Disabled Media Representation [CC]

[@anikkajordan]

Hey Sydney! I'm also writing an honors thesis on disability representation in 20th-century Southern women's fiction, and I just wanted to say this video was such a helpful summary of a lot of the stuff I've been reading! I hope your production goes AMAZINGLY! I really respect and admire your passion! :D

[@Operaandchant90]

Hello! I have epilepsy. Legally in some countries, it is classified as a disability. However, most people do not see it that way because for the most part, it is 'invisible'. Showing a person with epilepsy on screen is usually problematic, because all that is shown is the seizure, as there seems to be no other way to portray someone with epilepsy...? :/ The best representation of an 'epileptic' I found was in Dostoyevsky's novel 'The Idiot'. The way an aura was described was startingly accurate. The fact that the seizure itself was not the focus, rather the aura and aftermath, is still quite interesting to me. I guess, because the author had it himself. Thanks!

[@cybergimpmonkey]

An entire video could probably be done on scii-fis use of cybernetic prosthesis bouncing between being used as helping bring agency back to people with missing limbs/eyesight/organs to giving people super powers for having those things removed. Deus Ex being a good example where one of the main conflicts is people who have cybernetic replacements need to constantly take expensive anti-rejection drugs vs the main character getting military grade augmentations (also after suffering serious injuries). Even further there's the idea of using enhancements for mental issues like would someone with severe social problems from autism use socialization skillsoft from Shadowrun to interact with people or none verbal people having more outlets for communicating. There is also the idea that the more prosthetics you have the less human you become which is a common theme throughout the cyberpunk sub genre with the extreme examples in Ghost in the Shell of having your brain being put in an android body due to a childhood illness and the government technically owning you. Apologies for the info dump

[@adamzak6055]

It's very much true that somehow brain does 'stripp away' the disability from the character. In the case of Darth Vader even tho I was 100% aware of him having all prostetic limbs and needing a life support 99% of the time to breath (and also the 'he's mentally ill so that's why he's a villain' thing) and that he had to relearn how to move after becoming vader my brain didn't associate Vader with disability somehow(like HOW?).

[@skalessibbons7349]

Disabilities like Crohn's and other digestive issues are limited and poorly portrayed.