#charitycase

If I Were a Rich Girl by Sherri Renee

She finna get caught soon enough by other people in that school too. A person can hold on a lie for so long….. 

Book Review:

Pretty good!!!!

*** There’s a few spoilers in this review**

Sooo, okay, this book was good. I would’ve finished this book yesterday, but I had other important things to do. I am glad I finally finished because after a while I get tired lol. But the book was good; I…

Fox’s popular television series, Glee, is renowned for highlighting the underdog and overcoming adversity. The show features many people of color on its cast, as well as, a disabled character, Artie, who is paraplegic and uses a manual wheelchair. However, the representation of Artie is often distorted.

Photo Courtesy of: http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Artie_Abrams

While many viewers have praised Glee for including a disabled person, others have criticized the show for the unrealistic depiction and distasteful casting of a “non-disabled actor”, Kevin McHale. The executive producer, Brad Falchuck, claims that they “brought in anyone...in a wheelchair.” But Falchuck said, “it was very hard to find [someone] who could...sing, ...act, and have that charisma you need on TV.”

The producers of Glee were given an amazing opportunity to address and embrace the disabled community by accurately portraying the obstacles they endure on a daily basis. However, with this admirable opportunity comes a price; and in the end, Glee producers were not willing to pay it. Instead, they chose to continue stereotyping the disabled and heighten the negative perceptions that permeate this population.

Photo Courtesy of: https://roho.com/tag/paraplegic/

The disabled community has worked very hard in putting an end to the common notion of being perceived as “charity cases.” However, with popular shows like Glee, that reach millions of viewers, it is a difficult task to overcome. 

A particular episode of Glee, “Wheels”, addresses the fault lines previously discussed by focusing on the challenges people in wheelchairs face. In “Wheels”, the teacher, Will Schuster, allocates each student three hours to spend in a wheelchair every day, in addition to performing a song and dance. The other characters soon realize the difficulties Artie has to undergo throughout his daily activities. The entire episode is essentially a portrayal of Artie as a “supercrip”. When in fact, Artie’s obstacles are not physical barriers, but rather pity he receives from his peers. Glee has continued to misrepresent the disabled population by identifying them as victims and not as real people.

Video Courtesy of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ_MCYDh07s

I used to watch Glee regularly, but failed to notice the underlying message in each episode. I, like many other viewers, was brainwashed. I didn’t take into consideration how the producers/show was portraying the individual characters. With that said, each episode i watched I sympathized with Artie and was able to relate to him because of my cousin and his disability. At a very young age, my cousin was in a terrible car accident and was left paralyzed from the waist down. Because of this, he never got to lead a “normal life.” However, I never thought about how viewing him as a victim, I to was limiting the things he could do by hindering his confidence/self-worth. Disabled people are limited by others failure to see them as real people more so than their disability.

Photo Courtesy of: https://www.google.com/search?q=stop+the+stigma+picture&espv=2&biw=1370&bih=427&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiqjbH4qJbMAhUSzGMKHcqcADsQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=stop+the+stigma+wheelchair&imgrc=VXrG7tT81uSQjM%3A

Keywords: Disabled people, victim, stop the stigma, supercrip, charity case, hero

Sources:

http://www.washington.edu/doit/dis-course-disability-representation-and-media-part-one

http://www.amsvans.com/blog/glee-wheelchair-actor-kevin-mchale-angers-disability-advocates/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/19/no-glee-for-disabled-people