What Do You Think?
Posted by Larry the Rolling Filmmaker at 4/10/2008 8:44 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
Do you think those with a disAbility deserve to be treated fairly and equally? Is that only in some circumstances, or all aspects of society?
Do you think some of the opinions of society, the general public are influenced by their culture?
Do you think that movies and television affect the culture?
Do you think that repeated stereotypes and misrepresentations in film and television can influence the opinions, views and treatment society has on a people, a class, a minority or subgroup?
Did you know that nearly all representation of those with a disAbility are written, directed and performed by able bodied individuals? Does any able bodied person know what it is like to live everyday with a disAbility – and with the knowledge that it will never change – even after production ends?
Do you think that disAbilities, such as paralysis, deafness, or blindness and others are significant to the identity of a person just like their gender, race, age, or sexual orientation?
Did you know that in the 2005 Screen Actors Guild report on those with a disAbility showed that most in the industry believe that actors with a disAbility can only be hired for roles that were specifically written as characters with a disAbility? Did you know that nearly all of the already limited roles that are written specifically as characters with a disAbility are cast using able bodied performers? Double, double standard or merely just double discrimination?
Did you know that there are over 1200 SAG certified performers who bravely admitted by self identifying themselves as a person with a disAbility even though they know their disAbility will be stereotyped and discriminated against in the industry?
Do these performers and others such as writers and directors with a disAbility deserve a fair and equal opportunity to represent themselves in movies and television? Can you see the significance of this – just as any person within the majority representing a person of a minority subgroup?
Would these honest and authentic portrayals affect the stereotypes propagated and perpetuated by Hollywood and eventually influence the opinions, images and treatment of society on those with a disAbility?
If you could, with minimal effort, be able to help change all of this, the discrimination, the stereotypes, the non-genuine representations of a person not belonging to a specific minority subgroup – through supporting authentic voices and representations of those with a disAbility – just as fairly and equally that all other minority subgroups have in Hollywood – would you?
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