5 ms·

The disabled villain: why sensitivity reading can’t kill off this ugly trope

15 points by ingve 4y ago

bigmattystyles 4y ago
Deal - but then disabled people won't be automatically considered everyday heroes. Seriously though, I don't think it's that the trope relies on them being disabled but that their appearance is off-putting. So this should be about the ugly trope that is 'The Ugly trope'. Also - not sure why Tyrion Lannister is included.
- dwaltrip 4y ago
  It wasn’t clearly stated but I think Tyrion Lannister was a counter-example?
  - bigmattystyles 4y ago
    I sorta got that vibe too but the repeated stating of his 'restricted growth' confused me. I only ever watched the show though, perhaps the books elaborate on this. Professor X would make a much clearer example.
- spondylosaurus 4y ago
  > but then disabled people won't be automatically considered everyday heroes. Fine by me! I don't know a single disabled person who likes that kind of thing—it's patronizing at best and downright infantilizing at worst. Rather than applauding people who take a little longer to put their shoes on in the morning but are ultimately just trying to live their life, it'd be nice to see that attitude transformed into a broader push towards a more accessible world. (I'm disabled and certainly not a hero. I don't think I'm even particularly nice.)
  - 0xbadc0de5 4y ago
    I wish I could upvote this more.
mistrial9 4y ago
except - social exclusion is a giant driver for inner despair; poisons can disfigure the user; deranged is a real thing. Comic books are not entirely fictional, otherwise readers could not relate. so what are the ways forward? Twofold paths: of kindness and inclusion, as taught by every major religion in the world today. Secondly, swift justice and strong angels for when things go awry. Is Evil real ?
- readthenotes1 4y ago
  i saw evil defined as "suffering passed on to others" and it's been very evident and actionable
Supermancho 4y ago
Casually mentioned in Ubreakable, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BYiChrtW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BYiChrtW4 Beauty (symmetry) good, disharmony/asymmetry bad is baked into our DNA.
- Brian_K_White 4y ago
  There are many and various and competing things baked in. Prefferrence for symmetry and fear of the other is baked in, and yet so is curiosity and interest in novelty. Consuming and protecting the weak are both baked in. Which one gets applied is all down to perception of within or without the tribe. So there is room to choose what to do with that which is baked in, and no excuse not to.
  - Supermancho 4y ago
    > So there is room to choose what to do with that which is baked in, eg Human men tend to focus on physical appearance of a female before anything else. Regardless of what a society would like to happen, the genetics dictate the behavior more reliably than another trigger. This isn't to say human behavior can't be nuanced, but indoctrination is never going to be as effective as our genetic heritage. This extends into media and acceptance/preference for it.
Wowfunhappy 4y ago
> As a wheelchair user, I could not help noticing that the original Bond books had, shall we say, an interesting relationship to embodied difference. It was a feature of Fleming’s writing that would be all but impossible to alter through the interventions of a sensitivity reader, hired by the publisher to make the books more palatable to contemporary readers. Fleming’s attitude to disability was encoded not only in words and phrases, but in characterisation and plot – that is, in the stories’ most fundamental qualities. And this is precisely why the whole endeavor is so misguided! The values of the author are embedded in their stories; you can't just "fix" those stories with a few tweaks and a puff of magic smoke. It would be much better, I'd think, to just accept the original works for what they are: the imperfect creations of complicated people. This applies to Roald Dahl too, by the way. IMO, The Witches is an inherently mysogonistic story beyond what any number of light edits can change. That doesn't mean nobody should read it, and in fact, I think a children's book like The Witches is a great opportunity to teach kids to be critical of what they read. What does this book teach us? Which of those lessons are good, and which are not? Why?
exabrial 4y ago
Respectfully, I disagree on the "woke" solution. This is my opinion. It makes sense that a bond villain became a villain because, well he was excluded his whole life, likely due social exclusion. How like life, no? In real life, there are teenagers that are socially ostracized due to looks, family background, race, hell even made of fun of because they have an Android phone (And bullying is actively encouraged by Apple's technology), and this mounts to them villians, with some buckling under the pressure to the point of committing heinous crimes or becoming the instigators of great tragedies like mass murders. The conclusion you are _supposed_ to come to is: "Stop being a dick to people, especially those that are physically different, those that disagree with you (politically, religiously, etc), those that are 'weird' or share different social customs. This prevents people from going down a path of darkness. This entire storyline was preventable." I literally was thinking that as I exited the theater from the latest Daniel Craig movie. Instead we've arrived at: "Don't portray anyone as bad" and then people move the 'being a dick' to behind closed doors amongst their peers, usually in their closed off echo chambers, villainizing anyone that dares to disagree with them in public. Hypocrites. And I do understand the other side of this. Repeatedly and conssitently villianizing a single identity (wheelchair user, black person, disfigured person, etc) is a weak form of writing. But come on.
phkahler 4y ago
>> Even though the only wheelchair-accessible van they’d been able to hire in the capital, Vilnius, broke down the day before I arrived, they were able to find another one at the other end of the country. There was a simple reason for this efficiency: once I’d been cast, a lot of money was staked on my being on set, on time, and so a solution was found. Sometimes I am surprised at how far some companies are from this attitude. They say what the goal is and then let a lot of time get wasted waiting for obstacles to be cleared. Sometimes it's like they're not really committed to the goal or these problems would simply be dealt with rather than wasting everyone's time pinching pennies on the solution.
0xbadc0de5 4y ago
Weak-minded narcissist wants the world to revolve around them. More news at 11. Shame on them for using their disability to try to backstop a weak argument and for attempting to normalise the continued vandalism of literary works they have no rights to.

15 points by ingve 4y ago

Deal - but then disabled people won't be automatically considered everyday heroes. Seriously though, I don't think it's that the trope relies on them being disabled but that their appearance is off-putting. So this should be about the ugly trope that is 'The Ugly trope'. Also - not sure why Tyrion Lannister is included.

dwaltrip 4y ago
It wasn’t clearly stated but I think Tyrion Lannister was a counter-example?
- bigmattystyles 4y ago
  I sorta got that vibe too but the repeated stating of his 'restricted growth' confused me. I only ever watched the show though, perhaps the books elaborate on this. Professor X would make a much clearer example.
spondylosaurus 4y ago
> but then disabled people won't be automatically considered everyday heroes. Fine by me! I don't know a single disabled person who likes that kind of thing—it's patronizing at best and downright infantilizing at worst. Rather than applauding people who take a little longer to put their shoes on in the morning but are ultimately just trying to live their life, it'd be nice to see that attitude transformed into a broader push towards a more accessible world. (I'm disabled and certainly not a hero. I don't think I'm even particularly nice.)
- 0xbadc0de5 4y ago
  I wish I could upvote this more.

mistrial9 4y ago

except - social exclusion is a giant driver for inner despair; poisons can disfigure the user; deranged is a real thing. Comic books are not entirely fictional, otherwise readers could not relate. so what are the ways forward? Twofold paths: of kindness and inclusion, as taught by every major religion in the world today. Secondly, swift justice and strong angels for when things go awry. Is Evil real ?

readthenotes1 4y ago
i saw evil defined as "suffering passed on to others" and it's been very evident and actionable

Supermancho 4y ago

Casually mentioned in Ubreakable, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BYiChrtW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BYiChrtW4 Beauty (symmetry) good, disharmony/asymmetry bad is baked into our DNA.

Brian_K_White 4y ago
There are many and various and competing things baked in. Prefferrence for symmetry and fear of the other is baked in, and yet so is curiosity and interest in novelty. Consuming and protecting the weak are both baked in. Which one gets applied is all down to perception of within or without the tribe. So there is room to choose what to do with that which is baked in, and no excuse not to.
- Supermancho 4y ago
  > So there is room to choose what to do with that which is baked in, eg Human men tend to focus on physical appearance of a female before anything else. Regardless of what a society would like to happen, the genetics dictate the behavior more reliably than another trigger. This isn't to say human behavior can't be nuanced, but indoctrination is never going to be as effective as our genetic heritage. This extends into media and acceptance/preference for it.

Wowfunhappy 4y ago

> As a wheelchair user, I could not help noticing that the original Bond books had, shall we say, an interesting relationship to embodied difference. It was a feature of Fleming’s writing that would be all but impossible to alter through the interventions of a sensitivity reader, hired by the publisher to make the books more palatable to contemporary readers. Fleming’s attitude to disability was encoded not only in words and phrases, but in characterisation and plot – that is, in the stories’ most fundamental qualities. And this is precisely why the whole endeavor is so misguided! The values of the author are embedded in their stories; you can't just "fix" those stories with a few tweaks and a puff of magic smoke. It would be much better, I'd think, to just accept the original works for what they are: the imperfect creations of complicated people. This applies to Roald Dahl too, by the way. IMO, The Witches is an inherently mysogonistic story beyond what any number of light edits can change. That doesn't mean nobody should read it, and in fact, I think a children's book like The Witches is a great opportunity to teach kids to be critical of what they read. What does this book teach us? Which of those lessons are good, and which are not? Why?

exabrial 4y ago

Respectfully, I disagree on the "woke" solution. This is my opinion. It makes sense that a bond villain became a villain because, well he was excluded his whole life, likely due social exclusion. How like life, no? In real life, there are teenagers that are socially ostracized due to looks, family background, race, hell even made of fun of because they have an Android phone (And bullying is actively encouraged by Apple's technology), and this mounts to them villians, with some buckling under the pressure to the point of committing heinous crimes or becoming the instigators of great tragedies like mass murders. The conclusion you are _supposed_ to come to is: "Stop being a dick to people, especially those that are physically different, those that disagree with you (politically, religiously, etc), those that are 'weird' or share different social customs. This prevents people from going down a path of darkness. This entire storyline was preventable." I literally was thinking that as I exited the theater from the latest Daniel Craig movie. Instead we've arrived at: "Don't portray anyone as bad" and then people move the 'being a dick' to behind closed doors amongst their peers, usually in their closed off echo chambers, villainizing anyone that dares to disagree with them in public. Hypocrites. And I do understand the other side of this. Repeatedly and conssitently villianizing a single identity (wheelchair user, black person, disfigured person, etc) is a weak form of writing. But come on.

phkahler 4y ago

>> Even though the only wheelchair-accessible van they’d been able to hire in the capital, Vilnius, broke down the day before I arrived, they were able to find another one at the other end of the country. There was a simple reason for this efficiency: once I’d been cast, a lot of money was staked on my being on set, on time, and so a solution was found. Sometimes I am surprised at how far some companies are from this attitude. They say what the goal is and then let a lot of time get wasted waiting for obstacles to be cleared. Sometimes it's like they're not really committed to the goal or these problems would simply be dealt with rather than wasting everyone's time pinching pennies on the solution.

0xbadc0de5 4y ago

Weak-minded narcissist wants the world to revolve around them. More news at 11. Shame on them for using their disability to try to backstop a weak argument and for attempting to normalise the continued vandalism of literary works they have no rights to.