On Inspiration Porn and Representation

I know, I know, I need to update you on the contest winner of the spam comment content (I will, I promise) and I also need to post something about the snownami that’s precluded me from getting numerous things done for the past week (because it was pretty damn funny, in hindsight) but before then I need to write a post. It’s not often that I feel compelled to write a post.

I need to write a post about ‘inspiration porn’ and the fallout I witnessed on a fellow blogger’s Facebook page when he dared to post that basketball video. Do you know which one I mean? It’s all over the Book of Face. It’s the one where the team allowed the team manager to suit up and play in the final game. He scores the last points of the game, after a member of the opposing team hands him the ball. His team had set him up with the ball several times, to no avail. It went in the final time. The big hoopla (pun completely intended) that started on Jim’s Facebook page was because the team manager had a developmental disability.

Inspiration porn (here is a much better description) as a term and as a critique hit the interwebs in a big, bad way last year. Several people with disabilities took offense to Tumblr/Pinterest pictures that, in essence, depict individuals with disabilities going about their lives with quotes that stated—in one shape or another—that those without disabilities should 1) stop whining about how hard their lives are, 2) see how difficult it can be for those with disabilities, and 3) be inspired to be better (usually physically) than we are now because those with disabilities are doing things that we would stereotypically think they were unable to do. That’s the inspiration part. The porn part comes about by having one’s body objectified for someone else’s emotional benefit.

Case in point, you can find this  picture on
Tumblr with titles such as "Suck it up, buttercup,"
and "No excuses".

And? I will readily admit that this sucks, I think it's wrong, and my eyes were opened quite a bit by the post I linked to in the paragraph above.  Yet…

While the basketball video didn’t have some items (the quote, for instance) that would mark it as inspiration porn, it did have some of the characteristics. Basketball games, for high school boys interested in such things, could be considered everyday business. There was someone with a disability present in it. And then there were able-bodied teen boys who were trying to assist him (with or without his desire for them to help him; we cannot know for certain) with something that they thought he wanted to do, and then feeling good about what they’d done. Oh, and the coach—who came up with this plan—felt pretty damn good about himself as well.

Nevertheless, many people—those with disabilities and those without-- consider the video to be a heartwarming depiction of how we should treat our fellow man—including those with disabilities. Others--a select group--thought it completely infringed on that young man’s rights, and objectified him in the hopes of making those without disabilities feel good about themselves and the world. Bickering in the comments of the post ensued (I used the nice words, here).

I spent the last 24 hours thinking about this in some really deep ways. First, I wasn’t certain the basketball video was inspiration porn to begin with. Was this young man objectified? Was this story video made to make those without disabilities better about themselves? I went back and forth over this for quite some time. I would want people to help my children achieve their dreams—even if they are not able to completely do something (like make the basketball team) by themselves.

Then, I realized it didn’t really matter, because something much larger was at work.

I am familiar with some mass communication research about the depiction of minorities. A scholar by the name of Cedric Clark came up with a model for minority representation in mass communication. He had four stages, and while I won’t bore you with all the deliciously nerdy details, these four stages have given birth to quite a bit of research and further elaboration of models that might fit what we witness when it comes to representing minorities on television.

His four stages were:

1.      Non-recognition- A given minority group is not acknowledged by the dominant media to even exist.

2.      Ridicule- Certain minority characters are portrayed as stupid, silly, lazy, irrational, or simply laughable.

3.      Regulation- Certain minority characters are presented as enforcers or administrators of the dominant group’s norms.

4.      Respect - The minority group in question is portrayed no differently than any other group. Interracial relationships would also not appear extraordinary.

Even though he meant to apply these stages primarily to representations of African-Americans on television, the model has been expanded to include almost any minority group in any media—including American Indians, those with disabilities, those who are GLBQT, etc.  

So, let’s take a look, for just a minute, at this basketball video and decide which stage it belongs in (inspiration porn or no, although I’m not convinced that it is). First, I think we can easily say that it doesn’t fit in stage one. If it were in stage one, there wouldn’t have been a video.

I think it’s also safe to say that this video doesn’t fit in stage two. The young man is not being ridiculed, is he? He’s not the subject of mockery. He’s not depicted as silly, lazy or irrational.

So, what about stage three? Does this video fit into stage three? I would argue yes. Here is the story of a young man and an act that attempts to move us to feel empathetic, bring happiness, and, to put it bluntly—demonstrate a compassionate way to treat someone, according to the dominant group. While he himself is not the person in the role of administrator, per se, he has the same desires as his peers without disabilities, and he is given the chance to play on the court with them. It reinforces the dominant group’s current belief that those individuals with disabilities should be included in activities they desire whenever possible, even when that includes additional help. This is, in my opinion, where our dominant belief resides right now.

I think it goes without saying that we are not at stage four. In fact, we can easily say that we’re not solidly in stage four for any minority group.  Again, I could bore you to death by quoting study after study to this effect, or I can simply ask you: can you think of a single television show with a gay couple that doesn’t point out they’re gay? Do you ever see a news story that doesn’t point out a ‘black man’ when the accused is African American? Do you routinely see American Indians depicted on television without their ethnicity being mentioned? How about Max on Parenthood? How many episodes have dealt with his diagnosis? 

So, while I understand that there are significant problems with the portrayal of individuals with disabilities in this country, and yes, I understand that an individual with a disability doesn’t need to be pigeonholed into the role of ‘looking for a cure’, or ‘hero’ or ‘charity-case’, I am actually pretty darn happy that those with disabilities are at stage three. It’s not perfect, and I get that. We should continue to strive for stage four, but let’s not forget that stage three is a whole helluva lot better than stages one or two. It means we’re making progress. It means that we can be at a stage four at some point in time. It means that we are setting the stage for respect and recognition—no different than anyone else—because we are distinctly making efforts to change the dominant groups’ perceptions.