ABLE-BODIED ACTORS AND DISABILITY DRAG: WHY DISABLED ROLES ARE ONLY FOR DISABLED PERFORMERS

Wednesday, March 19, 2014 SPORK! 0 Comments

by Scott Jordan Harris
Able-bodied actors should not play disabled characters. That they so often do should be a scandal. But it is not a scandal because we do not grant people with disabilities the same right to self-representation onscreen that we demand for members of other groups who struggle for social equality.
Consider "Glee", a TV show unmistakably self-satisfied with its inclusiveness. Its makers would never have considered having Rachel, the female lead, played by a man in drag. They would not have considered having Mercedes, the most prominent black character, played by a white actress in blackface. But when they cast Artie, the main disabled character, they chose an able-bodied actor and had him sit in a wheelchair and ape the appearance of a disabled person.
These comparisons with blackface and drag may seem inflammatory or outlandish but those of us who make them (such as the actors who protested the casting of the recent "Ironside" remake) do not do so lightly or in order to bring cheap attention to our cause. We do it because the analogy is exact. To argue that it isn't is to argue that disabled people are less equal than others.

 Read the full article at Roger & Ebert 

 (http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/disabled-roles-disabled-performers)
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