The Whale is an appalling example of ableist pity porn. Crip theorists have written extensively about a pervasive double-bind used to oppress disabled people: the victim-hero dualism. 1/8
Either you’re a tragic figure or a heroic overcomer. If the former, then nondisabled people can pity & paternalistically ‘help’ you, making themselves feel saintly & superior. 2/8
If the latter, then disabled people can see you as a victim of a terrible impairment that you overcame in a life-defining way. They can applaud you while using you to shame other disabled people - the sad victims of disability who didn’t rise to the challenge. 3/8
Neither of these demeaning stereotypes allows you you be a complex human being. Each reduces you to a conception of disability that upholds systemic ableism. The hero-victim dualism doesn’t leave room for disability pride or joy or justice. 4/8
The Whale is an example of the first side of the double-bind: pity porn. It portrays fatness as sad, tragic, horrific, and life-defining. It makes non-fat people feel kind, while being condescending & smugly superior.
5/8
5/8
The fact that this trite, reductive, cruel spectacle of crip misery is being applauded reveals how deeply ableist our culture is. And Brendan Fraser won an Oscar for wearing a fat suit to burlesque as a fat person…. What happened to Nothing About Us Without Us? 6/8
What happened to the ethic of letting disabled people tell their own stories? The fatphobic love for this film is beyond disappointing - it is heartbreaking. 7/8
(Fatness is positioned as disability by ableist oppression & used to uphold a eugenic culture. This is why fatness is a site of disability justice). 8/8
#TheWhale #Fatphobia #Ableism #Eugenics #Disability #Crip #Theory
#TheWhale #Fatphobia #Ableism #Eugenics #Disability #Crip #Theory
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