Disnability

“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,” —Paul Longmore

As the author Jack A. Nelson states in his article “Broken Images: Portrayals of Those with Disabilities in American Media,” people with disability are often seen in media as a villain. “The image of threatening, evil character who also has a prominent disability,” Nelson states and he goes onto specifically mention the prevalence a deformity of the body in villainous characters (Nelson, 5). One of such characters includes Captain Hook in the Disney 1953 release of Peter Pan. The dominate storyline in this film is because Peter Pan has chopped Captain Hook’s hand off, the hooked- man will endlessly seek revenge and kill the boy wonder— Peter Pan. 

Disney’s main depiction Captain Hook is one of an amputee. The main focuses on Hook’s identity is as a hooked man. As a character, Captain Hook is driven by this notion that he is a crippled man and thus leaving children to believe this is a negative condition of life. The audience is not given the opportunity to see Captain Hook’s character before his disability.  “Disney animators unfortunately accentuate Hook’s prosthesis at every turn; indeed, there are very few shots of the captain in which the hook is not conspicuous, as he often uses to mete out punishment or simply brandishes it as a threat,” (Norden 216). We don’t know whether he was “evil” before this incident with Peter Pan, or if his amputated hand is truly the root of his evil. By painting Captain Hook as an single dimensional character, children are forced to assume that Captain Hook is evil because of his hook!

It does not help that Disney makes Captain Hook out to like a crazy person. He literally goes insane by the end of the film. In the ending sequence, Captain Hook’s eyes being to spin, he turns bright red with anger and his body convulses as Peter Pan defeats him. Disney portrays going “mad” as negative, a result of defeat. Disney also shines a negative light on having a disability in general. Captain Hook uses the fact that he has a disability as the sole reasoning for seeking revenge on Peter Pan. Hook is dissatisfied with his life as and amputee and is unable to cope with it. As Jack Nelson defines in his article, “persons are bitter and full of self pity because they have not learned to handle their disability,” (Nelson, 6). As a maladjusted person with a disability, Captain Hook is bitter and self loathing for merely being a one-handed man. Hook obsesses over defeating Peter Pan, avoiding the possibility of another incident with the crocodile and the fact that he has a hook for a hand. Peter Pan has driven him insane and children watching can only conclude having a disability (like missing a hand) will drive you crazy—-crazy enough to manipulate everyone around you and crazy enough to want to kill.

Questions for Your Kids:

Do you think Captain Hook should blame Peter Pan or the crocodile?

Are you scared of Captain Hook’s hook?

Does Captain Hook remind you of  any of our family members? If yes, imagine Captain Hook as ___? Are you still scared of him?

How might Captain Hook use his hook for things other than being a pirate?

I suggest using Disney films as a platform for introducing your children to more and more different types of disabilities whether it is physical, mental or social.