disability

• barnes

  • identified 12 commonly reoccurring representations of disability
• Pitiable and pathetic 


  a staple of television documentaries, which often focus on disabled children and the possibilities of miracle cures
• Sinister and evil


   for example Villains in James Bond movies often have physical impairments
• Atmospheric or Curious

  • where disabled people are included in drama to enhance atmosphere of menace, unease, mystery or deprivation
  • Barnes calls this “disability voyeurism” where disability is presenting as fascinating and different (which often links to the decision to include disabilities in the construction of fictional villains)
• super cripples 


  the disabled are sometimes portrayed as having special powers, for example blind people might be viewed as visionnaires with sixth sense. e.g dare devil, nick fury
• sexually abnormal 


   the media usually treat the disable as having no sense of sexuality, but when they do they are represented as sexually degenerate.
• incapable of participation in community life 


  disable people are rarely show as integral and productive members of working society – Barns calls this the stereotype of omission.
• longmore 


  • suggests that telethons historically present disabled children as people who are unable to participate fully in community life (sports/ sexuality) unless they are ‘fixed’.
  • telethons are primarily about raising money rather than raising awareness of the reality of being disabled, they may end up reinforcing stereotypes of disabled people.
  • telethons - televised marathons
• williams - findlay

  •  examined the content of The Times and The Guardian to see whether the coverage of the disabled had changed between 1989 and 2009.
  •  found that the use of stereotypical words had declined in those 20 years, but that stereotypical representations were still present in 2009 because journalists still assumed that disability was ‘tragic’.
• Watson et al 


  compared tabloid media coverage of disability in five newspapers in 2004-5 with coverage in 2010-11 they found that:

  • There had been a significant increase in the reporting of disability
  • In 2010-11 the reporting of groups with mental disabilities was particularly negative, often associated with them being welfare scroungers.
• object of ridicule

  • Often disabled people are the butt of jokes. Particularly impairments of speech or learning difficulties are represented in this way, e.g. the Ricky Gervais character Derek.