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access_fandom2014-07-23 12:02 pm
sasha_feather) wrote in access_fandom2014-07-23 12:02 pm
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1 link 23 July 2014
Christopher Shinn at the Atlantic: Disability is not just a metaphor
The late, disabled playwright John Belluso had a theory about why actors who play disabled characters often win Oscars: It is reassuring for the audience to see an actor like Daniel Day Lewis, after so convincingly portraying disability in My Left Foot, get up from his seat in the auditorium and walk to the stage to accept his award. There is a collective "Phew" as people see it was all an illusion. Society’s fear and loathing around disability, it seems, can be magically transcended.
The late, disabled playwright John Belluso had a theory about why actors who play disabled characters often win Oscars: It is reassuring for the audience to see an actor like Daniel Day Lewis, after so convincingly portraying disability in My Left Foot, get up from his seat in the auditorium and walk to the stage to accept his award. There is a collective "Phew" as people see it was all an illusion. Society’s fear and loathing around disability, it seems, can be magically transcended.
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I wonder about the counter-example of Peter Dinklage. Dinklage does not consider himself disabled, but at least some of his characters do, with the same physical condition.