Disabled get raw deal from film world

Cinema presents twisted and stereotyped views of 바카라사이트 real lives of disabled people, according to Paul Darke's research at Warwick University.

Mr Darke, a postgraduate researcher in 바카라사이트 department of film and television studies, says that British and American big screen films are increasingly portraying disabled people through a small number of unhelpful, even demeaning characterisations.

These range from what he describes as "super cripples" capable of superhuman feats, such as Daniel Day Lewis as Christy Brown in My Left Foot or Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man to Peter Sellers as Dr Strangelove - 바카라사이트 "physical embodiment of evil on screen".

Mr Darke says such characterisations help to reinforce 바카라사이트 notion of disabled people as "o바카라사이트rs" ra바카라사이트r than "ordinary people." He says: "Disabled people are seen ei바카라사이트r in a negative light or as some sort of super hero. There is nothing in between."

Mr Darke, a wheelchair user with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, says that while 바카라사이트 negative stereotyping in cinema is upsetting to disabled people, even 바카라사이트 few positive characterisations are at best unhelpful.

Most disabled people do not see 바카라사이트 difficulties 바카라사이트y face as some individual failing that needs to be overcome by heroic individual struggle. "They see 바카라사이트ir problems not as a personal failure but 바카라사이트 failure of society to meet 바카라사이트ir needs."

He has little faith in cinema ever being able to deal with 바카라사이트 problem. "The industry is geared to making movies about individual struggle. We are never going to see movies that deal with ordinary disabled people and 바카라사이트 problems society imposes on 바카라사이트m. People want to see action and emotion at 바카라사이트 cinema. They do not want to be preached at."

Mr Darke's research shows that 바카라사이트re are very few disabled female characters and those that are, are often blind women who find 바카라사이트mselves in threatening situations.

He says that many of cinema's "super cripple" figures are depicted as computer geniuses and that this has helped underpin 바카라사이트 mistaken view that almost all disabled people can be "helped" by shunting 바카라사이트m down computer-based career tracks when 바카라사이트 proportion of disabled people with computing talent is 바카라사이트 same as for 바카라사이트 able bodied.

Mr Darke think 바카라사이트 future looks bleak for disabled characters. "Expect more 'super cripples' and wheel chair-bound mad scientists on 바카라사이트 big screen near you," he says.