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This week: Disabilities in Drama Edited by: Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline  
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People with disabilities are not necessarily tragic heroes or heroines. Everyone is different. Everyone is unique.
This week's Drama Newsletter is all about the portrayal of people with disabilities in the arts.
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When I was younger, one of my favourite TV series was Life Goes On. The show followed the life of an American family through all their successes and knock-backs, joys and tragedies. The main character was a boy (later young man) called Corky. Corky had Down Syndrome, and wanted to go to a regular school and have regular relationships, the same as everyone else.
At the time, I lived around the corner of a care home for people with Down Syndrome. Some of the people living there took the same bus as I did – they travelled to a workplace for people with disabilities, and I travelled to school. Sharing the same route for years meant that I got to know them all quite well, so any notions I might have had about there being huge differences between us were rapidly dispelled. Just like anyone else, they had good days and bad days at work. Sometimes they were happy, other times they were ticked off about something. It was a case of seeing the person, not the Syndrome.
Corky in Life Goes On was played by actor Chris Burke, who also has Down Syndrome. These days, people might be familiar with Lauren Potter and Robin Trocki, playing Becky and Jean on Glee. It is still rare to see actors and actresses with Down Syndrome on the television, or in movies. The same goes for other people with disabilities, especially as central characters.
The best known kind of story about people with disabilities are about those who aren't born with one, but then disaster strikes. The athlete who faces a tragedy, but makes an inspirational come-back, for example. Such stories are indeed inspirational, but many people live with disabilities all their lives. That's not often acknowledged in the arts.
The standard main female character in romance novels is in her twenties, slim, and doesn't have a disability. The standard main male character is in his twenties or thirties, broad shouldered and strong, and also doesn't have a disability. The reason why this is so is understandable. People want to be able to imagine themselves as these characters, or want to imagine an idealised version of themselves in these roles. If someone doesn't have a disability, they're unlikely to want to imagine themselves as a person with a certain disability, so it would be a niche market.
Moreover, if an author does not have a certain disability, or doesn't have a close relationship with someone with a certain disability, it can be difficult to create an accurate portrayal of a person with that disability. People don't want to be disrespectful.
The downside is that people with disabilities, if they are portrayed at all, tend to be portrayed as tragic characters. Whilst people with disabilities can and often do face obstacles in life that people without disabilities do not have to face, their lives are not necessarily tragic. As Chris Burke said, “Having Down syndrome is like being born normal. I am just like you and you are just like me. We are all born in different ways, that is the way I can describe it. I have a normal life.”
I agree with Chris Burke. Having been diagnosed with High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder, it can be a bit embarrassing to see people with Autism portrayed as rude, or as some kind of (mathematical) genius, because I am neither. My brain may work in a slightly different manner than most, but those of you who have read my newsletters or spoken with me over the years will know that my life is rather mundane.
We are all born different. The problem is that the world tends to revolve around what is considered to be the norm, and whilst, as said, this is understandable, it also means that those whose lives or circumstances or conditions are slightly different from that appointed norm can find themselves left out. It is good that, these days, many countries try to be more inclusive. But there is still room for improvement.
That does not mean squeezing people into movies, or series, or advertisements, or books, for the sake of it. It just means a recognition of the fact that a person with Down Syndrome is not necessarily childlike, and a person with ASD is not necessarily rude, or a genius. People with disabilities are not necessarily tragic heroes or heroines. They can be, sure, but many are just like everyone else in that they have similar hopes and dreams and they're just making their way through life the best way they can.
My advice to authors who write about people with disabilities, or who want to write about people with disabilities, is to learn about the specific disability you want to portray, but to then make your character unique, just as your other characters will be unique. That way, we'll hopefully see greater diversity in the future.
kittiara
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Drama: August 26, 2015 Issue [#7180]
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