"I appreciate that I do, but I just want to go out for the right parts and
not waste anyone's time." –Teal Sherer from My Gimpy Life
As some
of you know, I have a degree in Theater and have recently become an aspiring
screenwriter. So I thought, is there any way to connect what I want to do to
live my blog? Then I remembered the above quote from a great show, "My
Gimpy Life." Those of you who haven't heard of the show or checked out my
Facebook page where I promote it constantly, let me give you a brief synopsis.
In the
show, Teal is a disabled actress, and the show chronicles her life activities
over five episodes. While the show does talk a lot about her trying to audition
for parts, it also mentions critical disability issues such as accessibility,
the able-bodied community's perception of disabilities in general, and some awkward
situations people with disabilities can be placed in. Right now, the show is in
production for Season 2 after Teal's Kickstarter campaign raised more than
50,000 dollars in the hopes of producing more episodes after its successful
Season 1, which was presented by Dracogen and Rolling Person Productions.
The quote
about Teal wanting to go out for the right part and my love for T.V. inspired
me to do a bit of research, and what I have found is upsetting. Yet, it's not
surprising. I have said before that perceptions of the disability community are
not all self-inflicted. In fact, for the most part, society creates them. In today's
society, one wonders what avenue has the most influence? If one thinks a little
bit and does their research, they will find that the media has a great deal of
impact on societal trends and perceptions. To go along with this point, there
is one corner of the media market that has, in my opinion, the most significant
impact.
Celebrities
and Hollywood are trendsetters in society whether they intend to be or
not—people often emulate their fashions, beliefs, and sad behavior. I believe
this is true when it comes to perceptions of the disabled community as well. I
am not saying that Hollywood or the media created perceptions of the disabled
but merely that they're reinforcing them. In an excellent article titled "Depictions
of disability on T.V. still leave much to be desired," the author lays out
how the media influences perceptions of the disabled.
One
startling quote from the article can summarize it all.
"When depicting disability, mainstream
broadcasters give us the good, but they give us the bad and the ugly – and in
the case of Bodyshock or Extraordinary People, do
so while calling them exactly that. The modern-day freak show, these ratings
hit mix deformity, disability, and obesity into a one-size-fits-all
hatchet job of ignorance." Disability is a wide-ranging term and to lump
us all together in a format that has so much influence is detrimental. What
also is detrimental is something that often occurs in life. The author puts it
like this, "Like a lot of people in life, it's when programmers think
they're helping that they can cause the most havoc." By
this statement, the author refers to the fact that often shows presented under
the pretense of explaining the world of disability often end up falling into
two categories: give these people sympathy or be inspired by them.
While many disabled people have inspirational
stories, I believe that it is not the community's desire as a whole to be seen
just as an inspiration. As I've said previously, it's our desire to be seen as
normal people but with visible obstacles that we must overcome.
Along
with this issue regarding television, there is a much more pressing issue that
I think needs to be addressed. As I've said, I am into Theater, and any of my
friends would tell you I like to be a ham and have quite the imagination. I
have several sides to my personality and honestly would enjoy acting at some
point. However, I realize that if I get into the movie and television business,
the available roles are limited. This is why I focus my talents on other
aspects of the company. It does not bother me personally that functions are
limited for disabled people right now on basic and cable television. I do not
expect society to immediately create watchable disabled characters if they do
not rightfully understand disabilities. However, I do have a beef with the
industry that I want to get into.
Recently,
there has been a stream of disabled characters on T.V. Most notably perhaps is
the character House played by Hugh Laurie, the character Artie in the show
Glee, and Walter Jr. in the show Breaking Bad played R.J. Mitte. Sadly, only
one out of the three listed here are disabled. R.J. Mitte has the same
disability I do, just a milder form of it. That being said, I have a question
for Hollywood. Why in the world would an industry as powerful as yours miss an
opportunity when you have one? Hollywood often engages in what is known as "Crip
face" or "Crip casting," where they employ a non-disabled person
to play a disabled person. This practice is so common that my friend was even
surprised when we found out that the disabled characters were not.
I may be
being a little harsh. I mean, yes, it is significant that society is being
exposed to disabilities. Still, they are being exposed to disabilities most
often in negative ways. Most of the characters with disabilities on T.V. are
stereotyped. This may be a drastic comparison, but I believe that it is a valid
one. When people dress in blackface, which is a white person dressing up as an
African American, it is frowned upon. For example, many years ago, a fraternity
was suspended from activities at my school because they had a black face party.
Granted, the blackface's gentlemen were black, ironic, but the idea is still
the same. Since Blackface is so frowned upon, why isn't Crip face similarly
frowned upon by society and the disabled community?
As I've
said earlier, there are limited roles on T.V. right now for disabled people in
this blog. Another article published a list of 10 roles in which actual
disabled people played disabled people. Sadly, only one show of which I would
consider mainstream. There were shows on networks such as ABC Family and
networks like OWN, but these networks do not get as much attention from the
public. The show that did have a disabled character, who was played by a person
with a disability, was the aforementioned show "Breaking Bad," which
is a beautiful series. As I also said earlier, I would love to act, but this
chance is rarely possible. If Hollywood continues to unintentionally or
intentionally eliminate a few parts that are perfect for disabled people, this
will not only create a sad loss for Hollywood but a tragic loss for society in
general.
In closing, but
I will use a quote from my friend's. "There is a brain drain in this
country because society does not see the person with the disability, and
instead, they see the person after they see the disability." Sorry, Karen,
I changed it a little bit! Disabled people have a great story to tell, and we
deserve the chance to say to it in one of the most potent places to tell a
story, that being Hollywood and the media in general.
l.Footnotes
1.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jul/01/born-to-be-different
2.)
http://whereslulu.com/2011/05/01/ten-disabled-people-with-regular-tv-roles-right-now/
3.) mygimpylife.com
