Representation of Health, Body, (Dis)Ability

Abstract

This entry explores the depictions of the body in media texts, across a variety of media platforms, and the role these play in molding perceptions of disability. This entry highlights issues of labeling, stigma, normality, and stereotyping and the impact that all of them have on both perception and treatment. These issues underline how the saturation of negative and inaccurate representations of disability is detrimental and how, over time, especially in film and television, these changes in representation have sought to address visibility.