Defining Disability and Societies Stereotypes
Defining Disability and Societies Stereotypes
Society is always searching for a way to define or generalize what constitutes being disabled. Some would say disability is nothing out of the normal and that one’s who are disabled are still on a level playing field with abled persons. In contrast though, some argue that being disabled is something that totally hinders your life and will never allow you to fit in with the “social norm”. The focus of this paper is not to define disability, but to use educated points of view to help better an understanding of what disability may be, in order to form one’s own definition of being disabled. Information from three different authors will be used to help better the understanding of what society views as disabled and what their contributions to the stereotypes created are. Colin Low, a blind filmmaker, article called Some Ideologies of Disability will be used. In addition, Disability and Representation written by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, who is a specialist in disability studies, will be used to both agree and argue points involving the disabled. Finally, a TED talk discussing prosthetic legs, given by Aimee Mullins, who is a leg amputee as well as a former Paralympic athlete will be used to state her self-imposed views. Through comparing and contrasting along with analyzing these authors uses of rhetorical appeals, including pathos and ethos, and the materials they use to defend their information, hopefully a clearer definition or idea of what disability is, begins to form.
Throughout the course of all three articles, the authors use pathos to help support what they see as defining disability. In Low’s article he uses an excerpt from the play “Children of a Lesser God” where he uses lines from a deaf characters script in which she speaks, “Until you let me be an individual, an “I”, just as you are you will never truly be able to come inside my silence and know me” (Low,110). Similarly, Garland- Thomson uses pop culture
Society is always searching for a way to define or generalize what constitutes being disabled. Some would say disability is nothing out of the normal and that one’s who are disabled are still on a level playing field with abled persons. In contrast though, some argue that being disabled is something that totally hinders your life and will never allow you to fit in with the “social norm”. The focus of this paper is not to define disability, but to use educated points of view to help better an understanding of what disability may be, in order to form one’s own definition of being disabled. Information from three different authors will be used to help better the understanding of what society views as disabled and what their contributions to the stereotypes created are. Colin Low, a blind filmmaker, article called Some Ideologies of Disability will be used. In addition, Disability and Representation written by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, who is a specialist in disability studies, will be used to both agree and argue points involving the disabled. Finally, a TED talk discussing prosthetic legs, given by Aimee Mullins, who is a leg amputee as well as a former Paralympic athlete will be used to state her self-imposed views. Through comparing and contrasting along with analyzing these authors uses of rhetorical appeals, including pathos and ethos, and the materials they use to defend their information, hopefully a clearer definition or idea of what disability is, begins to form.
Throughout the course of all three articles, the authors use pathos to help support what they see as defining disability. In Low’s article he uses an excerpt from the play “Children of a Lesser God” where he uses lines from a deaf characters script in which she speaks, “Until you let me be an individual, an “I”, just as you are you will never truly be able to come inside my silence and know me” (Low,110). Similarly, Garland- Thomson uses pop culture
Cited: Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. Disability and Representation. 2nd ed. Vol. 120. N.p.: Modern Language Association, 2005. 522-27. Print. Low, Colin. "Some Ideologies of Disability." Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs 6.2 (2006): 108-11. Print. Mullins, Aimee. "It 's Not Fair Having 12 Pairs of Legs." TED Talk. Speech.