and the framing of disabilities in the "triumph over adversity" narrative have always been tropes that I've noticed and am consistently shocked at the amount of times they are implemented in entertainment without being challenged and I'm glad more people such as yourself are addressing them as I feel people hesitate to do so out of a fear of getting something wrong (which I understand but I feel if done in the right way as you have done can be extremely helpful to the overall conversation) so thanks for doing this I really appreciate it.
Amen! I particularly detest the triumph over adversity trope. When my alarm clock goes off, I don't give a crap about trying to overcome adversity. I'm just trying to figure out how to get an extra 15 minutes of sleep. Not once in my daily life do I encounter any of the normal difficulties and think " now how can I try them overcome these?" Normally I think the exact same thing able-bodied people think, namely, I'm annoyed at the inconvenience and then I just figure a way around it.
I was born with Cerebral Palsy as well, though a much less severe case. I am able to walk (though with pain) and able to move my limbs (though again with pain and muscles becoming spastic or feeling like they are always held in tension) so I relate to this greatly.
Do you know about Zach Anner the comedian? He has cerebral palsy and shows the humor in the ridiculousness of how much harder it is for those disabled and for him wheelchair accessibility! His intelligence makes it always a joy to listen to him.
@@eajaros I'm not sure if it's the same guy, but my husband enjoys a comedian whose name escapes me that has CP and often makes similar jokes.
I was disabled for 8 years. Some days I'd need a wheelchair, some days a cane, some days I was ok without any aids.
I'm personally tired of the "oh my gosh! They got out of the wheelchair! They were faking all along!" trope. There are many many wheelchair users who are not wheelchair bound.
I particularly remember going to the zoo and having to get out of the wheelchair almost every time i reached an enclosure because from a seated level I couldn't see shit. Got a lot of "looks" everytime I got up
THANK YOU! Glad someone said it. My mom has had back and leg issues since childhood, so whenever we go to places that require a lot of walking (a museum, amusement park, etc.) she often uses a wheelchair instead of her usual cane. Does she need one 24/7? No, but in certain situations it keeps her from being in pain, and that's what really matters.
So, love this. I’m a wheelchair user who became disabled in my mid 20s due to an inherited condition, and a complication arising from that condition that wasn’t caught in time to prevent permanent nerve damage from the waist down.
I was having an argument with an abled (of course) about why it’s such a problem that so many disabled characters are played by abled actors. “Well the disabled actor wouldn’t be able to play the before part” they said. And isn’t that telling? That they just assumed that any story about disabled people must include a before, that the framing of the story must be about becoming disabled?
When I pointed that out, they said “well that’s the only interesting part” and it made me think- I became disabled at 24, exactly 10 years ago. It did take me a little while to adjust, a couple years. But then what? I’m still in my mid 20s amd nothing interesting would happen to me for the rest of my life? Just that grieving process. Oh, and I should work harder on being an inspiration, I’m a bit too much of a burden because I can no longer work and earn my own money. Though according to one person a few years ago now, I’m super brave, because if they were me, they’d have killed myself by now!
Anyway, this comment isn’t going to become a vent about all the ignorant things the abled say to disabled people (though if people could stop talking to my cater instead of me that would be great). Just- great job on the vid, I’m so happy that you tackled this issue, it’s really rare to see anyone talking about it. Though Snappy Dragon (normally a dress history/costuming channel, and very funny) has done an excellent video on disability tropes in media. Also Jewish tropes in media, as V is both disabled and Jewish. And for anyone still reading, I want everyone to go watch the TedTalk that Stella Young did on Inspiration P0rn. It’s the best TedTalk that has ever been. She is greatly missed.
It drives me crazy how disabled characters are rarely played by disabled actors too!
That reminded me of how upset the autistic and neurodivergent community got with Sia over her movie... That was so bad I didn't even watch it, I couldn't. But I've been watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine, and one of the characters loses a leg in it, and watching him struggle with the mental effects of becoming disabled was really helpful to me. I have genetic conditions (still waiting to find out if it's EDS, or something else), and they got worse during puberty, so now in my 20s, dealing with multiple chronic conditions (allergies, food intolerances, POTS, and joints going out of place somewhat frequently). It's obviously not the same as losing a limb, but the process can be very similar with coming to terms that you have limits, but that doesn't mean you can't still do things to enjoy. It's taken me longer, but I get a degree this year, and I found ways to work around my challenges to still be able to sew my own clothes which I enjoy. It just took a while to figure out what works, and what doesn't.
Do they even have disabled characters who were born that way?
You hit so many nails in the head. Did your friend ever get what you were trying to tell them?
As a disabled person, physically disabled with cerebral palsy and fibromyalgia, I am glad to see those outside the community discuss disabled representation and asking a person who they know to help rather than going it alone. That's good to hear from the start.
Glad to see the patterns and issues being brought up, the villain trope, and disablity from birth or gained during life and those degenerative over time.
I have greatly enjoyed the video and the way the topic is discussed.
Ay! I have cerebral palsy and fibromyalgia! there’s two of us! I have spastics diaplegia and fibromyalgia and sleep apnea! I have some many questions. When did you get fibromyalgia ? I got it at 26, 31 now, I saw your comment randomly whilst looking for this topic, never seen anyone else or heard of it with both! I hope your doing okay. I know it can be tough.
I've long named Walter Jr. from Breaking Bad as one of the best disabled characters ever created. Not only is he played by an actor who actually has cerebral palsy (albeit not to the same severity as the character), but it never once feels like the condition is all there is to him, while still making clear how big a part it is of his and his family's life.
I know that riding 'Breaking Bad' has become an easy way to score points with strangers, but sometimes, this show feels as close to perfect as I could see happening; at least, within the next generation.
Skyler is the only major, socio-political issue I have and they pull a *hard* correction for the audience on that shit when you realize what's really happening. And, I suppose, as an opioid user for chronic pain, there could be more to the drug legalization argument which Gale makes, but that's all I count.
It can be argued that the defining characteristic of Walt Jr. is how much he loves breakfast :)
@@acidsupernova Which is a weird thing I didn’t notice until I talked to people who watched it on a streaming service but now, can’t unsee.
Season 4, in particular, felt very different to me over time. It’s the first, full season where I had begun watching everything weekly, and at the time, it really felt like it dragged and that Gus being Walt’s target kept getting bounced from one week to the next. But watching it all in sequence (I’d guess that I’ve done this about 7 times? Something like that) you see just how much happens over that period and how well-earned the story is.
The cereal/breakfast thing was so funny to me because you really see just how absent Walt is from everyone’s lives after about 8:30 am each morning.
Completely unrelated but I had the pleasure of meeting RJ Mitte once and he was completely charming and still enthusiastic about breaking bad and his role on the show. Lovely guy and very funny
Yes and honestly love how Walt Jr. is so nice when he is hanging out with Holly and looking after her. One of the best TV Brothers ever. Aside from Ed on Fma
I really appreciate you mentioning albinism. My husband has albinism and one thing he mentions frequently is “the albino is always the bad guy.” He was bullied relentlessly as a kid for it and remarked that he still can’t really think of a positive role model or character with albinism. There certainly are some but they’re so small in comparison to the vast amounts of “bad guy” albinism.
Hence, in my writing, I always include a positive or “good guy” with albinism and I always encourage the inclusion of more in media.
@@ChantelCarter-cc7cu I'm sorry, I may have missed it
right right! they did that in black lightning and they Really did not want to humanise that man... they were just thrilled to have a """white""" (hes not white) villain amongst the black heroes, someone who was allowed to be racist basically. But krondon is an icon and he did a fantastic job in the show, despite the ridiculousness they put him through
You see a lot of positive stories for albino main characters in a whole lot of asian comics. White hair, red eyes and fair skin are often considered the strongest characters or characters with the most magical abilities and so on. In Asia the paler your skin the prettier you are too. They got skin bleaching practices thanks to it which is a bit extreme.
There's Elric, protagonist of Michael Moorcock's Elric series. I really wouldn't call him a good guy, but he was the closest thing to a hero that poor doomed world got to have. Very pulp fantasy.
The lack of caption screenings in cinemas is absolutely abysmal around the world.
The existence of cinema sometimes feels like it’s abysmal… It’s a 30-min drive from my house. With an autoimmune disorder and a surgically repaired hip and shoulder, those theater seats are sometimes just a non-starter.
I’ll never let go of the way that so many supposedly progressive-minded people I know just said, “It doesn’t matter if you’d be better off renting ‘Spider-Man No Way Home’ from your house; *I* enjoy the theater experience and my choice in venue should negate yours.”
Pretty funny how quickly people will whine about fairness while claiming that their preference can’t even co-exist alongside yours; that it has to eliminate it for them to be content.
I am very fortunate. The Regal Cinemas near my home all have captioning glasses. So I am able to watch films. Prior to that, I always had to wait for the DVD to drop or fo
r streaming to be available.
@@micheledeetlefs6041 I’ve recently been exploring the different captioning devices at the theatre. The caption glasses don’t fit over my glasses. They had this one that went in the cup holder at cinemark that I really liked. I’m going to ask if they have one of those for the movie I’m going to tonight.
@@anthonykerr3509 Yikes! I have contact lenses so that hasn't been a problem for me. Without them, my husband has to tell me what is going on in the film. He hates doing that.
YES. I only have mild hearing damage but it would be a blessing to have that in theaters. Wish they could have that in live theatre too. I've seen something like captions done at an opera production before, so I KNOW they could make it happen
Okay, final comment now that I've watched: No, you didn't screw up. :) I agree with pretty much everything said here. In particular, the section on the overcoming adversity trope. I am blind (I can see light, "blind" is rarely an absolute, but seeing light does me little good). I am a massage therapist, and according to my clients I'm pretty good at it. But I absolutely hate being praised for having a career as a blind woman. Or when people claim that I am good at it because I'm blind. No. I'm good at it because I put a lot of work into first learning and then perfecting (not that I'm perfect) my chosen career. Not because I overcame a disability.
And don't get me started on inspiration prn. I'm not here to be anyone's source of inspiration.
I like to reframe it as: "I didn't overcome my disability, I overcame your bigotry / systematic marginalization"
My best friend when I was a kid was blind & her parents used to have her sleep on a mattress on the floor because "what would happen if she fell of the bed in the middle of the night" and she would yell "the same thing that would happen if I fell off my bed in the middle of the day, I'm blind, not stupid!" I get that they were concerned for her, she was newly blind, but jeez, think things through
@@ahlimahs that makes me genuinely sad. Although my own inner Snark has a different answer. The same thing that would happen to you, dumbass. Who can see in the dark? Note: I am not calling you a dumbass, just the theoretical person telling me that I should sleep on a mattress.
@@CapriUni I think that's an excellent way to get some anger and/or frustration out of your system and put the other person on the defensive. I don't think people are maximally receptive to your ideas when they're on the defensive.
Do you think the venting function would be served less well if the word "your" was replaced by the word "society's"? I think that might be more efficient at changing attitudes. Not that I have hard evidence to back it up, just horse-sense. And maybe your priority is just to vent, in which case it doesn't matter.
Almost 21 years living with chronic kidney disease caused by Lupus, most of them spent in dialysis. I'm sick and tired of movies and shows where some character has an unspecified kidney condition and "it's a race against time to get a transplant so they won't die". I have no doubt there are cases like that, but most of us spend years and years in dialysis, waiting for a transplant. I was in dialysis for seven years before I got my first transplant, which worked for eight years, and now I've been in dialysis for almost 6 years, on the waiting list for a second one. I guess that having to get connected to a machine 3 times a week, usually for four hours each time, and then going on with your life is not as sexy for a movie or show as the "race against time".
Perhaps Hollywood should substitute a ticking time bomb for that?
Another example, of a somewhat heroic character with a severe facial disfigurement. Spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender below.
Zuko could definitely be considered one. He definitely starts out a villain, but his scarring is never really used as an element of fear, and is more the result of remnants of abuse from his father than a direct motivator from him, as his banishment is the motivator rather than getting revenge for what his father did. And while he starts out a villain, it quickly becomes clear even in season 1, that Zuko's natural instincts are to be a good person, but he was trapped in an upbringing that didn't allow him to be until he could get away from it, and even when he did, it took time to unlearn what his father taught him. You strangely root for him even in season 1 when he is almost always in direct opposition to the heroes, hoping that he becomes a better person, and by the end of the show he goes from anti-villain to full on hero. I wouldn't even call him an anti-hero by the end; he really does become a full-on hero.
Also, I don't know how far Nathaniel is on season 2 of Avatar, but Toph is definitely an interest example of someone with a disability that has an unrealistic aid, but unlike most such examples, she is still hindered by her disability in ways that feel pretty natural with the rules they set up from it. It's not that Toph's disability flairs up because the plot needs more tension, it's more that the characters naturally end up in a situation through the plot, and Toph's disability naturally gets in the way of getting out of the situation because of its nature. Examples that come to mind include them getting trapped on ice in the middle of the water in The Serpent's Pass, or them becoming trapped in the desert. It may be the best use of both tropes that I've seen.
Remember when Ryan Sinclair was advertised as Doctor Who's first disabled companion, and Chibnall forgot how dyspraxia worked by episode 2? I was so excited to have some kind of disabled representation on my favorite show, being a fan with cerebral palsy, but by the end of it I was just waiting for him, and for Chibnall to leave.
Chibnall so was so clueless when it came to representing dyspraxia. Firstly, his Nan in the first episode essentially pressured Ryan into 'overcoming' his disability in order to ride a bike. Then his disability was completely forgotten about except for the odd scene here and there, often to add greater tension as an extra thing Ryan needed to 'overcome' (e.g. jumping onto the railways in Kerblam). When it was brought up it was always framed as a negative and never a part of who Ryan is as a character.
Would Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender be considered a good representation? Within the universe's framework, it's easy to equate her to Daredevil in that she compensates her blindness with her earthbending, to the point they feed into each other in a sense, but every so often, they do show instances where that is not the case. Despite being from a rich family, in a world with no equivalent of braille she is illiterate, she has some self-confidence issues trying to not think about her appearance, and there are often instances where her earthbending can't fully or partially compensate for blindness, like when there's stuff in the air or when she's in non-earth/non-firm terrain. There are other characters with disabilities in the franchise, but I singled her out as hers is more in the forefront of the character. She's not the protagonist, but is a main character, and while being blind is a big part of her character, it's not really what her character is about.
I am not blind so take this with a grain of salt but I would say yes. It is acknowledged when relevant but doesn't take up every scene she is in, creates realistic limitations but still a strong character
The Dragon Prince does good job.
Off topic but Toph talking about feeling insecure about her looks stuck out to me so much when I was younger. I was also tomboyish, but in that label I limited myself. I felt insecure in my femininity so I never engaged much with it. I pretended I didn’t care about being pretty, but of course everyone wants to be beautiful. I like seeing a “tough girl” open up about that issue.
I’m not blind but have a physical disability and toph is my go to good disability representation, because there is a lot more about her than just her blindness and although she is super powerful they still show us her clear limitations (she can’t earthbend/“see” things in the air) which is regularly shown. Compare that to the deaf character in eternals, she didn’t actually show any signs of deafness apart from sign language speaking and that (at least to me) did fall into that flaw of superpowers fixed it category.
Someone on twitter pointed something out that I never considered before, I am disabled. I have glasses. I need them to see and navigate life but the pair I have is almost 10 years old because exams and glasses themselves are expensive. Finding a pair that fits my face right is hard. I never considered myself disabled because my disability aid (my glasses) are so normalized that people don't see it as such. Hell, vision insurance isn't considered health insurance. It's different.
That said I understand how having a visual impairment that's easily compensated for can seem innocuous. Even so there's still that trend of "glasses as fashion items" and games not having them available from the start. I become all too aware that people consider glasses "accessories" and not something people need in everyday life.
Also although it is in comparison extremely minor, there arguably even exists something like a very mild form of ableism concerning glasses. While glasses have become a bit of a fashion accessoire in recent years it has been pushed in media for many years before that wearing glasses basically makes you ugly and completely unattractive. There are tons of examples in movies where people get a make-over to get from "ugly" to "beautiful" and often the most obvious thing that changes about them is that they just don't wear glasses anymore. Also as someone who has needed glasses from a very young age (since I was 4 I think) I got made fun of for it by other children quite a bit. As a result of both of those things I've always felt very uncomfortable/ugly wearing them and switched to contact lenses as a teenager as soon as I got the opportunity. It just gets more normalized as people get older so seeing someone wear glasses gets more common as more people start to need them.
I think it’s awesome that glasses have become a fashion item. It’s made them far less stigmatised, and increased the variety of frames available, as new trends come in as trends tend to do, and glasses manufacturers extend their ranges to accommodate them. It’s made it easier to find glasses thst suit me, especially as I need lenses with prisms, which can’t be fitted to a lot of frame styles. The more frames the merrier! I’m sorry you live somewhere where it’s so expensive to get corrective lenses though, that’s not fair at all. When I found out the cost of prism lenses I was so glad of my prescription! Here in the U.K. there are lots of places that offer 2 for 1 on prescription glasses including frames and lenses and starting from £60, so it’s not expensive to get regular lenses, and a lot of folk are eligible for free eye exams. Even when you’re not you can usually find a voucher in the paper to get an exam for £15 or £20, so we’re very fortunate. But it turns out none of those offers for cheap glasses include prism lenses. I’m eligible for a free pair once a year, and I have no idea how I’d afford it if I weren’t, but stories like yours certainly remind me how fortunate I am.
One of the most famous examples of the Villain With A Disability, Shakespeare's "Richard III" is problematic not only because the historical Richard of Gloucester didn't actually have all that serious a disability - he had a slight curvature of the spine, which was so minor it still allowed him to ride and fight and all of that - and his minor disability was preposterously exaggerated by Shakespeare *in oerder to make him seem more villainous* . A huge problem is the fact that he is usually played by perfectly able-bodied actors who wear fake humps and stuff like that for that purpose - "donning crip-face", I have seen it called. What I'd love to see is a producton of "Richard III" with the title character played by an able-bodied, handsome, muscle-y guy as an able-bodied, handsome, muscle-y guy, to show that his villainy is actually rooted in his narcissism, his Incel-esque delusion of supposedly being hard done by. What the hell, have him do the "Now is the winter..." soliloquy shirtless or fully nude, showing off a body that exposes his self-justifications for the horsehockey they are, that has the audience going: "Bro, what are you on about?" Sorry, gotten really off-topic here, but I really hate this "I'm not conventionally attractive and I have a disability, therefor I get to be evil!" thing.
Richard III was a pure piece of political propaganda that was designed to make the Tudors look better. It is pretty disgusting in it's portrayal of the disabled.
@@eshbena You are correct.
i find it really funny that you dislike the character because hes a villain and is disabled but then you go and say that instead of having a physical disability the character should be shown as a villain because he has symptoms of mental health disabilities, narcissism and delusions
I find it funny - and by funny I mean ignorant and ableist - that you assume that a distorted self-image automatically means that someone has a mental health disability. This is not the case. And the character IS a villain due to his distorted view of himself and his position in society, that's literally in the text: It's not enough for him to be as high status as he objectively is, being fourth in line for the throne and all, and a war hero to boot, it's not enough to be as powerful as he is, no, he MUST be the most powerful person, even if that means he must murder his brothers and nephews to be so.
@@gozerthegozarian9500 are you seriously going to argue that narcissism isnt a symptom of mental health disorders?? in the book the character is a villain due to his symptoms of physical disability and you dont live that and instead say its ok to demonize symptoms of mental health disabilities. tell me how is it ableist to think its wrong to demonize symptoms of a mental health disability? narcissists are not automatically evil or bad people just like how people with physical disabilities aren't automatically evil, so unless your ok with them both being shown as the route course of someones vilanry you are the one being ableist. you learn what narcissism and delusions are instead of misusing them and perpetuating stereotypes and stigma
I know recently in the dnd community there was a big argument about ramps being used in dungeons. About "its a fantasy world, why would you add something like that? It's supposed to be a fantasy!" While they also have things like slaves in their world building.
Of course, it makes perfect sense for there to be ramps and mechanical elevators in dungeons because the people who dug them out needed a means to get rid of all that rock and dirt they were removing, and ramps/elevators for carts are just more practical than anything else. In addition to the obvious of "disabled people want to play games too, and why wouldn't they want to see people like them as possible heroes?".
@@Parker8752 exactly!
I think this boils down to whether a swords and sorcery setting is trying to lean into being fantastical, whether it's trying to be a historical recreation of the Middle Ages (often with certain conceits like magic and monsters added into the mix) or aiming somewhere in between. There's no right or wrong approach in a D&D game so long as everyone is enjoying it.
It should logically flow out of what that society is, what stage of development it's at, that kind of thing. For instance, a society that uses slaves has a class system and may have litters to get people around the city. If the nobles' primary transportation are litters then you don't need ramps--as seen in ancient cultures here on earth. Litterbearers can manage stairs and no one else other than nobility have needs that matter. And it depends how that society treats their disabled too. Many subsistence cultures have a tradition of euthanasia that may or may not be altered once the culture becomes more sophisticated. Also, how advanced is their medical treatment? Do people even have access to anything like a wheelchair? Ours wasn't invented until 1655, developmentally well after the scope of many fantasy worlds.
@@maurinet2291 the main issue is people that:
1. Act like a dnd world could never have ramps for any reason
2. Don't add a little thing for people that are playing amd disabled. Like maybe someone has a character with a wheelchair like them and wants a little smidgen of rep in some way. I dont think it's that big of a deal.
As someone with a couple of invisible disabilities who struggles with internalized ableism I think you did a great job breaking down the trends and tropes in media around disability representation and how much of it can be harmful to the disability community. It’s something that needs a lot more attention and amplification from everyone - disabled and non disabled alike - so that more people begin to be aware of how our society blocks people with disabilities from participating as much as they could if access were the default. And access helps everyone.
I have dyspraxia (I'm sure you can see *exactly* where I'm going with this), and while there isn't that much representation for people with our disability, the only example I have seen (Ryan Sinclair) was used purely as a "Hey, this thing exists, love us now" type of deal. While I don't believe that disabilities should define a character, they also shouldn't be ignored. I feel like a decent example of Disability Representation is probably Walt Jr. from Breaking Bad. (Before I continue, I do not have Cerebral Palsy, nor do I know anybody who does, so I am speaking purely objectively here). [Spoilers for Breaking Bad] Walt Jr. is shown to have a disability, but it doesn't get brought up outside of when it would *naturally* be brought up in real life situations (Take when Hank is paralysed after being shot, and Walt Jr. tries to convince him to get over his ego and move or, or when Walter is refusing Cancer Treatment, and Walt Jr. uses the fact he never gave up as a reason he disagrees with the decision). Now, I'm not saying you *can't* have a story focused on the disability, but the disability should *not* define the entire character.
The unfortunate thing about Ryan was not the depiction, but the reaction I saw among supposed fans of the show. SO many people didn't want to hear about Ryan's dyspraxia in the show because it was too "political" and they just wanted to "escape." It was really frustrating to me because although I'm physically disabled and don't have dyspraxia, their reaction was essentially saying that disabled people don't have a place in fantasy or science fiction, or media in general. And it wasn't even like his dyspraxia played a huge part in the show. Other than a few casual mentions, it hardly came up at all. So now I'm on a low-key mission for the Doctor to have a companion who uses a wheelchair and kicks major ass.
Thanks so much for doing this! And I appreciate that you noted a disabled friend of yours consulted on this. I'm a disabled person with Usher's Syndrome (I was born hard of hearing and am gradually going blind) which means that not only do I have two disabilities, but I have two different disability experiences. I am well aware of how differently those things affect a person emotionally and shape perspective so I'm particularly glad you noted that disability isn't simply, "person has x" but that there are so many factors that shape a person's experience with disability.
One thing I would love to add to the conversation which doesn't really fit into this particular video because then the scope of it could become unwieldy, but just how often disability representation is done by white, cis, straight people [full disclosure: I am white, cis, and straight] but how many disabled characters who were the lead or co-lead of a story were POC? How many were LGBTQIA+? There's a whole issue of intersectionality that needs to be addressed in disability representation.
Doctor Who's latest series, Flux, has a character who is the new companion's love interest, who has a malformed left arm. Not only is it not central to her story, she's still seen as desirable romantically (and by implication physically). It's never remarked upon, it's just there, like her hair color or her height. Representation as a normal human being, not "the disabled chick".
If you're looking for a show with really good disability representation, the anime Ranking of Kings has a main character who's deaf and it's handled with a lot of respect
Prince bojji is such a refreshing and charming character and so is the show itself
I was wondering if they handled it well. Although, to be fair, his story is textbook Overcoming the Adversary and currently going straight into "superpowered disabled person". And then on the villainous disabled person side, there's you-know-which lady, at least in a magical way. I do like Ousama Ranking, and I'm able-bodied, but that's how it looks to me.
@Kaworu Nagisa, I really like ranking of kings! and in a show where Giant and Demons and Magic Flat Disc People exist, I don't see how giving your main character a unique power is a bad thing? it's not tied to his disability, as far as I remember, so I don't quite get your point
You did it!!! You're covering this!!!! OMG, thank you! I am hearing impaired and my husband is wheelchair bound. We flinch so often when able-bodied content producers think they're being inclusive by tossing in some disabled characters, but because they haven't researched reality with those disabilities, they end up being exclusive or offensive if not both.
As someone who is physically disabled and autistic, I have to say you did do a good job on this video. One of the things I've always loved about this channel is how thorough you are in your research when doing this type of video. It's not easy to do a video on a topic you're not familiar with due to you not being part of the group you're speaking about. Sadly, disabled people aren't well represented in any medium, especially because writers don't know how to write action scenes with disabled people in them, and many of the entertainment that we consume are action oriented in some form or another. Which is why I loved seeing Freddy Freeman in Shazam! and why I love Barbara Gordon as Oracle. Basically I don't have high hopes for good representation of disabled people in any form of entertainment.
As a person with Cerebral Palsy, and other health conditions; I'm SO happy and relieved someone is finally stepping up and talking about this. It's because the media portrays us in such a negative light people think it's ok to look down on us. Thank you for sticking up for us, Vera.
I've always hated the trope of someone with chronic back pain as being someone who abuses drugs and alcohol and is either negligent or abusive to their children. Made me feel like I needed to put up with excruciating pain rather than go on medication.
9:32 I haven't finished the video yet but hearing this hit me hard. TW: thoughts of unaliving myself
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I recently got into an argument with an ableist on Reddit (rookie mistake, I know). They had come to the autism subreddit to ask about their autistic friend's behaviour but whenever someone would offer a possible explanation for their friend's behaviour and suggested that they just talk to their friend about what was bothering them, they would get mad. Their view of what autism is was essentially this: there are two types of autism. One is when someone is "essentially normal" and the other is when someone is "like Rainman bashing your head against a wall." They wouldn't accept that their friend might not automatically know that what he's doing is bothering them because of their autism, because their friend was "high functioning". I tried to explain to them that functioning labels are problematic and used myself as an example. I am considered "high functioning" and lived nearly two decades before anyone realised I was autistic, but I am also currently unemployed because working full-time in an office distressed me and burnt me out so much that I wanted to not be alive anymore. When I return to work, I am going to be limited in how many hours I can work and what type of work I can do in order to not have a repeat of this. I haven't felt very "high functioning" for a couple of years. I can't even chop vegetables right now without burning myself out.
This person somehow interpreted this as me saying that all autistic people are the same and then called me lazy. I should have stopped here but I was incredibly angry at this and continued (again, rookie mistake). I told them that they had no idea what they were talking about when they called me lazy because I was s**cidal while I was working. They then replied, "You called yourself lazy when you said that all autistic people are the same (I never said that) and that every autistic person who works is struggling but acting like they're not (I never said that). Maybe be a better actor?"
If one disabled or neurodivergent person makes it work under capitalism, people suddenly think all of us can and tell us to work harder or "be a better actor".
Based on what I heard a hearing impaired youtuber Jessica Kelgren-Fozard state,, Clint and Echo/Maya in Hawkeye are a decent depiction of hearing impairment. Alaqua Cox who plays Echo/Maya is deaf. I think that an important part of disability depiction seems to be about including people with the condition depicted. They know how it is to live with the disability. Most fully able people need to listen instead of project their own feelings
I think you did pretty well. :)
I have multiple chronic illnesses and I was born with a spinal condition (Also I have multiple mental health issues and I'm autistic). So I've come across a lot of different kinds of ableism. I think the worst one I've seen in media and in real life is the assumption that a life that isn't "normal" isn't worth living. I hate it when a character is disabled and the "happy ending" is when they die. Often so they can cease being a "burden" on their loved ones, or because they don't believe they can have a life of value with their disability. I had back surgery in 2018, it was a very long healing process, and sometime just after I was able to leave the house but wasn't very mobile and couldn't move without a walking frame, I was resting in a public place, and a random older lady rocked up and told me that I was brave, that if she was as disabled as I, she would have killed herself.
I think out of all of the ableism I've personally encountered, that sort is the worst. Just because I have a lot of pain in my life, just because I'm 43 and need a mobility scooter and a walking frame to get around when I leave my house, doesn't mean my life is worth nothing. And seeing a story with representation that directly counters that specific form of ableism is one I would love to see. And is one I'm working on in my own writing.
My favorite disabled charecter.
Hiccup (How to train your dragon)
Nemo (Finding Nemo)
As a disabled person, I appreciate that you stressed repeatedly that you don't know a lot about this subject but that you tried to address it anyway. Because you had a few off points and a few good points. You even mentioned some disabled characters being villains that I didn't notice at the time. Like the stuff with Arcane. I hadn't thought about those as being problematic before. But they definitely are. So thanks for bringing that up.
There is one thing I wanted to bring up, that you kind of didn't really say yourself but that I wanted to mention because you got kind of near it...
And that's the idea that "Disabled people don't need to be cured! There's nothing wrong with them!" And... yes? If the disability is autism, or deafness, or blindness or something else that doesn't actively in and of itself put the disabled person's life at risk.
Because that's actually a dangerous statement when it comes to chronic illnesses. That's the kind of statement that leads to books like "The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue". A story with a disabled person going after a cure, then turning it down. And the disabled person in that story has epilepsy. A disease that can cause a lot of pain and suffering. And the message there ultimately winds up being that if you're chronically ill, it's more noble to suffer.
Or to use another example, there's x-men. And the concept of the mutant cure. And the mutant cure is always sold as a bad thing, right? That all mutants should be proud to be mutants and the cure is just and only a tool of suppressing mutants.
But then that statement is said by characters like Storm. Whose mutant power is controlling the weather. To mutants like Rogue. Whose mutant power means she can never, ever, ever touch another person skin to skin without killing them. Or mutants whose powers cause them even worse pain than that.
And it's really not fair to lump the two together. People who aren't in constant pain shouldn't tell people who are that it's better for them to just live in pain.
This doesn't mean that in all sci-fi and fantasy settings that all chronic illnesses should be hand waived away, but... blanket statements like all disabilities don't need cures are really not good.
I still don't see the Arcane as a bad representation. It's not like you see all the disabled characters become bad or villains. The main point the show points out is that if you are from Piltover, even if you have a disability or are different, as long as you're from there you'll be fine.
If you're from the undercity there's no such thing as treatment or support. They're the slums and the poor. The people there can't afford to help themselves most the time. Hell you need fresh oxygen in some parts to be on the safe side hence they wear the masks. And people topside live on the believe that especially undercity people should die young. It's literally mentioned by their leader at some point. And why do undercity people get sick and die young? Because of the polution.
Viktor's degenerative condition is literally poison from the undercity. It's mentioned a few times.
And him becoming desperate to cure himself originally starts out as the changes to society he wants won't happen if he dies. If he stops being a voice for the undercity, topside. Literally Heimmerdinger says he has to submit to his fate to die young cause he is from the undercity. Heimmerdinger said that cause he fears the thing where Viktor can find his cure. But basically Viktor gets told to die quietly like he's supposed to, like the people from the undercity are supposed too. In that moment he realizes he has to live to bring change. And in a sense that cure will eventually be his downfall. Like the saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
That sentence can be applied to almost all characters of the cast not just Viktor. Jayce destroying the shimmer factory and killing a kid? He wanted to help undercity without understanding the situation. The reason Jinx takes the Jinx chair? Because Vi wants Powder and can't reconcile the differences just yet and hurts Jinx irrepairably in doing so.
Hell Jinx is mentally disabled. Literally has a mental illness. It goes untreated because of where she lives. She won't get attempts at help like Viktor had. Viktor had some options. She had none, She had a guy that was a little mentally ill himself and he figured out how to survive but not solve and tried to force the same changes upon her so she can survive on her own too.
The whole show is a good example of how society shapes and makes people. Jinx is a lose canon cause she won't survive otherwise, she embraces the madness and lives. Viktor has some support and options so he doesn't instantly go off the deep end. But once he's told to roll over and die. You see a shift. Because that's prejudice against him being from the undercity. He's told he has no right to live a long, happy and healthy life. Just like everyone else from the undercity. And he was already fighting against that notion. Jayce is a goodie two shoes with a magic obsession that acts before he thinks. And he gets to face real actualy consequences for that, but he doesn't really learn until someone dies. Heimmerdinger is practically an immortal that lives in fear of magic and doesn't think about how his actions can harm others. He willfully ignores the undercity. Ekko becomes the leader of a group of misfits because he has the freedom to do so. He's traumatized but not a mentally ill person with no help. He has his followers, he's not isolated. His good intentions lead him to push Jinx to pull the pin on the bridge.
It's a very realistic representation of action equals to a reaction.
Hmm in terms of characters with magical disability aids, one of my Pathfinder character uses Necromancy (she's true neutral, it's chill, not evil at all) to animate basically a wheelchair made of finely carved and painted bones (with some added perks like being able to go up stairs or smooth out rough terrain.) but at the end of the day this undead companion is ALWAYS very fragile for her level, so if it were to say, die (again) in combat, suddenly her being unable to use her legs comes back in full force. It's lead to some interesting challenges for our party and has just in general been really fun and interesting.
It being something that is easily and regularly destroyed (temporarily, she is a necromancer and those are still bones) helps it remain a little more regularly relevant than "just when the plot demands."
I am not someone with a visible disability myself, but several members of my family are/were, including my dad who was missing one leg from the hip down and his right hand. He's also where I got my love of movies from, and he's the one who instilled the importance of media literacy in me from a young age. These specific issues with portrayals of disabilities were never raised by him, or at least rarely were, but I don't know how he really felt about them, either. But there have been a few shows that he really enjoyed that showcased disabled characters, the one I most remember was the anime One Piece. For all its shounen anime tropes, it has multiple depictions of characters with various disabilities who are all still treated as full characters with lives and motivations that extend far beyond that one aspect. For some, it's not an issue that ever comes up and doesn't seem to affect their ability to function at all, while for others it has affected the course of their lives. Some are heroes, some are villains (though honestly, most characters in the series exist in some gray area), but the disability itself is not a factor in such distinctions. It's never a subject that gets delved into or even acknowledged most of the time, but my dad found that sort of refreshing. Like he could see characters missing arms or legs or who had prominent scars who still got to be interesting and strong, and never looked at with pity, so it was a nice sort of escapism for him, I think.
Two other series that he never got to see but that I think he really would have resonated with were Game of Thrones, particularly Jaime Lannister and his entire journey, and Doom Patrol. The latter of which really resonates strongly with me as an outsider but who recognizes a lot of the internal and external issues with disability from multiple characters in the series as looking a lot like issues I remember my dad dealing with. And I've also seen reviews from people online with disabilities giving the show high praise for how it portrays these things as well. Every main character on the show deals with different sorts of disabilities and has different challenges and experiences with them. Some are very visible, some are not, and all of them are handled with a level of nuance that I find really rare in any sort of media. Plus it's just a really great show in general and I wish it got more attention. But yeah, it's one that I wish my dad could have seen because I think it would have meant a lot to him. But, like you, I'm an outsider looking in and ascribing feelings to someone who can't speak for himself, so I dunno.
Regardless, I'm always really happy to see people with platforms raising awareness on these topics, as they really do get sidelined quite a lot, despite more onscreen representation over the years.
as a disabled person, I really liked your video! you did a very good job of being educated and respectful. Also, (I'm a big fan of arcane, so please note that this is my personal opinion!) I think Viktor is pretty decent representation over all. Obviously he has some issues and plays into some tropes (Mysterious Coughing Disease, for example) but since he is based off a villain from the game, it would've been very easy for the show writers to really play into the whole "evil disabled guy is jelous of his business partner" thing. Instead, they made him a genuinely good, smart guy who wants to help himself and others. Anyway, good video!! :)
(obviously he does end up turning evil still, but its a lot more "gets carried away trying to achieve his goal and then realizes what he's done after" and less "oooo he's evil because his leg is messed upppp"
A subject I was wondering would come up was House MD. Throughout the 2000s it was must watch television and the focus was on a disabled character. At the same time, it was a disabled character who you usually liked for the wrong reasons (his obvious antisocial and insulting personality) and at times didn't like at all (the finale to second to last season, a finale thst made me stop watching). Now granted it's shown that he was this way before his accident and his condition involves chronic pain to severe degrees. Still, now that we are almost a decade removed, I wonder what view is on its portrayel of disability and having such a character type portray it.
Interesting point on "tragic framing" I often feel people think I'm strange/not "normal" for my feelings that my fibromyalgia actually brought some positive stuff into my life (including my own business instead of 30+ hours a week as a care assistant!!)
I have spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. I wanted to say great job with the video! I tend to watch/read more science fiction than anything and as a young kid watching Star Trek TNG, the character of Geordi was one of those watershed moments for me because he was a disabled person with a career. (That's not something I got to see growing up in the 90's and there were hardly any children's books about disability to be read.) However, I don't think I had paused to consider the impact of technology and how much fixing the disability was apart of the narrative. It just goes to show how much we all internalize the media we are given without really analyzing it with a critical eye.
Geordi seems to be an interesting case because on one hand there’s Vera’s point about making the character functionally not have a disability, but I’ve also seen people make the point they like him as a futuristic blind character because in a futuristic setting they could’ve “fixed” his eyesight but instead gave him an assistive device. So to combat the issue Vera brought up would you give the device some limitations? Sort of like Toph from AtLA where for the most part she can functionally see but still has the limitations of reading and being in areas like the desert? Genuinely very interested in this case specifically
I actually thought the wheelchair bound character in Sex Education, Issac, was well done. His brother is his main caretaker and does his job fine, but is very much a side character. Issac is not particularly sympathetic, which I don't know that you dealt with head on, but it took me by total surprise. Even villains with disabilities are painted that way for depth, as an easy way for the audience to empathize. Issac is a real person who has had a hard life and makes questionable decisions and does some crummy things. It's up to you whether you feel for him or not. (I can't remember if you said you'd watched Sex Education, but you absolutely should. It's on Netflix.)
I largely agree with you here, but one big thing I'd point out that bugged me about Isaac is that virtually every other character in sex education is having sex and Isaac doesn't really. Sure he has a couple of moments with Maeve in the 3rd season, but when every other character is having a lot of sex (except the one asexual character who was entirely forgotten the 3rd season), leaving Isaac out seems to perpetuate the desexualization and infantilization of disabled people. For all the other teachable moments in the show about various ways to have and enjoy sex, it would have been a cool opportunity to show how disabled people can and do have sex.
That said, I do like a lot of the other aspects of Isaac's character and agree with your assessment about the rest of his personality and characterization. And in any other show I think that would have been great. But in a show so focused on a lot of people having a lot of sex in a lot of different ways, leaving Isaac out of that was obvious and not ideal in my personal opinion.
@@arin2747 That actually is a great point. I hope he'll be back next season and they'll have a chance to rectify that.
Hey so many disabled people prefer identity first language. I'm disabled and while I dont mind persom first I dont use it personally. Being disabled is a core part of who I am and when people say "with" it distances it from me.
Sort of like when someone says I see you not the wheelchair. When they do that they dont think about my access needs.
I tend not a be a fan of person first either. Two main reasons, first is that my disability is not "with" me, like some baggage I drag around behind me. It IS me. Secondly (and this is the most important one to me), the most common reason I hear for using person first language (and this is always from ableds, mind) is "to remind us that we are talking about a person, first" And hoo boy does that make me angry! Because if someone needs to say "person with" in order to remind themselves that I am indeed a person, that seems like a major problem that a little change of language can't fix.
But anything is better than differently abled or handicapable! I'd almost prefer actual slurs over those. Ugh. So incredibly patronising, (as if I'm some 5 year old that needs to be patted on the head and told that I'm "special") and greatly increases the stigma of disability. At least person first allows for a handy little acronym (PWD).
I was actually thinking about the whole "disability is always tragic" trope recently, since I'm in a wheelchair myself. When I tell people that (assuming we don't meet face-to-face and they immediately see the chair), they tend to be a bit taken aback and sad. Which is fair enough and not something I mind terribly, but it also misses a huge part of my own relationship to the chair. It is a tool that allows me to be more mobile than I was previously. If you want to be sad about anything, be sad of my life prior to having the chair. While I lived my first 27 or so years without much trouble, some kind of disease began setting in after that and gradually weakened my muscles (especially in my legs) to the point where I couldn't walk. For quite a few years, I became more and more immobile. The wheelchair was, in many ways, a savior from that state of being. I can't do everything I could do before my troubles began, but I can do a hell of a lot more than I can without its help.
My goal is still to get back up on my feet and leave the wheelchair behind me, but it is nonetheless not an instrument of tragedy in my symphony but rather one of joy.
Great video overall. I think the main thing is to write disabled characters well. If I were to write a story about my life, I would probably dip into a lot of these tropes myself. You just have to navigate them with care and be cognizant of the pitfalls within them.
Your description of your wheelchair is honestly so beautiful ✨
Thank you so much for sharing!
I mean it's the same for people born with a disability. Like you can't miss what you never had. You grow up with your problems and the more you learn to handle them as you grow up the less of a problem they become. You are still you at the end of the day. And it's not gonna change.
People tend to pitty me cause I got diagnosed with autism at age 13, why? Because they think I'll amount to nothing other than a waste of tax money. (words of my teacher not me). Anyways before the diagnosis I was told I'd make a great therapist. My special interest is human psychology. And after the diagnosis I got told it's impossible for me, again by teachers, because I got autism. Even if my grades where above the class average. I had to take a detour in studying my dream cause I had to find a school willing to teach me first.
I'd say the prejudice in my case was a bigger issue than me getting the diagnosis. Because I can work on my own problems now. I did some training, I learned psychology slightly differently now and I am learning how to be indepedent from a great coach (my mom). But I can't change society and I can't just magically make people see me for me. Hell up until last year I felt like the autistic kid in class. Not Robin the student of the class, cause of how people and teachers treat me. It's dehumanizing.
And I still got no clue what people mean when they tell me to act normal. Because from my POV I am more normal than that bunch of weirdoes.
Good video, a couple of negative patterns I've noticed that you didn't really touch upon:
Disabled characters are rarely allowed to have a sexuality. Unless it's handled as part of a general 'disabled villain' thing in which case the sexuality is framed as part of their general villainous degeneracy. That isn't to say disabled characters shouldn't be asexual - An openly ace disabled character would be wonderful - but the way isn't actual asexual representation, it's an infantalizing way, and one that mirrors how disabled people are often assumed to not have a sexuality by society at large.
On the cybermen, since you brought them up - It's not just the Cybusmen origins that has some pretty iffy context, Cybermen generally are part of this weird . They were originally a response from the screenwriter to news about artificial hearts - They're based upon the idea that medical technology might one day go too far. And that's another thing that you touched upon but didn't really dive into - The villainization of assistive technology. The way media dealing with cybernetics sometimes looks at things that are fairly similar to modern day prosthetic limbs and suggests that these future prosthetics are a sign that Mankind Is Losing Its Humanity. The framing of medical technology as being bad - That living with a disability isn't something worth doing often comes up in media. I've seen in discussion people horrified by the fact disabled people are opting for prosthetic limbs with better functionality or which are more comfortable, but which are more artificial, compared to prosthetic limbs with less functionality, or which many find less comfortable, but better resemble real limbs at a distance and which 30 years or so ago were the default, if not the only, option for an example of how this can manifests outside of media.
OMG, so much yes on the "triumph of overcoming adversity" problem.
It’s interesting that in mainstream cinema the How To Train Your Dragon films went above and beyond that trope and continued giving the disabled characters humanity. It genuinely is refreshing.
This is why I don't particularly like that Zuko's scar is more subtle and smaller in the live action show. It's so rare to have hero characters with major facial scarring.
As a wheelchair user I’m wondering if this will basically give me a list of movies to personally be wary of
I can tell you some good ones,
Saved! With McColly Culkin
The Guild, with Felicia Day- watch for the character of Venom
Avoid the film Avatar, it blows. Or, watch it if you want to see some tropes.
@@legzfalloffgirl5148 I personally loved avatar. What’s wrong with it?
I'm curious to people's thoughts on All Might from My Hero Academia. Would he be considered physically disabled? His injuries resulted in loss of organs like one lung and stomach, which over time left him emaciated and unable to continue acting as a superhero in the long term. That being said, his ability to "flex" and appear like his muscular form could almost have it fall into an invisible disability, or maybe masking. It takes on a toll on him and the time he can hold that form gradually decreases as his condition worsens. Thoughts?
I was thinking that too. I've only read up to volume 12 (my library takes forever to get them in), but I related to him a lot. I pretended to be "normal" for so long, and it ended up making things worse. Now I can barely fake it, and just stopped caring what people expect me to look and act like, and started to find out why I was getting worse pain, and what to do about it (thanks to a good physiotherapist for that).
I’d say yes, because it is a physical condition that affects his quality of life. His chronic injury exists all the time while he has his powers and when he is losing them.
One thing I’d like to note is that his losing his powers in the story is not directly caused by his condition getting worse, but instead his chosen successor growing stronger.
I’m not sure how that falls into disability representation, but it sure is different from that pattern in the Marvel movies where the trade is “have powers” or “be cured of disability”. His powers are treated more like a job he used to have that he just can’t do anymore, so he’s moving on to other things.
I'm a little surprised to find that you don't consider yourself disabled since you have ADHD. Not a physical disability but something that I would consider falls in the invisible disability camp.
I really liked your video can't speak the physical but plot movement for flair ups is definitely there and the whole disabled villian is definitely there seen both physical, mental, and invisible there.
Would love to hear your opinions on Orphan Black.
It’s not that I don’t consider ADHD a disability, but rather depictions of neurodivergent and mental health conditions carry whole other set of tropes and patterns (with some cross-over issues, to be sure).
@@CouncilofGeeks Okay got it. Just the phrasing seemed odd to me.
To add to this, I have a heart condition, migraines, and a bunch of other minor issues. I tried and failed to get financial disability pension TWICE, before being diagnosed with ADHD which is apparently more of an official disability than the other abundance of things that prevent me doing daily tasks (i.e. Migraines are insta-death for my week)
So id say ADHD is, at least by Australias officially recognised disabilities, disabling enough to count.
But I get where you're coming from. Just wanted to throw my two cents in as someone who wasnt recognised with disability except for ADHD specifically.
Hawking didn't invent String Theory, he worked on cosmology and Black Holes in particular. String Theory was a collective effort by different groups of physicists across the decades.
Bad wording on my part.
@@CouncilofGeeks No pressure, just doing my solemn duty as the representative for the minority of physicists here!
@@Yan_Alkovic You saved me the effort of typing in a three paragraph reply. Thank you. XD
And decenterting the actual topic.
@@superslammer Absolutely, that’s another one of my solemn duties!
Giving villains disabilities feels like it comes from the same vein of bury your gays
Given the subject of the video, I imagine there will be some who'd like to know this: if you're disabled and wanting to get into creative media, looking for help or support, look up 1in4 Coalition (for the US) or if in the UK, try DANC (Disabled Artists Networking Community).
Thanks
If you don't list any examples of it being done right, your points all fall flat. Based on this video all I can take away is that you feel depicting the disability in any way that affects the story or is even aknowledged is wrong... but so it any story that just has it as a background element because then its "Token", and thus not true representation? Like even as I tried to think of instances where disibilities would fall into your crieria, you'd later list THOSE as problematic for increasingly arbitrary reasons. The criteria feels so rigidly specific that any story that got it right would either be boring, or derail the plot to focus on their disability for some oscar bait, neither of which feel like sincere depictions of the character. Making the persons condition nonspecific seems even odder to criticize since it means people with similar conditions feel represented.
To be clear though, I don't think all the things you listed aren't problems, I just don't like the implication that any attempt to aproach disabilities in a creative manner is bad, and should instead be more reflective of reall life, when not every writer is going to KNOW someone in real life who has a disibility that would work with the plot. Because unless the whole world is structured around a specific disibility (which I've never seen done and might be a neat premise to explore) , the disibility itself would have to be a chekovs gun or major plot elements. Otherwise it'd fall into tokenism, which is aparently bad? Like I'm having trouble imagining where this would fall into acceptable standards. I would have thought Jonah Hex or Geordi were acceptable in their respective universes (especially since geordi is effectively a merging of hearing aids and seeing eye pets).
Again, don't disagree entirely, just feel more confused on the point now then I did before the video. Feel like your point wasn't really all that clear, and basically comes out more as "don't write about disabilities at all" then "Think more critically about how you depict them"
Well if you want a couple of ones I’m inclined to praise:
Walter Jr. from Breaking Bad - character with cerebral palsy, depicted by an actor with the same condition, focus on him as a character first and foremost.
Massimo from Luca - the character openly rejects the tragic framing of having only one arm, and the audience is able to see how he works around it.
How to Train Your Dragon - I honestly go back and forth on this one as it does brush up against the “prosthetic so good they might as well not be disabled” issue, but it has three visibly disabled characters (including the two leads) and it does highlight the ways in which they live with their conditions without excessive tragic framing.
Thank you. THANK YOU!!!!! You have done a beautiful job here. In fact, you even opened my eyes to the realization that Bucky Barnes is disabled, something I never caught on to before. It may not seem like it, but dialogues like this help. Now. Now the next step would be for people who have seen this video, and who go to Comic-Con and other events where they have an opportunity to talk to writers and actors and producers, even if just for a few seconds, to bend their ears. Their ears. To show them these videos and say okay you're guilty, what are you going to do to make it better? Once Hollywood realizes it can no longer hide behind its shield of ableism, you will see disabled content producers, writers, directors, producers, and actors making realistic stories in which characters are disabled. And that is when we will say true change
I will leave you with my husband's personal suggestion for two of the best representations of his own disability of cerebral palsy, Jimmy and Timmy from South Park. What he loves about them is that yes they are disabled, and occasionally the disability is addressed, but mostly they're just shown as two of the boys doing this sort of things the boys in South Park do.
And that is ultimately what I hope to say one one day, people with disabilities being shown as people. We don't make a big to do about people who wear glasses, even though that means they are visually impaired. We don't make a big to do about people who are redheads, unless you're in England and then you call them gingers and insist they are soulless. One day being disabled will be like that too, just other case of red hair or glasses, not a defining characteristic. I'm not really a big deal.
Oh and before I forget, my example of the best person with my disability, hearing loss, is undoubtedly the A Quiet Place series. Not insignificantly, the producers of that film allowed the disabled actress to have agency to change, not just the character, but the film itself to be more realistic. As a result, we get a fabulous piece. Her hearing loss does provide the family a better means of survival because they know sign language, but in the end she herself is not defined by her hearing loss. Rather she is defined by her cleverness her bravery and her love for her family.
This is just me, but to be honest, as someone with a couple of invisible, degenerative disabilities I never minded "disability as motivation" storylines, in fact I often find them very relatable. I know why they're problematic, and I know that a lot of people are comfortable with their condition and the main problem is the world not accommodating differently abled folks. But as for myself, there's not a lot I wouldn't be willing to do to get rid of my conditions, or at least stop them from getting worse. :/ It's not a world vs me thing, I just don't want to get cancer or go blind.
I'm kinda confused now what makes for good disability representation? Like if it's a plot point it's bad but if it's just there and not a plot point that's also bad because it's turns into tokenization? I don't mean to be dismissive I just don't know what's good representation anymore 😬. Like Lifetime cast Ali Stroker as the romantic lead in a Christmas rom com? Is it good because she's a romantic lead in a movie not about her disability or bad because it's never mentioned at all and could just not exist in the script? What About Kaz in Shadow and Bone (granted he was written by someone with a very similar disability to him)?
Yeah, I thought this too. It kind of seems from this video like you can't win with any kind of disability representation. But from what I've seen, having token characters usually means characters who are defined by a particular trait, which is the opposite of what Vera has said here, where she uses it for characters whose disability has little impact on them. IMO the best way to go is to have disabled characters whose disability has some impact on what they can do, but doesn't have to be a story focus, ie a hacker in a wheelchair or something. But I'm not an authority at all so...
Yeah, looking through the comments I seem to be one of the *very* few disabled people who watched this and mostly thought "Okay, now I understand why transgender folks might not really want to hear me talking about their representation." No harm being done here... but for so much of this, I was thinking to myself "Wait, people think that disabled people feel like this? People think disabled people do (A) because of (B)?" ... that sorta thing. And it comes back to what both of y'all are saying... disabled people, even when they have the "same" disability, will all have different takes on that disability. Now gather all disabled people of all types together, and imagine how many unique people and experiences and traumas and interpretations there are... and it does make a person wonder how anyone could expect that representation be done "the right way" when everyone's "right way" is likely different from the others. Many things that she was talking about almost as if it is shameful, how it was done... were things that didn't bother me at all. And, ironically, some of the "better" ways of doing things... they would rub me the wrong way more than the ways I've usually seen it done. *laugh* Just goes to show the complexity of the issue, I suppose.
Oh, and as for "normal" ... or I suppose I'd use the word "typical" for my example... when we're talking about how the world is designed for normal people or typical people... I don't think that's a sin. My personal disability, while it presents itself as a huge PITA almost every day, I'd never expect the world to have to change *as much as humanly possible* to suit me. And again, looking at the vast range of disabilities... imagine if we all had to change our lives, change our homes, change our cars, change our businesses... because we *must* keep every disabled person in mind. Meh... I know that's not really what she was calling for, but I've seen people doing so.
Meh... I dunno... this video has obviously done a lot of people a lot of good, judging by the comments... but, and it might be hard given the likely typical channel subscriber here... but I wonder how many physically disabled people there are out here who hear all of these things and think "My gosh... she's thought about / is concerned about more things in this 45 minutes than I have in the near-20 years of my life that I've actually been disabled." :-) I kinda hope those people make up the majority, but I'm understanding now that this video is really for those of us who just have what we have, do our thing as best we can, and don't really think on the topic much more than that.... heheh
Eventhough I am a supporter of representation of all groups including LGTBQ which this channel talks about alot, I'm not part of that community I have in deed been in a constant argument over my 20 years of existence with my legs and they are not talking to me. That's a stupid joke anyway I am disabled and this video has put problems with Disability representation in a great way that I would never be able to do so I'm am thankful for that alot.
I love the analogy. To continue it, I also talk to my legs a lot. Sometimes they talk back, sometimes they don't hear me at all, and sometimes they speak back, but in a completely different language ( I have permanent nerve damage from the waist down, but I'm not paralysed)
Moving forward it is important for media to have people with disabilities be part of the making of that piece of media both in front of and behind the camera. that way stories will have more nuance and will show a more accurate depiction of that disability.
I’ve been watching Netflix’s Daredevil recently and although I love the character ever since i read the comics, I’m aware that the history of the character isn’t necessarily the most progressive (similar with many other comic book characters). However, I like the way that Matt is portrayed in the show. (I’m not blind so take this with a grain of salt.) His blindness was never the focus of the show or most plot points (tbf he’s also got super senses that compensate his lack of vision so blindness is less of an issue). Also, even though Matt is sort of a tragic character, his tragedy didn’t come from his blindness, but what happened to his father and his own inner demons.
I'm autistic, and as a children's librarian I see a lot of 'representation' of autism in book media being written by doctors and parents of autistic people and not by autistic authors. Most of those stories wind up being 'feel good pat on the back we know they can be a burden but you got this' stories, where autism is the terrible wrecker of family life and whatnot and all the neurotypical characters have to learn to cope with it. It's really annoying, and even as an adult these stories make me feel horrible for having a disability like ASD, so I can't imagine how it would feel to an autistic child reading these books and think, 'I'm the problem that everyone else would be better off without'.
I don't really understand the point trying to be made about not knowing Freddies exact disability?
Noting the term wouldn't give more insight, it wouldn't help the disabled person and usually isn't relevant to moments of mobbing.
It's as well something that is rather rude to bring to the table. Had a train ride in Germany and two ladies asked if they may take the seats opposite from me, which I was blocking because the person previously sitting there went to get a coffee. Thus they got to sit down. Once the previous seat owner returned, she took off once the explanation was repeated, yet there was an audible claim of "oh, they are just pretending, posers or exaggerating". Bioth of them took the criticism quite to heart, because they couldn't just stand throughout the train ride. It didn't matter that they had leg prothetics and it shouldn't matte that they got them or how they got them.
It's similiar to my experience and my observation during my time at a preschool (Kindergarten) for heavily disabled kids. There were some kids who had to use crutches, with whom I was good friends. Never exactly learned why they had to use them. It wouldn't have changed anything how other treated them.
I am as well confused about the characterization of Freddy. It's a while since I saw the movie, but I thought he had more relevance? Like wasn't he got with computers and then helped Billy with figuring his super powers out?
Naming the condition/diagnosis/impairment matters because REPRESENTATION MATTERS, and because a public perception of a fictional character can educate and inform able-bodied people. Saying that growing up you had disabled friends and didn't discuss their disabilities with them (implying that disabilities are irrelevant) is akin to saying you grew up with friends who are POC, and because their race never came up conversationally, identifying as a POC is irrelevant. Individuals have a right to state and share their identifiers, and whether or not that influences YOUR perception of them or not is moot; marginalized people deserve clear representation in the media, on their own terms.
@@megcossaboom2932 I think there's a misunderstanding, I didn't grew up with friends who had disabilities, but I was in a Kindergarten (playschool?) for heavily disabled children (physically and mentally).
For which the prerequisit is, to have a disability.
[The type of Kindergarten got etablished after the Thalidomide scandal and because all kids need a Kindergarten]
I haven't mentioned my own experience as I wasn't there for physical but for mental health reasons. Though they did lead to systemic discrimination with trying to get into a normal schoold and extended mobbing for the first 9 years of school because the kids got told "this person might be contagious" or "this person might be violent because of their time at a place for heavily mentally(physically) disabled."
It's a reason that I several decades to be able to engage with the health system again. (Am currently since about 1 3/4 years in therapy including various clinics)
Thus, from my very own experience as well from the experience with fellow disabled people, I do hold that naming the issue does neither help with representation nor does it stop people from hurting people with disability.
People don't give a f* if you got leg prothetics because of a medical condition and which medical condition, because of an accident, because of abuse or whatever happend, they will be ignorant and start mobbing.
Well, and I hold that it shouldn't have to be explained or matter, just don't be an asshat to people who because of their disability need (or have the right) to get a seat.
In the train example it was literally what put further distress on the two women. Because the person who cleared off said "I don't believe they got a disabiliy, they are just pretenders".
Which was f*ing hurtful to them, because they didn't feel inclined to point to their (very well hidden) prosthetic and explain how it came to it.
It's the opposite of representation.
I think for this type of video (i.e. making a video about a demographic that you're not a member of), the format used by "Xiran Jay Zhao" regarding South East Asian representation is a good one to look at.
Being East Asian and not South East Asian, she was convinced by South East Asians to use her Raya video as a platform for South East Asian voices on the topic of representation of their demographic in the movie industry. She gathered an array of SEAs and together they created presentations that formed the format of her video. She even got some of them to speak in the video it seems, although the audio quality wasn't amazing because they weren't professional content creators with good microphones.
An artifact of my long-ago Soviet upbringing was my family members using "not normal" as a delicate way to avoid unspoken things. "Did you hear? Mina's baby was born... not normal." "The last house before the big road, the dad is not normal. Just, I don't know, something." It drove me into a rage. Is it pertinent? Then name it. If it's not, just ignore it.
"Normal" really can be a four-letter word. Metaphorically.
Thanks, Council dude. And I mean dude in a gender-free sort of way. Your deep dives make for a good listen.
I am disabled. I have multiple disabilities. What I love doing is proving people wrong, or exceeding their expectations. At the same time it also sucks that I have to do that. It is something I love, and hate.
You honestly did a wonderful job with this video and even brought thing up that I didn't even realise as a disabled person in a wheelchair. I think one thing that does stand out to me sometimes is that it would be nice to see more disabled actors getting roles. Where as there are many instances it is abled bodied and more well known actors playing the parts, especially if it is a lead role.
Rather than give examples of good representation of physical disabilities in fiction, I'd like to add some that at least leave room for interesting and productive exploration.
To start off with science fiction:
The player character in Crysis 2 is saved from death by being put into a nanosuit that gives him superhuman abilities. Giving contrast to being physically dependant on something that makes you superhuman for your survival. There's also ludonarrative cohesion with gameplay when your low on health and struggling to breath and move.
Another is the setting in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Where people with physical disabilities (and others) have the option to get advanced prosthetic augmentation (as it's named in the game). This is an instance of missed opportunity for exploring that what if beyond some tidbits.
For a more grounded genre, the depiction of Tommy Flanagan's character in Sons of Anarchy. The fact that the actor has what's called a Glasgow smile is used to inform the character's backstory without explicitly stating it or using it as a plot devise. Those that know the common origin of the scar and correlate it with the actor's accent can make their own connotations and references.
Finally, I'd like to just mention the depiction of eunuchs in media. Here, there's a historical connotation to how they where treated in a variety of cultures and civilisations in the past. Stories set in those eras is where we see most of these depictions. With the rest being fantasy settings with heavy historical inspirations (i.e. Game of Thrones).
As someone who has osteogenesis imperfecta Mr glass did me dirty!!!!! Samuel l Jackson it great but what the f?????
With "Orphan Black" it was a ticking clock flaw that happened with all of the sister/clones and something that they are all going to eventually die of if they don't find the cure for in time. It is just that each sister/clone was at different stages of the clock, and the character you talked about was at a very late stage, and that added to the urgency to find the cure and all of the answers to the sister/clones. They even showed other minor sister/clones dying of it over the course of the show. I am not saying this is good representation, but you characterized her condition as some random thing that was just there to make us feel bad for her at random times, when in fact it was a major plot point that was part of the main driving force of the show.
Agree and disagree. Cosima is the only character who has to deal with the condition. Sarah and Helena are presumably immune because they both as capable of fertility. Allison and Rachel never develop symptoms at any point in the show, even though both of them are at risk of doing so. Katje and Jennifer both have the condition, but they are killed off before we can get to know them as people or really explore how it affects them. We see some video journals that Jennifer made, but that is, like, two minutes of screen time, tops. And Cosima's condition comes and goes when its convenient for the plot, which they sort of lampshade later in the series but that doesn't change that she starts showing symptoms as soon as it is necessary to motivate her and is really only used to punctuate dramatic moments from then on out.
With the lack of accommodation and access to public spaces, I've gotten some people to understand by pointing out it's a type of segregation.
If a shop, doctor office or restaurant don't bother to adapt; they are making a decision about who they feel are valuable people.
I have cerebral palsy and I hate that there horrible representation of people like me.
@@BradLad56 True
I concider the stigma around my disability the most crippling part. Public awareness of social anxiety disorder seems next to non-existent smtms.
Thanks so much for turning your always-interesting analysis to disability in media! I’ve got cerebral palsy and sundry other physical disabilities, chronic illnesses and mental illnesses, and you’ve really covered most of the tropes and pitfalls beyond inspiration porn. One major gripe is that for most of the history of film and TV, disabled characters have been played by able-bodied actors and, much like straight actors playing gay, crip drag was almost a surefire way to be noticed come awards season. We are just starting to see a bit more portrayals by disabled actors, but it’s so slow. I think most temporarily-able-bodied folks are discomfited by the idea that everyone will become disabled at some point if they’re fortunate to live long enough. We’re the biggest minority and we’re growing every day, but no one wants to think it will happen to them.
Some of my favourite representations of disabled characters are RJ Mitte in Breaking Bad (of course), Geri Jewell in Deadwood, and the sitcoms Speechless and Special. They all, not coincidentally, feature actors with disabilities. In the theatre, I’ve been fortunate to see several productions with Deaf protagonists (though I recognize that many Deaf people don’t view it as a disability, but they still live in a world not designed for them). Deaf West’s production of Spring Awakening made it to Broadway, and I’ve seen Deaf actor Joshua Castille play Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, with a sweet added scene of Juliet trying to learn ASL. There are clips of all these plays on RUclips, and I highly recommend them!
I think it would have been useful to have a small contribution of well done disability representation. For example, West Wing. Although all of the issues you mentioned are used to a small extent in that show, it's done realistically. As someone living with MS, I appreciate that.
I would absolutely welcome a video from you on depictions of neurodiversity. I also have ADHD and ASD and I love your videos.
Same here. I have only recently discovered that I very likely have ADHD, and really appreciated her video on procrastination - related to it A LOT. It would be lovely to see a full neurodiversity-related video.
I always kinda thought it would be better if the Enterprise had a voice navigation system to help Geordi get around without needing his visor all the time. He does say one time that it physically hurts to wear, so I feel like the supposedly enlightened Federation would try to design the ships to minimize how often he needs it. Heck, they could have more and more accommodations appear as the show goes on, demonstrating that the Federation is actively trying to help him out (and other personnel like him).
Another Star Trek disability depiction that kinda bugged me was when Deep Space 9 had everyone get together to install ramps for a disabled person who was coming to the station (well, actually an alien from a planet with low gravity who was effectively disabled in earthlike gravity), and then they TAKE THE RAMPS OUT when she leaves. Like, what? You just improved the accessibility of the station. Give everyone a few days to get used to the ramps and it'll just be better. Why would you take them out again? DS9 is originally a Cardassian station, so it does make sense that they wouldn't care about accessibility and therefore there wouldn't be ramps already in it, but the Federation absolutely should care beyond the bare minimum.
Full disclosure, I'm not disabled, so if I've said something weird, let me know. These just struck me as a bit odd for the supposedly enlightened society depicted in Star Trek.
My mother has lupus and scoliosis. My grandmother and father both have diabetes. I had never really thought of diabetes or lupus as invisible disabilities since my parents are both visibly struggling, to *much* different extents, of course! 😅
Your thing about disfiguring scars being resevered for villains makes me thing about how fucked up it is they changed Hester Shaw's face for the Mortal Engines movie,
I love your content, both because we share several points of view, and I find you respectful in your presentation when we do disagree. There are two things I'd like to point out here. First, respectfully, you are a disabled person. You wear glasses. It's worth keeping in mind that your disability is so thoroughly compensated for in society that it's no longer seen as a disability, even though people with glasses are still the victims of bullying specifically because of the presentation of their disability in media.
There's also a conversation to be had (beyond the scope of your video) about how we determine disability. With things like facial deformities which don't hamper a person's capabilities, they are assumed to be disabilities, either because of out group bias, or how the person is treated by society. Is this qualified as a disability? Does that mean race, gender, gender presentation, sexual orientation, or a host of other qualities which do not affect a person's intrinsic abilities should fall under the umbrella of "disabilities" because of the way society responds to those qualities? It's a question worth considering. Almost the inverse of someone who needs glasses to see being considered "not disabled", someone who isn't part of the in group majority might be treated the same way as a differently-abled person by society, thus creating a structural disability.
Thank you for your content and your opinions. I always find you engaging.
36:37 this is BUT kill me🤣
and yeah, good video 👍
I know some people don´t like it, but I´ve always felt that the way they treated Bashir on "Doctor Bashir, I presume" was beutiful. I don´t have a learning disability and I don´t know what exact disability Bashir had, but I´d have arthritis, fibromyalgia and had been neurodivergent since I was very little, my diagnostic came when I was 11, but I had syntomphs since I was 6 and my legs used to be very crooked. What do I feel is that good about the way they depicted Bashir that speeks directly to me? They acknowledge that he had a problem, that living on a society with that kind of problems is very difficult because it´s not ment for different people, that he really tried but still couldn´t overcome it, that he had to deal with feeling that his parents didn´t feel he was good enough and not being able to understand why wasn´t he good enough for them, pointing out that it is difficult taking care of someone like that, and that it wasn´t his hole personality but it was still a big part of his life even if he wasn´t disabled any more.
To be fair, Viktor's experiments with hextech were always to help those who were in need, he was in need so he tried to use it to help himself. So he didn't "betray" any of his morals, he was following them to a T. And it would have worked if he continued to use shimmer during the experiments but Jayce cut off any way of him getting any when he closed the bridge.
Vera, I nearly snorted my soda when you got through the “why are you stealing this gag?” joke! As an Abigail fan I was not expecting that, but I loved it. Great job on a very important topic.
Most villains have mental disorders or mental illnesses though to
can't believe i only just watched this! as someone who has ehlers danlos syndrome and often used kt tape, braces, and a walking cane, i loved your take on these movies/shows and the issues within them. it was so refreshing to hear someone else talk about disabled characters in a positive light :)
35:15 Super nitpicky and I don’t mean to detract from the extremely valid point, because villain looking character a hook is an archetype, but I thought that the joke there was that people don’t expect someone with a hook hand to become a professional pianist because playing piano is something most people need two hands to do.
That and also putting “evil look” and “hook” as two separate points is sort of presenting them as separate things, not the same thing.
I'm a huge Bond fan but I'm the first to admit there is some very problematic depictions there. But there's also an easy way to do better in future; Felix.
Remember the shark maiming from Licence to Kill? That was taken from the novel of Live and Let Die, the second book in the series. So for the majority of the novels Felix is a disabled character and a fairly positive one. He's Bond's best friend and is still depicted as an agent who's good at his job. If they could cast a real disabled actor for the next reboot then I think that would send and strong message.
As someone who has various physical disabilities, I think you handled the topic well.
I'd like to highlight one example of a series that I personally think handles disabilities well, which is the Manga/Anime series "Demi-chan wa Kataritai" (Translated to English as "Interviews With Monster Girls").
The majority of the main cast of characters have fictional conditions, rather than real disabilities and are referred to as "Demi-Humans" or Demi's. For example Kyoko Machi, is a Dullahan girl who carries her head separate from her body. A lot of thought is put into how their fictitious conditions would affect them in the real modern world. The setting is pretty much like real life modern day, outside the existence of Demi's who are a minority.
Despite the fantasy element of their conditions, many of the issues & challenges the characters face across the series resonated with me as someone with disabilities, its my personal favourite Manga/Anime series.
I’m surprised Ryan and his magically disappearing disability didn’t make the video. Overall, great job though!
3:09 Well, given that Abigail Thorn stole this gag from Kyle Kallgren, you're not the only "lazy hack" here...😉
I am a big comic book nerd and lately I have been thinking about how many of the villains are disfigured or "ugly". It feels like it's drawn from that medieval mindset that if you are disfigured then it's an outward sign of God's disfavor. (Another commenter mentioned Richard III and there's literally a line in there about how if he can't be a lover then he'll be a villain and go hardcore at it, which always made me feel badly for him.)
Tyrion Lannister was for a long time one of my fave disabled reps. But things got weird in both the books and the show. I was sad they cut Penny from the show. I don't always love those scenes in the book but it is interesting to see two different perspectives on the same or similar disability.
I would love to see more movies or shows that show GROUPS of disabled people, since many people experience different things with the same illness or condition, instead of acting like there is no such thing as support groups and everyone must go it alone in a world full of ableds.
I have a chronic illness but am not yet physically disabled, I should note.
I feel like most disabled characters in fiction are male, anyone else see this too? Would be definitely interesting to talk about I think
I have Cerebral Palsy that affects my Hearing and Motor Skills on the left side of my body.
Unlike many forms of Cerebral Palsy, I consider mine to be Invisible, since often, people don't realize I have them, unless I tell them or having a bad/hard day.
This was a good video :)
If my life was a movie, I could see why critics would consider my condition a Plot Convenience, that's not a criticism of the video, just wanted to say, like Sexuality, Gender, and other conditions, Cerebral Palsy is a Spectrum (even though movies and television treat it as just Debilitating).
I actually like the Disability as Superpower tropes, because part of the reason my form of CP hasn't killed me, is because I viewed its "upside conditions": in my case (definitely not all) I have a higher tolerance to pain than most people, overcompensating with the Right Side of my body, makes that side, according to friends and family, "ungodly" strong. 😁
So yeah, bring on the "My Disability is My Superpower" Heroes. 😁
Speaking of Heroes, I related to Claire the most from Heroes, because, I have been in situations where I broke or damaged myself and didn't realize it (see "CP is a Spectrum"). :)
Mad Eye 👁 Moody is a interesting Case: he is one of the Good Guys, but he is very Creepy, paranoid and a „villain“ in „Goblet of Fire 🔥“. A lot of Mixed messages here.
It’s been great to see what’s happening with Channel 4 in the UK since the 2012 Paralympics. They made a conscious decision to work with presenters who had disabilities. And since then I think there has been more representation with comedians and presenters. I see it a bit on the BBC too. It’s not enough but people like Ade Adepitan, Alex Brooker, Rosie Jones, Francesca Martinez, Nikki Fox and George Webster are putting themselves out there and changing the conversation. I think being comedians, presenters and journos also means we’re seeing real people and not just a representation in fiction. Of course, that I can pluck out a few people and name them doesn’t mean it’s enough or broadcasters get it right but the progress since I was a kid is night and day.
This video explains why maybe sooo many people like the mcu Makkarai. She doesn't fit these common tropes like having to overcome her disability it be so outstanding that society has to change nor even like Daredevil or Bucky does her power basically make it do she doesn't have her "disability". Not does her fellow Eternals or villian joke about it target/bully her. Nor is her disability a liability. She needs more screen time though and a big focus
In General, Lauren Ridloff deserves as many roles as she can get.
Your essay's get better each time! keep up the good work!
But you got a few of the specifics around the characters wrong, so hopefully this will get som extra engagement from their stans XD
As a cartoonist with autism, I use the word "normal" only to mean "without superpowers," which includes every ethnic group, including the disability community.
I like that approach
Thanks for your thoughtful solidarity. I have cerebral palsy. i really appreciate the fact that you took the risk of maybe getting something wrong but chose to speak up anyway. We can't progress if people stay silent. And actually, I think you did a brilliant job. Thanks.
Stephen hawkins as example , why is he the als example, he got pretty lucky with his version. Relative, had an uncle who had to fight with ok he had good support and good healthcare which did help a lot, and lott work, boy was he really deterninated to do what he can , and had the peviledge of support,, and did not last that long, he drew it out a lot, but hawkins, its "lucky" to become that "old" with als.
While its an example, additional to that he got the luchk of knowing influencal people in the tech sector.
Also he didnt wanted pity. But do what little he can. Like he did travel in europe. Well good finmancial situation and sold land.But thats, Hawkins is not an average als person at all. And "lucky" with his version.
Its just not a good portrayal of als and while i get positive can be, its inspiration porn in praxis with a person really having a lot previledge. .I would say my uncle had i guess, but hawkins had , not everyone has a good support system, healthcare or even a family to support.
Hawkins is inpirational porn for all the good he did to mak it known i mean.
Yand from rwby and her arm.