Analysis of Disability by Nancy Mairs

Author of disability Nancy Mairs who’s a feminist and a cripple, has accomplished a lot in writing and teaching. Her remarkable personality shows in many of her essays especially in Disability which was first published in 1987 in the New York Times. In this essay, Nancy Mairs shows how disabled people are constantly excluded, especially from the media. By giving out facts and including her personal experiences, Mairs aims for making some changes regarding the relationship between the media and people with disabilities. Mairs thesis is shown implicitly in the first

What comes into one’s mind when they think of a disabled person? Most people feel pity and embarrassment, and feel these disabled people are nothing but useless. In “Disability,” writer Nancy Mairs discusses the experience of being a disabled person in a world focused on strong and healthy people. The danger in this single story is that people with disabilities are discriminated against and put away with forgotten care. Mairs states, how debilitated individuals are continually barred, particularly from the media. People with disabilities are the same as the average American person, but because they are disabled, they are seen as meaningless human beings and

In Nancy Mairs' essay, “Disability” she emphasizes that able-bodied advertisers do not want disabled people to advertise their product. The advertisers claim they do not want to cause confusion as to whom the product is for. But Nancy Mairs believes that it is to protect able-bodied people from the thought of being

No Pity Chapter Update In No Pity by Joseph P. Shapiro, he first started off with the background and the internal characteristics of people with disability, “Tiny Tims, Supercrips and the End of Pity.” Shapiro discussed on how the society has been long held the idea of people with disability as a form of pity, a form of child-like-image and dependent. Followed that, people with disability, when they were young, were asked to be “feature” on a poster with a “promising goal” that it would raise enough money to support them overcome their disability; however, it is a form to increase pity in others. Additionally, people with disability do not want to be viewed as they are a form of pity; they want to be treated like everyone else.

When you see a disabled person, what goes through your mind? I tend to not pay too much attention or put too much thought into it, but I really should. Being disabled is hard and changes people's lives dramatically. We can see how Nancy Mairs life has changed in her essay “On Being a Cripple”, and in Matthew Soyster’s essay “Living Under Circe’s Spell”. Both authors are victims of a disease called multiple sclerosis, which damages nerve fibers and interrupts the nerves’ signals.

In Nancy Mairs’ article for The New York Times, “Disability”, published in 1987, she expresses her distaste with the media's representation of handicapped people. Mairs, who struggled with multiple sclerosis herself, clearly and sharply conveys this disgust by stating, “I’m not, for instance, Ms. MS, a walking, talking embodiment of a chronic incurable degenerative disease.” (Mairs 13), and that she is actually, “the advertisers’ dream: Ms. Great American Consumer. And yet the advertisers, who determine nowadays who will get represented publicly and who will not, deny the existence of me and my kind absolutely”(Mairs 14). Mairs is greatly upset that disabled people are defined by their disabilities and, therefore, are underrepresented in public media. This might lead to one asking themselves, but why are they? And the answer, according to Mairs, is quite simple, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life”(Mairs 14). Mairs concludes by pointing out how this effacement could have dangerous consequences for both disabled people and, as she called everyone else, TAPs (Temporarily Abled Persons) alike. Treating disabilities as an abnormal characteristic (as opposed to viewing them “as a normal characteristic, one that complicates but does not ruin human existence” (Mairs 15)) can cause one of these repercussions, as it makes the

In her essay, “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs, an essayist with multiple sclerosis, writes about her experiences with her disease. She wants her audience of able-bodied people to stop pitying towards disabled people and instead show acceptance. Mairs achieves her purpose by presenting herself as similar and relatable to her able-bodied audience with many anecdotes and a blunt tone. This discussion of her condition removes the discomfort about disabilities felt by her audience and allows for them to accept disabled people. While Maris’s primary audience is an able-bodied person who supports disabled people, other readers, like someone with her condition, may be drawn towards this essay as well. Unlike an able-bodied person, a disabled person

In the media today, people with disabilities are perceived as tragic heroes or as medical miracles. They are rarely seen for their intelligence or for their accomplishments excluding their overcoming disability hardships. The textbook, Everything’s an Argument, contains an excerpt from Charles A. Riley II 's book “Disability and the Media: Prescriptions for Change.” Riley, a journalism professor at New York’s Baruch College, uses appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade his audience that their methods of portraying disabled people are in dire need of change.

With this in mind, my focus will now shift to some examples of how the media represents persons with disabilities. PWD will be categorized as high warmth, low competence on the stereotyped content model. This model deals with two ideas: warmth and competence. An individual who is in this group of high warmth and low competence is said to have the emotion pity directed at them by various sources like television, movies and in real-time interactions. The first major example is the PWD seen as a victim. One way of showcasing disabled people is through fundraisers with most people usually Hollywood starts pleading for money or donation of goods. In short, these features display a person who is non-productive to society and never one who has accomplishments and goals in life. The next one is the disabled individual is not capable of adjusting to their situation. They don’t fully understand their disability and therefore are filled with anger and self-pity. For example “on the television show Night Court a young man is asked by a lady with no legs. When he naturally turns her down on the premise of being busy, but then goes on to explain that her problem is her attitude not her legs. After all that little talk, she feels more confident in herself” (In text citation).

The short film, “Minority Effect”, explores what it would mean if able-bodiedness was not the norm, but instead if communities were populated with wheelchair users. Compared to popular media, this film used a non-disabled body to contrast to disabled bodies. Usually, disability is mobilized as a plot point to highlight the qualities of able-bodied people. They are never the protagonist and used as a means to reach a lesson. But what is the effect of minoritizing a majority group? Does it achieve awareness or does it just perpetuate the discrimination and oppression of marginalized groups? In “Minority Effect”, the reversal of roles is problematic in that it is counterproductive in that it still subscribes to common misrepresented

Yes this essay is still relevant in 2017 because we rarely witness any disabled people in television shows or movies. The most recent I remember seeing a disabled person on media is never as I can’t even ever recall if I

Stereotypes constantly accompany different groups of people. This is true of mentally handicapped people as well. Labels such as “slow”, “stupid”, “ignorant”, and even “dangerous” are some stereotypical values that are disrespectfully bestowed on mentally challenged people. (Lewis, 2006) The public is now able to view mentally handicapped conditions through the media. Ideas gained from viewing various forms of media coverage of handicapped persons can prove to be both positive and negative.

Discrimination towards disabled individuals is prevalent society today. In this paper I will be discussing various forms of representation of disability in the media. I did my research on the examples by locating an organization known as Stop Ableism, which gave links and sources to various tokenistic and ablist representations in the media. I made the decisions on which section the examples would go into first by deciding if they were ablist and tokenistic or not, then figuring out how severe the discrimination toward the disabled people the examples were. If they were ablist and tokenistic, but with an attempt at being respectful to the disabled community, then I would categorize that as The Bad. If the example was very tokenistic or discriminatory toward disabled people without regard towards the feelings or rights a disabled individual, then I would categorize the example in The Ugly section.

Prior to the course, Perspectives on disability, my understanding of disability was a fundamental, concept of disability, in which I knew it existed, and also have seen and interacted with people considered to have a disability. I never took a deep look at all the social and political factors that exist within the spectrum of disability. This course has allowed me to examine all aspects of disability, which has changed my view and approach of what a disability is and how it is viewed. "Historically, disability has been viewed fundamentally as a persoal tragedy, which has resulted in diasbled people being seen as objects of pity or in need of charity. They have been subject to descriminatory policies and practices in which the predominant images of passivity and helplesness reinforced their inferior status"(Barton 4). Uncovering the framework of disability, by studying the historical, soicial political and educational standpoint, I see the intricacies in which gives me a greater understanding and awareness of the topic.

The mass media serves many purposes in today’s society. It is very informative, persuasive and entertaining, but it also helps to create stereotypes about a group of people. The media plays a big part on how people view and treat people with disabilities. We as a society do not understand people with disabilities concerns, wants and needs, so instead of understanding them we ignored them. What the media does, is distinguish people with disabilities with limited abilities and knowledge through different characters. People with disabilities are portrayed as heroes for doing something inspirational or achieving greatness because of their physical impairment. The majority of time they are being honored for basically being disable, not for genuinely