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Writing About Disability Portrayal in Comic Books
Happy Friday everyone!
So this is an older column I wrote, and I came across it in the archives the other day: https://smanewstoday.com/2017/05/02/sma-columnist-examines-disabilities-comics/?amp
I know that there are probably not a lot of people here who are really into comic books, but regardless I hope you’ll check out this piece. I tried to put things in layman’s terms as much as possible when I wrote it, and to just focus on disability representation in this medium. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
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1 Reply
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Interesting perspective. I’ve seen Daredevil and Arrow, and I never even considered Matt or Felicity as “disabled”, though they technically are/were. Dare I question your take here, but I think you might be reading into it a bit too much. These shows are kind of wacky in the first place, so I think it’s kind of unrealistic to expect much accuracy with regard to disability representation. Furthermore, I think viewing Daredevil like “his miserable life reflects lives of people with disabilities” is a stretch. I mean, it’s not just Matt, but the entire show is dark and gritty, which is actually partly what makes it awesome. It’s the nature of the show more so than the nature of the character. A contrast that comes to mind is Dr Harrison Wells in The Flash. He’s disabled, (I guess he was faking it, but the point remains) and that show is more lighthearted and he and the other characters have more “fun”.
On a side note, it says you have spinal muscular dystrophy in this column. What’s the deal with that?
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