Dancing on Wheels ep 3: Simone, Harry, and the reality TV narrative.

[aris_tgd]

(As I love this community and would like to see more traffic here, I thought I'd crosspost a more general-discussion-friendly post I made on the third episode of Dancing on Wheels. This draws a lot from what I've learned about disability portrayal in media from this community and from FWD/Forward, but I'd like to emphasize that while I'm interested in ally work I don't myself ID as a PWD. Or British, for that matter.

This is adapted slightly from when it was originally posted at my DW account and contains spoilers for Episode 3 of the series.)

So the drama in Episode 3 of Dancing on Wheels is interesting because it's the first time on the show they've really talked about the representation of people with disabilities on and because of the show. And given the subject, I'd like to talk about the edit that the producers gave Simone and Harry this week.

Firstly, I want to say that this post isn't about either Simone or Harry as people. But I think we all know that producers and editors manipulate footage to tell a story, and it's the story that I'm critiquing, not the people involved.

So the two stories that we really saw this week were Simone's and Harry's, and unfortunately they came to a head in the dance-off in a way that really demonstrates one of the major problems with doing a show about people with disabilities in an ableist world. (For those of you who aren't familiar with the program, the dance-off is where the two weakest couples repeat their performances to give the judges one last chance to pick the couple to send home, and the weaker couple is eliminated.) The people who produce the show are trying to tell an engaging story (the reason we have the TV programs in the first place), but they're falling into a very easy narrative which reinforces a number of annoying and hurtful stereotypes.

Simone and Harry are both paraplegic, and both competitive. Simone started off in a very good position in the standings, and Harry started off in a worse position but has been steadily improving.

Oh, and Simone doesn't want to be anyone's inspirational wheelchair ambassador, thank you very much.

Now, personally, I think that Simone is factually incorrect when she says she's not representing anyone but herself when she goes on television. As anyone who is familiar with institutional oppression knows, minorities on television or otherwise in positions of high visibility are always going to be taken as representatives, due to the power imbalance in the world we live in. But not wanting to be a representative or an example or an inspirational exemplar? Totally understandable. Especially since, though it's hard to tell due to the editing, it seems like what she's objecting to is being a representative of wheelchair users to able-bodied people. (Or at least people who don't use wheelchairs.)

On the other hand, we don't really get to see much of Harry's thoughts on being a representative--he seems to mostly agree with Diana (one of the other contestants) and Brian (the choraeographer) that being on TV makes one a visible representative, but he doesn't really have much to say on the subject. (At least, nothing that was left in when the show was edited together.) What he does have is an edit that really stresses his perseverance through adversity. How he doesn't complain, how he bucks up and deals with the pain and with the danger of the trick that Brian wants him to do, how hard he's working to overcome his physical challenges. He's inspiring!

And it's not to undermine any of the really, serious good work that he went through to say that he was given the Inspiring Narrative.

This isn't to say that if Simone and Kevin had beat Harry and Michelle in the dance-off they would have done the same contrast with the footage. I don't think they could have entirely reversed the edit if they'd wanted to. But I think that seeing the results of the dance-off made the decision too easy and too appealing. We're used to seeing the story of the guy or girl who has to work hard to overcome their physical disability and who just believes win out over the cynic who doesn't. It's acculturated in us. It's also damaging, because it reduces real people's experiences to easy stories that fit into a predefined pattern, and when people don't fit that pattern, we expect them to lose. That's not fair to Simone, that's not fair to Harry, that's not fair to the viewers or anyone else. Simone didn't lose because she "deserved" to lose, she lost because she and Kevin came a very close second to an extremely good save performance in a single-elimination competition. And it makes me angry that the emotional through-line of this episode was pegged to so much stereotyping. For those who haven't studied the stereotypes and questioned their assumptions, it reinforces those stereotypes, and for those who have, it casts doubt on the legitimacy of the whole process and takes away from the dancers themselves.

As always, comments and critique welcome, and I'm especially interested in listening to how people who deal with this stuff IRL feel about the issues.

Comments

[anjak_j]

The edit bothered me, because I loathed that they fell into the Inspiring Cripple™ trap. It demeans Harry - his and Michelle's performance was the superior performance; Simone didn't seem to be able to put Brian's comments behind her and it came across in the dance. The whole thing gave off the vibe that Simone lost because of her views on representing the disabled rather than Harry winning because of his talent.

As to Simone - I'm cool with the fact that she didn't want to be seen as representing a group. That's her prerogative if she feels that sort of thing should be left to someone elected to that position. But to say the the disabled community doesn't exist just because she's had no experience of it or wouldn't want to be part of it... I found that rude and offensive.

[aris_tgd]

The edit bothered me, because I loathed that they fell into the Inspiring Cripple™ trap. It demeans Harry - his and Michelle's performance was the superior performance; Simone didn't seem to be able to put Brian's comments behind her and it came across in the dance. The whole thing gave off the vibe that Simone lost because of her views on representing the disabled rather than Harry winning because of his talent.

Exactly how I felt watching it. It felt like Simone had spoken out of turn and needed to be punished. That's total bull. Harry did what he needed to do in order to pull his performance up to a higher level, and Michelle has always been a great dancer and a great partner for him. But the way that editing can lay out a narrative is really powerful.

As to Simone - I'm cool with the fact that she didn't want to be seen as representing a group. That's her prerogative if she feels that sort of thing should be left to someone elected to that position. But to say the the disabled community doesn't exist just because she's had no experience of it or wouldn't want to be part of it... I found that rude and offensive.

*nod* Yeah. I mean, on one hand I'm all "Team Simone!" because of the way she got treated in this edit, but I do think she was, if nothing else, incorrect in many of her assessments. Now, it's true that there isn't One Unified Disability Community--there are lots of them, with many different focuses and constituents. But I also felt her dismissal was harsh. I mean, without the community, where does the power come from to increase accessibility and representation? Able-bodied people aren't going to come up with that on our own. And it would be nice to see more representation of that on television.

[anjak_j]

But the way that editing can lay out a narrative is really powerful.

Exactly. It's a shame that this is often overlooked, totally turning around the focus and tone of a show, the meaning of someone's words.

Now, it's true that there isn't One Unified Disability Community--there are lots of them, with many different focuses and constituents. But I also felt her dismissal was harsh. I mean, without the community, where does the power come from to increase accessibility and representation? Able-bodied people aren't going to come up with that on our own. And it would be nice to see more representation of that on television.

One of the things I was looking forward to with DoW was seeing people like me on the TV. And in an empowered way rather than just shoehorned in and hardly seen like Artie is in Glee. I wasn't expecting that they'd all be comfortable with being 'representatives' but Brian Fortuna was right - once you are visible, you don't really have a choice - other disabled people are going to look up to you. And considering the scant representation of disabled people already, negative representation is not the kind we need.

Saying what she did - I wonder how many TABs look at that and think that they can ignore disability issues because Simone dismissed the existence of the Disabled Community (as a collective of the many smaller ones).

[aris_tgd]

*nod* Yeah, I don't know. I think maybe it just continues spreading the misconception that there isn't any disabled community, just a lot of disabled individuals who are dealing with individual rather than institutionalized oppression. One of the most powerful things about having a community and having community visibility is being able to say, "Hang on a minute, this is a structural issue, not an issue of isolated incidents. People have trouble maneuvering in society in wheelchairs because of the way things are set up, not because wheelchairs are inherently more inconvenient." Or, y'know, "Ballroom dancing is hostile to wheelchair users because of inconsideration of the sport's current design, not because wheelchair users can't dance."

Hopefully nobody will look at Simone's comments and say "Oh, I guess we don't need to install wheelchair ramps"--but they may internalize them as support for the idea that disability is an individual thing that any given person with disabilities can overcome or not.

[jadelennox]

This is interesting, thank you. I haven't been able to watch the show but my sister (who knows I get very cranky about representations of disability) asked me if I thought it was going to be exploitative. You've made me rethink my answer, which was that of course it's not necessarily exploitative to have people in wheelchairs on television, and saying that it is just means we will never have people in wheelchairs on television. And yet, while I still think that's true, your post has made me question whether or not we can have people with disabilities on contemporary reality shows given the contemporary reality show framing of success, without having harmful narrative.

[aris_tgd]

*sigh* Yeah. I mean, it's really hard to say. On one hand, there is always going to be crap in reality tv, because it's almost always a competition and it's always going to go for the fastest way to get the heart-tugging rage-inducing emotion-pulling narrative. But you know, on the other hand this is the first time I've seen more than two people in wheelchairs (or with any other disabilities) in the same television series. I don't know if anyone is going to get totally away from the narrative trap in the current television climate, but this is certainly an improvement over a lot of what's out there. So basically, I gripe because I love it.

There's only been one time I've seen someone with a physical disability on reality TV who didn't get a single "Inspiring! Story!" narrative in any episode, and that was Yopie on Project Runway Australia season 2. Now, I haven't watched a LOT of reality TV, so I could be missing someone! But it's obviously possible, so I think it's worth fighting for.

[sasha_feather]

This is a great discussion, thanks for posting it!

[aris_tgd]

Thank you!