You’d think Reese wouldn’t be accepting of him, because he’s a major jerk, but he doesn’t seem to care about the disability, just that he’s a geek – though they are friends, as I recall from the houseboat episode, where Reese and Stevie go off to find the girls in some kind of makeshift boat/raft and return with bikini tops while Malcolm fishes with dad.

But another episode – surrounding a poker game – showed how much fun they had with his disability. Stevie’s dad plays poker with Hal, and two of the other players brought over their cute daughters (middle school – they kissed). The girls baby talked to Stevie and he was getting upset, and then Reese stepped in – and told them that he was terminal and his head would explode soon and he went along with it – “I’ll never go to prom… or kiss a girl.” Putty in his hands.

And in the fair episode – the “freaks” are invited to poker – and Stevie manipulates his parents by saying he wants to be “normal” as he turns around he’s grinning.

I like that – it’s normal teenager behavior, just tweaked a bit.

(My mom does not fall for the “normal” thing because she knows I never wanted to be normal. Sigh.)

Butchie is pure fucking win — he’s blind (mostly) and a successful business owner and he’s never shown as pathetic. We’re not supposed to feel all sorry for him that he’s blind and in the end he’s treated like anyone else in The Game. His disability doesn’t shield him and doesn’t make him an easy mark. Even better, Butchie is played by S. Robert Morgan who is an actual blind actor. It shows. It was fair amazing to finally see a blind character played by a blind actor instead of a sighted actor playing a blind character. Who usually do a crap job of it but follow the playing-a-blind-person acting conventions.

I kept annoying my wife with “Yes they are doing this right! This is so cool.”
kaninchenzero´s last [type] ..Also

My favorite recent depiction of disability is from The Wire. There’s a recurring character in seasons 3-5 named Odell Watkins who’s a major player on the Baltimore political scene. He also happens to use a power chair for mobility. The thing I loved so much about his character is that his disability was never addressed – you see him at city council events and in powwows with the mayor or other black leaders, and he’s just *existing*. There’s no harping on his difference, his separateness, or his “origin story”. He’s portrayed as powerful but not wicked; capable, yet not in the “overcoming disability” sense; and smart, yet not in a Super Cripple! kinda way. In essence, he’s just like all the other characters on the show – he started out genuine, but quickly learned to scheme and plot and backstab all in the name of personal advancement and/or doing the “right” thing. Basically, in The Wire-verse, he’s human.

Although Watkins eventually grows frustrated and disillusioned with the political process, it made me happy to see that he was actually given the opportunity to have that growth in the first place!

There’s also a prince with gouty legs/chronic pain who is shaping up to be another good depiction for similar reasons. Among the less elite classes, people with disabilities are pretty much everywhere. One thing I liked seeing was how normal it is to see them still going about their lives, usually working.

It’s not perfect. There is one prominent example of the magic cripple, and a few examples of crazy people who are violent and dangerous. But even then, the characters are still full people.

I’m trying to think of how to say this properly. A Song of Ice and Fire is, in a lot of ways, a deconstruction of high fantasy and the idealized songs that people sing about heroes and maidens. One character, who represents those who love the idealized songs, is always disappointed when knights turn out to be ugly or war turns out to have consequences. She has unrealistic expectations that everything should be pretty, according to her idea of what’s pretty. I think the ubiquity of disabled people is part of Martin’s answer to that: depicting the world how it is, not some privileged person’s fantasy.

I’m curious if you’ve ever read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver – I really love the book from a literary sense, and I think that the portrayal of disability is pretty good, but I’d like to hear other opinions.

There is a secondary and occasional character on Mad Men who walks with a limp; she makes one passing comment about her twin looks just like her but has a “good set” of legs, and then never mentions it again. I liked how her disability serves no “purpose” in moving the plot forward.

Pran’s character walks with a limp and uses a cane. This is because Pran had recently injured himself or something. So they wrote it into the plot that the cops shoot him in the leg as he tries to save his dying wife, oh the huge manatee! (Of course, his character also worked in the circus and there’s this hilarious scene with his 2 kids balanced on his shoulders as he takes them from Vijay who is really Don on a TIGHTROPE, and Vijay’s been raising the kids.) (’70s Masala is so awesome)

So. Don was remade in 2006 with Shahrukh Khan *cue drooling* as Don/Vijay. Much slicker, less goofy, and MAJOR TWIST. Ahem. They kept Pran’s character, only this time played by Arjun Rampal (double drool). Arjun was not injured, but they kept the leg injury and cane in the story anyway. And he used the cane in a fight. (no tightrope, sorry)

To sum up – they cast Pran, Pran got injured, and then they wrote his injury into the story! 30 years later, they kept it. And that’s why I love Bollywood.