Saturday, June 30, 2012

Ignore my Disability, Please

English: Rocks in mountains. Deutsch: Felsen i...
English: Rocks in mountains. Deutsch: Felsen im Huangshan-Gebirge. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
"Nondisabled people have the right to choose when to be able-bodied. Disabled people must try to be as able-bodied as possible all the time," which Tobin Siebers lists as a myth in American culture about disability, means that social pressure exists on the disabled to keep able-bodied people from noticing their disabilities.  In other words, overdoing things that are difficult is required of the disabled so that people without disabilities don't get uncomfortable.  Where I see this in Avatar is in the scene I was talking about before.  When Quaritch gets into the big exoskeleton thing, Jake has to be elevated so that they're on the same eye level, when it would have made more sense (and been more polite, too) if Quaritch had continued to sit on the weight bench while they were talking.  Moreover, there is no kind of railing on the raised platform, which would be kind of scary even for people who aren't using a wheelchair.  So Jake has this added burden, and you can imagine where in some cases, trying to act like he is able bodied would be bad for his health, maybe even dangerous.  
Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments:

Post a Comment