I've been thinking for a while that one of the problems with disability rep in media is that abled people are a) used to traditional disability narratives and b) unfamiliar with the way those can feel to disabled people. So: a thread on problematic disability tropes to watch for!
Trope 1: Magical cures. A magical cure is when a character is disabled for at least part of the story, but then—through magic, science, hard work, etc—"overcomes" disability and is literally or functionally cured.
There are ways in which, theoretically, in the hands of a disabled creator, a magical cure could be a good way to interrogate things about the disabled experience. But it's basically never that; instead, it's seen as a triumph that a disabled character is NOW able to be happy.
This can be frustrated & erasing for disabled people for many reasons. For one thing: there IS no magical cure for most of us. Most disabilities are lifelong. It can be so hard to connect w/ a portrayal of a disabled person only to then see them be changed in a way you cannot be.
For another, disability is a complex part of identity and not one that all disabled people actually WANT to give up. This is a really hard idea to grasp for non-disabled people, but many disabled people are happy and want the focus to be on others accepting them vs "fixing" them.
Trope 2: Inspiring death. This is another of the most common tropes, and you see it in almost every story that has more than one disabled person and in MANY stories with only one disabled person (which is even worse).
This is where the disabled character fights bravely but dies, inspiring the main character to go forward and accomplish things in the name of their dead friend. I shouldn't have to say why this is a really gross thing to experience as a disabled person, right?! Just: don't.
Trope 3: Isolated disabled person who needs an abled person to see them. You see this a lot in supporting characters, where the MC becomes friends with a disabled person and it's really the first true friendship the disabled person has had. Essentially, the MC "saves" them.
Again: This one shouldn't need a ton of explanation. It's really demoralizing as a disabled person (this is ESP used for autistic/neurodivergent people and mentally ill people) to be shown over and over that you can only be liked insofar as a kind abled person likes you.
You see this one A C R A P T O N in nonfiction, like all those FB viral stories where it's like, "heroic basketball star takes girl with Down Syndrome to the prom!" It's lovely to see people breaking down barriers. But disabled people don't need abled people to save them.
Trope 4: Disabled person inspires everyone around them by dint of their very presence, thus changing lives. This is often referred to as "inspiration porn," and it's really reductive and erasing. Disabled people are just as complex and multilayered as abled people.
This trope is yet another way of erasing a disabled person's complexity and reducing them to an object who has a positive effect on those around them. It's the same problem you see with putting women on a pedestal with things like the "angel mother" trope.
Trope 5 (maybe my most hated): What I call the "Lance Armstrong model of disability." This is where a character is disabled but it doesn't actually have a huge impact on their life, & they are held up as an inspiration because of all the things they're able to DO WHILE DISABLED.
This stereotype had (and still has) a huuuuuuuge impact on me as a teen coming to terms with disability. Because frankly, Lance Armstrong going through routine cancer treatment & then making a full recovery does not equal a lifetime chronic illness or disability.
Most disabled people WILL NOT be able to do the Tour de France (cheating or not). But because we hold up this model so proudly as a society, people who are limited in what they can do because of their disability are seen as "failing to overcome." Which is a real crap take.
You can have a WONDERFUL life without ever participating in extreme sports. You can have a wonderful life if you are housebound or bedbound. You can have a wonderful life if you can't talk. You can have a wonderful life if you need 16 hours of sleep.
This one is from real, deep, painful personal experience: Every time another story about disability is focused on a character going to great lengths to do mind-blowing things despite disability, a housebound teen girl feels even. More. Worthless.
Trope 6: "Treating your disease isn't really LIVING!" There are MULTIPLE famous, bestselling YA novels with movie counterparts that posit the idea that if you're compliant with life-saving treatments, you're missing out on "REEEEAL LIIIIFE."
This one should be obvious, right? If you have a treatment-dependent disease, there IS no real life without treatments. You, uh, die. And teaching disabled people, ESPECIALLY teens, that it's better to have a short wild treatment-free life than be compliant is suuuuper dangerous.
With the obvious corollary that it makes every person in that situation who DOES stay compliant, who DOES spend hours on treatments and adhere to their strict regimens... feel like they are wasting their life and being kind of selfish and "not really liiiiving."
Trope 7: "Don't let your disability define you." I get where this comes from, I do. Non-disabled people are trying real hard to make sure disabled people are seen as nuanced people here, and that's admirable. But it's also failing to grasp an important fact:
Many disabled people ARE defined by our disabilities. I can promise you there is literally nothing that happens in my life or in my brain that does not get run through the filter of "how will this impact my disability?" I spend HOURS of my life meticulously planning, scheduling,
and figuring out how to make accommodations for myself because of my disability. For every event I do—even something as simple as church—there's time I have to schedule in for preparation and recovery. Disability dictates the kind of places I stay, the activities I say yes to...
It dictates every aspect of my life from the micro ("What should I have for breakfast") to the macro ("Should I have children? Can I work outside my home?") That's not even getting into the hours of treatments I have to do.
I absolutely 100% AM defined by my disability. When people congratulate me on "not letting CF define me," it feels like they're erasing all the effort I go to, every day and every night, to fit my life in along with my CF. It feels like they're not seeing how much WORK it takes.
Doing things while disabled is fundamentally different than doing them while abled, and a disabled person who does stuff has not managed to alchemically alter that truth. It just means they are expending massive amounts of effort that you never see.
As an adult, I will freely tell people that yes, I AM defined by my CF. But that's okay! Because *that fact does not take away from everything I've accomplished.* It doesn't mean that I'm somehow less-than or that I've "given up." It means I'm a badass warrior who MAKES IT WORK.
Trope 8: "Overcoming disability." This is really sort of an umbrella trope & interacts with a lot of the others. But SO much of disability narratives centers around the idea of OVERCOMING disability in some way—through cure, willpower, or extreme sports.
When I became bedbound as a teen, this idea made me feel absolutely frozen. It felt like the only way I could be a Good Disabled Person would be to push myself beyond my limits all the time and do something big and dramatic to show I had "overcome."
Here's the real truth behind all of these disability tropes: Disability narratives, fiction and nonfiction, are ALMOST ALWAYS created by abled people, for abled people. Disabled people are used as props in media to inspire, uplift, or challenge abled people.
So many narratives focus on the idea of "overcoming" disability to provoke abled people into thinking "If they did that with everything they're up against, what excuse do I have?" But in so many ways, the "overcoming" mindset can be really harmful for disabled people.
I did not reach a mentally healthy space until I came to see myself as WORKING WITH my disability, rather than trying to "overcome" it. It is not a dragon that can be fought off and defeated. It is part of me, part of who I am, that should be honored and respected.
In the same way that we should not expect curly-haired people to straighten to get respect, or redheads to dye darker to get respect: We should not expect disabled people to conform to abled-person standards or accomplish things in abled-person ways to get respect. Period.
Success for every disabled person will look different. Sometimes, success will be different day by day. Yesterday I was able to sit at my work desk for the first time in a month, and IT WAS A HUGE FREAKING DEAL! I was so happy.
But working on the couch for the last month was not "giving up" or "failing to overcome." It was working with my body and giving it the things that it needed. It was recognizing that this was a time of rest and not a time of accomplishment. It was cherishing the person I am.
Trope 9: Disability as a symbol for weakness or imperfection. You see this SO MUCH, especially for some reason in children's media. In SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, it's the way weaksauce ineffective guardian Mr. Poe is always coughing. You know who else always coughs? ME.
You see it a TON in superhero stuff, too. You know: The villain is blind or disfigured or missing an eye or—or—or—
Anytime disability is used as a shorthand for weakness or imperfection, you're telling disabled kids that they can never, as they are, be strong & perfect.
Anytime disability is used as a shorthand for weakness or imperfection, you're telling disabled kids that they can never, as they are, be strong & perfect.
Trope 10: "Disabled people are lazy and just need to get off self-indulgent butts and do some hard work." I read a book two years ago that still, to this day, hurts to think about it. The disabled character was mocked and criticized through the whole book and then, at the end—
Her family literally *forced her* to get a job, despite her repeatedly telling them (and signs that were OBVIOUS to me as a reader) that she was not ready. And instead of this being seen as the frankly super-abusive situation it was, it was celebrated.
The book ending, I'm not kidding, with the MC declaring that she was no longer going to ENABLE HER MOTHER. Her mother who was profoundly disabled.
That attitude in media is a huge part of why political operatives are so easily able to spin the image of the "welfare queen," skating through life on Medicaid and disability payments because they're too lazy to buck up and get a job. This literally kills disabled people.
Trope 11 (last for now!): "Anything is better than being disabled." Euthanasia or suicide is better than being disabled. Being diagnosed with some rare and practically unheard-of, but curable, condition is better than being disabled.
.....I really don't have to unpack this one, right? This is such an incredibly, deeply harmful trope, and you see it a lot in bestselling fiction. (And, from what I've read, in a current very popular TV show.) When you tell disabled people their lives are not worth living...well.
ANYWAY, this thread got very long and extremely rambly, and if you're still reading, CONGRATS. I'd love to hear from any other disabled people about tropes that you find problematic. (Disabled people only for this, please.)
If you're an abled author, reader, or reviewer, PLEASE keep these tropes in mind. I cannot tell you how many people I admire and respect who have uncritically embraced and promoted books with some of the most harmful disability representation I've ever read.
FINALLY, authors who do great work with disabled characters you should check out: @sallyjpla @NicWritesBooks @SarahKapit @SarahAllenBooks @AuthorKati @stephanieburgis, I'm sure more I'm forgetting with my foggy brain!
Update! I'm having to mute this thread for now. Thank you, everyone who has read and shared and discussed these words. I so appreciate it!
