If I'm going to analyze the why's of disability presentation, I should start out with why I'm doing it. The answer is twofold:
1) I need external pressures to encourage my lazy self to write.
I'm working on my iPhD in English and History, focusing on disability presentation in film and literature. I want to look at how disability is presented, why it is used the way it is, and how disabled characters have changed over time (or how they have not changed as is my suspicion).
2) I'm writing to explore what I've seen all my life: how people see my sister.
She has been chronically ill since she was four and has been either in a wheelchair or has been physically affected by it the entire time. As her sister, best friend, and care-taker, I've seen how people look at her. Pushing her wheelchair, I've had a point of view just over her head and I've watched her being watched. I've seen the kids who stare so much that they walk into walls. I've seen parents give her the "oh, please God, don't let this happen to my child" look. I've even seen senile old men pray over her, with his hand on her head, while his caretaker looked on with an "ain't that precious" look. I've been spitting mad at people like that. I even made a woman cry at IKEA when she jumped out of a display shower and startle her.
I want to find answers and I want people to read them. People with disabilities are not so different.
1) I need external pressures to encourage my lazy self to write.
I'm working on my iPhD in English and History, focusing on disability presentation in film and literature. I want to look at how disability is presented, why it is used the way it is, and how disabled characters have changed over time (or how they have not changed as is my suspicion).
2) I'm writing to explore what I've seen all my life: how people see my sister.
She has been chronically ill since she was four and has been either in a wheelchair or has been physically affected by it the entire time. As her sister, best friend, and care-taker, I've seen how people look at her. Pushing her wheelchair, I've had a point of view just over her head and I've watched her being watched. I've seen the kids who stare so much that they walk into walls. I've seen parents give her the "oh, please God, don't let this happen to my child" look. I've even seen senile old men pray over her, with his hand on her head, while his caretaker looked on with an "ain't that precious" look. I've been spitting mad at people like that. I even made a woman cry at IKEA when she jumped out of a display shower and startle her.
I want to find answers and I want people to read them. People with disabilities are not so different.
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