Unknown Speaker 00:02 created a yes for us view bar here, you are comfortable that people can't go away. But so we created a gentle path that ran through a park the lawn. And nice thing about it is it actually is the fastest way to get from that part of the campus down to the front of the library and everyone uses it. You know, and that's, that's also the thing about access is that once you create access on campus, we have a lot of kids who are on bikes or on the campus on the weekends, there are plenty of parents who do have strollers, the AV people that that are bringing slide projectors around, they love it. Use batteries, and they're gonna bring us some more. Okay, I think we should just go and start, hi. But maybe while we give our introductions, Unknown Speaker 01:22 we can make sure everybody signed in on the black and white sheet here. And like to welcome everyone today, this is the session on screening stereotypes, images of disabled women in the media. My name is Jane thierfelder. And I work here at Barnard College out of the office for disabled students. And I work on a research project from a grant called we're the women's Educational Equity Act. And Susan Quinby. Right here Unknown Speaker 01:55 are several students who are going to college and have been here for almost five years. Unknown Speaker 02:05 And what we want to talk about today is Unknown Speaker 02:10 an unusual topic that has not been researched much up to now and really hasn't been talked about much. We want to talk about not just disabilities, and not just women with disabilities, but specifically how these women are portrayed in the media, and how media images of women with disabilities affect the attitudes of the public and of society in general. And how that is then focused on to real women with disabilities. Susan, go ahead, I'll let you start with the icebreaker. And there's an idea over here how the session is going to go, we're going to have to ask everybody introduce themselves. And we're going to do an icebreaker. And then we're going to have a specific presentations, which you can see up there. And then we're going to do a question and answer. Habit if we go around the room. Unknown Speaker 03:02 Yeah, I'd be curious to ask really two things of of who you are. And also what your why you've come to this why you've chosen this workshop today. Because I think that you asked when you when you came into Portland. How often has the scholar and the feminist as a conference, it's been around for 13 years, dealt with issues of women and disability. And as Jay said only once to four, I think to our knowledge, and so one of the things that we're trying to do is to create more of an awareness of the need to mainstream disability into this major scholarly conference on, you know, on women's issues and to make sure that there is always a focus on disability, either in a separate sessions, which is hours or within other sessions. And I'd be curious to know whether at some of the other sessions today on Latin American women or Asian American women or whatever that is disability being incorporated into any of those sessions. So with that, I'll turn it over to Rebecca. Unknown Speaker 04:03 My name is Rebecca corporate, and I was guard here at Barnard and a part of the women's counseling project and I would drop into see Susan every once in a while because she's such a friendly individual. And Julian Susan did a workshop for the guards and real consciousness raising community Unknown Speaker 04:26 so I'm doing my natural business in the topic from being a disabled woman myself. Media for the lenses mother's. Unknown Speaker 04:59 Day I have a disability of self. It's called a hidden disability. reason I came up just recently, last two years in and asked to write the Feminist Press, about the experience of being a disabled woman, I believe we're all that story, everybody got it? I can identify with this, all of a sudden, I went back. So I had a very rare glimpse into conditions for fibroids. And it's called frequency. Because I've taken medication called thyroxin. I'm not retired, and I'm totally functional except for mild coordination disabilities, my learning disability categories, I did not get my medication, charges, six months, vegetable. And my experience came up some of the highest quality, the hidden disability is that people may be condescending, kicking towards people in the wheelchair crutches is my memory was when they don't understand why when they couldn't understand why we run, why I didn't walk, walk with a staggering for a long time. They said Why did you have polio? Why don't you walk normally? Why don't you do this normal and couldn't answer specific reason I went through my entire childhood physically violently abused by other children, teachers used to be just the way you describe your loved one. And I was probably more mapping back within a mile it was actually his medication and very relatively mild disability. And I thought to myself recently, this could never happen again. equippable or more enlightened, and I read a book about a girl called it's called Rusty story about a girl with epilepsy. And they didn't even know that it has other symptoms, besides just seizures, that emotional symptoms, and the girls were in a violent Ward and abused and almost killed there. And so it proved to me is there's necessity for every disabled person, especially those with the quote, paths to come out and struggle with this failure. And I decided since I just found a document that I'm going to be working together with Magnin called her and specializes in getting disabled people have jobs or jobs. Because all of the spreadsheets do that in that cause getting and he doesn't get people jobs all over the place. And he wants me to work with him. It was a big, big breakthrough because he was like a white skin example. People like totally totally live I can we can avoid situation for Chuck. I can. I can say I can and I don't want to get anywhere. And that's why Unknown Speaker 07:37 it's interesting because the program for disabled students here at Barnard we have a large number of students with hidden disabilities with either chronic medical conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, kidney disease, cancer, whatever and then a group of students with visible disabilities and there are there different issues and invisible disabilities maybe we'll get into that a little bit more we'll talk about them I just recently Unknown Speaker 08:40 and dealing with the different issues then also you're willing to take religion Unknown Speaker 09:20 you ever been to the strong fence before? You? Did anybody you know Jane and I were doing other things this morning. How was the morning conference for those interesting Should I not ask? Unknown Speaker 09:40 She didn't mention Unknown Speaker 09:42 she didn't she did her she Catherine stepsisters brought up everything Unknown Speaker 09:46 black white is great, but she did not mention the sense of difficulty as she called her her genetic did not mention your results in your business. I wanted to Unknown Speaker 09:57 do that. I was gonna say to anyone questionnaire What Unknown Speaker 10:02 was wrong? It didn't go up very, very well. But like most common feminist part, part of the problem is that the marginalized, you know, always the working class issues. You know, always coming to the biggest feminists here at Barnard is is a woman guy. But first Ben, and Peggy the mechanic. And, you know, Peggy Brooks was electrician in the iron mines, Minnesota. And I know, they never use her experience. Well, I always get very excited about talking about marginalization, they marginalized working class, but marginalize any woman who was not intellectually in academia, just to say, Unknown Speaker 10:57 yeah, there is there. I know, we have a very short evaluation form for our workshop. Is there, and we'll be happy to, you know, feel to put that on the evaluation form. Is there an overall evaluation form for the conference? In which you, I mean, I didn't get the packet this morning, in which you could include that in there, because I think those are very, very valid concerns. Unknown Speaker 11:19 The problem is, the problem that we have, okay. Is, is they say to us, well, if you want those things, you have to help us coordinate the conference. And so many of working class women and women who are able to, it's very difficult at times. Unknown Speaker 11:36 I also think that's so common, though, for women's conference, I was just at a conference of women, Dean's administrators and counselors, and the sessions that they had a lot of sessions on disability and a minority and culturally different women. And it was very interesting that all of us that were running sessions for any of the minority groups, if you will, had very few people are relatively few, compared to that most attended session that while I was there was the session on breaking the barrier getting out of academia. Now that's the I think that's the kind of thing and typically that people ignore the merging consciousnesses of the women's groups ignoring multiracial and disability areas, and vice versa. No one wants to talk about more than one. Unknown Speaker 12:28 Yeah. Well, also, also, it's very difficult when it comes to so expensive. Yeah, so So you really have you really have a problem. But, you know, in order to get into the mainstream, it would be nice. If somebody, somebody could just sit and listen to other women out there are other issues. Unknown Speaker 12:44 Please missed out on our evaluation call. And we will certainly I mean, since both all three of us mean Julian January all work at Barnard. We'd be delighted to take that back to the conference committee. What we'd like to do in our icebreaker is, is have you all think about your earliest lampshades, two on two levels, your earliest recollection, of immediate image, okay, related to disability. And this could either be could be a book, or a television show, or a movie, or a play or a comic book even or even a character that you remember, but your your earliest recollection, and then contrast that with your, your latest recollection, your most recent media recollection. And we'll give you about five minutes to think about it. Unknown Speaker 13:41 This is a little bit of a variation on an icebreaker that we use in the office a lot more workshops, which is that we asked people just across the board to think of their earliest recollection of disability, just any anything. And we did a workshop last week with a number of staff people involved on campus. And it was interesting that several people, their earliest recollection, in fact, was a media recollection, like a book that they really put there's only one who actually could quote entire sections of a booklet. So with respect to people disabled character, so we thought the purposes of this work workshop to get you all involved in looking at the media and as I say, in a broad way, either advertising or TV, movies, the earliest recollection, you have another minute to think or should we talk? No, no, it's not the earliest me that you were two years old. Do you have fun? Yeah, Unknown Speaker 15:10 I think so. Did you want to start? You want to wait? I think so. I was Unknown Speaker 15:17 trying to think I just remember Unknown Speaker 15:23 to think about it, one minute or another. We've also started to say we've also put up just not too many, but a lot of different quotes from some of the handouts, we have a package of handouts for you. And I want to start as long as they're supposed to put good handouts to people at the beginning of the workshop. If you're too boring mesotherapy the hand right in time. So we're gonna give you a packet of handouts at the end some of these quotes are Unknown Speaker 15:58 Can I ask a question? Yeah. Unknown Speaker 16:01 Memories supposed to Unknown Speaker 16:03 be of women? Or can they be a boat? I would say, Oh, well, you're the cup. So shall we do both? Or shall we I think whatever Unknown Speaker 16:11 your earliest memory is, I think that would be interesting to see whether there's release memories are in fact of women or men. Because here's some statistics that we're going to give you later, that would say that they would be one more particular force. Would anyone like to see I was looking at which do you have? First, I'm trying my earliest Unknown Speaker 16:36 memory. And I don't remember the name of character, which is interesting is the is Heidi's friend, cloud in cloud era. That was a class clown to go grandfather's good mountainair cures. And, you know, I adored it. I reread it when I was a little tiny. I mean, that was the first time it took me a while. That's the first one. And you want to do the latest? Unknown Speaker 17:06 No, I just I'd like to talk a little bit more about our earliest pet. Do you remember how old you were when you read it? And was it on your own? Or was it in Unknown Speaker 17:13 school? Oh, no. It was absolutely on my on your own. That's, that's Unknown Speaker 17:17 in school. It was there. Anybody else in your family would read it? They recommended that you do this Unknown Speaker 17:22 book. It was given to me as a birthday gift by my sister and brother in law. And it was a super duper addition of Oh, yeah. To your own daughter. No, she, she, she has rejected it. I mean, I offered to let her read it herself. And she rejected and I want to read it to her. She said no, I'm waiting. She's 13. At the time, she's 21. Unknown Speaker 17:49 And what was the disability? It was never it was never Unknown Speaker 17:53 really clear. She just couldn't remember, Oh, me. And she she she had Unknown Speaker 17:58 a crush. I remember. She had a clutch didn't get to movie versions of it. No, I'm sorry. You're right. She didn't have Unknown Speaker 18:08 she was she was carried that in bed with Jaime Berry. And she had one also. This is my memory of it was carried around much beloved by her father had a woman who was very a nurse, housekeeper type who was exceedingly strict tight and not a friend. And Heidi was born into the house by the Father because Clara was failing. And, and and Heidi and Clara began to communicate. And then Heidi took me to a grandfather of grandfather's in the mountains and it was the love and the mountain air and the breaking up the isolation that cured her and she walked at the end. Unknown Speaker 18:52 Sort of a Freudian situations. You can almost see my stereo. TV. Here, yeah. Unknown Speaker 19:07 First, that's one of my first Unknown Speaker 19:09 that's quite a memory. I mean, they have a lot of different pieces. Unknown Speaker 19:12 Oh, I reread it. I mean, that was a favorite book. I was. I was eight when I got the book. And I think I went back to that book constantly. It was a Amantha until I became a teenager that was one of my favorite books. Unknown Speaker 19:26 Was that anyone else's family loved growing up. That was yours. That's my favorite but Unknown Speaker 19:30 I love the 19th century books I never saw Unknown Speaker 19:42 maybe well, you have your most current. Well, I have Unknown Speaker 19:45 two one was a Cagney and Lacey series. Just as much is with the man who became Cagney's Kenya he had a crush. And in fact I have one nightstand Becca, Unknown Speaker 19:59 can I interrupt you. We're gonna talk at length about that series a while Unknown Speaker 20:03 so Kili Unknown Speaker 20:04 Oh yeah, we'll go on and the other one is the is the comedian and and I can't remember names I mean of anybody so that's no it's the comedian the woman comedian on family Yes, that's Jerry it No it's on the facts of life and Jerry Jones are continually characters CP know that I noticed. Yeah, she's a stand up comedian. And she's flexible Unknown Speaker 20:39 to what's my most recent Unknown Speaker 20:45 memory. What else four? Most recent memory. Does anybody else Unknown Speaker 20:51 want to pass that array? Unknown Speaker 20:53 Yeah, both Sure. Whichever one you want to give first. Helen Keller Unknown Speaker 20:57 gave me that book. And because I guess to inspire me I started reading when I was about four and I had nothing but my focus. So when I read her story, I couldn't really walk yet and I couldn't go to the bathroom I just crawled so I've read this book and it inspired me to do with my to do my parents gave me a physical therapy therapist so she was like a guiding light and then later they made it into the play and I was the first one there just to play with them bank prompt them to do for them the new movie Unknown Speaker 21:26 miracle a miracle worker Unknown Speaker 21:33 a movie and then it was in a repeat movie three years ago with Melissa Gilbert and with with Patty Duke plan this time the instead of the child so lace, and she was just he's acting out a parameter scene. And then as far as the recent thing I will I won't reiterate Cagney and Lacey. Another one that was really one of the most powerful experiences I will receive a two part episode on Highway to Heaven. Which surprisingly, despite it seeming Sackers being they attack, they attack every issue you can name and they in this story. A blind girl temporarily blind turns out she can be awkward, is allegedly assaulted by a man with like a defective birthmark on the face. This is really powerful. He's defended by a paraplegic lawyer who'd been in an accident. Oh, I mean, it was it sounds too much but they handled it was moved on so superbly. And then there was another recent one that that moved me very deeply. I never will be used to I'm not watching a TV watcher but I happen to chanson the TV Guide because I I'm interested in this because I studied neurology and psychiatry, I was translating the field Conrad vein of Different Strokes had been on the set of the different strokes but a year ago and somebody made a joke about epilepsy work when the meeting said we're going to put in episode nine her and apparently he volunteers for the institute himself which is of great interest to know about that Yes. And curl and then it now a pop out an ongoing character what he deliberately reveals to Arnold into cinco to little Sam is Pearl the housekeeper played by Caitlin Catholic says to the boys I haven't. And it was a very very powerful thing to make somebody so loved by the American public into an epileptic so that's another one of this hidden disability versus the thing so it's getting the I could just reel them off from the mask from from the Elephant Man and just kill them off. It's getting it's exciting is really big words. 20 years ago was weird. Alright, Unknown Speaker 23:33 so we're the word current. Now have that anybody else on the past? Unknown Speaker 23:39 What occurred to me is late last night, I was watching a movie about a woman and rockets and flew both time and money and this man was forever atrophied and can't ultimately help with appointments. But I remember seeing it as Nick at a resort in Florida on a rainy Saturday afternoon. And it was the movie that they had available to him as a little young for Unknown Speaker 24:13 me didn't really see Johnny Belinda. Unknown Speaker 24:22 That was my first memory of the first day it was she was a deaf. She was a deaf girl. She's deaf. Unknown Speaker 24:30 I, I think So in Unknown Speaker 24:34 step two, they made a recent John Unknown Speaker 24:40 that was a movie it was Unknown Speaker 24:41 it was a funny movie and he attacked women who the woman who had some sort of disability. That was this was the reason for the movie. He didn't like people who went off what he Unknown Speaker 24:59 considered Jane one on one J Unknown Speaker 25:04 She was really good and who was the guy with the mustache who was that Do you know can you make a setter approximate date was Unknown Speaker 25:14 it always had to be in the late yeah absolutely like for me and she was she was a very growing person I am she came off heroin she was marvelously misused. Unknown Speaker 25:30 What happened to the villain alter? Oh, it Unknown Speaker 25:32 didn't end you see a doctor who's in love with this time? Yes, because she's so good and sweet and marvelous. catches a year trying to merge catches in the ACC and she gets she manages to scream. She has been good. South is better off. Unknown Speaker 26:00 Dorothy McGuire George brands and Nestle Baron was stuck. And she couldn't stand she screamed about Johnny vagina Belinda is the murderer and tomorrow star friend that's Unknown Speaker 26:16 much earlier than July, though is on mute. Unknown Speaker 26:20 There is absolutely no heroines except that she would just be just muted. She gets it first Unknown Speaker 26:32 speaker I think John and Melinda was so new to it. You didn't like noise? Yeah, right. This notion that if you cannot be vocal, you can't make noise. Well, that's true. Intelligence. Unknown Speaker 26:48 Just don't know, any Deaf character is always shown was totally true, right. Unknown Speaker 27:00 And Michael's pizza was, I guess this week I was working part time because it was an elderly doctor who had been dismissed and then he came back and he felt very bad about himself. And one of the younger doctors as second time to look at a patient with a series of CAT scans and clapping he felt that trying to see what was going on but really hurt this young kid to the old guy. And the young young black one and I thought it was a spinal cord and the old tactical asking paralysis you know some physical problems or whatever have you considered which I should have done the diagnosis. Clear. Unknown Speaker 28:22 You know, what did they say? Unknown Speaker 28:23 Yeah, but we know we didn't find out. Next week. Know that we only took about a week or Unknown Speaker 28:34 two Wiggins goes way with the girl with Ms. Fantastic. They really carry them very far. Unknown Speaker 28:40 Okay, Peggy Did you have an most recent every Unknown Speaker 28:43 Yes. And hacky just this week went by children, we have to be on my children brought him on in a movie called altered states, which is really very good. But it's got great special effects. Unknown Speaker 28:57 Say we're giving a schizophrenic ladies absolutely shocked. It was Unknown Speaker 29:02 just 637 parts in the face of this woman woman just so made us. She has to completely spaced out and they had all the way down here. And they put her in a wheelchair. Unknown Speaker 29:23 And they showed it Did you notice her? Unknown Speaker 29:27 And I know what it is that? You know, first of all, why do they make her face? So very strange. And why don't we put her in a wheelchair Unknown Speaker 29:36 and then they say she's got schizophrenia Unknown Speaker 29:38 for instance, one thing has nothing to do with the other. And I felt like hey, wait a minute, you know, Unknown Speaker 29:44 whoever made this movie? What have you done? Unknown Speaker 29:49 Well, you know, but it's interesting because, you know, what is the real to represent media you know what representation And as they see, Unknown Speaker 30:04 it's a way of furthering the image of, of sickness or illness or do you pan out a little bit though it had nothing to do. Nothing to do. And it also reinforces a lot of a lot of misinformation about the concept within spread, that if you have one disability, You therefore have another if you are, if you're you, if you use a wheelchair, you have some other disabilities, and you're treated like a child. Or if you're blind, talk louder. If you're blind, that kind of thing, or if you're deaf, they scream at you to or talk down to you. So if we enforces a lot of misconceptions with an early Unknown Speaker 30:52 election, I have one that got jarred by an article that we're going to hand out later. Okay. My earliest recollection that I never connected with blindness was Mr Magoo. Think that's it even then way back when I was an odd kid way, but I never thought it was funny. And I couldn't understand why everybody was laughing at this man who couldn't see I was a weird child. I enjoy odd things. But I remember all my friends sitting in laughing and me feeling so out of place was I didn't think it was funny. And it really bothered me. And it never hit home. Again, until recently, I read an article by Paul Longmore. That included that I believe that was that was either that or that was also included in another article that jarred my memory. And so that is I think the first thing I remember that disability, the most recent is if Has anyone seen the movie Brazil. In Brazil, there's a man who is a well respected man who's owns a company or something, and is a good friend of the fitness very wealthy family. And he looks at the male star of the movie and says, I don't remember his name Susan here, but now stars name in the movie, John or whatever, I need your help who this guy thought it was somebody got a job. And the man who uses a wheelchair is next seen in the bathroom being held up by the male star so that he can urinate. And it was really a laughing matter to see them in trying you who used a wheelchair trying to urinate. And then they took him over to the sink and jammed him into the counter so that he could try and wash his hands. It was really it was very, very degrading and really upsetting because it was a poor concept of use of disability. And of course, in the end, he was one of the bad bots, which is a running theme also with from an older movie. Christmas movie, Jimmy Stewart Thank you. It's a Wonderful Life, which I saw again, this witness. The guy, the head banker, and the bad guy is always in Unknown Speaker 33:14 such a character. Yes. Don't even remember that. He's like, Bro. Unknown Speaker 33:21 Was Yes. He was he was about 3536 months. When I'm ready to put up with him. I made him Oh, yeah. Especially in those days. I hadn't thought Unknown Speaker 33:40 of that. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 33:44 Well, he also he also did all the Dr. Paradoxical dare movies. That's right. It was amazing. It was really amazing, because, you know, he was able to continue his career. It's one of the few stores that can get FDR courses so to speak. Because he Unknown Speaker 34:10 did respect the fact that he never shared Unknown Speaker 34:13 you know about, well. We didn't know they didn't know that he had recovered to the extent that he had or not part of that, beyond that. He there are two existing filter. And he, his family and the staff would see that he would move from place to place and he would enter around and then switch to a little bit. Chair. He was absolutely in the pocket. And he did a lot of public appearances in an automobile or he was driving, which was a suitably powerful male image, right. The people that are Unknown Speaker 35:00 So because we saw sunrise and Bella, when we open to assume this was an Unknown Speaker 35:03 issue, this is not an In fact, in fact, in the description of one of the books, biographies, his braces weighed over 35 pounds, and he couldn't walk real with them and they were three steps. And his son, James Franklin, he would have to give a speech they put him in front of a podium, right. And his son would have to balance him Unknown Speaker 35:21 yeah Unknown Speaker 35:26 you know, he absolutely refused I mean, that's why his wheelchair was a kitchen chair Unknown Speaker 35:33 Okay any anywhere early? Unknown Speaker 35:46 In Yeah, he wasn't disabled it could figure out why you did that. Oh, because that was a character. And what kind of have you played? Detective Unknown Speaker 36:01 and was he a good police chief? Was he a negative character or positive tough he was very tough. And did he wheeled around town all the time he was chair How do you remember how he got a Unknown Speaker 36:17 chair and then he had mark with the special Dan especially with them especially quick them and walk with push them around and in fact they cover the issue of his thinking that he's gonna get his legs back and started having feeling pain in his leg and I went through the whole thing about what that means and went through a whole thing about this whole what what he felt he had to give up but he got special dispensation to continue to police department was Unknown Speaker 36:47 he do we ever know anything about his family life was Did he date did was jealous street Unknown Speaker 36:58 different did he do we know we adopt so we never knew Unknown Speaker 37:07 if he was a doctor, that disabled person wouldn't. Unknown Speaker 37:12 Well, he had I mean, he he had women in his life, but it never went beyond dinner and footage. Unknown Speaker 37:18 Okay, but I'm not so sure. It's an old theory. That's the point. They're just starting with sacred sexuality. Jennifer, Unknown Speaker 37:27 do you have a more Do you have a most recently altered states Yes, Unknown Speaker 37:36 please watching and Unknown Speaker 37:46 then my, my two earliest recollections were were both known as what they call affliction, the affliction, drama or whatever they were, the snake pit was lovely to have. And also Dark Victory with Betty Davis, and George Brennan. And both of those movies on the snake pit. I remember my mother is a nurse and I, she also had a breakdown when I was a child. And I remember watching the snake pit over and over and over again, it's your basic, very negative view of mental illness. And the snake pit the title of the machine refers to, which is an extremely powerful scene in the movie, where living happily living is in the middle of avoiding several breakdowns. She's in a mental institution. And she is walking around the day room in the institution and there is an oriental rug in the middle of the floor. And the nurses have told her that total Havoc told all the patients that they are not to touch this oriental rug. And because it was given by the trustees or whoever and so it would be to have a just keep circling it like then has this vision of snakes just coming up. And it's a very again, in terms of looking at issues of women in disability have a classic situation of the kind, attractive non disabled doctor and the psychiatrist Dr. chick who doctor can't exactly who helps her through all this. And I believe she maintains her family like she also has a husband who doesn't come to see her which is not really in any way valid because the statistics that that Jane and I have for you show that in most disabilities. In fact, if the woman becomes disabled the man leaves however, if the man becomes disabled, the woman stays because of the interaction between a patient or disability role and the traditional female sex role of taking care of them. Someone and that chord that has changed dramatically, I'd say over the years, but certainly back then, which was this most of it. And then this other movie of Dark Victory, I remember being fascinated, because I was told as a child, that if I didn't do my exercise is that I would go blind. And I had at least an hour's worth of exercise in a day of surgery. So I watched our victory over and over again, to figure out you know, how I might go blind because Betty Davis who was a young gadfly, socialite, whatever developed a sudden brain tumor, which then lead to blindness, and, you know, closing scene of our victory, or victory over the dark, this kind of thing. But there are these very much like, very huge movies of that disability, but very negative, in many, many ways. And always also with that man there, behind the woman who in many ways was a very strong woman, because both movie to have an embedded game is played very strong. But but but in the face of a disability, they were just reduced. To earliest, and my most recent, I hate to admit it, but I watched Dallas. And Dallas has done some very interesting stuff on disability, as of late with, with relation to Down Syndrome and an amniocentesis. Yeah, exactly. What's been happening in Dallas is that there's a couple in Dallas, who want Donna, a woman who's blonde, who is maybe you know, late 30s, that pregnant and very much wanted to have a child. And they found out that the child had Down syndrome. Now Donna apparently wanted to keep the child but Ray, her husband had some misgivings. So they went to visit a school to meet some Down Syndrome kids, which I thought was great. But then as it turned down, Donna had a miscarriage on the show, and I think that was the show dealt with it, wherever where they dealt with it. But one of the problems that I had with grandiosa with her having miscarriages is extremely violent act, my sister happens to be seven months pregnant. She was watching that episode. And Donna was probably five months pregnant at the time, and a horse came charging Apple knocked her down. And this was shown on camera. So that was also a very violent way of dealing with the issue of, of ridding her of this disability, you know, and then and then ultimately, the what has happened is that Ray has now come around and Donna has become has started working with disabled kids, especially deaf children, and they are now going to adopt a 12 year old, Deaf, Deaf young boy. Number she hadn't asked this child, you know, she had she had a miscarriage. That's what I know. Now they're adopting. Yes, of course. Unknown Speaker 42:57 That's what that's all. Unknown Speaker 43:02 This again, the same person having other disabilities. Well, here, she's, Unknown Speaker 43:08 it's, it's interesting that, that I believe that the deaf children that are on the show are in fact actors, they're dancing them. I think, Julie, do you get the sense of that? Yeah, I think that they are. And that's a real step forward, that in most of these older type members that we're talking about, it's always just as a person that plays the role, Unknown Speaker 43:27 but just look at Phyllis. She's, she's constantly doing she determined a Lesser God for John Lucas, and you just recently did that story of the death of couple. So if we look at Unknown Speaker 43:38 the earliest and the most recent memories, it's interesting that the earliest memories tend to be more of plays and movies, and they're very kind of, generally speaking fairly negative, or magical images, also the Heidi of being pure, and it's a magical kind of thing of mountainair and whatever. But then when we get to the more recent memories, there are a lot more options it seems for disabled people on we've got Cagney and Lacey in terms of dating and whatever. We have Raymond Burr with iron side where yes, he did date a little bit, but otherwise we didn't really he was totally wedded to his work. He was a workaholic, as Julian says, but then we have in Cagney and Lacey, a guy who in fact, as it turns out, isn't going to go out with Lacey anymore because he's too busy with his consulting firm in Washington or whatever else, which is an interesting flip on, you know, on she's she wants to go out with him. But he says sorry, I don't have time. But there is still some of this. Some magical things I guess I'm gonna get you to talk about magical with respect to Brazil. On the other hand, Brazil itself is kind of a horse and a very sarcastic kind of conception of what the future is activated. That's the future with respect to disability. So I guess that's gotten us right into the topic Unknown Speaker 44:57 to like perfectly. Thank you. I'm going to direct this now more towards women take all of this and put it towards women. And as I can't count that far behind, where Rebecca is sitting in says of the blind individuals portrayed to 234 films from 1913 to 1985. Males outnumber females by two to one. Another statistic that I saw is that in specifically TV stories of 100 stories surveyed over the last five years, 65% of the people represented with the disabilities were met. And all of the majority of which were now adjustments to a typical disability situation. There's a lot of other statistics about women and disability that we'll bring out while we're talking. But this is informal. So please give us some ideas as we're going through. But I'd really like to to give you our ideas that we've pulled together so far, and a lot of this is from our research, project, access to equity, and a lot is from some work I'm doing with a man named Paul Longmore, who's from the University of Southern California. So a lot of the issues and ideas from here and also his representative ideas. I'm going to talk about four categories, the first one being film than TV, in theater, and then advertisements. And I'd like to discuss these on the following issues with some of these general ideas. One being the changing role of women, and what is the changing role of women with disabilities as its portrayed by the media over time? Exactly what Susan's just showed us from our early memories to now, how has society's concept of the woman with a disability changed? Or how is it changing? How is this being portrayed or not being portrayed through the media? The next I'd like to look at is disability and romance. And I think that's a very big topic. Usually. Prejudice disability does not bother. The exception is Cagney and Lacey that we were just talking about where it was one of the few few media presentations where the hesitation was actually verbalized. Someone stopped and said, This man may hold me back, I lead an active lifestyle. Usually those are things that the media does not want to touch. That's unspoken issues that people don't want to talk about. Unknown Speaker 47:31 But she also I mean, she also when she felt her her attraction for him. She also questioned that habit to be attracted to someone like him. Exactly. And she verbalized. Unknown Speaker 47:41 Exactly, that's fine. The Cagney and Lacey episode is the exception. But the norm is that the other way around. And normally, the man who is disabled finds that it's impossible that he can be accepted by such a loving and wonderful human being, and that the woman loves him the way he feared he is and that there's no fear. I'd like to look at that idea through these media issues. And last, I'd like to look at parental roles incorporating disability. And usually there are several phenomenon. One is with the mothers, the non disabled mothers, of children with disabilities, and they do a couple things, they normally burn themselves down, they neglect themselves and their family. And they usually end up ruining their marriage. The fathers on the other hand, perfect example, what Susan was just talking about with dynasty, the fathers are usually rejecting getting back to a statistic on women and disability, when a woman becomes disabled, 99% of marriages break up when a man becomes disabled 50%. So that's specifically with people with disabilities now with children, children with disabilities of non disabled parents, I don't have statistics on that. But it would be interesting to look at the number of marriages that do. Unknown Speaker 49:04 So let's let's start Unknown Speaker 49:06 with film, the one thing about the children, because I used to work with very young, disabled children. And I think that the complicated thing on that is that our society does not offer a support system along any age. So that for instance, parents of even non disabled children, I don't think get enough support on how to raise children and assumption is that all you need to do is have a womb and your center. No, you're no, you're the expert. Exactly. And I think that so therefore, once that if you have a disabled child, is there a support network for you? It's there, that there's more happening in the early intervention, but that the divorce rate isn't in many ways related to the lack of support systems that are there as opposed to the disability itself. And then you complicated to with the issue of institution institutionalizing the child, the possibility of the parents saying well, there is no support system for say this severely autistic child who aren't even services. Therefore, I'm an institutionalizes child and then the guilt that the family feels because it in the absence of no support system does something that it feels is the right thing to keep the family intact. But then so it's always that force that forces, you, as the mother of a disabled child, also know that if you have a support system, you will often have to the parent has to be fighting that system every step of the way. I think Unknown Speaker 50:33 there's a very realistic approach to autism, Tommy, and the problem for that family has getting a housekeeper and keeping that housekeeper and whether or not the daughter should go away to college, and have her own life and whether she should be there and be family. Unknown Speaker 50:51 And with a man as a single parent. Yes, the wife is she deceased? Yeah. Unknown Speaker 50:56 But, but he's a single parent who has money. I mean, right. No, I think you're absolutely right. But but you know, one of the things that I have real problems with is that single mothers and single mothers on TV, it's always women who have jobs that pay them well, you know, and so money is not an issue, or they present the single man with children, which is real minority in our in our society. But talking about disability, and support systems, there are no real support systems for able bodied parents of disabled kids. And there's no I mean, call advocates for children. You know, but that's not really a support system. You can't talk about the social problems, or what to do about a teacher who just says your kids dumb, yes. You know, disability doesn't exist. This is what I get. She only work and she. Unknown Speaker 51:54 And the media is dealing with this in certain ways. There was an after school special on a young boy who was dyslexic. We launched it in June, his office was an after school special. And it was showing how he was reversing letters, and how his brother dealt with it, how his younger brother was trying to do their homework. They, which I thought was interesting that they were even touching on dyslexia, in children's primetime TV, maybe to help other children understand. But let's get onto films, if we may. I'm just mentioning a couple and I know there are literally scads of films we could talk about. I've just picked out a few that are representative of different periods and different ideas. And let's, let's see how these go. And maybe we'll talk about some different ones. One of the most recent that was really dealt with a lot is mask. And I think this deals with a couple of major issues, one being the parental goals, and the other being disability and romance. Did everyone see that? Mr. Brown, she was too busy for three days to get it again. So Unknown Speaker 53:11 there were a really it was a lot of issues being Unknown Speaker 53:13 dealt with. I think she was typical of some of the parental roles of burning himself. Do you agree? Unknown Speaker 53:24 No, no? No, why not? Unknown Speaker 53:29 Because she was an exceptionally unconventional woman. She was alone, she had an effect when I wrote a paper on so it's very interesting. I don't think she was typical at all. She was a macro. She came from conventional us people. So she I felt dumb to her son 1000 times better than the average woman alone or even with a husband. She had a mantra. And she did. She really burned yourself out so much because of him. It should be because of a lot of other factors in her life. And I wouldn't exactly call it burnout. I think she had to face his debt, it I think it was too much for the worse thing and the disability. That was it, that he knew no matter what he would Unknown Speaker 54:15 definitely do. And they dealt with another very unique. Unknown Speaker 54:20 The whole motorcycle thing where he was raised virtually in community by the whole group groups is a very unique thing. Unknown Speaker 54:27 But you know, that's I think that's interesting, because Rebecca was talking before about how we're talking about certain groups that haven't always been dealt with either in this call on the feminist or whatever. And I thought it was very significant that the group in fact, that was the nurturing group was in fact an outcast group in our society. The Hells Angels are not exactly yeah, I know. I think that that's a very significant part of the film, though, that that they were they were extremely accepting of him, but would he be accepted in standard middle class society. Unknown Speaker 55:02 Well, they made a little comment about that a different Yes. Very interesting point is that he was accepted to the school I feel. I mean, I'm here my own school your kids, but I can really tell something. His mother fights and goes into the school authorities when you get one chance I got sent to the lawyer, she was bluffing. It was a stupendous scene. And she because she wasn't afraid of being different, wasn't afraid for something different. That reflected himself and he was able to say, Hey, I look weird, but I'm cool. I would I would hide behind the trees when I was a little girl before I went home. My mother did many wonderful things. But one of the things she did not do, she was too ashamed. Go into that teacher and Koblenz your daughter camp. Right? Well, your daughter is mentally disturbed that why didn't she tell the truth? Why didn't she plan to go into the gym teachers and my kids got such a sort of disability, it's your responsibility to see to it. Not that she doesn't do what she's supposed to do that would have been wrong. But to see what educate those children's. That's where my mother feels, she knows that she shouldn't tell me Unknown Speaker 56:06 that don't even get a lot of the parental role models that are shown on TV and as well. So they're exactly as Susan was talking about, there is no support. There's no role model, either for the disabled person or for the parent of a disabled child. Unknown Speaker 56:22 And that's very, very difficult. I mean, that was really get it right in Unknown Speaker 56:29 a heartbeat situation. But I think that that was there that that little boy was so well adjusted relatively because that we have unique situation. You see, the typical one is much more of a movie that we live on TV with clothes, which certainly Zimbalist dementia is brain damage to an accident. And the mother, just this what you're saying the mother nurtures father almost breaks up the marriage. Unknown Speaker 56:54 If we can, I'd like to stick to maths for a minute. Okay. Disability and romance is the other thing I want to talk about with maths. And that's the whole idea of the woman that this boy man falls in love with, is blind. And that is one way that all of a sudden a disability definitely. Did people feel cheated because of that? Or because Unknown Speaker 57:22 it didn't happen in the book. It didn't happen in real life. That never happened in real life. i That one, that movie, I think it's always interesting to look at, whenever it's a movie that has been based on a true life story to see what the producers do to make it more palatable to the American public. I mean, I think someone made the kind of distort you made comment before when you said that the movie itself was not a high gross or disability related films normally are not hypervisors. And I think it's interesting that even though this movie was not, in fact, gross or overtraining, I've seen it numerous times that, that they did, they did make it a happy, pseudo happy ending, in that he did fall in love with this camp. And I felt very cheated. First of all, I thought, I felt very cheated about the fact that he, it his summer job was to go work in a camp for blind students that this was he wanted to travel on his motorcycle all over the country. And that's what he really wanted to do. And yet what was decided, really visa vie his disability, not based on his skills, talents and abilities, was that he should go to this camp and be a counselor. Now, I think that's all well and good. But was that really Rocky's decision? Or was that the well intentioned adults in his life that decided he should be Unknown Speaker 58:37 16? out of 16 Unknown Speaker 58:51 very well taken, Unknown Speaker 58:54 then again, you don't look a lot like shear as a healthy choice. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point that perhaps, you know, even if he were nondisabled, that perhaps the best thing in his life was to in fact, separate from rural so Unknown Speaker 59:10 obviously, a first time before Unknown Speaker 59:21 going to the campaign. Unknown Speaker 59:24 We have believed what the average audience have believed all the non blind girl had fallen in love and what they have, just to us, I'm not saying it couldn't have happened with the audience. Unknown Speaker 59:38 Without this, I don't think any of this happened. He died in the 60s. Kids date when they were 11 1550s. Unknown Speaker 59:47 I'm sorry. Unknown Speaker 59:51 That's why it was believable because we did a Unknown Speaker 59:57 significant problem Unknown Speaker 1:00:00 It's exactly because sexuality is so often delayed until at least a few years with women with disabilities. Let's take the romance into another movie and get back to the women in in mass that I was really focusing on is share in the mother's role rather than than Rocky's role. The romance in other side of the mountain with jokin Mont in the ski accident, yes, a woman has a ski accident and has a spinal cord injury and is I believe, quadriplegic afterwards. And she goes through several months of rehabilitation. And she comes out afterwards and just has her boyfriend over who she was very involved with, who's also a skier Joe was a championship skier. And this man who is also a skier comes over to the house and she says I have wonderful news, I'm not going to tell you over the phone, come and see me. And he walks into the living room and she's sitting in her chair. And she comes in, they have their greetings. And she says well, now I'm so excited. Here's, here's what I can do. Sit down, I want you to I want you to see. And he sits down. And she goes over to the table. And she has fairly tight quadriplegic hands, which usually holds like this. And she lifts up a bowl of potato chips, puts it in her lap, and takes both hands to grasp one potato chip. And it's about a I would say about a 62nd. Still, of her trying to grab the potato chip, which for the I will use the stereotypical non disabled audience. It's very painful 60 seconds because they just want her to get that potato chip so badly. And she gets the potato chip and holds it up in her two hands and just beams with accomplishment over her face. And he looks at her and says, that's all you can do. I thought you were gonna walk. And she looks at him and says you don't understand I had a spinal cord injury. I think that scene really shows an awful lot of men understanding women and women understanding men and the place that women are put. There's something that we found a lot of in what we've been looking at through research. And just as a general statement, people still believe that women with disabilities are dependent victims of society. They're often bitter. They are rarely married or capable of having a relationship. And that is portrayed there. If the woman is independent, or productive, she is known as brave and inspirational. And if she's involved in a relationship or married, her partners be a saint. And that was shown very much so in that movie, because she went into the dean's office at the college she was attending. And all the Dean could say shaking his head was young lady, you are an inspiration to me. And do you want to put two hands around his neck and squeeze it? It was frustrating. And I'm sure it was for jokin or two and the changing role. She started out very naive thinking that everything was going to be the same as it was. And she lived with her parents and tried that out and then moved down on her own with some other people who were going to help her out and a couple other people who had disabilities, and how her naivete changed from an active athlete to an active advocate was a really interesting swing through the movie. And I still think even though it's kind of one of those schmaltzy disability films that you say this do bring up a lot of good points and especially in the ideas of Has everybody seen that? Yet the reverse Unknown Speaker 1:03:53 Jane Fonda Unknown Speaker 1:03:55 how she mentioned she needs to Unknown Speaker 1:04:02 I think that's an idea of it's a little bit different than what what we're talking about. But I think it is another example of disability and romance that's usually well exactly as we were describing man who is disabled to be able bodied. Anything else on episode? Let's talk about ice castles from anybody seen ice castles? Unknown Speaker 1:04:25 First above the blonde. School skates. Unknown Speaker 1:04:29 Yes. Right? And her boyfriend Robbie Ben's Robinson plays. Unknown Speaker 1:04:35 This is on now. Unknown Speaker 1:04:37 It was a few years ago, Unknown Speaker 1:04:39 that no he wasn't killed that she had a skating accident. Right. And she was blind and she hit the disability. Well, she hit it. That's right. No one knew she was blind because if they knew she was blind with exactly her she wouldn't be allowed to compete and she wouldn't be accepted in the skating world. So no one was going to know she was blind. And she was really scared but there was the man Standing behind them very accepting who was going to bring her back to stardom and taught her to skate again. And he would help her out and lead her around the rink. And then she made her giant performance. And no one knew that she was blind until at the end, they threw roses down on her, she couldn't, and she didn't see them, and she fell over the roses. Unknown Speaker 1:05:22 But it's funny because Lily before talking about the issue of passing, so that you have once again, a woman who has well, a hidden disability, to the extent that when she's on the ice, it's like a learning disability. We know, it's a disability in certain some circumstances and not a disability and others. And so that I guess, as long as she was on the ice, and she knew her environment, she wasn't disabled. But then if the roses were throwing her, but in fact, she didn't make the I guess she, as you say, she didn't tell anyone like the judges or whatever, the audience didn't know that she was a blind skater. Unknown Speaker 1:05:59 Now, no one except her family who worked in that role was portrayed very well, they were afraid of her going back out on the ice. But yet before, the mother was a typical, athletic mother, which is the sort of the counterpart of the stage mother bringing her to lessons at five in the morning, and always pushing her very supportive. And then as soon as I mean, it was just as hard to transition for the mother to be able to say, okay, she's never going to skate again. Exactly, as you say, no one knew, Unknown Speaker 1:06:29 did she I'd be curious to know, also, I didn't seem to be very curious to know whether she in the movie met any other blind people Unknown Speaker 1:06:36 blind, either. It was an isolation Robinson was her total world. And the other thing that was interesting in the movie was that that was very important for her to make it and seeing more interesting that in other words, as as a as a, as overcoming, quote, unquote, handicap, there was no idea of integration or, or idea of, I need some special things. Or, you know, it was the idea of being exactly like a saint, Unknown Speaker 1:07:07 which is really a male model. There was an article in The New York Times Magazine in January by a man named Leonard Crapo, who discusses being male and female or female, while being disabled, and says something to the effect, that even language of rehabilitation is male, and that men are taught to take it and to overcome and to, well, women are taught to succumb and adjust and the language is completely different men are, especially in the 40s, with polio, which is what this man has as a disability, you're taught very differently. So what she was doing in ice castles, I'm tricking her into the character's name, but she was playing the male role, which often an accomplished athlete has to do by overcoming and by neglecting their the other folks. Unknown Speaker 1:08:00 But Can there be something here that, of course, the pivotal question is, can there be some kind of balance between total denial of the disability ie Oh, I mean, it's overcoming the same thing as lying. And is passing? Where is passing on that continuum? And where is this integration that you talk about? Somehow saying, Alright, I have a disability. And I also live in a sighted world because the world after all is sighted. But maybe I need a guide dog, or maybe I need a cane. Or maybe I should need some blind adults. Or maybe I might want to think that gee, you know, skaters don't also skate until they're 50. So maybe I want to think about some career exploration. And obviously, ice castle is not about proofs. But it's a very, but it's certainly I must say to the extent that one of the quotes that I put up here and I don't remember which ones they are, either, but there's an employment one about how because occupations and films mirror many of the jobs traditionally earmarked for blind persons, newsstand operator, balloon, vendor, flower seller, pencil, salesman, and cane chair, repair, many characters had to had to give up dazzling careers as lion tamers, prizefighters, surgeons, etc, after losing their vision. So to the extent that that was an old stereotype, at least maybe I mean, it's true, she's denying maybe, but at least she's holding on to a career that she had pre disability, with some albeit support, but perhaps needing more support from the blindness community. Unknown Speaker 1:09:29 Which there's also this feeling of the movie that if she let people know, she's blonde, she's going to get the pity. And that was the other part of why she kept Unknown Speaker 1:09:38 her disability, which is really, she didn't Unknown Speaker 1:09:41 want to get the 10 points. And the judges because they thought she was did very well for blind persons exam once again, for her for her, or her ability. But that's also Unknown Speaker 1:09:55 something that society has such a difficult time with, and I'm sure genuinely So newly new to using a wheelchair you must be getting an awful lot of this that when you say something like yes this is a fairly new disability and people go oh that's that's the last thing you want to hear you know pity and sympathy are not the things you want to evoke in an interpersonal relate Unknown Speaker 1:10:30 exactly because people feel better when they give you that kind of reaction like they've said they feel bad for you. So now and that's exactly what the woman in ice castles. But how do you react to that when people react so strongly? Unknown Speaker 1:10:51 In the central character, so we run into the question of what is the the BB on a disabled person? Yes. Okay. And if so, yeah. Unknown Speaker 1:11:13 Or if it's better, it didn't happen if you were a plumber than if you were lying table right stock. Exactly. Unknown Speaker 1:11:19 Something that fits right into ice cream cones. Curiously, we're going to bring this up. When I was about 1050s, there was a program on papa Jean from Shell. And I'm a singer and I watch this woman with long loves move very slowly. She didn't she moved. She sent me this rich, glorious voice. And I then grew up to be a singer. And I and I have a very similar opera voice to her. So in my show, I use her as I use the song in my upcoming show. For the first time I'm going to be coming up as a disabled, because I'm going to see a section My show is called surmounting, difficult, surmounting challenges. And I'm using the Jane from intersection overcoming disability debating should I say I should I'm saying that I don't know yet. But Jay Froman was a star in the in the 40s, the early 40s. Very big. She was portrayed by Susan Hayward in the song my heart. Now that's exactly the person is the identical situation. She passed, she did not. She did not publicize when she came on her show, you would not have really known anything. She covered the burns, that she that's why she wouldn't want long life blogs. That's why that's what she was always introduced as a woman world Unknown Speaker 1:12:31 can Unknown Speaker 1:12:32 guess the other show itself. And I remember watching too, she was That was because of the movie that became so famous. But on the show itself, she did not discuss her disability ever. She was one who did the same career and we captured everything. It was exactly what he asked. I have Unknown Speaker 1:12:52 about 10 more mins. Oh, that's okay. I have about 10 more minutes for my section and I've got Unknown Speaker 1:12:57 three pages to get through. So I'm gonna try and Unknown Speaker 1:12:59 whip through this and I don't want to hold but I don't want to hold that conversation at the same time because I'm sure Unknown Speaker 1:13:04 you're gonna tell me it was time for questions and maybe write them down. I'm gonna Unknown Speaker 1:13:08 be easier. Let's go to TV movies. First I'm going to rearrange things a little bit. I just have a couple that I want to mention that I think women's roles were really important. One was in your name is Jonah or Sally Struthers played the mother of a boy whose hearing impaired it came out in the summer of 79. And Sally Struthers does play the typical mother in the typical mother of a child with a disability. She gives up everything her job, her life, everything to help her son learn to talk. And it's a very interesting and realistic portrayal. But it also really fits into that stereotypical role. Another one using deafness was a very recent called Love is never silent. Whereas Phyllis Frey lick and Sam Edwards, I'm not sure the other man's name, both of whom are deaf themselves. Were the parents of two hearing children. And this hits all the issues that we're talking about it hits on romance and disability. It talks about the changing role and watching the two parents have to change with their children growing up. And also parental roles except the reverse. Now you've got able bodied or non disabled children and deaf parents and how that affected their lives. And that was really interesting. Look at the mother and daughter relationship and how it evolved and what got in the way, and where the disability was involved and where it was just communication. And I really wonder because it was communication, how similar the story would have been if it was just a different language problem. If the parents say we're immigrants from the 40s from the warmth and spoke German, and we're in a area where everyone spoke English and if the if the child spoke both languages, it'd be very simple One of things I think, and I don't know that it was, but it was that wouldn't necessarily be disability related. Another interesting movie was skyward which was a number of years ago, I'd say that 1982 I don't really know for sure. Ron Howard directed it. Betty Davis was in it. And a woman named Susie Gilstrap. Oh, right. Yeah. She is a paraplegic. Exactly. And she is a paraplegic. And it was one of the first times that a a person with a disability was used in a role for a character with a disability. And it was a really big movie for for Susie too, because she wasn't an experienced actress. It was interesting because the whole thing was realistic, a little bit schmaltzy because she wanted to fly because she'd been in a wheelchair for so many years. And she was sick of looking up at everybody. And now she wants to look down on some things. And I think that was a little bit schmaltzy. But the idea was good in the idea of her wanting to break away from her parents and being a little bit over protected, mostly because of the disability and her parents couldn't know that she was taking flying lessons, because they try and keep her home. And Betty Davis played a big role in that. So it really wasn't very good women's issue. Because not only flying you see more of a male role, and then the disability on top of it. I'm gonna go back, I'm whipping through. I'm gonna go back to TV for a minute. We talked about Cagney and Lacey and we talked about dynasty so I won't hit on those again, we can talk about them later, Trapper John did an interesting one not too long ago about a woman who had an accident. And as a result, used a wheelchair. I'm not sure if it was a spinal cord injury, I believe it was because they talked about possibly getting her back to, to walking, but they weren't sure how much of the cord was damaged. The thing that that hit me most about the part of that series that I saw was the idea that she no longer could be a professional nurse. She was it's typical of what I said that the woman who isn't making out or has any trouble in her life, if she has a disability. She's not having problems that she would otherwise have. She's bitter. She's bitter about the disability, so wonders that something's gone wrong, which is something that we put on women with disabilities an awful lot is the same with this woman. Right away. She was bitter about the disability, she wasn't showing up at work. And there were a lot of problems on the floor. And one of the nurses goes to her house and tries to get her back in shape. And what happens afterwards, of course, they find the perfect place for her she's going to work in the rehab unit put her with all those people that are like her, she'll be fine. And I that really bothered me and I talked to a lot of people afterwards who said that was not a good, good episode. And I didn't think it was because they were traditionalized Unknown Speaker 1:17:47 Well, it's like mask with Rocky going to a camp provide children. Maybe it's not the same disability. So maybe it's one step beyond Trapper John, but it's still the idea of well, that would be you know, that would be the most appropriate thing still doing. Unknown Speaker 1:18:05 I'm gonna get off TV for a minute because I read there's so many different things we can talk about. I want to talk about theater, another two or three minutes I have left. And especially I know someone mentioned you're working with an AIDS population. And no, I Unknown Speaker 1:18:20 don't do public health education with healthy people to tell them but people will Okay. Okay. Unknown Speaker 1:18:27 Really, that's something that has been dealt with in the theater and can be looked at as a disability issue because of the chronic illness. I'll just throw out some ideas with this. The Normal Heart dealt with AIDS and also there was a woman doctor in wheelchairs in that as is, is also dealing with AIDS. There's there's been a number of others Children of a Lesser God, staring that which I don't think made it to New York. I stopped in Chicago which was done by a cast of mostly people with disabilities and a few non disabled people doing everything in the that you can imagine hitting almost every issue with every different type of disability. It was really interesting show. Creeps was another one that was playing off Broadway here and was about characters. I believe characters with cerebral palsy. I didn't see it, but I heard a man on a panel talking about it afterwards. A couple of things that have brought been brought up recently, which I thought were really interesting. In her Broadway show will be Goldberg did something on a woman cerebral palsy that was really taken very well by the audience that I haven't seen. But supposedly it was one of her more serious skits with some jokes come in that I think will be Goldberg is very sensitive to the issue and when I first heard she was doing something i right away interpreted it as mocking. But I've spoken to several people who say that it's an excellent excellent skit, and it's just good that she's incorporating something that's kind of been controversial, bitten Midler did something I believe I'm gonna for special shows that included on a wheelchair dance. They used motorized wheelchairs, and she was dressed in that segment she did as a mermaid. I'm not sure which song it was with. But everyone came out using motorized wheelchairs, not because they were disabled, but because they were mermaids. And I thought that was really right into the chair Unknown Speaker 1:20:25 does break stereotypes Exactly. Unknown Speaker 1:20:31 So that's why she used, Unknown Speaker 1:20:32 you know, interesting. People, an interesting side issue, and that too, is you wonder about the political consciousness of the stage technicians and whatever. Because no doubt if they were using motorized wheelchairs, they had to build ramps, they had to do a whole lot of things to that stage that they may never have thought of before. So that perhaps that'll also open the doors to perhaps other disabled performers in the future. Admittedly, maybe it's a little far fetched, but it's consciousness raises, happens through all different kinds of ways that you mentioned systems. No, I Unknown Speaker 1:21:06 was going to in TV in a minute on what Susan was saying on a woman I was was working with yesterday told me that she's just booked a group for a feminist concert in Rhode Island and the group, I don't think, I'm not sure if the group is a feminist group, but I know they're playing for feminist concert. And in the groups contract, it says that they will refuse to play in any facility that isn't accessible. It doesn't say whether there is a performer who has a disability. But it says to include people with disabilities into the business. I'm not sure but not sure. I didn't ask the name. But I thought it was interesting that that's been incorporated into musical theater productions and good for them that they will put that right in the contract. And if there is no facility, facility on a campus or area, they won't play. I think it's great. I heard there was something in the loop Tomlins thing on Broadway right now. Okay, Unknown Speaker 1:22:06 I guess that makes sense person? Well, yeah. What's the disability? Unknown Speaker 1:22:12 I was told there was sort of I know in the marine production. Place a homeless person. Unknown Speaker 1:22:21 The wheelchair, yeah, Unknown Speaker 1:22:22 that's probably the one that Unknown Speaker 1:22:25 I was told something I haven't seen. The other thing that I want to bring up as advertisements. Now there was real briefly, three companies that really kind of forged ahead on the whole issue. One is Levi's. And they used on a segment from the Olympics of a man who's a wheelchair, and also did something else with a woman using a wheelchair. McDonald's had one very incorporated flash in a restaurant and one of the patrons was using a wheelchair. And newsprint has just done something with a woman who I believe has, she uses off store and purchase. She's standing on crutches, and it's been very well received. And for women with disabilities, those are all been have been incorporated. I think, in advertising. Besides media in general, advertising was probably the biggest barrier for people with disabilities, because ads are supposed to give us what we are supposed to be like and the idea of perfection, and that eliminates disability, and the elderly. Exactly. weedy dog air and Jordan Murray. Exactly. Just exactly. Jen brings up an interesting topic with Wheaties the, the breakfast of champions, and that's exactly George Murray, who's a wheelchair marathoner and Doug air who's a wheelchair field athlete. Both had been featured on the Wheaties boxes, and it's just breaking that barrier of advertising and disability. There's lots more, but we're really limited on time. So I'm going to let Susan continue from here. Unknown Speaker 1:24:01 Okay. What I wanted to do really is take it from the machine has really given this incredibly broad overview of all the different issues. And then what I wanted to try to do was talk about strategies like what can the seven of us do, about changing some of this? And how is some of this changing? We got, literally yesterday, from the American Foundation for the Blind on an annotated filmography with notes called images of blind and visually impaired people in the movies from 1913 to 1985. And this was compiled by by two researchers at the American Foundation for bond which deals exclusively with with blindness down on 16th Street and what I did at first, I think rather than kind of talk at you, I'm just gonna read from what I have heard the first 10 of these little fire, which even though this is strictly speaking about blindness, there are a lot of commonalities with disability categories. First of all, they state that a steady stream of film profits soothsayers and mediums have reinforced the age old stereotype of blind persons having a sixth sense. I think that's often true for deaf person. Young blind girls have served as symbols of purity, innocence and witness in a corrupt world. And another popular theme was that the vulnerable blind woman falling prey to kidnappers, drug dealers and psychotic killers. Now, it's interesting, this particular filmography, you know, deals with 72 years of films, and has about a 13 page analysis in the front. Those are the only two mentions of disabled women in the entire 12 pages. That's why I pulled that out. And it was on page 10 of this thing. But I thought that that was highly significant that that the issue of you know, what Jay and I tried to do was talk about women and disability in the media. And here it is a media, media geography just on blinders. But that really is Unknown Speaker 1:25:56 the only men shoes and girls that are yield the girls and that sort of goes back to ancient Greek Unknown Speaker 1:26:06 art. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and it's it's overwhelming. That's my next Unknown Speaker 1:26:13 quote. 70 years. Unknown Speaker 1:26:15 That's right. You've left me in my nest, because the next woman says that despite the film industry rudimentary attempts at research, a stare stereotypical portrait of blindness has prevailed over the years. This portrait, however, has also appeared in almost every other form of literary artistic expression since the beginning of recorded history. So thank you, oh yeah, next thing I have on here, I think, is very interesting with respect to what we get out of film, alright, and they stay. For most people, the prospect of being blind is a terrifying one. And the reason I put a rectangle around that is that I think we substitute whatever disability is okay of being mobility impaired of being hearing impaired of being chronically disabled, whatever. This terror is tolerated far more easily in safety and anonymity for movie theater than your daily viewers who have never before met in real life blind person can satisfy their curiosity in a socially acceptable way, without awkwardness or embarrassment. They can empathize with or feel more fortunate than the vulnerable blind character on screen. And if you think about all these other movies that Jane's been talking about TV, isn't that also what's happening on Phil Donahue is a very good example. We've been running here at Barnard for the last four years of women in disability, the film festival. And our this year's festival was on April 29. And it was a Tuesday. And last year, we've tried to in the past, select the best of what's out there. But last year, we mixed it up a little bit. We use whatever was out there and Phil Donahue had done a show he said a number of years of disability but he did a show on Heroic disabled people, how they have overcome their disabilities. And the audience that we had here at Barnard was a very mixed audience of of people move with your disability as well as kind of old hands at it. And it got very the Phil Donahue phenomenon itself and Phil Donahue dealing with social issues that society doesn't necessarily deal with was one of some people saying that they really thought it was great because this Phil Donahue was doing it so that he was a mainstream show that people watch all day long there at home. That on the one hand, it did reinforce a certain number of stereotypes for disability. I mean, the number of standing ovations that the people on the show God has the highest number of applauses in almost any show that four times and but is there a use for them? I'll leave that to you all and deciding with more write letters to build on. Then what then what ASB says during the past two decades, filmmakers have deliberately defied the conventions of good taste by making minor characters the objects of ridicule the absurdity of having a wine Butler in murder by death, slapstick separation of the man and his dog and silent movie and the exaggerated line joke in the woman in red illustrate this increasingly popular form of security expression, but then they go and I have kind of mixed feelings about satire people disabilities, but they got the writers going to say this trend they represent a new level of acceptance by the general topic of public because of a blind person can be laughed at, like anyone else instead of being viewed as an object of pity. Perhaps a strike has been made and then they go on to say that a further strike may be indicated with blind or visually impaired characters can be left with an ad for reasons unrelated to their emotional state. I think it gets into a whole issue of of, of sarcastic humor and you know, Jim was talking before about Brazil the movie where that whole movies extremely cynical and satirical and negative. And I don't as a as a person that likes to see for hopes I don't happen to like those kinds of satirical films, but perhaps that is at least a step along the continuum that once we can at least laugh. You know, there are lots of disability jokes out there. You know, Jane and I have have heard we constantly hear disability jokes in the field. And I mean, is that a step forward? You know, with Jerry tool who's the disabled comedian, and she jokes about her cpe is that okay, or is that not okay? I think it's a, it's an override question of how you feel about sexist, racist ethnic handicap is humor. I mean, I don't know, as Jamie was saying before Mr. Magoo, I was thinking of, was Unknown Speaker 1:30:36 it Elmer Fudd, or Porky Pig, Unknown Speaker 1:30:38 the stuttering thing. I never thought that was funny, either. It's making fun of someone's of impairment. But on the other hand, perhaps it is a step forward that if we can, if we can laugh, with something, perhaps we can then move beyond to trying to meet that person on Common Ground. Unknown Speaker 1:30:57 I think that's a really interesting issue for Susan, because of the whole ability to laugh, and humor, breaking the ice. I think a lot of times, one group that I do a lot of work with, where I'm one of the only non disabled people around dinner and the typical conversation, whenever we get together as a game, they play called Top that trauma. And everybody tells how they became disabled, and they laugh, but for them, that is a therapeutic type of thing. The other thing is when I saw the movie, Sally Fields John Malkovich. In a place in the heart, I saw in New York, and I usually am very impressed with New York audiences and movies. I think they understand a lot of the jokes that sometimes in other places, people just wouldn't understand the jokes or pick them up. When John Malkovich was in the kitchen, in that movie, which blindness was dealt with beautifully, and by the way, he was cooking, and he was stirring a pot, and he dipped his finger in which most people who are blind to do to find out how at the level of the temperature, which we do, too. I mean, how do you tell he dipped his finger in and it was hot, and he took his hand away, they shook it and the entire audience. And I think that was one of those things where they were so tense and anxious about the disability, they didn't know how to deal with it. And laughing they could break that ice. So again, maybe they could meet me Unknown Speaker 1:32:14 here. Yeah, it's a very complicated issue. It's extremely, I don't want to see how you feel. And I think that's totally up Unknown Speaker 1:32:24 to the job in how it's made. Unknown Speaker 1:32:26 Yeah, the tone. Unknown Speaker 1:32:28 I mean, my mother is part polish, and people tell Polish jokes. Now, she will tell Polish jokes. Even if she does I still don't like Polish jokes. And I don't condone her telling polish, which is because she's polish. So there also is this thing of if you're a member of the group, the in group that it's okay. And I you know, I don't know, I think that I think that's up to the individual. I think that's that's a very kind of getting getting into advertising. I think I have to move around to this one because I can really, I just wanted to say on the visual impairment stuff, though, that that we talked about the the employment opportunities, and then the people from AFP also talked about prosthetic devices, they specifically talk about eyeglasses, and I think that's interesting to say that people wearing eyeglasses have long been associated with the following personality traits. absent minded, weak, clumsy, timid, a kind of wallflower, repressed spinsters turned instantly to sensuous beauties, when their glasses removed. And then they made the comment that even in pre contact lens era before kind of develop, that these newly removed glasses were seldom missed. Or sometimes there's also this magical thing. The the woman takes off the glasses and then falls in love or gets that job or whatever, but her visual impairment and somehow, it's just magically vanishes. And then there was a movie called How to marry or marry which heralded role play in my office woman who opted to walk into walls rather than So then again, the issue of women and disability of women in the cyber society.