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A Discourse Analysis of Representations of Disabled Characters in Scripted Television Programs

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A Discourse Analysis of Representations of Disabled Characters in Scripted Television Programs The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Summer 2020 Watching Disability: A Discourse Analysis of Representations of Disabled Characters in Scripted Television Programs Wilbur Martin Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Television Commons Recommended Citation Martin, Wilbur, "Watching Disability: A Discourse Analysis of Representations of Disabled Characters in Scripted Television Programs" (2020). Dissertations. 1819. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1819 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WATCHING DISABILITY: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF REPRESENTATIONS OF DISABLED CHARACTERS IN SCRIPTED TELEVISION PROGRAMS by Wilbur Justin Martin A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School, the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Communication at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by: Dr. Christopher Campbell, Committee Chair Dr. David Davies Dr. Cheryl Jenkins Dr. Vanessa Murphree Dr. Fei Xue August 2020 COPYRIGHT BY Wilbur Justin Martin 2020 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT This dissertation is a discourse analysis of three television series, Speechless, Atypical, and Breaking Bad. A close reading of those series was performed to analyze the representations of disability in those television series and whether those representations enforced classic stereotypes or differed from those classic stereotypes for disabilities. The representations were also analyzed to see if those representations enforced the medical or social model of disability. All three series had instances of stereotypical representations as well as representations that were not stereotypical. All three series representations identified with the medical and social model of disabilities. Series that used an outside expert consultant and more disabled characters represented by disabled actors had more textured representations. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Dr. Karen Coats, who allowed me to complete this work. Thank you to Dr. Christopher Campbell, dissertation advisor, mentor, and problem solver. Thank you to my committee members, who have guided me in the classroom, in the dissertation stage, and also in life. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, Nancy N. Martin, without whom this would not have been possible. Thank you for your continued support, even when you probably didn’t want to continue. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHOD ............................................ 13 Television’s Role in Disability Discourse .................................................................... 13 Analyzing Television ................................................................................................ 14 Television as a Text .................................................................................................. 17 Multiplicity of Messages........................................................................................... 19 Disability Studies and Theory ....................................................................................... 21 Defining “Disability” ................................................................................................ 21 Defining Disability Studies ....................................................................................... 29 Classic Disability Representation Theories .................................................................. 35 In Literature .............................................................................................................. 35 In Visual Arts ............................................................................................................ 40 Educating About Disabilities .................................................................................... 43 Medical vs. Social Models of Disability ....................................................................... 45 Medical Model .......................................................................................................... 45 Social Model ............................................................................................................. 49 v Alternate Models ....................................................................................................... 55 Television’s Representation of Disability ..................................................................... 57 Method .......................................................................................................................... 68 CHAPTER III - DISABILITY JUMPS THE SHARK: READING SPEECHLESS ...... 73 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 73 Season One, Episode One, Pilot ................................................................................... 74 Representing Disability in Speechless .......................................................................... 78 Casting Disability Representations in Speechless......................................................... 81 Thematic Elements in Speechless ................................................................................. 84 Problems in Speechless ................................................................................................. 92 CHAPTER IV – “DUDE, NOBODY’S NORMAL”: READING ATYPICAL ............... 96 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 96 Season One, Episode One, Antarctica .......................................................................... 97 Stereotypes of Disability in Atypical .......................................................................... 104 Classic Stereotypes of Disability: Pity, Evil/Fear, and Super Gimp ...................... 104 Disability or Disabled Person as the Object of Ridicule ......................................... 111 Disabled People are Sexually Abnormal ................................................................ 115 Disabled Person as a Burden ................................................................................... 121 The Medical Model of Disability Versus the Social Model of Disabilities in Atypical ..................................................................................................................................... 123 vi Positive Representations in Atypical ........................................................................... 128 CHAPTER V – BREAKING STEREOTYPES: READING BREAKING BAD ........... 133 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 133 Season One, Episode One, Pilot ............................................................................. 133 Walter Junior ............................................................................................................... 138 Walter Junior and Disability Stereotypes ............................................................... 138 Walter Junior and the Medical Model of Disabilities Versus the Social Model of Disabilities .............................................................................................................. 142 Hank and Marie Schrader ........................................................................................... 147 Hank Schrader and the Problems with Hank’s Disability Representation ............. 148 Hank and Marie and the Medical Model of Disabilities Versus the Social Model of Disabilities .............................................................................................................. 153 Positive Representations of Disability by Hank ..................................................... 155 Hector Salamanca ....................................................................................................... 158 CHAPTER VI – CONCLUSION ................................................................................... 164 APPENDIX – LIST OF EPISODES ANALYZED ........................................................ 170 REFERENCES .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. vii CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION Gimpy, crippled, giant, retarded, infirm, lame, midget, handicapped, slow, invalid, debilitated, deformed, incapacitated, dwarf, incapable, paralyzed: those words, and many others, have been used historically to group people with a different set of abilities than a typical person. The above descriptive words carry a general meaning that most people have used to describe some aspect of a person, often in an unflattering light. “His brother
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