ABSTRACT
Keywords: Isolation of movie characters, repulsion-attraction to disability, movie
character stereotypes, exploitative, exploratory, incidental portrayals, activities for
activists
It should come as no surprise to discover that the Hollywood tendency to construct highly
problematic social imagery has extended as much to the portrayal of people with
disabilities (PWDs) as to other oppressed subgroups in our society. As film historians
Quart and Auster (1982) argued, “Hollywood, hardly noted for its realistic screen
treatment of racial and ethnic minorities and women, has not been any more sensitive or
illuminating in its portrayal of the disabled” (p. 25). Movies are powerful cultural tools
that have helped perpetuate mainstream society’s disregard for people with disabilities,
and the images conveyed by those movies have often differed sharply from the realities
of the disabled experience. This essay examines the movie industry’s general approach to
creating disabled characters, the common movie stereotypes that have arisen therefrom,
and activist strategies for combating those images.
