________ Since the #TimesUp campaign to end sexual assault and sexual harassment in Hollywood took the world by storm, there has been an overwhelming swell of support for ending discrimination in the film industry. This is long overdue and celebrated by many, and rightfully so. However, in conversations about representation and discrimination, the same group of people is continuously excluded from the conversation: individuals with disability and mental illness.
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It is high time we say "time's up" to the abysmal, insensitive, and inauthentic representation of disability and mental illness in Hollywood. Women are certainly underrepresented and misrepresented in Hollywood, but at least women are represented by women. Nearly all disabled film and TV characters are portrayed by non-disabled actors, and it shows. The narratives and experiences of disabled individuals are blatantly absent from popular films and TV shows. Instead, these characters are generally inserted (played by non-disabled actors) to fulfill a certain stereotypical role, which often includes a feel-good storyline about "overcoming" or "getting through" the challenges of their disability or mental illness. In other words, these representations are created by able-bodied individuals to please other able-bodied individuals in the context of an ableist, neurotypical-dominated society.
By reviewing a few popular films and TV shows, I hope to emphasize a few of the common issues with representations of disability and mental illness. It is important to note that many representations are good-intentioned, but it is time to start a conversation about portrayals that lead to inaccurate assumptions about the disabled community. No matter how well-intentioned, the majority of representations of disability are uninformed, or at least created with ableist audiences in mind.
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Know the Facts ~
- 2% of the characters you see on American television are portrayals of people with disabilities. 95% of those characters are played by non-disabled actors.
- In a 2015 study, researchers found that the vast majority of characters with disability are featured in supporting (54.3%) or inconsequential roles (32.4%).
- In the top 100 films in 2015, only 19% of the characters with disabilities were female.
- In the top 100 films in 2015, 71.7% of the characters with disabilities were white.
- 20% of Americans have disabilities.
Characters in film and television are meant to represent the population...see the problem?
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