Week 6 Handi-Capable Disability

Week 6 Handi-Capable Disability

Perspective

1. Kidd asks the question: “Should people who are not disabled play disabled roles?” What do you think? What are some of the negative consequences of this kind of representation? How (through historic and contemporary examples) do we see other identities coopted in pop culture?

2. Define “interpretive sociology.” How does the socially constructed meaning of the term “disability” shape the social dynamics of a disabled person’s lived experience?

3. What are the two models of disability? How are they similar? How are they different?

4. Kidd asserts that the meanings of disability are “social and public.” What does he mean by this statement? How are disabilities (arguably, relatively private and intimate conditions) shaped and regulated by public interactions? How do larger institutions also regulate disabling conditions?

5. Fiona Whittington-Walsh (2002) outlines five character tropes that are routinely used when depicting disabled characters. I want you to (1) list those tropes, (2) describe them, and (3) offer examples of these tropes from popular culture that you currently consume.