Blog - Page 3 of 78 - Ruth Madison

Casting Directors: You Don’t Have A Leg To Stand On!

(Pun Intended!) There are actors who have disabilities. And yet when it comes to casting shows and movies, 99% of the time the actors are able bodied and pretend to have the disability of the character in question. This is a problem because this actor usually has no knowledge of what it’s really like to have the disability and so their performance is often cliched to the point of being painful to watch. It’s also a problem because people who actually have disabilities remain invisible and true diversity is not represented in our media. And it’s not just roles specifically written for characters with disabilities. I read an interview the other day with an actress in the UK who is a wheelchair user. She auditioned for a small part as a secretary...

Posted by RuthMadison on Aug 25, 2014 in Disability Rights | 4 comments

Disability in Orange is the New Black

I watched all of the Netflix Original series Orange is the New Black in one weekend and it was awesome. Lots of interesting characters and many stories. Sharp humor and really believable. For anyone who hasn’t heard about this show, it’s the story of a yuppie white woman in her thirties who suddenly goes to prison for a drug crime she committed ten years before during her rebellious and wild youth. It’s based (loosely) on an autobiography. The show takes the opportunity to explore the lives of women in prison and definitely humanizes that entire population. Disability came up in two cases. One One of the guards is a single leg amputee. I think they played it perfectly. He is totally capable and we don’t see any indication of his disability...

Posted by RuthMadison on Sep 24, 2013 in Review | 0 comments

Devoteeism From The Other Side: A Disabled Woman’s Perspective

I’m delighted to share with you today a post from an online friend. She is a woman with a disability and this is how she thinks about devs and devoteeism… The disabled and the devotees are basically STUCK. a) the feminists say: you shall not ‘succumb’ to a devotee because of his hero(ine)/saviour notion of you b) the devotees say: you have issues w/ your disability when you reject them That’s bullshit. So why not turn this into a boy-meets-girl-story rather than a sob story?! That’s what I’d suggest. Devoteeism & Heartbreak On my road to recovery after a surgery I had two years ago, I became an avid reader once again in my life. I was looking for answers & things that interested me and I found a whole lot of...