Ableism In Literature

Before the modern forms of media were invented, misrepresentations of disabled people existed in countless amounts of works of literature. Although the ableism in television and film is incredibly prevalent today- it is built off of the hundreds of years of creative work that depicts people with physical, mental, and cognitive disabilities as an object used to produce certain emotions from audience. It is a common practice to tell a person offended by this ableism to not read, watch, or listen to these pieces of work- but it is not that simple. Ableism in literature and the media is everywhere. Even if someone were to altogether stop watching television and movies with portrayals of disabled people, the use of different ableist slurs, such as the terms “insane”, “crippled”, “stupid”, and “crazy” in everyday dialogue among characters and the subtle and blatant metaphors created attached to the disabled community is widespread.
The actual acts of negative portrayals, or …show more content…
It is not uncommon to see a character commit a crime or aspire for revenge based on their disability. Also, those with mental illnesses are especially viewed as cynical. The media has pushed mental illness equating to evil so much to the point that much of society associates schizophrenia and having psychosis with committing harmful crimes- especially murder. On the contrary, those with mental illnesses are more likely to be victims of violent acts that the perpetrators of them (Common Portrayals of People with Disabilities).
An example of this stereotype found in the media is the Joker from Batman. A general example used often in the media that portrays disabled people as evil is the pirate character. In most pieces of art, pirates are an amputee and have a missing eye. The association of disabilities with evilness creates an idea that disabled people are