Disability representation and collective identity

"A Brief History of Tim" is a short film Written by and starring Tim Renkow, who has Cerebral Palsy. It focuses on Tim's life, specifically his search for a Job in order to remain in the UK on a working Visa. The film definitely goes against the usual representation of disability, as it portrays him as independent rather than a burden on society. Also, he is represented as humorous however, it switches the normal conventions of the disabled person being the butt of the joke, as the butt of the joke is often the people who treat him unfairly or differently to everyone else, who Tim manages to ridicule

in some way. 

Media Examples of disability

Life's too short - ridicule - Warwick Davis

A Christmas Carol - Pitiable - Tiny Tim

Rogue One - Supercripple/villain - Saw Guerrera/ Chirut Imwe

Game Of Thrones - Burden - Bran

Don't Breathe - Villain/supercripple - Main Antagonist

One of the most common representations of disabled people is presenting them as pitiable or pathetic. It could be argued that Telethons such as Children in Need are guilty of representing disabled people 

in this way. Although they raise a large amount of money for disabled children, they often show videos of celebrities talking to disabled children and presenting them in a "sob story" way, which could be argued as representing them as pitiable. 

This representation can be definitely seen as detrimental. Hunt (1966) says "We are tired of being statistics, cases, wonderfully courageous examples to the world, pitiable objects to stimulate funding", which could definitely apply to Children in Need, as the short videos they show are definitely aimed at getting people to fund the cause

object of violence

Larry Harvey AHS series one

Blofeld Spectre

The Joker

Dr No

Two Face

Freddy Kreuger

Supercripple

Daredevil

Chirrut Imwe

Jenny Morris argues that in film and TV drama, disability is often used as a narrative device to express ideas of dependency, lack of autonomy, tragedy etc    

A burden - he's having to be held up

Ridicule/Pitiable - He can't see unless being held up