Disability Representations

Walter White Jr ( Breaking Bad)
Bran (Game of Thrones) But he has special powers.
Stevie (Malcolm in the Middle) Geek
John Locke (Lost) He has powers to talk to the island
Artie Abrams (Glee)

Jessica Evans (1998) drawing on the works of freud and other psychoanalysis, states:
" Disable people are seen as childish dependant and underdeveloped and are regarding as 'other' and are punished by being excluded from ordinary life. Thus popular images and rhetoric of disabled people abound which comfort us with people who are imperfect, helpless, un attractive, disgusting,shitty, dribbling" (Evans 1998)

As Cumberbatch and Neurone(1992), Barnes (1992) and Longmore (1987) point out studies of the resprentations show that disabled people are screened out of television fiction or else occur in a limited number of roles.

As Jordanova stated in 1989
"The idea of otherness is complicated, but certain themes are common:the treatment of others as more like an object, something to be managed and possessed and as dangerous, wild, threatening. At the same time, the other becomes an entity whose very separateness inspires curiosity, invites inquiring knowledge,"

Medhurst argued in terms of power relations and the constructions of stereotypes; "they are awful because they are not like us (Medhurst) 1997

It is seriously worth noting that the theory concerning disability can be applied to the elderly with case. According to Evans(1998)
"Old people in our culture are also segregated and treated as though they are waiting to die. There are close associations between dependency, illness, dying and death. It seems that increasingly in our culture there are pressures that encourage a reversion to infantile feelings which have to be madly defended against"



Call Girl :
At the start of the clip we see the call girl just about to open the door. We see her wearing a We also hear non diegetic music. It is a medium long shot from behind. When the door is open, the camera tilts down towards the disabled character. The non diegetic turns off when we see the disabled teen. This makes me think that the music was sexualising the female.  This makes us look down on him because we are more superior than them according to ( Medhurst ). The mise-en-scene in this clip shows the facial expressions of the three characters. Upon opening the door, we see when seeing the dad, she has a shocked expression. His face

When the camera is finished looking at the boy, it then moves up the dad to then show the power the dad has over his son. When the boy says its his father, the women has an awkward tone in her voice. This makes the whole situation awkward.



When the dad goes to the car, we see that he is awkward about the situation when he can't stop fiddling with stuff in his car. Such as the radio which produces a diegetic sound. He also moves his chair because cant stuck fidgeting about the situation. The fathers actions in the scene: taking him to the call girl, helping him onto the bed, getting the money for him and the kiss on the head because he goes supports Evans theory. That the disabled is 'childish dependant' and 'disabled people abound which comfort us with people who are imperfect, helpless'
We see camera shots of the call girl, the disabled boy and then the father. This is parallel editing which is an effective way in make the awkwardness of the father come to the audience. With this we also see a lot of medium and normal close ups of their faces. This shows us the expressions more clearly on what the characters are feeling about the situation.


To conclude, I think the main theory for disability shown is Evans, that they are child like and depend on offers to help them. They shown us the situation in many different camera shots and movements which makes the whole scene awkward.