Distorting Images, Invisible Images

Abstract

Abstract representations of disabled people in the media are increasingly being interrogated as the disability rights movement gains momentum. Calls for more 'realistic' portrayals of disabled people prevail yet media studies have devoted scant attention to any analysis of this phenomenon. Even less attention has been accorded to portrayals of women with disabilities. Currently, feminist critiques of the media lack the ability to explain both the stereotyped images and the invisibility of women with disabilities. Yet the role of the media in Socially constructing and eroticising the female body is relevant to women with disabilities. Common media representations of women with disabilities are narrow: limited by their biology, as subordinate beings and as victims, as the subject of medical discourses and in dependent roles - where they are often waiting to be rescued by an able-bodied male or the caring public. The media has an important role to play in reporting struggles by women with disabilities for equal rights as well as more diverse and critical representations of their lived experiences.