Disnability

A classic childhood fairytale, Disney’s 1951 interpretation of Alice in Wonderland weaves a tale of fantasy and adventure, which features a world full of curious and anthropomorphic creatures. The story prominently follows the journey of a girl named Alice who falls  into an alternate universe or reality. Alice is literally transported into another dimension, in which she encounters  “freaks,” or characters that extend beyond society’s perception of normalcy. From talking doorknobs to rabbits telling time and eccentric creatures having tea parties, and smoking hookah,  it is a world that encompasses  and even embraces the concept of abnormality as one of wonderment and curiosity (making it more accessible, relatable and ultimately entertaining to children and audiences).  

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As one of the most iconic and loved “Disney Princesses,” the Little Mermaid epitomizes what Disney films are all about. Released in 1989, the classic re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen’s film romanticizes the idea of sacrificing one’s most treasured possession (in this case, Ariel’s beautiful voice and musical abilities) for the sake of true love. Throughout the film, Ariel is portrayed as a lively, curious, and charming daughter of King Triton, ruler of the oceans and merpeople. She is well loved by her peers yet seen as an outcast because of her burning curiosity and interest in the human world. 

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(Source: youtube.com)

With our 6 ads, we tried to capture the essence of Disney magic while bringing into the picture (literally) how we feel disabilities could be better represented in Disney and media. Interpretation of the ads are definitely up for discussion and we have put in place a variety of avenues to do so.

First, we distributed the ads via tumblr. The ads have already been reblogged a few times and we hope to see it continue to be reblogged. In addition, we have tweeted links to the ads on the blog via Twitter and we hope to see people retweet the ads as well. Finally, we created a Facebook page for our blog under the category of Education/Community and titled it “Disnability” like our blog title. We hope to foster discussion about our ads as well as our blog as a whole on the Facebook page. Our hope is that through “wall sharing” and word-of-mouth sharing, we will be able to gain exposure for our blog and our ads.

Most importantly, we hope that the ads will challenge the mainstream perception of disabilities in media and that people will share their input with us.

Have you ever wondered why in Disney movies, many of the disabled characters tend to be the bad guys? In popular entertainment media today, why is it that many villains are portrayed as having disabilities? What is the connection there?

Is it the idea that physical disabilities sometimes incites fear and discomfort or appear to be “menacing” and threatening? Or rather, is our idea of disabilities as something appalling and negative brought on by the media we consume and as a result, perpetuate more of this notion in the media we produce?

To me, I see a never ending cycle in our portrayal of media. Our output of creation and ideas are entirely under the influence of the information we are fed.

So why disabilities? Some of my peers have already covered specific examples of disabilities being portrayed on villains, but my hope is to discuss why this trend even exists in the first place. In Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability, Paul K. Longomore states, “Giving disabilities to villainous characters reflects and reinforces, albeit in exaggerated fashion, three common prejudices against handicapped people: disability is a punishment for evil; disabled people are embittered by their ‘fate’: disabled people resent the nondisabled and would, if they could, destroy them” (Longmore 134). Take Captain Hook for example. He exemplifies all three of these “prejudices.” First, his hand was eaten by the crocodile and can be inferred to symbolically represent punishment for being evil. Second, Captain Hook seems to be cognitively affected by the trauma of losing his hand and the handicap and disadvantage of having a hook is subtly hinted at when he fights with Peter Pan. Lastly, Captain Hook seeks to get revenge on Peter Pan and seems to be belligerent toward anyone in his way. It wouldn’t be fair to say that Disney is insensitive to these depictions, but these false notions of people with disabilities are inevitably shaping how we view them. Another example of these villainous traits in Disney media is the depiction of pirates.

So what can be done about this? Although I don’t see a direct solution to changing the way disabilities is represented in media, I do believe it begins with awareness. Longmore concludes with this:

The scholarly task is to uncover the hidden history of disabled people and to raise to awareness the unconscious attitudes and values embedded in media images. The political task is to liberate disabled people from the paternalistic prejudice expressed in those images and to forge a new social identity. The two are inseparable (Longmore 146).

Avatar: The Last Airbender is an animated children’s show, that strangely enough a college student like myself enjoyed as well, that aired on Nickelodeon some time ago. Recently a live-action version of the cartoon series was released that did the animated series no justice and will not be discussed here as it neither serves to demonstrate the show’s depiction of disability, nor provides an adequate depiction of the series’ plot.
“Avatar,” as it will be abbreviated from here to forth also has absolutely nothing to do with James Cameron’s epic ” Avatar”— just putting that out there for some clarification.

The story of Avatar is based in a mythical land, that bears some sort of asian/oriental influence, where the people have the ability to “bend” or manipulate one of the nature elements: wind, water, fire, and earth. The “Avatar,” as the series is named after, is the one person who has mastered the bending of all four nature elements and is supposed to bring peace and balance to the world; and, he is the only one who can fulfill this duty. However, the Avatar has vanished and not been seen for 100 years. During these 100 years, the fire nation consisting of fire benders and their ruler the Fire Lord have begun their assault on the nations and have begun to conquer them. Herein is where the story begins; a young boy by the name of Aang appears ( he’s the one in orange with an arrow on his head in the picture above). He has been frozen in a glacier for the last 100 years (because of some strange accident) and he happens to be the next avatar and is the last airbender left in the world. And so the journey begins with Aang and his several friends (Sokka, Katara, Toph, plus a few) to help him master all 4 elements as well as save the people from the fire nation and bring peace and balance to the world.

Alright. Readers, you may think i am now crazy to have bothered investigating into this strange mythical world, or that the story is ridiculous and “who would watch this stuff?” But, it has indeed proven to me a surprising level of depth for a children’s show as well as a point of view that takes into light the subject of disability with an interesting grain of salt, one that disproves many stereotypes that some other cartoons have demonstrated.

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One of the most successful animated films of the 21st century, Monster’s Inc. made the concept of the “freak,” and abnormality more accessible and relatable to modern audiences and viewers. Like Dreamworks, Disney/Pixar took an unorthodox approach and developed a film that focused on creatures traditionally perceived as scary or villainous. Ironically, the “freak” portrayed in this film are not the monsters, but a human, a little girl nicknamed “Boo” who had mistakenly found her way into the Monster world. Though their primary source of energy and resources come from the human world,they were taught to fear every aspect of the human world, to keep them at a distance because they are dangerous and different. This movie inherently works to dispel the stereotypes that arise due to ignorance and lack of knowledge of other social groups (in this case, monsters versus humans).

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Quest for Camelot is a fictional children’s fantasy story based loosely around King Arthur and the story of Excalibur. A brief, brief summary of the film’s story line is that the story of excalibur has been stolen and then consequently lost. Kayley, the girl in the image above, who’s father was a knight at King Arthur’s round table before he was killed, decides to go after searching for the sword. Along the way, she meets several disabled characters and picks up some friends along the way to retrieving the sword and returning to Camelot.

A better summary can be found online, but for the purposes of our disabilities focus, this will suffice. One of the major characters in the film is Garrett, who happens to be blind.

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“Winnie the Pooh” is a beloved childhood cartoon that i confess to even watching many many episodes of it when i was younger. The series revolves around the character of Winnie who is a pooh bear.. assumable yes a bear with yellow fur, and his adventures with his many friends in the fictional world inside a story book of the Hundred Acre Woods. Their human friend Christopher Robins visits them occasionally, though i am not entirely sure how and will delve into further in this explication.

The characters in this children’s cartoons though arguably are relatively innocent, can be interpreted as each interestingly having different a different mental disorder, much like the seven dwarves in Snow white.

In the article ” Mental Illness in Disney Animated Films” by Andrea Lawson and Gregory Fouts, there are more than 34 coded Disney films that have represented some sort of mental disability or another (for example ” crazy” or “nuts”). Because of these representations and repetition of viewership in children audiences, children may ” acquire and unrealistic and stereotypic view of individuals with a mental illness in society, which could be exacerbated by their failure to distinguish between fiction and reality” (Lawson and Gregory, 28).

So, here is a summary of the linked disorders that each character possesses.

1. Winnie the Pooh — eating disorder
2. Piglet — general anxiety disorder
3. Rabbit — OCD
4. Tigger — ADHD, possible substance abuse
5. Eeyore — Major Deppressive/Manic Depressive
6. Christopher Robbin — schizophrenic? 
7. Kanga/Roo — Codependent.. eh. But they are indeed parent and child, so i will argue no real disability on this one.
8. Owl — The therapist…

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How to Train Your Dragon is a recent Dreamworks production that was released in 2010. The story revolves around an outcast viking teenager named Hiccup who dreams of being included amongst the “normal” vikings, doing viking-like things such as killing dragons and wielding weapons. The story follows Hiccup as he accidentally (or skillfully) shoots down one of the rarest and most lethal dragons, a night fury which is a black coloured sleek dragon.The two build a friendship through the night fury- Toothless’- handicap, a missing tail fin. Through their friendship they go through great adventures that results in the re-appropriation of Viking attitude towards dragons; they learn that dragons are actually peaceful and kind creatures that only attack out of defense.

The first investigation of disabilities i will make is on the character of Toothless the dragon.

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Note: Artwork is not original, images have been re-appropriated from original creators’ artistry.