Exploitative to Favorable, Freak to Ordinary: The
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EXPLOITATIVE TO FAVORABLE, FREAK TO ORDINARY: THE EVOLUTION OF DISABILITY REPRESENTATION IN FILM By Julia E. Thompson A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate Studies Division of Ohio Dominican University Columbus, Ohio in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH DECEMBER 2015 iii CONTENTS CERTIFICATION PAGE ………………………………………………………………… ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………………. iv CHAPTER 1: A HISTORY OF DISABILITY …………………………………………… 1 CHAPTER 2: FREAK SHOWS AND PHYSICAL DISABILITIES …………………….. 6 CHAPTER 3: DIFFERENT STIGMA: SENSORY DISABILITY ON FILM …………… 15 CHAPTER 4: REGRESSIVE VERSUS PROGRESSIVE DEPICTION ………………… 27 WORKS CITED ………………………………………………………………………….. 35 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the faculty of the Master of Arts graduate program at Ohio Dominican University. You have opened my mind to the infinite rewards of studying literature, poetry, philosophy, and film. Specifically, I want to thank Dr. Ann Hall for her guidance and encouragement from the very beginning of my journey in the graduate program all the way through to the completion of this thesis. Your support and faith in my abilities allowed me to reach my goal. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Martin Brick for his support and review. My success in the graduate program would not have been possible without the love, support, and unwavering encouragement of my husband, Eric. Thank you for assuming even more of the responsibilities for our children and our home while I worked through the program and this thesis. Thank you also to my children, Celeste and Sawyer, who have been so very patient with me. I hope that my excitement for education influences your own outlook. I would also like to thank my family, coworkers, and friends who have offered support, prayers, and encouragement along this journey. I am so very blessed to have such an amazing support system. 1 CHAPTER 1 A HISTORY OF DISABILITY Throughout history, individuals with disabilities have experienced varying treatment including pity, respect, and misguided medical pursuits. Caregivers, legislators, educators, and clerics have worked on behalf of and, at times, in opposition to people with disabilities. A society’s treatment often varied dependent upon the level of awareness of the disability, the disability’s impact on the individual, and society’s ability to accommodate for the disability. Likewise, the history of disability legislation, which spans from Ancient Greece to present day, includes laws which both protected and marginalized those with a disability. The passage of laws typically occurred as a response to an unaddressed need, including protection for disabled workers and soldiers and the education of children. The term “disability” includes physical, cognitive, and sensory impairments. An individual with a disability faces obstacles in their daily life which can be lessened or eliminated with appropriate accommodations. However, society’s inability to provide those accommodations creates lasting effects regardless of the severity of the disability. Whether the individual has a physical disability or a hearing loss, for example, society’s response and treatment impact their lives in numerous ways, including communication, education, and employment. Over the span of human existence, art has reflected society’s response to and fascination with those who differ from the norm. One art form, film, illustrates both the treatment and placement of disability in society. The evolution of the treatment of individuals with disabilities in religion, society, and legislation, mirrors the evolution evident in film. Productions such as Freaks (1932) and The Elephant Man (1980) represent those whom society place on the fringe, while Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Switched at Birth (2011) include those with a sensory disability who historically receive more compassionate treatment 2 and understanding. Additional films through history represent the current pulse of a society, including American Horror Story: Freak Show (2014). While some work to advance understanding and respect, others undermine progress and stigmatize. Film representation lands in two categories that tend to reflect the culture’s predominant attitude towards disability: exploitative and favorable. In order to understand the representation of disability in film, it is helpful to take a quick look at the history of disability. In their seminal essay titled “An Institutional History of Disability,” scholars Braddock and Parish speak to societies’ responses to disability. One such example describes head and arm injuries to an adult Neanderthal male who accommodated for his disability by holding objects with his teeth (14). Later, one of the earliest documented examples of the treatment of individuals with disabilities dates back to the Fifth Dynasty in Egypt when short-statured people were kept as court jesters for Egyptian Pharaohs (16). However, infants born with impairments in ancient Babylon held a significant, supernatural role: “congenital impairments were used to predict future events for a community . The manifestation of disability was viewed as a portent of things to come” (14). The later societies of Ancient Greece and Rome placed less importance on the infants and instead cast judgment onto the parents. Specifically, communities assumed the infant’s condition was due to the sins of the parents or that their behavior had somehow displeased the gods (15). According to disability advocate Timothy Shriver, throughout history philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, and later Locke, advocated for the killing of infants with disabilities (Fully Alive 30-31). Maltreatment of individuals with disabilities continued beyond classical antiquity. Scholars often refer to biblical passages to evaluate the role of individuals with disabilities in both the Old and New Testaments. Shriver points to Deut. 28:15-68 and Zeph. 1:17 as examples 3 of one being cursed with blindness (Fully Alive 28). The scripture in Deuteronomy illustrates a litany of curses which would befall a person disobedient to God, including drought, beatings, tumors, and blindness and Zephaniah recounts the doom and gloom punishment for sinning against the Lord. Shriver also notes the passage in Mark 10:47-52 as illustrative of Jesus’ healing of a blind man: “Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way” (The New American Bible Mark 10:52). Utilizing the Bible, among other sources, French historian Henri-Jacques Stiker explores disability in Jewish history. He expounds that despite Jewish law differentiating among the hierarchy of disabilities (deaf vs. blind vs. illness), these “in no way detract from the fundamental fact that disabilities as a whole were judged impurities, disqualifying their bearers from active participation … ” (24). Stiker speaks to the negative interpretation of disabilities which commonly presented in the Old Testament. The cause and treatment of disability represented in the Bible mirrors the varying, common-held beliefs throughout history. Later, the Middle Ages harkened to attitudes prevalent during classical antiquity when charitable gifts and attitudes were replaced with suspicion and doubt. Mental illness was seen as demonic possession, rather than a medical condition, which warranted exorcism instead of medical or therapeutic treatment (Berger 54; Braddock and Parish 18). In addition brutal treatments, such as boring holes into a patient’s head, was thought to release the causes of illness (Braddock and Parish 21). Later, beliefs held by Reformation leaders John Calvin and Martin Luther perpetuated the demonic stereotype when, in the sixteenth century, they preached of children with intellectual disabilities as without a soul and consumed by Satan (Berger 54; Braddock and Parish 21). Fortunately, the prevailing attitudes began to change upon the start of the Age of Enlightenment. Braddock and Parish speak to this shift: “The English statesman and 4 philosopher Francis Bacon believed that the supernatural and speculative philosophies of the Middle Ages and Renaissance had contributed nothing to the advancement of knowledge . He called for experiments to be conducted based on the collection of empirical data” and in his publication The Advancement of Learning, Divine and Humane, “he refuted the notion of divine punishment as a cause of mental illness” (22). The rise in scientific theory and research offered hope for a more positive turn in medical treatment for individuals with disabilities and mental illness. Unfortunately, scientists used their theories in genetics to regress any previous progress. An analysis of disability history would not be complete without mention of the greatest atrocities imparted: the forced sterilization and euthanasia which occurred during 1907-1949. Braddock and Parish explain thirty states were responsible for more than 47,000 sterilizations in the United States, and Nazi Germany’s “eugenic sterilization law” affected “between 300,000 and 400,000 persons, a majority on the grounds of ‘feeblemindedness.’” Likewise, more than 200,000 people with mental and physical disabilities were murdered by euthanasia from 1939 to 1945 in Germany (40). Forced sterilizations were implemented in countries around the world in order to reduce the risk of genetic transmission of physical and intellectual disabilities and mental illness. Further, Braddock and Parish describe the therapeutic use of