"Mangled Media"

1. Write an essay that explains how your own responses to people with disabilities lead you to accept or dispute Mairs’s call for depicting “disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life…” (221).

ANY FEEDBACK ON GRAMMAR OR PUNCTUATION WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. OR ANYTHING ELSE.
CONCLUSION ISN'T FINISHED.

Portraying Disabled people in the media can be a sensitive subject. As it goes Nancy Mairs who suffers from multiple sclerosis wrote an essay called “Disability,” in which she talks about how very rare it is to see physically disabled people on TV. Mairs saw someone with MS on a medical drama and thought it to be offensive (paragraph 3). I have nothing against disabled people. I believe they should have the same rights and privileges as the rest of us, but the fact of the matter is the majority of the population wants to look at “beautiful” people. This isn’t coming from a statistic I found; this is just from what I’ve seen and heard in my 21 years of existence.
While scouring the internet to find a reason on why we choose to put “beautiful” people into a separate almost god like category I came across an interesting article from The Independent. Roger Dobson wrote a piece called “Beautiful people earn 12% more than Ugly Bettys.” The title pretty much says it all. “Researchers investigating whether there is a beauty premium to be had in the workplace have found that those they deemed the most attractive make 12 per cent more money than those regarded as less goodlooking. Average Joes and Joans have little to smile about either, with the moderately attractive taking home seven per cent less in earnings than the prettiest people. The main reason for the apparent victory of the lookers is that they are seen as more helpful and co-operative” (screen 1). I can understand if someone is hiring, and their two choices are someone in good health and someone who is physically disabled they would probably go with the healthy person because it might be easier. But to choose between people based on looks is beyond me. I believe that for most people watching someone with a physical disability brushing their teeth in a Colgate commercial might either lead to laughter or turn them off completely. It’s sad to have to say this, but I don’t think most people would take that commercial seriously. I could be wrong though, maybe people wouldn’t care. Maybe putting more physically disabled people into the media is worth a shot. They do deserve the same opportunities as their healthy adversaries.
I think in the great scheme of things there have been more characters in film and TV who were physically disabled than we choose to remember. For example on September 14, 1967 a show aired on TV called Ironside. From what I gathered on IMDB It is about a former San Francisco chief of detectives who returns to the force as a consultant following the shooting that leaves him wheelchair-bound. The show lasted eight years and had 194 episodes. There have also been many famous people in history who were physically disabled. Beethoven was deaf when he composed his 9th symphony, Albert Einstein had a learning disability and did not speak until age 3, and President Roosevelt at age 39 became paralyzed from the waist down due to polio. He became governor of New York State and was elected president four times. Emma Bullock wrote an article for Article Doctor called “Famous People with Disabilities,” in which she wrote, “Physical disabilities though considered a restraint to achieving greatness in one's profession, has been overcome by a number of famous personalities to show their prowess in their respective fields. Most of these famous people are world-renowned people and are taken up as role models. Even the fact is that some of these famous personalities have become admired with their speaking capabilities and they provide a ray of hope for the disability's world over. There is a list of some the famous people who have become famous in spite of their disability problem. Former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill is known all over the world as an incredible politician and a passionate orator but not many know that he was physically disabled. US Congressman Frank Wolf is another famous disabled person who fought for the cause of disabled people. Another severe disabled person was King George VI who led his country in the World War II campaign through his inspires speeches on radio” (screen 1).
“Normal people tend to think of famed or successful people as having it easy in life, or they somehow got lucky. People admire them for what they have or for what they have accomplished and sometimes wish they were just like them. However, the truth is often very different from what people actually imagine. One might be surprised at the famous people who had to overcome a severe disability. People are often shaped by the obstacles they overcome, such as a severe learning disability more than by natural intelligence, talent, luck, or money” (Bullock, screen 2).