531 Word Disability Essay

Disability Essay

The representation of Disabled people in the Media often resort to stereotypes. Explore how disability is represented and how new media may be changing our views.

Disability in the new media has been portrayed in different ways. The representation of disabled people has been shown through some of the following stereotypes, for example ‘Pitiable and pathetic’, ‘object of violence’, ‘sinister or evil’, ‘as atmosphere’, ‘super cripple’, ‘laughable’, ‘chip on shoulder’ and ‘burden to others’. A common representation of disability used in films is the super cripple stereotype. Films such as My Left Foot and Scent of a Woman use this stereotype. The main characters of these films are both popular actors who play the role of disabled person.
In the film My Left Foot the actor Daniel Day Lewis describing referring this film as 'my plucky little cripple story' plays the role of Christy, a boy suffering from Cerebral palsy who learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot. In the film, his attitude towards his life shows that he is a determined, clever and an independent young man, something his mother realises at an early stage but his the rest of his family later discover. His ability to write and paint with his left foot throughout the movie amazes his family and others around him which pays him recognition. This connotes the stereotype of the super cripple taking part, denoting he has magical and super human abilities. Given that the audience having a contemporary social view towards this is something they would not expect to see in everyday life. However this stereotype can also be seen in present day documentaries, docudramas and television projects such as ‘Little people big world’ shown by an American institution TLC and many programmes on Channel four which cover many stereotypes of disability. In the American TV reality show series little people big world, the website provides clips where the audience can view interviews on the subjects of the media; The Roloffs are a normal sized American family, some of which who are 4 ft tall and suffer from Diastrophic dwarfism. The interviews contain personal views about the struggles and pressures of being little in an average sized world. By viewing these, this gives the audience more awareness and sympathy towards disabled people. The representations given mostly consist of the stereotypes ‘pitiable and pathetic’ and ‘object of violence’; this could be due to the institution who is try to seek attention from their audience to preferably think twice about their views on disabled people. However most representations of disabled people in the media today are positive and hardly ever negative. This is because we would not expect any kind of insult or violence from a disabled person, but the Channel four disability episode titles are something the audience may find disturbing, frightening and shocking. The institution uses techniques to describe their programmes as something you would expect from a horror film. Channel 4 body shock contains titles such as ‘The man who ate his lover’ and ‘The curse of the mermaid’ which could change a positive view to a negative view from its audience towards disabled people.

Linked production planning - Representation of teenage girl taking part in Taekwondo.

I am planning to do a documentary on the representation of a teenage girl who takes part in an popular olympic sport; Taekwondo. The audience for this documentary is aimed at everyone even if it is representing female attitudes.

I will focus on the two sides of her life, which consist of her normal relaxed home/social life and the other on her training and championship lifestyle, which i will aim to represent as very tense. I will ask her questions such as how she feels towards her training..

- Is it helping her life?

- Does she feel confident and independant?

- What she thinks of women represented in martial arts/sports movies. Are they being exaggerated? What are her favourite movies or memorable clips

- How does she balance her training and her busy college lifestyle?

- What made her join Taekwondo and what do her friends think of it?

-Will she carry on doing this sport and what are her aspirations? Does Taekwondo help achieve them ?

and so on..

I will film clips of her at training, at a very normal everyday session of Taekwondo.

I will film clips of her competing at a local championship. Focusing on facial expressions, gestures and techniques she uses to compete and prepare for her competition.

I will also ask her coach and club members about their views on women/girls competing and taking part in Taekwondo. The audience and parents will also be included in some parts.

The filming I will record of her everyday life will be out and after the club, at home or her social life. I want there to be a obvious contrast between her life outside Taekwondo and herself training, so the audience can see how she balances this sort of lifestyle.

As my critical investigation contains theories of Feminism and the Male Gaze, I will do some filming of male members fighting and interviews where they will express their views on females taking part in Taekwondo.

The props I will use to make my documentary appear more dramatic will be lighting during fighting. However I will not need extra lighting for home and indoor filming as documentaries use natrual lighting. I will use a tripod most of the time during all filming for precise filming and frames. I will need a good microphone for good sound when interviewing people during filming.

I believe that making this documentary a success will consist mostly of the editing process, which will determine the message it gets across to the audience.

My Left Foot - Film Analysis

-Made in late 1980's

-Based on a true story ; Christie Brown

- Won two Oscars. Daniel Day lewis award for best actor.

Brenda Fricker award for playing mother.

The beginning of the film we are represented with a disabled man suffering from Cerebral palsy.

We are shown that he is independant and living alone, relying on his 'Left Foot' to help him.

The representation of him when he was younger he appeared to be talented and determined but no one seemed to recognise and see this. His mother always believed in him. This was shown when he solved the question his father was asking Christie's 'normal' siblings. He wrote the answer with his left foot. He was also accused of being ''poor and unfortunate..'' by his mothers friends when she fell from the stairs. When in reality he is the one who helped her and called for help. This gives us the notion of the disability stereotypes 'Super cripple' and 'Pity and pathetic'. There are some scenes where Christie has no choice but to depend on his family's help even though he wants to be independant, which connotes to the idea of the disability stereotype ; 'burden to parents'.

Once Christie turns 17 we are presented with a more independant and mature character. Christie begins to paint and develop sexual desires and relationships but the girl he likes does not feel the same way due to his disability.

We also start to understand what Christie tries to say during the film as his emotions begin to develop more apparent to us. For example when his sister gets pregnant, their father begins to get viloent, therefore Christie develops anger and emotions for his sister and cries.

Channel four disabilty

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bodyshock/4od

Body shock:

I'm Turning into a Giant

The Twins Who Share a Brain

I Am the Elephant Man

Girl with Eight Limbs Grows Up

Age 8 and Wanting a Sex Change

Two Foot Tall Teen

Half Ton Son

World's Biggest Boy

Born with Two Heads

Half Ton Man

The Man Who Ate His Lover

Curse of the Mermaid

The Girl with Eight Limbs

The Man Who Slept for 19 Years

These are all titles of all the channel 4 broadcast episodes. I have noticed that the titles seem shocking. The institution uses specific techniques to attract its audience. In some titles the narrative of the documentary is shown, for example : 'I'm turning into a giant' and 'The man who ate his lover' connote what is going to happen throughout the documantary. Some viewers from the audience may find the titles shocking or frightening, titles like 'born with two heads', ' the girl with eight limbs' and 'the man who ate his lover', all sound like titles of horror movies. This notion of scary titles could be a tactic from the institution to draw more attention to its audience and capture attention.

Disability - Finding Nemo Trailer codes

IMDB: Story board link:
Storyboard mentions Nemo meeting a new friend through the story suffering from short term memory loss.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543/


Trailer Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfgeIZyrIM0

Technical: Vivid and colourful to attract child audience. Lighting in animation used to create same atmosphere as in under water.

Symbolic: ''You think you can do these things but you just cant Nemo'' - Nemo's father being over protective about his son while he is in danger. Connotes the risks and dangers of having a disability while doing things Nemo wants to do. Nemo makes an upset face connoting sadness and dissapointment from his fathers words.

His father is shown in the trailer constantly in stress and worry for his sons safety, which results to the purpose of the narrative.

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