Welcome to Ralph Li, Roxanne Roxas, Jennifer Snow, and Joline Chen’s COGN 150 Final Project Blog. So what is R2J2? To clarify, it's nothing immensely cryptic.
Essentially, Ralph + Roxanne = R2 and Jennifer + Joline = J2. We know, we know. It's not very original, but it gave us a good laugh.
If you like our not-so-subtle play on words/reference to Star Wars, then perhaps you'll find the rest of this blog interesting as well.
We are here to analyze films, cartoons, and animations in relation to disabilities in media. We hope you find the content of this blog entertaining, intriguing, and perhaps even enlightening.
Sources:
Sally Chivers, “The Horror of Becoming ‘One of Us’: Tod Browning’s Freaks and Disability,”Screening Disability, Ed, Christopher Smit and Anthony Enns," (57-64).
Paul Longmore. “Screening Stereotypes, Images of Disabled People in Television and Motion Pictures”. Why I Burned my Book, and Other Essays on Disability. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 2003.
Nicole Markotic, “Disabling the Viewer: Perceptions of Disability in Tod Browning’s Freaks,”Screening Disability, Ed, Christopher Smit and Anthony Enns," (65-72).
Jack A. Nelson, "Broken Images: Portrayals of Those with Disabilities in American Media," The Disabiled, the Media, and the Information Age, (1-24).
Martin F. Norden, The Cinema of Isolation, A History of Physical Disability in the Movies. Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ, 1994.
etc.
This blog is a project done for UCSD's COGN150 class. We do not claim to own or hold any authority over the content discussed. Please don't sue us.
Why Do Many Villains Possess Disabilities?
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).
