#Disability in Media | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tommycorriander · 3 months ago

Text

Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, And Disability

I am disabled. This is something I've talked about a handful of times on this blog and on my Twitter, and anyone who knows me knows I am a disabled man. As a result, while I do enjoy dissecting media and politics, the need to be an advocate for disability issues would have fallen on me to some extent regardless. Disabled folks are often left out of conversations regarding diversity in media, in a continued oversight from able bodied peers.

What does this have to do with the Hellaverse?

Both shows contain at least some small amount of disability representation; specifically, they both have characters that are physically disabled. In Hazbin Hotel this is Vaggie, as she is missing an eye and prior to the finale had lost her wings. In Helluva Boss, the characters would be Fizzarolli, a quad amputee, and the unnamed deaf child in the special. The only character I ever see talked about in regards to their disability by the wider fanbase is the unnamed child, and on a smaller scale in critical spaces I occasionally see remarks on Fizzarolli's disability.

This is a problem.

For as much as fans of one or both shows would love to claim diversity in their shows, the lack of disability representation and the lackluster portrayal of the minimal representation is poor. And I haven't seen any of my fellow critics discuss this, which I feel is an oversight, though I don't fault them for this as there are many problems with both shows and they tend to have their hands full. However, this angle of viewing the shows has been overlooked, which is why I wish to discuss it today.

Firstly, I'd like to specify what I mean when I discuss disability. While the conversation regarding the Hellaverse is primarily centered around physical disability as this is the only form of disability portrayed in the shows, coded or otherwise, disability comes in many different forms. Intellectual disabilities and mental disabilities are just as important for representation in the media as physical disabilities. Among physical disabilities, there's also a difference in visible and invisible disabilities, the latter of which is hardly ever shown in media compared to the former. Ideally all forms of disability would be portrayed equally and with respect, but unfortunately this isn't the case. I also don't expect every show to tackle every demographic at once; this isn't a reasonable request, and to be very clear, my issue with the representation in HH/HB does not come from every single unique experience with disability not being covered, but rather with the narrative the creatives behind the show and the show's fans continue to push: that both shows are diverse and are, in some way, more progressive than other shows.

This isn't the case for many reasons. Fellow critics have gone into depth about the show's lack of representation of women in nuanced roles, the lack of queer women, the racist ways in which the very few characters of colour are presented, the lack of trans representation, and even the way sex and sexuality is presented being rather conservative at times. That isn't the focus of this essay, but I would implore anyone who is reading this who is somehow unaware of the previous issues to seek out essays that talk about those points; Cassidy Whiskey on YouTube has a three-part series that covers a multitude of topics, not just issues of representation, and I would have recommended helluvareceipts on Twitter, but her account has sadly been deactivated. I'm sure there are others, but I'll lose focus if I try to name every single person to go to. If you're willing to trawl through general pettiness in the critical tag (which, let's be real, that is probably how you found this post) you'll find well-worded critiques as well.

Back to the topic at hand. The lack of representation of people with disabilities is already frustrating, but there isn't a complete drought: Vaggie, Fizzarolli, and the unnamed imp child do exist, after all. However, their representation is not just flawed, but even exploitative in some ways.

First we have Vaggie. Aside from the visual of her missing eye and seeing the incident in which she lost that eye, nothing comes of it. She never has to contend with the difficulties that come with impaired sight, and it's never brought up by other characters. In the training scene between her and Carmilla, it's not a factor: instead, her greater flaw in the physical realm when it comes to combat is having longer hair. This is an extreme oversight, which I believe shows that Vivienne and the various writers for the show never actually take into consideration what should be a major element of a character, that being her impaired vision. Furthermore, the loss of her wings isn't even considered at all, with her somehow gaining them back at the end of her training montage with Carmilla. This could have been an excellent vector to discuss physical disability in a coded form, with her wings being a stand in for more traditional forms of limb loss. Still not ideal, as I believe it's better to have forthright depictions of disability over metaphors, but it would have been something. Instead, it's never a factor, and worse, it's effectively cured. As far as representation goes, Vaggie might as well not even count.

That's all that exists for Hazbin Hotel. In Helluva Boss, we have two characters, and I will save the unnamed child for last, because that is where the real issue with the representation is on full display.

So, Fizzarolli. He is a quad amputee and potentially hearing impaired, though the latter is speculated on due to a single scene which I discuss later. Since that scene is the only time it ever comes up, I will focus on his amputee status. He lost his limbs in a fire, something we see on screen. I will disagree with some of my fellow critics in that this scene should have been more detailed; I feel that had the scene shown more of the damage dealt to Fizz's body it would have come across in poor taste, and focusing on the tragic aspect of disability usually ends up feeling like trauma porn in the hands of poor writers, which Vivienne most certainly is. I do not trust her to handle a more detailed scene with grace, especially given her track record (more on that later). It is ultimately for the best that the scene is mostly brushed over, even if it would have been better in the hands of someone with the maturity and sensitivity to cover such a topic for more to be shown in regards to his injuries.

Otherwise, Fizzarolli is mostly fine. He's shown not just surviving but thriving, he has a loving partner (criticisms of the portrayal of said relationship not withstanding) and generally sees success in his life while still having to grapple with the realities of his disability when it comes to his prosthetics being prone to damage and potentially shutting down. I would, in the hands of anyone else, like to see more of this character and what his daily routine looks like as a disabled man.

Unfortunately all the good will built with Fizz comes crashing down when we get to the unnamed imp child in the Fizzarolli special episode. This child is the poster child for virtue signalling. Frankly, it's disgusting how a majority of the fandom seemed to ignore how fetishistic this portrayal was. This is where the real meat of the essay comes in to play.

This unnamed child is given a single scene, and is then promptly forgotten about and never mentioned again. They are introduced as being a fan of Fizz here to view the competition, there is a brief exchange between the two, and then we all move on. And yet this scene was championed as somehow revolutionary or a sign of the top-tier diversity and progressiveness in Helluva, when in reality this type of scene has been done to death. This is tokenism.

One major stumbling block many of the people championing this scene seem to get tripped up on is a very simple question: why was this child a child to begin with? Really, this seems like a simple question, it shouldn't have much thought. Sometimes characters are kids. But within the episode it's clearly shown through multiple different avenues that this is an adult show. The performances are dripping with sexuality, several of the fans of Fizzarolli are there because Mammon sells sex robots of the guy, there is no mistaking that this is something no child should be at, let alone by themselves.

So why was this child a child? Simple: brownie points.

It's a lot more difficult for people to share clips of a wholesome moment from your show if the person Fizz was interacting with was an adult. People are ableist, this is pretty par for the course; as a disabled person I find it generally safer to assume people are ableist before proven otherwise. I can guarantee if this scene were to be between Fizzarolli and a deaf adult fan as opposed to a young child, it would not have been championed as this amazing representation by mostly able bodied fans. And that is by design: if Vivienne genuinely cared about representation, if she truly wanted to show something meaningful to her adult fans in her adult show, she would have had the interaction be with an adult. But that doesn't get her clip shared around on social media. That doesn't get her brownie points for inclusion. It's safe, it's palatable, it's sickeningly wholesome, and it's insulting for that. This is a show for adults, something Vivienne and company is adamant on, and yet they treat their audience like children. As a fan, you should be insulted to have this key-jingling one minute clip presented to you. You should demand more, demand better.

Unfortunately I do not see ever getting better from Vivienne. She has made it very clear she truly does not care about creating art, she really only stumbled into being championed as a paragon for animation because her majority white and able bodied fans saw the inclusion of primarily gay men and thought that was good enough. She does not give a damn about disabled people, and she never will. To expect good disabled representation from her is like expecting good queer representation from a Marvel movie; she is in it for the money, and it just so happens that the inclusion of that scene makes money.

Addendum thoughts that were too long to put into the tags: I would like to make it clear that disability, because it presents very differently, is experienced very differently by many different people. If you felt seen or represented by the disability representation in either show, that's fine, and I don't want you to feel bad for feeling seen. Ultimately disabled people are largely given scraps; I have not once seen someone with my particular physical disability portrayed in media. Sometimes we latch onto things that are subpar or lacking; my criticism of reception to this scene is targeted primarily at able bodied audience members who may be lacking in this perspective and to also champion fellow disabled people to rightfully demand and expect better. Thank you for your time.

#text post #my post #vivziepop critical #hazbin hotel critical #helluva boss critical #disability in media

171 notes · View notes

mzminola · 1 year ago

Text

On the one hand yeah, Tim faking a temporary disability to get Vicki Vale off his back as she tries to prove he’s Red Robin is ethically dubious. But like... vision impairments are a disability, which means in continuities where the glasses don’t block out his excessive sensory input and he’s not claiming they’re a fashion statement, Superman is faking a disability every time he goes out as Clark Kent. So if we’re gonna be all “Tim wtf” we should also go “Clark wtf”.

On the much more interesting hand, asplenia is also a disability, which the writers canonically gave Tim. While he totally can be a vigilante with it, he needs to take more precautions than he would otherwise, and it wouldn’t be too hard to convince the general Gotham public that actually no, Tim Drake-Wayne being asplenic means he’s definitely not Red Robin, Vicki, what are you smoking, don’t you know how often the vigilantes get tossed in Gotham Harbor? Do you know what’s in that water?

Which means that now I want an AU in which instead of faking getting shot, Tim just has Wayne Enterprises launch an Asplenia Awareness campaign in conjunction with the Martha Wayne Foundation starting a program to get other asplenic Gothamites their antibiotics, throws a bunch of fundraisers for it, and stares Vicki Vale dead in the eyes while taking his new meds on camera.

#disability in media #ableist tropes #they already do a lot of shit like invasion of privacy and aggravated assault so like #the faking of a disability is messed up but it's not really any more messed up than anything else they're doing #Tim Drake #Red Robin #DC #Batfam #the writers did not explore the full potential of what that stabbing did to Tim #and my asthmatic ass is very disappointed in them #get out of our way we're disabling the text

763 notes · View notes

cripplecharacters · 20 days ago

Note

HIIIII! I would like to first thank you for all that you do, looking through your blog has really helped me with my writing! It’s been very helpful for me to get rid of overused tropes and correctly write my guys!

Okay so here’s my question, and it’s not about how to write, but rather should I write— I am currently writing a story where most of my main characters have a disability. Now, I’m not (physically) disabled, and of course I’m doing my research on everything, but I’m not sure if I should be writing this. My goal for the message is “hey these people are just like you! They have some differences, but it doesn’t really matter! What matters is that they can still be your friend!” (It’s supposed to be an elementary-level story)

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read and answer this!

Hello lovely asker!

I think that more kids books about or with disabled characters is always good! There is such a big range in that elementary reading zone to explore in too!

Most kids start off elementary from reading those cardboard books with only a few pages, a few words, mostly pictures; and then by the time they're leaving elementary they're reading medium to large chapter books. The concepts of the books also change from simple stories that have a clear point of cause/effect, problem solving, or educational stance; and then as the books start to get longer the stories and characters become more complex and the type of stories change.

So for early elementary level story I would recommend looking up other books like

What happened to you by James Catchpole and Karen George

Just Ask by Sonia Sotomayor

ABC's of inclusion by Beth Leipholtz

Included by Jayneen Sanders

The last three take on a more educational stance while the first one takes on a more realistic view of how disability works in a kids eye. Here you're not developing the characters much but more using the characters as your point of learning and showing and recognizing.

For mid-elementary level these are longer books with a few chapters in it, maybe a few pictures here and there. The plot starts to become more complex, while still maintaining that explanation of "Here is what's going on". I think this is what you're going for here? There is still that point of learning (that "hey look they can be your friends" sentiment still carries into these books too). In all honestly I cannot think or find any books that fit here with disabled characters in it so for best reference the Junie B Jones books are this sorta level! Cam Jansen series, magic treehouse series, all of those books that are an introduction to chapter books.

Later elementary leveled books are chapter books like the Percy Jackson series, and now the plot is complex, there are more elements of the story to follow. All of these books follow a character with a disability but there's also another big event that they're navigating now.

Counting By 7's

Roll with it/time to roll

Show me a Sign

Song For A Whale

Insignificant Events in the life of a cactus

This level also tends to overlap with books for teens/young adults and so books like

The fault in our stars

Turtles all the way down

Me earl and the dying girl

Shadow and Bone (Series)

All of these books are lengthier, the characters are completely developed, and now the message is different. Now what these books do is drop the main focus on the characters disability and Instead focus on also the plot. The learning element that we see in earlier elementary books is kinda removed because now there is a whole story going on but that doesn't mean these characters are any less disabled, they still are but now they're going on adventures, solving mysteries, or falling in love.

I rambled a bit but hopefully something here helps and good luck on the writing!

~ Mod Virus 🌸

Hello!

Just popping in with a few of my own recommendations for middle/high school level:

A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern

Written in alternating POVs, one is from the POV of a character with an unspecified developmental disability. Also includes several other disabled characters such as a blind autistic character. In this book, disability is a/the main part of the book.

Blind Spot by Laura Ellen

I can't recall the POV as it's been a while but the main character is blind (From macular degeneration) and the author also has the same condition. There are also several characters with other conditions including addictions. In this book, disability is a/the main part of the book.

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

Written in the POV of a medium support needs autistic character. Also involves several LGBT characters. In this book, disability is a smaller part of the book.

Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen

Written in the POV of a character with Tourette's Syndrome, by an author who also has Tourette's. In this book, disability is a/the main part of the book.

Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist

Written in the POV of a blind character. There is also a character with a facial difference here. There are several tropes here that bother me a bit but I feel that they weren't done too badly. In this book, disability is a/the main part of the book.

Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos

Written in the POV of a high support needs autistic character. In this book, disability is a notable part of the book but not the main one.

Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly

Written from the POV of a Deaf girl. It also includes several other Deaf characters, both in the main focus and in the background. In this book, being Deaf is a/the main part of the book.

100 Days by Nicole McInnes

Written in alternating POVs, one of which belongs to a character with progeria. In this book, disability is a smaller part of the book.

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

Written in the POV of a character with Epilepsy. In this book, disability is a notable part of the book but not the main one.

In terms of books for young children, I personally LOVED the We Are Powerful series, which are small picture books with a more educational style to them. Each book features a child with a disability and talks about their experiences with it, highlighting both the areas where they struggle and the areas where their disability makes them unique.

They aren't perfect, of course, but as a young kid who was just starting to figure out that I was different from everyone around me, they helped me a lot. There are several books in the series that focus on autism, ADD, ADHD, Tourette's, OCD, depression, dyslexia, and several other conditions.

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

#mod virus #mod icarus #theonewithallthefixations #disability in media #disability in books #recommendations

69 notes · View notes

jeremywhitley · 4 months ago

Text

Navigating with You is OUT NOW!

Hey Tumblrinos!

So I've been working on this book for years and talking about it for months and now it's finally time for you to go get it! That's right, Navigating with You is out today from @madcavestudios and you can buy it wherever you buy books! Or, find your online retailer of choice here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Navigating-With-You/Jeremy-Whitley/9781952303609

Navigating with You is the story of two new girls in school, thrown together by chaos in their lives that caused them to both move to North Carolina from their homes in New York and Florida. They quickly discover that they share a passion of a manga series they were into in middle school, but that neither of them have finished. They decide to form a book club and read them together. There's only one problem, neither of them have their copies and it turns out they are out of print. So now Neesha and Gabby must go on a quest all around North Carolina to find the books in the series. As they do, they become best friends and, eventually, much more than friends.

Navigating with You is a queer romance with two women of color as leads. In addition to that, Neesha has cerebral palsy and is trying to navigate this new life without picking up some of the old issues she had with how she was treated by her classmates. While Gabby has some deep trauma that she's still learning how to cope with.

It's a story about love, fandom, the intersection of the two, and finding that someone who really gets you and can help you navigate through all the things life throws at you, together.

89 notes · View notes

thetravelerwrites · 10 months ago

Text

As a disabled person... a disabled person since I was very young (age 2) and will be until I die... I like stories that portray disabled people accurately. It's why I devote a lot of my writing to people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, because I feel like it's important. We don't get to see accurate depictions of ourselves in media, and that representation is dearly, desperately needed, which is why I write them.

I like stories that are well researched, appropriate to the condition, and display a breadth of knowledge on the subject. I like stories where the disability is true, real, and doesn't magically get better.

But... as a disabled person with chronic pain, who requires regular, painful surgeries and procedures to keep me alive... I also like the stories where there is a magical fix. I like stories in which the characters who are suffering and in pain, no longer have to suffer or experience pain. Because I dream of a time and place in which I no longer have to suffer or live through the pain of my conditions. And I don't feel like it's wrong to feel that way.

I can like both. I can appreciate both. I see the value of both. And I know there are a lot of disabled people who disagree, that fiction should be true to reality in terms of disability, and I understand and respect the argument. I understand why they feel that way, and to some extent, I agree. But fantasy is fantasy for a reason, and I can do or say or be anything I want to be in fiction. What I want is to see myself, but sometimes, I want to see a version of myself that isn't suffering. And I don't think that's unfair.

#Personal #The Traveler Speaks #Disability #Disability in Media #Disabled Representation #please feel free to reblog

205 notes · View notes

cononeillbreastingboobily · 1 year ago

Text

You don't get it, do you?

If you say that Izzy's death was a beautiful conclusion to his arc, that it was kind. You just. You don't fucking get it.

You don't get to say shit like that if you're able-bodied, and then ignore those of us who are disabled, and who liked Izzy, and are now angry and saddened by his death.

Do you think it was, I don't know... A humane way of ending things?

Well. If that's the case then, first of all, I don't want you anywhere near me. Second of all, I want you to sit with yourself and think, but like really think, about why you think it's more humane to kill off a physically disabled queer character rather than, I don't know, let him live out the rest of his life happily, getting more and more accustomed to his disability, overcoming his trauma and enjoying his life to the fullest.

Queerness and disability rarely intersect in media, unlike real life. For a few episodes, Izzy's arc gave so many of us hope. It was a beautiful, dazzling story of a man who's been through unimaginable horrors, who was only just starting to overcome his trauma, finding love, acceptance and community.

Do you know how rare it is to witness a story like that? To see yourself in a character, in a way that you've never felt seen by media before?

Now, can you imagine how much of a slap in the face it was when he died? And a death that, I might add, wasn't necessary for anyone's development, was anticlimactic, cruel, and, perhaps the most importantly, came way too early?

So, you don't get to tell us that we're overreacting after Izzy was killed off. You don't get to do that, because you just don't get it. We're hurting, and for a good reason. Because it's vile, and because if we don't speak up against it, nobody else will do it for us. You can sit in your own little corner, telling yourself that the season finale was good and satisfying, and that you're happy with the way it ended if it's indeed the series finale.

Meanwhile I'll stay here, thinking about how a beloved, queer, disabled character on a beloved queer show was put down with a gun like a horse with a broken leg.

But that was the kind thing to do, wasn't it?

#izzy hands #ofmd critical #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2 finale spoilers #disability #disability in media #ableism #ooooh weeee #i woke up and chose violence today lads #>:)#but yeah #i felt that i needed to get this out #because it's only now really hitting me how fucking shaken i am because of all of this #so yeah #i'm not off my bullshit just yet #probably won't be for a WHILE #bleh

325 notes · View notes

runawaymun · 6 months ago

Text

Though he was widely known by the moniker "Mr. Bai," Baizhu's last name isn't "Bai." The origins of this misnomer can be traced back to his apprentice at Bubu Pharmacy, Qiqi, and her sieve-like memory. When she first arrived at Bubu, her memory was even worse than it is now, and she would even forget to return to the Pharmacy at night after going out to gather herbs and ingredients during the day. Fortunately, Baizhu is always patient when dealing with patients, and doubly so when dealing with Qiqi. At first, he attempted to have her stay at the Pharmacy and rest, but Qiqi was always resolute and could not be dissuaded from harvesting materials, saying: "My responsibility." Helpless to stop her, Baizhu would personally go out to find her each and every time, and remind her of the fact she lived with him at Bubu Pharmacy over and over and over and...

-- Baizhu's character story #1

It's disability pride month and what better way to celebrate than by posting my first ever full Baizhu & Qiqi piece! I just........am very unwell about them.

Qiqi has canonical memory and joint issues. Baizhu has a canonical unspecified but severe chronic illness. They've really completely taken over my brain lately and as a person with chronic illness myself, I'm just in love with the portrayal of Baizhu in Genshin Impact. The effects of his chronic illness are addressed and constantly visible, but that doesn't stop him from being badass and successful, even though he has to spend days at a time laid up in bed recuperating his spoons. I honestly don't know that I've seen a more human, complex portrayal of chronic illness in fiction. He's just so, so good.

I love them your honor I don't think I'll ever get them out of my brain.

#baizhu #qiqi #baizhu & qiqi #genshin impact #my art #I think I lost some of my sanity doing the clothes but that's okay it was all worth it in the end #god I love them i love them i love them #Baizhu my beloved hot mess doctor <3 <3 <3 he's so good I am cradling him in my cupped hands #disability in media

113 notes · View notes

enbycrip · 1 year ago

Text

YES.

ALL OF THIS.

THIS is why this film still hits so hard after all these years.

It’s not some sugary BS about “you can think yourself out of suicidal depression by just learning to appreciate what you’ve got”.

It’s about the fact that people who work really fucking hard for their communities experience active, targeted, criminal pushback from exploiters.

About the fact that caring, in all its manifestations, is incredibly physically and mentally taxing and is often done by disabled people - YES, George Bailey is a disabled protagonist. His impairment prevents him from military service and actively causes him chronic pain that, as a person who lives with it, *will* affect his energy levels and fatigue constantly.

Notably, IAWL actually has a bunch of disabled characters. Not only is George disabled, but I’d put money on his uncle who loses the money being ADHD and very possibly having other learning disabilities and the film *actively* flagging that fact to the audience, even if it doesn’t necessarily know what ADHD is.

Which casts a whole new light on its principal villain being disabled. Instead of Old Man Potter being a flat caricature of “disability = evil”, what he *actually* is is a fantastic example of the fact that marginalisation in one axis does not prevent someone being an active oppressor - and wealth and class privilege, in particular, tend to mean a person actively acting to oppress other people who share their marginalisation in order to privilege the interests of their own class as a whole. Sometimes even damaging their own individual interests to do so.

It’s also super interesting that the *material* miracle in the film is not the appearance of an angel to show George what life would have been like if he had never existed, but the *community solidarity* that saves him from jail and his family from penury. The supernatural intervention can change his *mindset*, and that is *incredibly* important, given it *literally* stops him killing himself, but the *material* intervention is mutual aid from his own community that he has given so much to.

Which is incredibly radical as a message. It’s not saying “faith is worthless”; it’s saying “faith can be an incredibly important factor in creating resilience in moments of despair, but we can’t, and *need not*, wait for a supernatural miracle to save us; we have the capacity to save ourselves and each other in our hands right now”.

#it’s a wonderful life #film criticism #disability #disability in media #mutual aid in media #george bailey #wow I know I liked it’s a wonderful life but apparently my feelings are way stronger than I appreciated #why I fucking hate sugary reductionism in pop culture sometimes #fuck I love this movie #disability in film

219 notes · View notes

lindentea · 2 months ago

Text

i keep thinking about this and wait why didn't Fizz get prosthetic horns?

he's ashamed of his appearance under his jester cap; he wears one even in private with his partner. but why didn't he at least have the jagged edges of what's left of his horns filed or polished? is he punishing himself by leaving them as-is, as a reminder of how "broken" he feels? is he retraumatizing himself as self-harm? would filing them or getting prosthetics feel like "burying" his trauma in a way he isn't comfortable with?

horns are clearly suggested to be something important in imp culture-- is there something taboo about injured/broken horns, something shameful there that isn't present with regards to amputated limbs? will he eventually openly embrace his broken horns in public, just as he does with his limb prosthetics? will he realize that he deserves to love himself no matter what his horns look like or how whole they are?

#fizzarolli #fizzaroli helluva boss #helluva boss theory #helluva boss #fizz #disability in media #disability in fiction

52 notes · View notes

cy-cyborg · 3 months ago

Text

Disability Tropes: The Perfect Prosthetic

[ID: A screenshot from the movie Nimona, showing Nimona, a small white girl with red hair, grabbing the right prosthetic arm of Ballister, a knight in black armour with black hair and light brown skin. He is holding a broken bottle in his prosthetic hand while Nimona admires his arm. Overlaid on the screenshot is white text that reads "Disability Tropes: The Perfect Prosthetic" /End ID]

In a lot of media, prosthetic limbs are portrayed as these devices that act as a near-perfect replacement for a character who has lost, or was born without a limb. So much so that in a lot of cases, the use of a prosthetic has basically no impact on the character beyond a superficial level or their appearance, or it's portrayed as something that's even better than the old meat-limb it's replacing. This trope shows up most often in Sci-fi, but it shows up in all kinds of stories outside of that, even otherwise very grounded ones!

If a story isn't depicting the loss of a limb as the be-all-end-all worst thing that can happen to a person, they almost always default to a perfect prosthetic, functionally curing the amputation with it. But the reality is that prosthetics are FAR from perfect, and as someone who has used them for their entire life I don't think they ever will be. Limb difference is still and always will be a disability, regardless of the prosthetics available, and this really isn't a bad thing.

Why is this trope so common?

I meant it when I said this is a really, really a common trope, so much so that the majority of the media I've seen with amputees and characters with limb differences that released in the last decade or end up using it. Even stories where becoming an amputee is treated like a fate worse than death, ironically, aren't excluded from this. I have a few theories as to why this has happened: The pessimistic answer is that it's easy. You get to have a disabled character and claim you have disability representation, without really having to do much extra work or research because most of your audience won't notice if you aren't accurate - in fact they kind of expect it. You also, for the most part, dodge the backlash other kinds of disability representation (or really any minority representation) usually get. The more optimistic reason is that, for a long time, amputees and people with limb differences (as well as a lot of other disabled people) were predominantly shown in media as sad, depressed and unable to do anything, very much falling into the "sad disabled person" trope. As a kid, this was really the only way I saw people like me on screen or in books. And so, the limb difference community pushed back against that portrayal and were pretty successful in changing the narrative in the public's eye. A little too successful. A lot of creatives were genuinely trying to do right by our community, listen and do better, but many simply overcorrected and instead ended up creating stories where prosthetics were essentially cures instead of the mobility aids they are. I also think the public's general lack of understanding about disability plays a roll in all this. There are a lot of people who, in my experience, believe that the more visible a disability is, the worse it is. Limb differences and amputations are very visible, but prosthetics, even those that aren't trying to be discreet, make them less so. While using a prosthetic is very, very different to a biological limb, you won't necessarily see how in a casual interaction with, say a co-worker or neighbor, especially because there is a very real stigma applied to people with limb differences to keep those things hidden from the public. There are other reasons too, such as the fact that a lot of creatives don't even consider the connection to real amputees when creating characters with robotic limbs in genres like sci-fi and some fantasy, so they never stop to consider that these tropes could be impacting real people. Amputees are also very frequently used in "inspiration porn" content that uses the angle that disabilities can be "overcome" with a good attitude, downplaying the way those disabilities actually impact us. The prosthetics industry - specifically the component manufacturers, often also push the idea of prosthetics being the only way to return to a "normal" life, both to the wider public and to people with limb differences and amputations (which can add to that sense of shame I mentioned when it doesn't play out that way for them). On top of that, I also think the recent increase in popularity of concepts like trans-humanism contributes to it as well. these movements often talk about robotic or bionic body parts being enhancements and "the way of the future", and I think people get a bit too caught up on what may be potentially possible in the future with the real, current experiences of people with "robotic limbs" aka prosthetics, now. There are also inherently disabling things that come with removing and replacing parts of your body, things that will not just go away with some fancier tech.

So How do you actually avoid the trope?

So, we have some ideas about why it happens, but how do you actually avoid the "perfect prosthetic" trope from appearing in your work? The most important thing is to remember that this is still a disability. The loss of a limb, even with the best prosthetic technology or magical item in the world, will always have some inherently disabling aspects to it - and this is not a bad thing. The key is to not over-do it, lest you risk falling into the old "sad disabled person" trope. So let's go over some of the ways you can show how your character's disability impacts them. You don't have to use all of these recommendations, just choose the ones that would best fit your character, their circumstances and your setting.

The prosthetic itself is just different

Probably the most important thing to address and acknowledge for prosthetic-using characters, is the actual ways in which the prosthetic itself is different from a biological limb, and the drawbacks and changes that come with that. For the sake of simplicity, I'm mainly going to focus on modern prosthetics here, but it's worth considering how to apply this your own, more advanced/fantastical prosthetics too. One major thing that most people writing amputees fail to acknowledge is that prosthetic limbs are not fleshy-limbs with a different coat of paint. They do the same basic thing their meat-counterparts do, but how they do it is often drastically different, which changes how they are used. A really good example of this is in prosthetic feet. There are dozens of joints in a biological foot, but most prosthetic feet have no joints or moving parts at all. Instead of having dozens of artificial joints to mimic the real bone structure of a foot, which are more prone to failure, require power and make the prosthetic much, much heavier for very little gain, prosthetic feet are often constructed from flexible carbon fiber sheets inside a flexible rubber foot-shaped shell. This allows the bend and flex those bones provide, without all the drawbacks that come from trying to directly mimic it. Making the sheets into different shapes makes them more ideal for different activities. E.g. feet made for general use, like walking around the city, are simple and light, shaped to encourage the most energy-efficient steps, while still allowing their users to do things like wear normal shoes. Feet made for rough terrain often have a split down the middle of the foot to allow the carbon fiber sheets to bend better over rocks when there is no ankle, and some newer designs also include a kind of suspension using pressurized air pulled from the prosthetic socket to allow some additional padding. Running feet have large "blades" made of these carbon fiber sheets to absorb more pressure when the foot hits the ground, and redirect the force that creates to propel their user forward as quickly as possible.

[ID: A photo of 4 prosthetic feet. On the left, the foot is covered with a black shoe, the one to it's right consists of a small, carbon fiber blade, split down the middle, in roughly the same shape and size as the previous foot. Next to the right is an even simpler and smaller carbon fiber foot with no split, and finally is a very short foot that is vaguely rectangular in shape. /End ID]

These are some of my own prosthetic feet I've had over the years. The two on the right are designed to be used by someone who is less mobile, and the ones on the left are made for someone who is more active. As my needs changed over the years, I've used different designs and styles, and keep the old ones since my needs do tend to fluctuate.

There are also robotic feet available that are designed as a kind of "all-purpose" foot that use an electronic ankle which more closely mimics a biological foot, but they are not very popular as the mechanism adds a lot of extra weight and it requires a battery and power to work, with many amputees feeling the jointless carbon fiber feet do a better job at meeting their needs. The same goes for arms and hands. "Robotic" hands that mimic a meat hand exist, but they aren't really that popular, even in places like Australia where the prohibitively expensive price tag isn't as much of an issue due to government programs that pay for the device for you. Instead, most arm amputees who use prosthetics that I know prefer simpler devices that do specific tasks, and just swap between them as needed, rather than something that tries to do it all. A big part of this is because the all-purpose hands can be clunky. they often require manual adjustment using the other hand to do simple things like going from holding a deck of cards to putting them down and picking up a glass of water, for example. The few that don't require that, I've been told, are often temperamental and don't actually work for every person with a limb difference.

Altered Proprioception

Loosing a limb is a big deal and this is always going to have an impact on the body in some way that won't be solved with a fancy piece of tech. One such example is how limb loss effects your sense of proprioception. This is your sense of where your body parts are in space. It's how you (mostly) know where your foot is going to land when you're walking, or how you're able to do things like lift up a glass of water without needing to actually watch your hand do it. Your brain does this by creating a mental map of your body, but this map doesn't get adjusted if you loose a limb. If that map doesn't accurately reflect your real body, you're not going to have an accurate sense of proprioception. This might look like a leg amputee being a bit less stable on their feet, or like an arm amputee needing to look at their arm or hand to be able to grab something with it. Those born without their limbs who take to using prosthetics often have a lot of trouble adapting, as their brains aren't used to having that limb in the first place, whereas an amputee's brain can sometimes be tricked into using their outdated body map to help them adjust to the prosthetic (though its impossible to line it up perfectly). Prosthetics that directly integrate with the nervous system, while rare, do exist, and even this direct connection doesn't completely erase this issue for reasons doctors aren't quite sure about. This is something that does become less of a problem with time. Eventually, someone proficient with their prosthetic will learn to compensate, but their sense of proprioception will never be 100% perfect. At the end of the day, no matter how it attaches, a prosthetic is still not a natural part of the body, and that will always cause some issues. It also means if they aren't practicing it all the time, they may have to relearn how to compensate for it.

Extra weight

You also have to remember that a prosthetic is not a natural part of the body, like we already talked about, and so no matter how good it is, your brain will most likely always interpret the weight of the prosthetic as something attached to you, not part of you. This means that, even though prosthetics are actually a lot lighter than biological limbs, they feel so much heavier. This is because, while a meat limb is heavier, a lot of that weight is from muscles which are actively contributing to the limb working, so it doesn't really feel like its that heavy. When you have less of your meat-limb though, you have even less muscle to work with to move this big thing strapped to it, so it feels heavier. The more of the limb you've lost, or just didn't have, the heavier the prosthetic has to be, and the less muscle you have left to move it. It's for this reason that a lot of amputees and people with limb differences get tired faster when using prosthetics. Some of us are fit enough where you almost wouldn't notice the extra effort they need to put in, but once again, just because you can't see it from the outside, doesn't mean it's not an issue.

Avoiding Water

Most prosthetics also aren't waterproof, and so prosthetic users have to be very careful about when and how they come into contact with it. For amputees with electric components, contact with water at all will likely damage the device. This can even include especially heavy rain, something I was told to avoid when I got my electronic knee prosthetic and something I assume would also apply to arm amputees with complex, electronic hands. For those with non-electronic prosthetics, water can be hazardous for different reasons. If the prosthetic has metal components, water may cause them to rust, especially if it's salty water. Other prosthetics have foam covers to give the illusion of a limb with the general shape of muscles and fat, but these covers do not come off, and if they get wet enough that water seeps all the way through, it is very hard to dry it and they may become moldy. Finally, cheaper modern prosthetics may also float. Many are made of very light-weight materials and some have pockets of air trapped inside them. For leg prosthetics in particular, this means a user might, at best, struggle to swim with them on, but at worst, may get flipped upside down and become trapped underwater - something that happened to me as a very young child. On the flip-side, older prosthetics were usually made of heavy materials like wood or steel, and so had the opposite problem, acting like a weight and pulling a person down if they were to wear them in the water. Water-safe prosthetics do exist, I had a pair of prosthetic legs as a teenager that were hollow, and designed especially for me to swim with fins on when swimming in the ocean, and Nadya Vessey, a double leg amputee in New Zealand even got a mermaid-tail prosthetic made especially for use in the water. Most amputees though just swim without any prosthetics at all, and in 99% of cases, this is the easiest and safest way to go.

Prosthetic-Related Pressure Sores and Pain

Many people with limb differences also experience pressure sores from their prosthetics. Modern prosthetics typically attach to the body using a socket made of carbon fiber or fiberglass, held on either by pressure, using a vacuum seal or through a mechanical locking system built into the socket. No matter the specifics though, the socket has to be very tight in order to stay on, and this means that extended periods of use can lead to rub-spots, blisters and pressure sores. Many socket prosthetics also use silicone liners to add extra padding, but this means wounds caused by the pressure can't breathe, and bacteria in sweat has nowhere to go, meaning if the person doesn't rest when one of these wounds occur, it can very easily and quickly turn into a serious infection. In a properly fitting prosthetic, used by someone who has fully adjusted to them, this doesn't happen often, but it is something most amputees and people with limb differences have to at least be mindful of. Some new prosthetics use a different method of attachment, called Osteointegration - where the prosthetic attaches to a clip, surgically implanted into the person's bones. While Osteointegration avoids many of the issues like pressure sores that come from a socket, they have their own issues: mainly that they are incredibly expensive, and as of right now, have a pretty high failure rate due to the implant getting infected. Because the implants are directly connected to the bone, these infections become very serious very quickly. Many people with Osteointegration limbs have to be on very strong medication to keep these infections at bay, and they are generally considered unsuitable for anyone who is going to regularly come into contact with "unclean" environments.

Maintenance

[ID: A screenshot of Winrey, from Full Metal alchemist Brotherhood, a white woman with blond hair handing out the sides of a green hat. She is measuring a piece of metal from a prosthetic she is making while Ed, the prosthetic's owner, gives her a thumbs up in the background. /End ID]

Finally, prosthetics also require maintenance from a specialist called a prosthetist, and they don't last forever. Some parts, like a foot or hand, can be reused over an over, but the sockets of a prosthetic need to be completely remade any time your body changes shape, including if you gain/loose weight, you start experiencing swelling, or you're just a child who is growing. Children in particular need new prosthetics every few months because they grow so fast, and as such, their prosthetics have to be made with this growth in mind. If they go too long without adjustment or an entirely new prosthetic, it can seriously impact the child and their growth but even small adjustments can be costly, depending on where you live. While prosthetics are built to be sturdy and reliable, they need a lot of work to stay that way. The more complex the prosthetic, the more work is needed. Complicated electronic components may need to have regular maintenance done by your prosthetist or even the specific component's manufacturer, and depending on where you live, this might mean having to send your prosthetic limb away for this to be done. While my prosthetist technically has the skills and knowledge to do the maintenance on my electronic knee, for example, the manufacturer forbids anyone not from their company to provide this service, meaning my leg needs to be shipped off to Germany once every few years if I want to keep the warranty. This has the unfortunate side effect of sometimes your limbs getting lost in postage (shout-out to Australia Post, who lost mine twice), meaning it can be months before you get it back or get a replacement. Usually, you'll be given a replacement in the meantime if you need it, but walking on a leg that isn't yours, even when its correctly fitted, always feels a bit weird (maybe that's just me though).

Not every difference is Inherently Negative

We've talked about some of the negatives that come from having a prosthetic, but not every difference is negative or even really that big of a deal. In fact, often times, it's these little moments in the depiction of a disability that go the furthest and make it feel the most genuine. My amputations effect me from the moment I wake up, to the moment I go to bed, but that doesn't mean every single way it impacts me is always inherently bad or negative. For example, back when I was working a normal job and going to university, I would often come home, throw my legs off at the door with the shoes still attached and get into my wheelchair, the same way you might throw your shoes off after work and replace them with comfy socks and other comfy clothing. This is something I've only ever seen on screen once, with Eda from the Owl House (and she wasn't even an amputee yet, her limbs were just detachable)

[ID: an screenshot of Eda from the owl house, a very pale woman, laying on the couch in a bathrobe, her hair in a towel. She has taken her actual legs off, throwing them to the other side of the seat. /End ID]

After that, my day mostly looked the same as most other people working a 9 to 5, I'd make myself dinner, watch some TV or play some games, maybe do some extra work at my desk or chat with friends. The only difference is that it would all be from a wheelchair, mainly because my prosthetics were heavy and it was just easier to use the chair around the house. The fact my afternoon and evening routine was done from a wheelchair wasn't a bad thing, it was just different. Likewise, I also don't sleep or shower with my prosthetics on, for the same reasons most other people wouldn't take a shower or sleep in thigh-high, steel-capped boots. In your own stories, this might look like giving your characters similar alterations to how they go about their day. Let them take their arm or leg off when they're resting or relaxing, show them taking a few minutes longer to get ready because they have to put it back on, show them doing some things without it. Arm amputees in particular tend to get very good at going about their days without their arm prosthetics, and leg amputees often either learn to get around more relaxed spaces like their homes using a different mobility aids like wheelchairs or crutches, or just through hopping if that's something they're physically able to do. Even when everything is going well and working as intended, your limb-different character won't wear their prosthetic 24/7, no matter how much they love it. There doesn't have to be something wrong with it or painful about it to not want it glued to them at all times, just like you can love a pair of big heavy boots but not want them on when you're trying to sleep. For more action-focused stories, being an amputee, also changes things like how you fight. The specifics will vary from person to person, but for example, when I did Hap Ki Do, a Korean Martial art, my instructor heavily modified when I learned what techniques. Beginner-level kicks and most leg attacks were impractical for me, as the force from the kicking motion would usually cause one of my legs to fly off. I also couldn't jump very well, due to some complications with my original amputation that made my stumps too sensitive to withstand the force of landing again. So I ended up learning a lot more upper-body attacks much earlier than it is typically taught. By the time I got my green belt, I was practicing upper-body techniques usually saved for black belts - including weapons training that I could use my secondary mobility aids for, like crutches and my cane in a bad situation. Many holds that rely on creating tension in your target are also less effective on amputees, because either the anatomy that causes those holds to be painful just simply isn't there, or the body part in question can just be removed to escape. Whether we're talking about the negative things, or just neutral differences that come with using prosthetics, you don't want to go too far with any one example. The key is to strike a balance. Of course, the old writing advice of "show don't tell" also applies here. It's one thing to tell us all of this stuff, but unless we actually see it play out, it won't mean much.

How NOT to avoid the trope

Before we move on, let's focus for a moment on some common things I've seen that you SHOULDN'T do as a way to get away from the trope.

The Enhanced Prosthetic

A lot of sci-fi in particular will take prosthetic limbs, make them function exactly the same as a biological limb, but add something extra to it. This does change the way the prosthetic functions and is used, but it usually still ignores the actual disabling parts of having a prosthetic. A really good example of this can be seen in pretty much any futuristic setting, but personally, I think Fizzeroli, from Helluva Boss is the best one to demonstrate what I mean. Fizz is a quadrilateral, above knee/above elbow amputee with highly advanced prosthetics that function, more or less exactly like the limbs he lost, but with the added benefit of being super-stretchy. Fizz is an acrobat and a clown in service, at least initially, to Mammon, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. These prosthetics help him perform and we even do see how they change little things like how he walks and just goes about his day, but the show still treats them like natural arms and legs, but better.

[ID: A screenshot of Fizzeroli from Helluva Boss, a white-skinned imp with 4 black, prosthetic limbs, dressed in teal a nightgown as he lays in bed, reading from a list /End ID]

We see that he never takes them off, even when sleeping, and when he needs to use them as regular arms and legs, they do everything he needs, perfectly fine - at least when they're working correctly. The only time he ever even takes them off or has any issues with them, is when they break in season 2. The word amputee is never used to describe him, as far as I remember, and the fact he is one never really comes up at all, except for when they break or when the story focuses on how he lost them. Which brings me to my next point.

The Glitchy/Broken Prosthetic

One way I see people try to avoid the perfect prosthetic trope, is to take the prosthetic and break it or otherwise make it unreliable by having it malfunction, but not really changing anything else. This approach is heading in the right direction but still kind of misses the point of the criticism a lot of limb different folks have with the depictions of prosthetics in the media. Yeah, prosthetics do break down and some do require extra maintenance, but if your character's prosthetic is still exactly the same as a biological limb (or even better, in the case of the "enhanced prosthetic") when it's not broken, and the only time their disability is treated like a disability, is when it breaks, you're not really addressing the issue. Real prosthetics, like we discussed, even when functioning at 100%, exactly as the manufacturer intended, don't function the same as a meat-limb. They are fundamentally different, and the glitchy/unreliable prosthetic completely ignores all of that. Once again, Fizz is a really good example of this - the only time his prosthetics are not perfect, is when they break or are malfunctioning (despite the criticism, I do genuinely love Fizz as a character, but he unfortunately does fall into a lot of disability tropes).

[ID: Another screenshot of Fizzeroli, this time in a torn up jester outfit, looking down, panicked, at his prosthetic arms which are fully extended and laying motionless on the ground, with his left arm visibly short-circuiting with electricity around it. /End ID]

Now this isn't to say you can't have your character's prosthetics break down or malfunction at all. just that this shouldn't be the only way you differentiate the prosthetic from a biological limb. You should also be mindful of how or why they're breaking. A typical prosthetic isn't going to break down randomly from normal use unless something is very, very wrong or your character just has a terrible prosthetist (which unfortunately, does happen). You might experience issues if you try to make the prosthetic do something it just wasn't designed to do, or expose it to something it wasn't designed to deal with though (e.g. submerging an electronic prosthetic in water and trying to use it to swim).

Just add Phantom Pain

Another common pitfall I see when people are trying to avoid the perfect prosthetic trope, is to just give the character in question phantom pain - which is a side-effect of amputation where your brain's mental map of the body doesn't acknowledged you lost a limb. Your brain tries to fill in the gaps, since there is no signals coming from that part of the body anymore, and assumes either something must be wrong and so you should be in pain, even when you actually aren't. Alternatively, it can also happen when your brain was so used to feeling pain from that area before, in the case of people who had chronic conditions before they lost their limb, that it just keeps remaking those old signals itself. Like the broken/glitchy prosthetic approach, this also doesn't really address the issue with the perfect prosthetic trope, because it has nothing to do with the prosthetic itself. Phantom pain doesn't come from the prosthetic, nor does it effect how they're used, and so including it doesn't really address the issue of the prosthetic being functionally the same as the original, biological limb. This isn't to say that you shouldn't include phantom limb sensation or pain as something your character experiences, but just keep in mind that, when used on it's own, it doesn't counter the trope. Also, just be sure to do your research, everyone's experience with phantom pain is different and it's not something everyone with a limb difference even experiences.

Why is this trope even a problem?

Alright, so we know what the trope is, we know why it became so prevalent, ways to avoid it and also how not to avoid it. All good information, but why is this trope even bad? Why should you try to avoid it? Outside of just wanting to portray a real disability that effects real people more accurately in your creations, the prevalence of this trope actually contributes to a lot of real-world issues, especially when it's as overused as it currently is. I've talked before about "the jaws effect" - where the depiction of something in the media, especially something that the public is widely uneducated on, influences how people see it in real life. The Jaws effect specifically referred to how the popularity of creature-feature movies featuring sharks, like Jaws, caused the belief that sharks were monstrous killing machines to become much more wide-spread, even going so far as to influence decisions about laws and policy surrounding real-life shark preservation and culling in some parts of the world. But sharks aren't the only thing this has happened to.

Disabled people are so thoroughly misunderstood by wider society, that when tropes like this one become popular, people can and often do start to believe the misinformation they spread - in this case, believing that our prosthetics are a perfect replacement for a biological limb, and that getting a prosthetic means you're not disabled any more. While this can be annoying and cause small scale issues for some of us, like people giving us a hard time for using disability accommodations we very much need, it can also impact us in systemic ways too. If the wrong people believe these tropes, it can and does have a very real impact on the lives of disabled people through things like changes to policies to make it harder for amputees and people with limb differences to access financial assistance for other things outside of our prosthetics we may need assistance with.

Conclusion

Despite the very real harm tropes like this can do when it's overused, I don't think it should go away entirely. Some of my favourite pieces of media even use the perfect prosthetic trope and there are even some kinds of media where I even think it's somewhat unavoidable. Characters with perfect prosthetics in kids media in particular, especially when talking about side characters, can help to correct some of the other stereotypes kids may have seen elsewhere - such as prosthetics being "creepy" or "scary" - in a way that is casual and easy for them to understand. The problem with the trope, in my eyes, is it's excessive overuse. It's the fact that it seems to be the only representation amputees and people with limb differences are getting now. Not every story with a limb-different character can or even should delve into the reality of what using prosthetics is actually like, but we need at least some stories that do, without it being this majorly depressing thing.

#Writing disability with Cy Cyborg #Disability tropes #Long Post #Disability Representation #Writing Disability #Writing #Writeblr #Authors #Creators #Writing Advice #Disabled Characters #On Writing #Disability in Media

3K notes · View notes

skys-archive · 3 months ago

Text

Please let me know some characters you relate to as a physically disabled person! From any book, anime, movie, show, etc. Preferably non canonical or not explicitly stated as that's what I want to use them for but honestly I also just want to learn about more disabled characters too.

#disability #chronic pain #chronic illness #physical disability #dynamic disability #disabled characters #disability in media

33 notes · View notes

alpaca-clouds · 4 months ago

Text

Two weeks ago, @agramuglia uploaded the cut version of the stream he did with Charlie Knight on disability representation in fantasy worlds. And given that around the same time we had a bit of a discussion in my blog about the same issue in regards of BG3, I want to share some thoughts on this. Mind you, I am also picking up some stuff in regards to the amazing videos that Oakwyrm does on disability representation.

Because there are two topics that are so often not brought up in this context. And I am kinda saddened and a bit annoyed by this. So, let me talk about it. Because the topics of what kind of disability we see in fantasy and science fiction and what kind we don't see is actually a big topic.

Generally most fantasy disabilities fall into one of two categories:

Acquired disabilities (often in forms of missing limbs or a missing eye) that were acquired under dramatical, tragic, or heroic circumstances.

Fantasy-setting specific disabilities (for example a character who cannot fly in a setting, where everyone else can fly, or of course the classic "non-magic character in a magic world").

The first kind is the stuff we see probably most of. Again, often we see this in form of missing limbs, that depending on the setting are either replaced with some sort of magic prothesis. Ideally this is handled at least like it is in Fullmetal Alchemist, where the prothesis does not always work perfectly and needs some maintanance. Sadly, though, in a lot of cases the magic prothesis is perfect, and also other stuff that usually comes to play in regards of missing limbs (like phantom pain and related issues) do not really come to play.

Same goes with some sort of magical glass eyes and so on, if characters are missing an eye. I will not even start with the fact that glass eyes in fantasy are always perfect little balls rather than how those actually look in reality.

And either way: Usually the way those limbs and eyes have gone missing, there is really a big story behind it. In real life very typical ways for people to loose limbs is stuff like simple injuries that lead to infections, or accidents that were really kind of silly. Not in fantasy or scifi. There you do not geenrally lose a limb, unless you lose it to a dragon or devil (or I guess in a desperate attempt to revive your mother). There is always a good story behind it.

And then there are the other kind of disability we see, which the more metaphorical disability. Yes, within a world were everyone can do magic, the person who cannot do magic is disabled. Yes, within the world where everyone can fly, the person who cannot is also disabled. And yes, Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3 with her engine that is killing her has also a disability within the context of the world - as does Gale with his orb, or Shadowheart with her magic pain attacks. Heck, you could make the argument that in a way Astarion as a vampire also has magical disabilities.

But what bugs me so much about this is... The lack of all the stuff that does not get shown.

A lot of people have already spoken about how rarely we see some sort of wheelchair in fantasy settings. (In SciFi we often then see the flying wheelchairs, that are an issue on their own, though that is something I will have to talk about at another time.)

But there is so much more that we usually do not see.

Missing limbs make up around 7-8% of all disabled people. And those are mostly older people, given that - again - limb loss usually occurs because the body struggles to heal a wound and the limb needs to be amputated to prevent infactions from spreading and such. (Almost 90% of people who loose their limps are also older than 45 when they do.)

A lot of disabilities (the vast majorities) are in fact some sort of cognitive disabilities. And sure, we do see quite a few characters that are autism-coded or ADHD-coded in media. Exhibit A would be Dungeon Meshi, of course, but I mean, we all can probably name a few characters that read very autistic or hyperactive. But those are also usually the variations of those where yes, the characters might experience some disability from it, but... We do not have an autistic non-verbal protagonist, do we now?

And then there is of course all those other disabilities. I mean, I cannot imagine a single example of a character with trisomnie in fantasy or scifi media. I also have not seen a character with my disability (severely limited lung function) in fantasy or scifi before - even though, mind you, scifi could probably easily create a device that would allow someone like me to live fairly normally. You will also rarely ever find a character with something like athritis or other forms of rheumatic illness in fantasy and scifi settings. And generally speaking, with a few exceptions there are barely any characters who were born with their disabilities or have acquired their disabilities through sickness of one way or another - even though this is by far in the real world the most common way of acquiring a disability.

Other stuff we do not see: Limb differences, anything that is perceived as disfiguring (and even if those are described in books, they usually get toned down HEAVILY in movies or games, and of course anything that is related to food.

With this I am not saying that the other disabilities - those we see - are bad. But I am saying that we absolutely deserves to see those other disabilities too. And not just in some realworld drama stuff. (I mean, when it comes to depictions of a character with down syndrome in media, I can only think of one good example, which is Ansel in Stumptown, which is very much just crime drama. But that is like the one time I can think of that a character with that disability who is given agency by the plot, and who gets to have his own life, with a job, and a girlfriend and everything.)

And yeah...

Like, the two pieces of fantasy media I wanna point out as being actually pretty darn good with disability representation of a wide variety of disabilities are:

Witch Hat Atelier: This series basically focuses on the question of morality in regards to using magic to cure - and using magic to cure disabilities, too. Because of this, we see a variety of disabilities, including disabilities people were born with, disabilities acquired through sickness or through dramatic plot reasons and so on. This is really, really good in that regard.

The Witcher novel series: I hate it so much that this is something that all the adaptions just ignore. The Witcher books are very, very heavy in dealing with disabilities in a lot more realistic matters. The fact that magicians mostly are disabled people, for whom the society does not have any other use than learning magic (for whcih they get cured of their disability, and the books actually dare to quesiton "Is that a good thing?") is one part. But Geralt himself is fairly disabled, as he is dealing with chronic pain and has a limp. Gods, I would murder for a good adaption of these books

#fantasy #science fiction #disabilities #disability representation #disability awareness #disability in media #worldbuilding #magic disabilities #eugenics #discrimination #representation #diversity #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #the witcher #dungeon meshi #witch hat atelier #fullmetal alchemist

43 notes · View notes