1987 quoted in Hristova 1). In this chapter, I have focussed my attention on certain Malayalam films and television shows representing and portraying differently abled persons. The representation and portrayal of differently abled persons in media is most often discriminating.
The history of the portrayal of disabled people is the history of oppressive and negative representation. This has mean that disabled people have been presented as socially flawed able bodied people, not as disabled people with their own identities (David Hevey quoted in Barnes). Throughout history, the media has depicted disability through impairment. According to Tom Shakespeare, differently abled characters are made objects and distanced from the audience. The media usually portrays impairment using the medical model of disability. Representation of differently abled people in the media has many levels. It makes use of a variety of images for depicting disability. The media imagery includes the way in which different types of disability are depicted. We have to take into account the images emphasized and the type of messages those images conveyed – rational or emotional, conscious or subconscious. Another level of representation involves the varying roles of the differently abled people in the media. This incorporates their mentality and nature, status in society, agency and social relations. The society has been profoundly influenced by the media in the way it perceives and treats disability. However, the media is just a medium. We can use it in a wide range of ways. It presents stereotypes of disability which help us in understanding the popular ideas of disability. Stereotype assumptions about the disabled people are based on superstitions, myths and beliefs from earlier less enlightened period. They are inherent in our culture and are carried on partly because they are constantly reproduced through the various types of communication media. In his work Disabling Imagery and the Media, Colin Barnes addresses the problem of cultural representation of disability by the media that propagates stereotypic images which are often associated with the deviant and aggressive social order. There are a number of cultural stereotypes that maintain the link between impairment and the socially unacceptable factors. This link was first established in classical Greek theatre, as stated by Barnes. He introduces a list of commonly recurring media stereotypes of disability. They are the Disabled Person as:
Pitiable and Pathetic
An Object of Violence
Sinister and Evil
Atmosphere or Curio
Super Cripple
An Object of Ridicule
Their own Worst and Only Enemy
Burden
Sexually Abnormal
Incapable of participating fully in community life
Normal (Barnes).
Stereotypes as a form of 'ordering' the mass of complex and inchoate data that we receive from the world are only a particular form -- to do with the representation and categorization of persons -- of the wider process by which any human society, and individuals within it, make sense of that society through generalities, patternings and 'typifications' (Dyer 1).
Stereotypes are often seen as derogatory for an individual. They maintain sharp boundary definitions and maintain the power structure, in this case, of the differently abled and able-bodied. We cannot bring changes in one’s attitude through the enactment of laws. But we can change one’s attitude by changing his or her behaviour. Attitudes, beliefs and misconceptions of society constitute a major barrier for persons with disability. Changes in attitude can be brought about by means of generating awareness and through direct communication between the differently abled and normal people. The mass media can be used as an efficient medium for creating greater understanding and change in the public perception of the differently abled …show more content…
people. Most often, people are inclined to believe that the way in which characters are portrayed in the media is very important. Characters appearing on the screen are socio-cultural stereotypes. They please the majority of viewers and reflect widely held social values. The repeated presentation of an image in an acceptable and pleasant manner will make it a stereotype. “Media images, however, can help to shape the meanings we find directly in the situation and what we discover in the actual situation can influence the way we look at the media” (Kelly quoted in Dahl). Cinema still remains a powerful medium which reflects the happenings in society. It presents the real and the surreal. Thus, fact and fiction, reality and imagination or real and reel life mix up in films. Characters in the films entertain and educate the audience and sometimes transport them to totally different world. Some people believe that cinema has the power to change the world. According to some people, the main purpose of cinema is to entertain people. Films play an important role in presenting the lives of persons with disabilities. They help to a great extent in dispelling the myths and negative attitudes that surround disability. As a medium, film not only presents the societal notions about disabilities but also acts as powerful tool in revealing the issues faced by differently abled persons in society. According to Jenny Morris, disability in film has become a metaphor for the message the non-disabled writer wants to convey. The portrayal of disability in film is mostly determined by the state of society and the reflection of economic and political factors at a specific period in history. Disability in the Indian cinema as a whole is not nuanced by mixed message. It includes the globally standard stereotypes such as deaf people who can lip-read and blind people who have the ability to sense objects through sound. Indian cinema generally presents discourses of dependency around the pathos of disabled life.
Mass media has a strong impact on peoples’ imagination of disability, and this in turn makes our study of disability a complex examination in which the lines between what is derived from traditional social imaginations of disability are easily blurred by what is a contemporary social belief influenced by screen portrayals.
Thus, while the ideas of sensory superiority such as blind crime fighters dodging swords could arguably attributed to the latter, a number of other portrayals such as disability being punitive, or deserving of charity are attributable to a reinforcement of patriarchy that has traditionally come from Indian literature and tradition
(Pal). The disability experience has been twisted and distorted to suit the dynamics of entertainment by many film-makers all over the world (Kannan). Some film-makers used films to highlight the reality of disability. They try to present the lives of differently abled, how they cope with the challenges they face every moment and the triumph of their spirit over their body. Here, I have selected a few Malayalam films portraying differently abled characters for a critical analysis. For this analysis, I will make use of mainly Barnes’ classification of stereotypes.