What Traits Do You Want to See In Disabled Super Heroes?
Jul 06, 2018I’m talking about the fact that writers make up really bad excuses for not including disabled characters in their work.
I used gifs of Chris Evans doing stuff with his arms because:
- It’s a great example of how a main character in a story could both use a wheelchair and save the day via a feat of strength (superhuman or otherwise) that don’t require legs.
- It’s Chris Evans
- It highlights the excuses that creative folks often use when talking about why the exclude disabled folks in their narrative (“But there’s no way a person in a wheelchair could do X.”)
- But seriously, ‘dem arms ’do.
I have no problem with a disabled character’s other physical traits being amplified or made superhuman. However, I do not want to see a disabled character’s traits amplified to the point of erasing their disability. That’s not the point.
A wheelchair user with superhuman strength is cool. A character with two legs that have been replaced with cybernetic ones that function just as well as real legs and also shoot lasers, is not.