"TV Paraplegia" and the X-Men

[jesse_the_k]

Annalee Flower Horne leeflower, an SF writer and coder, just published an outstanding essay on disability representation. It’s a great entry point for educating folks with no disability experience. It also offers a useful new-to-me concept “TV paraplegia.”

Disability, Representation, and the X-Men

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Professor Xavier has “TV Paraplegia,” which is a form of nerve damage that completely paralyzes the legs of people on television without causing chronic pain, muscle spasms, or incontinence. Depending on the version of the X-Men universe he’s in, Xavier either has a spinal cord injury or his legs were crushed. Neither injury is portrayed realistically

​ […snip…]

Realism aside, the big problem with Xavier’s TV paraplegia is that while it’s the leading cause of wheelchair use in popular media, the overwhelming majority of people who drive wheelchairs in the real world are not paralysed at all. Those who do have some form of paralysis exist along a broad spectrum of motor function.
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https://thebias.com/2017/10/31/disability-representation-and-the-x-men/)