Disability and the Media

In Nancy Mairs’ article for The New York Times, “Disability”, published in 1987, she expresses her distaste with the media's representation of handicapped people. Mairs, who struggled with multiple sclerosis herself, clearly and sharply conveys this disgust by stating, “I’m not, for instance, Ms. MS, a walking, talking embodiment of a chronic incurable degenerative disease.” (Mairs 13), and that she is actually, “the advertisers’ dream: Ms. Great American Consumer. And yet the advertisers, who determine nowadays who will get represented publicly and who will not, deny the existence of me and my kind absolutely”(Mairs 14). Mairs is greatly upset that disabled people are defined by their disabilities and, therefore, are underrepresented in public media. This might lead to one asking themselves, but why are they? And the answer, according to Mairs, is quite simple, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life”(Mairs 14). Mairs concludes by pointing out how this effacement could have dangerous consequences for both disabled people and, as she called everyone else, TAPs (Temporarily Abled Persons) alike. Treating disabilities as an abnormal characteristic (as opposed to viewing them “as a normal characteristic, one that complicates but does not ruin human existence” (Mairs 15)) can cause one of these repercussions, as it makes the

Society is driven by norms and obligations that leads us to having negative perspectives and attitudes toward disabled individuals. We have internalized the physical appearance has a social standard. When the physical differences are not conformed by members of society, individuals with those differences tend to be rejected. For example, in the movie “The Butterfly Circus”, Will was being treated almost like he was not human because he had no arms nor legs. In addition, members of society tend to associate disables as non-productive. According to professor Nanoch Liveh, “The level of societal development, the rate of unemployment, beliefs concerning the origins of poverty, and the importance attached to the nation’s welfare economy and security are all contributing factors affecting attitudes toward people with disabilities.” Not only, social norms

Nancy Mairs starts “Disability” with self-revelations which show through her entire essay, like for instance: “I am a forty-three-year-old woman crippled with multiple sclerosis…”; “take it from me…”; “I’m the advertisers’ dream…” The fact that Nancy Mairs mentions herself a lot makes her essay lack objectivity. But the reason behind this is that few are the people who can relate to this topic. So no one really knows what this is about as much as Mairs and all disabled people who form a minority do. This tells us that the author knows what she’s talking about. Since this essay is addressed to people who don’t know much about disability, its purpose is not merely to inform us about the physical disability itself but also about the psychological effects of the constant isolation and exclusion of people with disabilities. This makes the essay persuasive rather than argumentative since the author only mentioned her attitude towards this subject. But what a better way to do it than having a person with disability talk about his/her personal experiences? Persuading people of Mairs point of view which is that disabled people should be included in the daily activities couldn’t be done by just stating objective facts. This kind of persuasion needs examples. To prove that disabled people are unfairly treated, Nancy Mairs gives an example of a crippled women who was stopped from doing what she wanted to do, though she was still physically able to do

Nancy Mairs in her “disability” has done a good job in delivering her message. I believe she managed to persuade the audience that there is no reason to exclude disabled people from the media. Her information was clear and made sense, her examples were enough to support her thesis and her tone added a certain flavor to her essay. “Disability” can actually make certain changes if it is addressed to its right audience and I certainly recommend it to my friends and anyone who might be interested in this

Ultimately, as Shapiro emphasized throughout the reading, the stereotypes that exist around the disabled population is that main perpetrator to inequity. The infantilization leads to “the paternalistic assumption that disabled people are not entitled to make their own decisions and lead the lives they chose.” Destroying the stereotypes that disabled people are incapable of living a successful, meaningful life without being the means of pity of inspiration will lead to the destruction of the systematic oppression disabled

The mainstream press today when discussing a disabled celebrity disregards many of the persons accomplishments throughout their life, but instead focuses and finds themselves becoming more and more susceptible to drawing attention to their disability alone. Charles A. Riley II enlightens the able-bodied community on many issue’s throughout his book, “Disability and the Media: Prescriptions for Change.” He argues that the media is inaccurately depicting the disabled community throughout the use of advertisements, but may also be unintentionally disrespecting the community as well in face-to-face contact. Riley is a professor of journalism at Baruch College, and throughout his career, has received multiple awards for his writing’s on issues relating to disability. In Charles A. Riley II excerpt from “Disability and the Media: Prescriptions for Change”, Riley argues for a change from the media’s perception of disabled people, as a whole, due to how they are portraying celebrities within today’s media throughout the use of ethos, logos, and pathos.

Displayed in the media to this day are people shown with disabilities. These people are wrongly perceived by society as heroes or sensations. Instead of focusing on that, we should focus on how they are able to overcome the disability during their daily lives. A very trusted author and professor of journalism, Charles A Riley, wrote a book called “Disability and the Media: Prescriptions for Change”. After carefully analyzing this text from Everything’s an Argument, it is clear that Riley wants to adjust the way society views people with disabilities. He is against the fact that people with disabilities are not known for who they really are. I agree with Riley’s stance and can feel what he is expressing throughout his text.

Peter Singer, claims that “people with very severe disabilities are likely to live lives that are not as good” this blanket statement has raised a lot of questions, whereby, Singer defends his argument by claiming that people with disabilities do not have the same prospects as those born without disabilities. Singer’s claim is based on his assumption that disabled people are not able to achieve a decent level of wellbeing. He argues that people innately believe that disabled individuals are not capable of achieving a normal level of wellbeing due to, his idea, that mothers would not knowingly harm (disable) their children.

Writer, Nancy Mairs, in her essay, “Disability, “she portrays that there is no representation for people with disabilities in media, “especially television” (par 1). She supports this claim by exemplifying that the one time she saw a women with multiple sclerosis it was on a “medical drama” (par 2) that had romanticized the disability, and how that is not the type of representation that people with disabilities deserve since the doctor from the television drama “uses his medical power to strip” the woman from her independence. Mairs’ purpose is to announce to the public that people with disabilities are still people and they do normal people stuff like “talk on the telephone” or “order pizza” (par 4) in order to claim that people with disabilities

The Disabilities movement has been the fight for equal rights for those with a disability, no matter whether it’s physical or mental. The American Disabilities Act of 1990 has centuries of history that led up to it. For hundreds of years, people considered people with disabilities to be contagious, worthless, The Disabilities movement has been the fight for equal rights for those with a disability, no matter whether it’s physical or mental. The American Disabilities Act of 1990 has centuries of history that led up to it. For hundreds of years, people considered people with disabilities to be contagious, worthless, less human, and other terrible descriptions. The thought process evolved, significantly in the 20th century, to a more civil and

Wendell’s article relates to intersectionality; she says, “Disabled women often do not feel seen (because they are often not seen) by others as whole people, especially not as sexual people. Thus, part of their struggle against oppression is a much harder version of the struggle able-bodied women have for a realistic and positive image.” (p.10) Disabled people is closely linked to the cultural oppression of the body. We look at disabled people as if they are not people, as if they are not a part of the “norm.” The ideal image, in our society, shapes the way that people think and glorifies the beauty “norm.” We are shaped to believe that there is a certain type of beauty, we see it on TV and we are framed to believe if you don’t look that way then we not beautiful. This perception can cause people to be uneducated about the disabled. The disabled are looked at as weak, dependent, unhealthy, and more. This explains the issue of the intersectionality that women experience and the different perspectives that we think and that we learn

Society’s ideological constructs and attitudes towards minority groups are created and reinforced through media imagery. Although negative associations that maintain inequities with regard to race, gender and homophobia (Conner & Bejoian, 2006) have been somewhat relieved, disability is still immersed in harmful connotations that restrict and inhibit the life of people with disabilities in our society.

No Pity Chapter Update In No Pity by Joseph P. Shapiro, he first started off with the background and the internal characteristics of people with disability, “Tiny Tims, Supercrips and the End of Pity.” Shapiro discussed on how the society has been long held the idea of people with disability as a form of pity, a form of child-like-image and dependent. Followed that, people with disability, when they were young, were asked to be “feature” on a poster with a “promising goal” that it would raise enough money to support them overcome their disability; however, it is a form to increase pity in others. Additionally, people with disability do not want to be viewed as they are a form of pity; they want to be treated like everyone else.

One way in which adjustments have occurred inside the coverage of incapacity issues inside the media is thru the terminology used. Disabling language is described by way of: “language that (a) perpetuates myths and stereotypes approximately people with disabilities, (b) uses nouns in place of adjectives to explain humans with disabilities, or (c) uses demeaning or old words or terms in reference to humans with disabilities.” The disabling language used inside the media has “the potential to affect nearly everybody with an incapacity and the insults are probably to be perpetrated by practically every man or woman in our society.” Todd Gitlin in The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left explains media

This week’s discussion dealt with Individuals and Disabilities. Over the years, people who have a “disability" have been subjected to prejudice and more. And the first way to diminish someone is through language, by using words or labels to identify a person as "less-than," as "the others—not like us," and so forth. Once a person has been identified this way, it makes