In the midst of a growing movement for equal representation in all sectors of society, ableism presents itself in the entertainment industry’s dismissal of minority stories and actors.
Hiring famous, non-minority actors who are highly public figures and already receive a plethora of jobs limits the opportunities of lesser-known actors who are underrepresented in the media.
The entertainment industry is introducing more parts for people of diverse backgrounds, and these new roles expose the audience to new stories. Several groups are still misrepresented or not represented at all, so the few parts that are written for them should be played by actors within that group.
Claiming to have a role for an LGBTQ+ character, but having the role played by a cisgender, heterosexual person is not being inclusive. It is preventing the story from being told from someone with a similar story and a deeper connection to the role.
Historically, in Shakespearean times, men played all the roles — the nursemaid, the prince, etc. — because women were viewed as subservient to men.
Similarly, blackface was used to mock and degrade Black people who were only type casted into discriminatory and offensive stereotype roles. People of color were considered less than and, in more extreme cases, non-human.
Ableism follows a similar practice to previous discrimination in entertainment — taking the role away from someone completely capable and advertently demeaning the group that the film is trying to represent. Tom Hanks playing Forrest Gump is just as disrespectful as Jimmy Fallon doing an ill-advised Chris Rock impression.
We as a society frown upon the blatant racism that occurs through the hiring of a white actor to play a person of color. So we should also recognize the issues in the unequal representation of all other people who are marginalized by society.
Whether the media is depicting the story of an autistic teen or a transgender man, they fail to actually hire people who identify with these marginalized characters to play them.
Recently, discussions on ableism have started up again after the release of Sia’s film “Music.” The musical artist cast her goddaughter — the neurotypical Maddie Ziegler — to play the titular role of a teen with autism, claiming to have fired the initial actress because the role was allegedly too difficult, according to Sia’s Twitter.
The movie was recently nominated for two Golden Globes, which rightfully outraged viewers. The story is about a family caring for Music, a nonverbal person with autism, yet there are no actors with autism present in the movie — only gross exaggerations of stimming and restraints being used against people with autism.
People with autism have a label forced upon them by society, and “Music” only reiterates those inappropriate stereotypes. The film eventually had to add a warning concerning a specific restraining technique it depicts in an attempt to avoid offending its audience.
Ableism can also be seen in the show “Glee.” In the show, Artie, a teenager who uses a wheelchair, was played by a non-wheelchair using actor. The role could have easily gone to an actor who uses a wheelchair in his everyday life. Although I loved Artie and his voice, hiring a person without physical disabilities to play someone who has them is offensive and discriminatory to the many actors who fit the part.
As a society, we need to address the problems that the entertainment industry has when casting actors. Hiring someone because the director or writer deems them easy to work with is completely hypocritical to the diverse outlook the media is supposed to be adopting.
In movies with characters who have a disability, the role should always be first considered for people who have the same disability, have lived these experiences and are able to accurately portray them. We need to approach this situation with solutions, so people no longer have to suffer misrepresentation or lack of representation when watching a character they wanted to relate to.
