Nondisabled actors play 95 percent of television’s disabled characters. This is what we talk about when we talk about representation.
Playing at disability: The numbers
Tag: disabled characters
I really disliked A World Without You. Here’s why.
Beth Revis’ A World Without You may purport to be a thoughtful and positive depiction of mental illness, but it feels like anything but.
Can we put Eddie Redmayne back in his box yet?
Actor Eddie Redmayne, though surely a perfectly nice person, is currently making me want to start hurling things at him with irritation. With not one but two roles in which he played dressup with marginalised identities in 2014 and 2015, he’s most decidedly on my shitlist. As a high-profile actor, he really does get to pick or […]
Book review: Magonia, Maria Dahvana Headley
I’ve been holding off on reviewing Maria Dahvana Headley’s Magonia primarily because I’ve been having difficulty deciding how I feel about it. That’s not necessarily an indicator that you should be put off, but I put that out there just as a statement — this book is kind of complicated, and it doesn’t necessarily digest well. Your mileage […]
The only place to see disabled people on TV: Reality shows
Evaluating the representation of disabled people in media is frustrating, primarily because there are so few of us in books, films, television, and other arts that it’s nearly impossible to make concrete comments — we’re holding single characters up against a standard that they can’t hope to meet. (Imagine, for example, if only two percent […]
Josh, Donna, and PTSD on The West Wing
The West Wing covers a broad scope of incidents in the White House, as I’m reminded with every rewatch. Domestic crises, international ones, attempted shootings, bombings…in many ways, it was a forewarning of what we would experience in the decade after the show went off the air, and I often find myself putting on an old […]
Book Review: Far From You, Tess Sharpe
It’s ‘a love story, wrapped up in a murder mystery bow.’ It’s a sharp, searing exploration of being young and queer in the rural United States, it’s a stunning debut novel, and it will break your heart, even as you’ll be stunned by the brilliance of Sharpe’s craftswomanship. Far From You is meticulously researched, but also written from […]
The Fabulousness of Tyrion Lannister
I’m a late adopter to Game of Thrones, but I’ve brought all my game to the yard; I find this show utterly fascinating and compelling, even as it’s ripe with material to analyse. At the same time that the scope of the world is amazing and the worldbuilding is immense, epic, and beautiful, it’s also misogynistic, rapey, […]
Book Review: She Is Not Invisible, Marcus Sedgewick
Ever since Midwinterblood, I’ve been a huge fan of Marcus Sedgewick, who is a fantastic writer and someone you should definitely keep your eye on. I was intrigued by the concept of She Is Not Invisible even before I picked it up: a teen travels across the Atlantic in search of her father when he mysteriously goes missing and […]
Book Review: Otherbound, Corinne Duyvis
Every time you blink, you’re sucked into an alternate world that’s as far from your suburban Arizona home as you can imagine. A world filled with magic and fear, living on the run as you protect the life of a princess in hiding who’s waiting for the opportunity to reclaim her throne. In Arizona, as […]