ENGL296: Reading and Writing Disability

More than just the "Family Dog"   Susan Dupor’s Family Dog shows a young girl crawling on the floor while a group of adults sit behind her. Their faces are faded and almost ghostlike, but the girl is full of color and life. She’s smiling, wearing purple, and seems lost in her own joy while everyone else just watches or doesn't even notice her. The contrast between her movement and their stillness makes the painting feel uneasy, like she’s being watched instead of understood. The title Family Dog adds to that discomfort. It suggests that the girl, who is assumed to be disabled, is hopefully loved but still treated differently, almost like a pet instead of an equal. This connects to the stereotype that disabled people are often seen as closer to animals than humans, like how Christopher is treated in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. That also connects to what we talked about in class with the “supercrip” and spectacle tropes, where disabled people become s...

  Speaking Without Sound: Gender and Disability in The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water tells a love story that goes beyond romance, it’s about being seen and understood when the world decides you’re “different.” Elisa, the main character, is mute and works as a janitor in a secret government lab. When she meets the amphibian creature being held there, she connects with him through sign language and emotion instead of words.  Elisa’s disability also challenges how women with disabilities are usually portrayed. As Garland-Thomson points out, they’re often shown as either completely asexual or overly sexualized. Elisa is neither. She’s just a woman with real desires and emotions, and the film treats that as normal, because it is. We see her pleasure herself during her morning routine, not in a way that’s meant to shock the audience, but to show that she’s comfortable in her own body. The eggs shown in the film can symbolize fertility and life, things soc...