Disablilty Stereotype

Disability- stereotypes:

Below are some common stereotypes of disabled people.

• Unfortunate
• Negative
• Weak
• Dull
• Lonely
• Ignored / Unnoticed
• Depressed
• Unattractive
• Vulnerable
• Incapable
• Unintelligent
• Left out
• Joked about
• Boring
• Undervalued
• Unworthy
• Outcast

In this short clip, we can see that Alex, the one who uses the motorized wheelchair, is presented in a stereotypical disabled viewpoint.

Straight away when we watch the video, we can see that Alexs brother is the more important one. We can see this as he is the one holding up the new clothes, is in the mirror, and is also more or less, in the entire shot and up close. To help us know that he is more important we can see Alex who is also in the mirror, however is not trying on any clothes, and further away (and therefore more smaller) than his brother. So at a first glance of this 4 second long shot, we get the impression that Alex fits a disabled stereotype, making him less important than his brother.

After this, Alexs brother offers to buy him a watch, in which he replies "Oh so I can watch the hours passing? Great!" which we can see is a very sarcastic reply, and not very up-beat, which again, fits another stereotype that all disabled people are depressed, boring and not-fun (which is not necessarily true) So far we know that Alex is disabled, and makes lame sarcastic jokes about his condition which makes his personality seem dull and depressed.

Alex then says "I have an incurable disease, my brother here is insisting we act out it's a wonderful life, and a miracle on 34 street, all in one afternoon." which once again, is not very fun, and proves to us that our first assumptions of him are correct.

Throughout the clip, Alexs brother makes small mocking jokes about his disability such as "Let's go for a pit stop" and "You have a defective taste gene, don't you?" which does not seem to offend Alex in any way after being so used to it.

We can also see that Alex is giving up, towards the middle he says "I've had enough Adam, this disease is winning." which again, reminds us of how depressing and dull he is being, constantly reminding the audience of what he's got, which makes us feel bad and sorry for him.

Throughout the clip, we can see that Alex fits the stereotypical values of a disabled person, giving us a slightly negative feel towards disabled people, which isn't true in the real world.

Towards the end, we can see that Alex has a relationship with a girl in the coffee shop, he seems really happy when he is around her, and we can quickly learn that Alex likes her by saying "I bet she's taken." which proves two things, that firstly, he does like her, and secondly, that he is full of doubt and negative thoughts in almost anything that he does. We know from this that Alex is single, and in fact lonely. Another stereotypical view that all disabled people are lonely.

Other dramas that include this kind of stereotypes are

• Of Mice and Men
• Breaking Bad
• Forrest Gump
• The Kings Speech
• Rainman
• and Fightclub.

All in all, we learn that Alex fits a disabled stereotype, however, because this is the media, this may not be entirely true. There are alot of disabled people who use their disabilities to their advantage and to inspire others. But it's clips like this that makes us tend to judge people and their disabilities in real life. "Oh, a disabled person... oh he/she must be boring, dull, stupid..." etc.... which again, is not true.