Women with Disabilities
As I was reading “Rights, Realities, and Issues of Women with Disabilities” by Hershey I was caught off guard by the quote about the media-morphed female. I have always known that the perfect body portrayed by the media is not something I should aspire to be. However, Hershel makes it clear that the “perfect women” image is even more unrealistic for women with disabilities, she says the “perfect female does not look like someone we can aspire to be” (452). I then began to try to think of any women that I knew with a disability that was in the media. The only women I could think of was Marlee Matlin. Matlin is an Academy Award Winner for Best Actress, who has played a variety of roles in many movies as well as cameos on CSI NY and Desperate Housewives, just to name a couple. Matlin is deaf.
Hershey and Matlin are both advocates for women’s right and people with disabilities. Both of these women know first hand that not only do they face all of the discriminatory issues women face they also face all of the issues disabled people have. Employment is one large issue that disabled women face. With barriers such as “discrimination based on ableism and sexism” many people with disabilities are discouraged or even prevented from being able to find a job (451). Matlin addresses this inequality in a video for the campaign: Voices For Social Justice. See link. In a baffling study done by the International Disability Forum in Geneva, “75% of women with disabilities worldwide and up to 100% in some developing countries are excluded from the workforce” ( www.usaid.gov). Although Employment issues are a very large part of many disabled women’s lives it is just one of the many barriers they have to face.
If Matlin did not fit the ideal body image would she still be portrayed as the “leading lady” for women with disabilities in the media?
Do you know any examples of disabled women in the media? How are they portrayed?
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects the right to employment opportunities, how are there still so many unemployed women with disabilities? What can be done to fix this?
