The Cloak of Incompetence
2019; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 13; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3828/jlcds.2018.42
ISSN1757-6466
Autores Tópico(s)Children's Rights and Participation
ResumoThe article analyzes representations of people with intellectual disability in four films referenced in Ben Stiller's 2008 spoof film-within-a-film Tropic Thunder: Forrest Gump (1994, directed by Robert Zemekis), Rain Man (1988, Barry Levinson), Being There (1979, Hal Ashby), and I Am Sam (2001, Jessie Nelson). The analysis shows how filmic narratives that use intellectual disability as a narrative device devoid of relevant sociocultural contexts are preferred over ones that are based on the lived experience of people with intellectual disability, such as the one in Nelson's film. The former representations both rely on and extend misconceptions and prejudice about the incompetence of persons with intellectual disability. Worse still, they draw from and reinforce sociocultural factors that abet these persons' dehumanization.
Referência(s)