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Does anyone watch "House"?
Ok, ladies, I need your input. I am writing a paper for my media culture and cultural studies class on Tuesday. My angle is disabilities in the media and so I picked "House." He has a physical disability and I am arguing that this is the sort of disability people are more "comfortable" with, as opposed to mental disorders (which I understand he sort of had at the end of season 5--thanks Wikipedia!).
That's the problem, I don't actually watch this show. I DVR'ed two episodes that come on this afternoon, but anything you guys could tell me about it, especially in regards to his disability, would be awesome. Like, how do the other characters treat him? Does he seem to portray a realistic life of a person with a disability? Or is the fact that he is a curmudgeounly @sshole a problem? It's a short paper, so I can probably get by with these 2 episodes and Wikipedia, but I'd like to hear from people who actually know. Thanks!
Re: Does anyone watch "House"?
How he's treated generally has little to do with his disability...they focus more on the a$$hole angle usually. He's not respected any less, if thats what you mean. Sometimes there are a few nods to the disability (like I think the last one I saw someone unscrewed a help bar in a bathroom on him as a prank), but he's not treated as any less of a doctor bc of his need for a cane. His mental disorder was more of a disability IMO...he had a stay at an institution for that one...
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Hmm. See, I'm going back and forth on this one. On the one hand, it's refreshing that he's not a "model disability" (if I can borrow from the concept of "model minority") and therefore his assholery may be seen as more realistic. He doesn't want--or act in a way to receive--pity. On the other hand, he's an @sshole, so this may be a problem for people with disabilities in general. If you're going to have so few representations of disability on TV, why does the one guy have to be a jerk?
I think I have to think about this more before I write.
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I agree with JB. I'd love to get my thinking cap on to talk about this more, but I'm mentally exhausted right now. Media crit was not only part of my undergrad major, but something I just absolutely love to discuss.
While I get my thoughts in order, I leave you with this forum, which may spark something for you:
http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=f0ced12c35a430574b6dd095a5f67f53&showtopic=3131010
Lucy Elizabeth 10.27.12
Do you have to use a character or can you use Michael J Fox so you have more of a real life example?
I'm not sure House could be the best one for you - the whole show revolves more around mind games and not as much on his disability. I like the thought of your paper though.
Barb, well it has to be something related to media and ideas of hegemony/counterhegemony and what this artifact (show, movie, etc.) says about our culture. I thought there were so few people with disabilities on TV, that the fact that he exists is interesting, and then his specific characteristics on top of that.
I suppose MJF would work, but is he still acting? Does he portray people with Parkinson's? On what show/movie?
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Lark, does it have to be a main character? I agree with pp that his disability is sort of secondary, it's more his personality that gets the spotlight.
However, I think it was last season or the season before that Lori Petty had a phenomenal cameo on the show playing someone with very advanced Huntington's disease. One of the main characters on House has early Huntington's and they met in a clinical trial. If you can track down those episodes, that might be a better character to focus on.
Or, do you watch Lost? If so, you could write about the period of time where Locke was paralyzed and in a wheelchair. There are a LOT of different examples of how he was treated differently because of that.
HTH!
Lark, what are you getting your degree in? Your paper sounds like a very interesting amalgomation of papers I've seen across both my M.A. programs (first in Comm/Media Emphasis; second in Lit/Writing).
If you ever need source suggestions, let me know. Lord knows I've got 8,000,000 bibliographies lying around my house. In fact, I found a paper I wrote in 2004 when I was an undergrad that I will now be incorporating into my thesis.
And, no, I don't watch HOUSE. But I do know that Scrubs made fun of it once -- Dr. Cox sprained his foot, so he was limping like house. They got some weird medical mystery, and Dr. Cox solved it. Somewhere in the episode, JD actually made a comment like "Too bad this isn't a show like HOUSE where one doctor can just magically solve the problem by the end of the episode..." I know that didn't help, but it's all I've got.
These are excellent ideas! I don't really watch "Lost" either so I forgot that Locke was in a wheelchair. You might be on to something there... As for "House" it's also interesting for analysis that his disability is secondary--sort of like they were going for a more complex portrayal of a person with disabilities, even though he ends up being one-dimensional anyway.
And SBS, it's a media culture/culture studies class, so an elective for me. For some reason it is in the education department, Social Science and Comparative Education to be exact, but my specialty is special education (Psychology Studies in Education, to be exact). And I am totally with you on "hegemony." I also feel this way about "zeitgeist."
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Do you watch Grey's? If you need some sort of a comparison to House in terms of mental versus physical and the treatment of each - Grey's had that cardiologist with Asperger's Syndrome come on the show a few times. She was treated fairly well except by Christina at first. Just a thought.
This is going to sound weird but I miss writing papers! This sounds like such a fun one!
I think you could make the House thing work, the more I think about it, there are a lot of subtle nuances about his disability and how it makes him as a person. Good luck Lark!
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This sounds like a fun paper! I was going to piggyback onto a few of these responses.'13' on House has Huntington's, which is incurable. She tends to be reckless in her behavior because of it (at least that's how it was portrayed last season). Also, "Artie" on Glee is in a wheelchair. They did an entire performance of "Rollin on the River," all the kids were in wheelchairs to show support.