Superheros, role (roll?) models, and navigating the barriers that are Other People

[capri0mni]

Okay, so, a sort of prequel to my earlier entry on the Rocket!Chair. It really all started with this discussion thread in indefatigable42's LJ, touching on what I want to see in a Disabled(sic)!SuperHero.

As you can imagine, I have a lot of Baggage[tm] around this issue, mostly in reaction to things like this bit from the "Critical and editorial commentary" section of Barbara Gordon's entry in Wikipedia:

It's ridiculous to think somebody wakes up thinking how lucky they are to be confined to a wheelchair, and yet the attitude around DC and among the fans is that Oracle is the better character over Batgirl because of her handicap. Rubbish. Batgirl has fought more crime and done more to aid Batman as Batgirl than she has as Oracle. Batgirl has saved Batman's life on numerous occasions. Oracle has not. Barbara in this incarnation is not a bad character, but she is not better because she no longer hunts the night in cape and cowl.

Of course all people with disablities desperately want to be one of the "normals." And of course the fact that Barbara Gordon as Oracle has not saved Batman's life is because she's in a wheelchair now, rather than a lack of imagination on the writers' parts in coming up with strong storylines for her. It's so obvious, it's not even worth questioning. [/sarcasm].

Then, there's the argument (in that same section of the Wikipedia article) that Barbaba Gordon's disability is gratuitous in the DC universe -- that world is crawling with so many advanced-level scientists, it would be totally believable for some sort of stem-cell research or other advanced medicine to cure her, so she wouldn't have to be "confined" to a wheelchair.

As I wrote, back in 2004, in Christopher Reeve -- My thoughts, such as they are:

I started to envision a future world where The Cure was found...for some people, with some disabilities... who could afford it. They could return to the world of "normal" people, would be allowed to get jobs, get married, raise kids. Businesses and governments wouldn't worry about making themselves accessible. The disabled could live in hospitals, after all, while they "recovered." The rest of us -- those who couldn't afford it, or for whom that particular therapy wouldn't work...it was a shame, but we'd have to stay in the institutions. For the good of society as a whole, of course, so as not to be a burden on social services or government coffers.*

There's the option of having the disabled hero remaining disabled, and just using Super!Tech to take down villains -- after all, that's what Batman does. There are good ways of doing that, and then there are bad ways of doing that. Professor Xavier is a good way. And then, there was M.A.N.T.I.S., from the early days of the FOX TV network.

At first, I was looking forward to this show, for its promised hero who was both African-American and disabled (way to cut through stereotypes!). And then, I saw it. This guy was paralyzed, like Barbara Gordon, and a super-wealthy genius, like Bruce Wayne. He used his wealth and smarts to make himself a robotic exoskeleton, that enabled him to walk again. ...And he couldn't take down criminals until he climbed into it.

This suit had two major drawbacks:

1. The more he used it, the more he damaged his brain, permanently, and



2. it broke down with annoying frequency, leaving him totally helpless at the most critical times, and requiring rescue by his able-bodied (and white, iirc) assistants.

Still, he refused to give it up, and even became addicted to it, because It Enabled Him to WALK AGAIN, and That's ALL He Ever IN THE WHOLE WORLD and he WOULD RATHER DIE WALKING THAN LIVE IN A WHEELCHAIR. Um. Tell me again how this is supposed to be battling stereotypes? The show's only redeeming factor, imnsho, is that it totally failed to pursuade a wide audience, and died the early death of low ratings...

The thing is, writing strong disabled!heroes is not an act of charity for real disabled people. After all, we know who we are (mostly). It is an act of expanding the culture's definition of what it takes to be a "hero," and, by association, what it takes to be a capable human being (and that may be why Oracle ruffled a few critics' feathers -- gods forbid you're actually confronted with the possible expansion of your worldview!).

So, if I were to create a Crip!Superhero/ine, what would I like to see?

1. A "Peter Parker"-like character, who wouldn't have extreme amounts of money and priviledge to shield her/him from the disability's consequences, at least, in the beginning (If money is needed for the creation of Super!Tech, later, than that can be written into the story... But Bruce Wayne was born with a silver spoon in his mouth).



2. An acceptance of the disability as part of his/her whole person -- and yes, maybe even pride. As for overcoming the "but that's ridiculous!" reaction, the character could be born with the disability, so s/he doesn't have a loss to mourn. But I also remember a conversation I had with my mother; it might have been her birthday, or Mother's Day, but it was some occasion like that that gave us cause to reflect on the gifts we'd given each other. I mentioned her gift to me of teaching me the skill of Questioning Authority, and she said, that after I was born, she had to confront the fact that the world is not, after all, a level playing field, and that's why she got involved in the Environmental and Civil Rights movements. So expanding on that, the character could come to see the plight of others in a new way because of the disability, and the disability could be the whole motivation for becoming a superhero (inspired by people s/he met in rehab, in the hospital, f'rexample).



3. Oh, yeah, speaking of which -- there should be more than one disabled person in this fictiverse -- they don't need to be everywhere, or even on every other page, but it would be nice if there were occasional signs that ordinary disabled people actually exist in the world: curb cuts in the background illustrations, and maybe a handicapped parking sign, or someone in a wheelchair (or with a guide dog, or using sign language) in the background crowds, just now and then, you know...



4. "Overcoming" her/his ordinary limitations would not mean "erasing" or "hiding" the disability. I'd rather see a Bat Mobile-like wheelchair than a M.A.N.T.I.S.-like exoskeleton.



5. And, in the end, I'd like to see the disability be made incidental to the crime-fighting ability -- either because of super!tech like a flying wheelchair, or because it's irrelevant to the hero's crime-fighting realm (As it is for Oracle, fighting in cyberspace, or Professor X, who fights crime with his mind).

---

*For an example of the attitude, even post-Reeve, that it's better for Society to have the Disabled sequestered away in institutions, see this blog entry on John McCain's recent answer to Disability Rights activists

Comments

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Batgirl has fought more crime and done more to aid Batman as Batgirl than she has as Oracle. Batgirl has saved Batman's life on numerous occasions. Oracle has not. Barbara in this incarnation is not a bad character, but she is not better because she no longer hunts the night in cape and cowl.

But Oracle has a whole team of superheroines working for her in addition to repeatedly saving the day for unrelated superheroes through her work. The whole DC universe does NOT revolve around Batman. Wikipedia is full of b*ll*cks.

And she has physically fought with villains AND WON since she became paraplegic. She's also often shown practising martial arts in her wheelchair (escrima, I think?). She IS shown as somewhat more physically vulnerable than many superheroines but that's precisely why a lot of fans identify with her.

And she's been proposed to since she became paraplegic but she turned him, Dick Grayson (aka Nightwing), down.

Interesting post.

[pedanther]

Wikipedia is full of b*ll*cks.

capriuni's introduction doesn't make it entirely clear, but that paragraph isn't Wikipedia speaking: it's from the "Critical and editorial commentary" section, a collection of things other people have said.

The actual author of the paragraph is comics reviewer Ray Tate (who appears, from what I've read of his work over the years, to be incapable of writing a review that doesn't start by spending at least two paragraphs reminding us that he thinks DC Comics has gone to hell in a handbasket since he was eleven).

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

it's from the "Critical and editorial commentary" section, a collection of things other people have said.

Yeah, but the writer/s of the wikipedia article (or whoever chose that quote) chose to cite something that was full of b*ll*cks (I'm not a comics geek, so I woudn't recognise which were the thoughtful and careful reviewers, and which were simply trying to go back and fit themselves back in their secret childhood hideaways.

But, regardless of where it comes from, it is still an example of the bias I have to deal with when I go out into the world:

"But I bet you could walk if you really wanted to... I mean, don't they have advanced therapies now, and stuff?"

[pedanther]

But, regardless of where it comes from, it is still an example of the bias I have to deal with when I go out into the world:
"But I bet you could walk if you really wanted to... I mean, don't they have advanced therapies now, and stuff?"

This is a separate question, it seems to me.

I agree that Ray Tate's screed about Oracle being a lesser hero than Batgirl is not worth much, and I see it grasping at straws of rational justification for a viewpoint with non-rational foundations - but when he says that Barbara Gordon could be out of the wheelchair and on her feet again any time DC Comics wanted her to be, he's absolutely correct.

The comment about "advanced therapies and stuff" bothers you, I presume, because such things really aren't available in the world as it is. But the world Barbara Gordon lives in is not our world, and in that world they do have "advanced therapies and stuff" (well, maybe not "advanced therapies", but bow-howdy do they have "stuff").

About five years after Batgirl became Oracle, Batman himself had his back broken and was confined to a wheelchair. You'll notice that that didn't last...

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

The comment about "advanced therapies and stuff" bothers you, I presume, because such things really aren't available in the world as it is.

Up to a point, Lord Copper.

The fact is, therapies have advanced quite a bit since I was first diagnosed and treated for CP. And premie babies who are born today at the same level I was born at grow up without any symptoms at all.

What bothers me is the presumption-assumption-implication that walking is the highest aspiration I could have, and my life is meaningless and/or depressing without that ability.... that my waking hours would be better spent on physical therapies and medical treatments than on writing the great American Novel, or understanding what it takes to promote world peace (My two main choices for college degree, when I was in high school). The same attitude that holds Barbara Gordon as a lesser hero for not walking holds me as a lesser human for not walking (and somehow morally corrupt for not aspiring to walk above all else).

And I can see how a character like Barbara Gordon, who got her degree in Library Sciences and Information Tech, might be equally impatient to get out of the hospital and the lab (as one of the rats, not one of the scientists) if she had the tools now to take down the crooks, working legs or not.

Batman, on the other hand, the poor dweeb, has built his entire crime-fighting career on his physical persona and ability to intimidate. So he'd be much more desperate to get back on his feet. ...That is, if he were real, and not the fantasy fulfillment of the writers..

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

My "favourite" Ray C Tate rant about why Barbara Gordon should still be Batgirl (and that "not a bad character" line in the quoted review is very much an exception) was the one which listed all the things Batgirl had done that Oracle hadn't including that, as Barbara Gordon, she had been a Congresswoman.

The difference between "Batgirl-as-Barbara-Gordon" and "Barbara-Gordon-not-as-Batgirl" was sadly too subtle for me to appreciate...

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

The difference between "Batgirl-as-Barbara-Gordon" and "Barbara-Gordon-not-as-Batgirl" was sadly too subtle for me to appreciate...

Heh. Yeah, I don't know many Representatives who prowl the night in cape and cowl...

But if they did, wouldn't Jon Stewart have a field day?

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Actually, the full Wikipedia article gives a fairly favorable review of the character; I was just citing that particular reaction to her to illustrate why her inclusion in a list of heroines who've had their powers "deminished," as motivation for male characters, pushed one of my well-worn buttons ...

IMNSHO, her powers weren't deminished, so much as channelled in a different direction.

She's also often shown practising martial arts in her wheelchair (escrima, I think?).

Eskrima, yeah. ... apparently, she stores eskrima sticks in the arm of her wheelchair... That's where I carry pens and pencils ;-)

Personally, I think this one reviewer might just be squicked by Oracle because her central power is now in her brain, rather than her body, and she's a techie. Haven't we all met fanboys who quake in their costume boots at meeting a girl-geek?

[rob-t-firefly.livejournal.com]

I remember MANTIS, I was so disappointed with that show. It was such a waste of potential.

I loved the design of the suit and the hypnosis-based gadgets, and I really like the actor Carl Lumbly, but the premise and show were complete rubbish for all the reasons you stated and more. At that time a decent superhero TV show could have cleaned up thanks in part to the resurging interst in dark superhero drama spurred by Tim Burton's "Batman," but they forgot to make it not stupid.

There was a pilot TV movie wherein his assistants were stereotypical African students, but they were white in the series proper IIRC.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

There was a pilot TV movie wherein his assistants were stereotypical African students, but they were white in the series proper IIRC.

I assume that was to make it less racist.

*Headdesk*