Los Angeles Mission College Media Review Post Discussion

This is a example

Watch a Television show or movie that has a main character with an impairment. Read chapter 7 and article make sure response includes support for both look at highlights on attachments

Discussion Post Media Review: See Sample

1. Type of Media: Movie

1. Title of piece: Me Before You

1. Name of character(s) with a disability: Will Traynor

1. Topic, storyline, or disability issue presented: Will was recently engaged to his fiancé Alicia and was very active and adventurous. On his way to his white-collar job he was in a rush and was involved in an accident with a motorcycle which caused him to become paralyzed from the neck down.

1. How is the disability topic represented in the media you have chosen? Disability has been portrayed negatively. His impairment turned his life around. Will not only lost mobility, but he also lost his fiancé, his job, and most of all he was no longer able to travel and experience the world the way he wanted to. Does the portrayal of disability issues and or the message it communicates, validate, or break stereotypes about disabilities? Be sure to relate your analysis to course readings and other relevant outside sources. I think that the movie validated the stereotypes about disability in the sense that before Will’s accident he was a very self-centered adventurous man who loved all things outdoors. After his accident, he became very depressed and angry, and instead of coping and finding ways to work with his disability he seeks out assisted suicide. During our class, we’ve discussed that an ableist belief is that people with disabilities are angry and depressed. This movie validated that perspective

1. How is the disabled person represented in the film, article, play, or TV program and what character traits does he/she possess? (e.g. strong, angry, sad, happy, etc.) Will was portrayed as angry, depressed, and suicidal. The character became an object of pity until his parents hired a new caregiver, Louisa Clarke. Louisa was very outgoing, full of life, and eager to help. In the beginning, Will maintained his condescending attitude but eventually softened up and the two of them began to develop a personal relationship outside of the job. What role is the character with a disability portrayed as? (e.g. hero, villain, super-crip, the object of pity, etc.) Be sure to relate your analysis to course readings and other relevant outside sources. Based on the terms we learned in class Will is portrayed as an object of pity who sees his impairment as the end of his life. Will had preconceived notions about people with disabilities and now that he has his own disability he rather not live at all. This stereotype reinforces the ableist notion, “better off dead than disabled” (Evans, 2016). Will becomes a cross between the charity cripple that is to be pitied and the obsessive avenger who wants to die. ( Berger, 2013).
2. How do others respond to and/or treat the character with a disability or the disability issue presented in the film? (e.g. take care of them, fight back, help them, resent them, admire them, etc.)

• His parents just take care of him
• His nurse helps him and provides companionship
• His fiancé leaves and calls off the wedding to later marry his best friend
• His friends pity and desert him
• Louisa Clark admires, supports, and loves him
• What assumptions can you identify in the way the other characters respond to the character with a disability or the disability issues presented? Does “prejudice” or” preconceived” ideas about disability impact the interactions? How or how not? Be sure to relate your analysis to course readings and other relevant outside sources. Will’s parents’ love for their child never changed. If anything their adamant attempts to try and get him to choose life show how much they care. Will’s fiancé abandoned him as soon as she found out about his acquired disability but the movie didn’t go into it the specifics. Berger suggests. “many relationships do not survive when one partner acquires a significant impairment. Research indicates that the disabling condition exacerbates issues that were already present in the relationship” (2013). I think the writers wanted her to leave to highlight Will’s “pitiful” situation. In contrast, Louisa Clark’s interactions with Will were no different than her interactions with anyone else. She made it her duty to operate from a social model perspective. She did all she could to remove “attitudinal and physical barriers” (PowerPoint, 2020) and create new ways for Will to experience a variety of activities. Berger discussed, “

1. What is your overall feeling about the piece? Is it an accurate portrayal of the character with a disability or disability issue presented? The film was engaging and made me cry. I think it could be an accurate representation of how someone might feel after initially acquiring an impairment. However, not everyone with a disability is depressed or chooses to end their life. As for the pain and everyday difficulties/generalizations that come along with his disability seemed like it could be accurate but it could also be exaggerated for dramatic purposes. According to Berger, many people with disabilities are not defined by their impairment. He states, “The social category of “people with disabilities” is
   constituted by a diverse set of conditions and people who “may have the social category of “people with disabilities” is constituted by a diverse set of conditions and people who “may have little in common except the stigma society imposes on them” (Engel and Munger 2003:14)” (2013). The film portrays Will as the epitome of stereotypes.
   
2. Has your feeling about the piece or the portrayal changed? Why or why not. Be sure to relate your analysis to course readings and other relevant outside sources. At first, when I read that many disability communities believed that the film’s main message was that living a life with a disability wasn’t worth living, I thought it could be seen that way. I also tried connecting it to my life. Will was very adventurous and what he loved most was traveling and exploring. He believed those activities were no longer possible and he believed even though he could do some of those activities, it would not be in the way that he wanted to. If what I loved most was taken away from me I might begin to question my purpose and wonder why am I here. I might have very little will to live as well. But Will never even tried to live fully. He could still travel, skydive, scuba dive, etc. He had the money to get the appropriate equipment and support. The film kept him locked in the ableist view and he never evolved. In fact, his decision indicated he felt everyone would be better off without him. This choice really ignores the reality of living with a disability and perpetuates stereotypes. In the text, Berger writes “Nick Watson (2002) found that most of the disabled people he interviewed did not consider “disability” a salient part of their identity. They did not dismiss their impairment as irrelevant—it was an undeniable fact of their lives—but neither did they internalize its significance.” I think if Will or the writers of his character really look at life with a disability or based it on people living with a disability, the character would evolve to acknowledge his impairment and find a way to live fully.