(no subject)

[callie]

I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some examples of protest or similar at how fictional disabled characters are portrayed - in fiction of the written variety in particular, but also tv, film, etc. Online activism is fine, but I'm looking for more than criticism - so a co-ordinated email writing campaign would be great, but a single blog post is not what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for things relating primarily to the character, rather than the choice of actor or the accessibility of the medium, cos apparently I am Not Allowed to put everything in the world in my thesis.

Comments

[jjhunter]

I seem to remember there was organizing around DC's magic wand-waving over Oracle's need for a wheelchair. Start with wikipedia summary, perhaps?

[teafeather]

Are you looking for contemporary examples, or stuff farther back? The National Federation of the Blind (a USA organization) has staged protests and letter writing campaigns against the portrayal of blind characters in various media.

For example, in 1991 there was a protest against the sitcom "Good and Evil" for its portrayal of a blind character as clumsy and unable to interpret his surroundings.

https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm91/brlm9112.htm#4

Whether the show was cancelled because a bunch of blind people thought it was awful, or because it was too crappy for anyone to want to watch, I don't know.

[callie]

That is absolutely perfect! Thank you (and yes, any time is fine).

[callie]

Thanks, will look into that one.

[synecdochic]

I'm not familiar with the details, but I know there's a *lot* of online ire about the treatment of Artie in Glee. (Actually, from what I've heard, there's a lot of ire about Glee in general.)

[jesse_the_k]

NFB has always advocated against unrealistic media portrayals of the blind. (Regardless of their name, their membership welcomes people with any degree of vision loss.) They have electronic archives of their member listservs going back 20 or more years.

https://nfb.org/discussion-groups

I remember them objecting to the cartoon character Mr Magoo (starting in the 60s), and particularly to the movie version in 1997.

The National Association of the Deaf is even older than the NFB, and in addition to campaigns criticized unreal Deaf characterization, they have waged a concerted campaign for 30 years to get captioned access to any and all visual media. 98% of movies are inaccessible in theaters; those of us who use captions must wait for the VHS/DVD edition to be able to watch the movie.

The fallback complaint has been that hearing people wouldn't tolerate English subtitles because they're distracting. It's a rich area for discussion since high culture is all over international film with English subtitles.

Due to several Deaf producers -- Juliana Fjeld pops in my mind -- there have been a steady stream of TV and B movies featuring Deaf and hard-of-hearing actors. They're living, signing proof that disabled actors can do just fine, thank you. Marlee Matlin, Ed Waterstreet, Linda Bove, Terrylynne, Phyllis Frelich are a few names that floated up just now.

Best wishes!

[noveldevice]

I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing you're looking for, but a couple of albinism and pigmentation disorder groups had a very negative response to the film da Vinci Code, in which the character of Silas offers a very poor portrayal of albinism. There was also recently a backlash against a television program in the UK that depicted sufferers of a rare mucopolysaccharide genetic disorder as inevitably being products of brother-sister incest.

[cloudsinvenice]

Google "Babara's Not Broken" and you get a bunch of links about that campaign - a petition but also their Facebook and Tumblr sites. I used to follow the FB and I remember it being well curated, so it should be handy.

[katiemariie]

I remember Bree Walker, the disability rights activist/journalist, campaigned for the show Carnivàle to feature a woman with electrodactyly as a member of a freak show, and ended up playing that role herself. Something similar happened years previously with Howie Seago and the Star Trek: TNG episode, Loud as a Whisper.