Article for The Scotsman about Channel 4 in August 1998

Title:

The Ministry of Disability Culture – Not!

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Crips, Lies and Videotape

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Many disabled people argue that disabled people are ‘invisible’ in our society, especially when it comes to television and film; suggesting that mainstreaming is the answer. It is not. The same people argue that disabled people, when they are represented in the media, are portrayed negatively, or in a way that does not represent their true reality. As if to prove the point many celebrity actors have joined a pressure group to support this notion – the 1 in 8 Group. One presumes it makes them - and 1 in 8’s key benefactor, Channel 4 - feel good about themselves. Thanks, but no thanks.

The forthcoming seminar at the Edinburgh Television Festival on disability and television will make little difference other than to perpetuate the illusion that television companies take disability seriously and that they care about the representation of disability and disabled people on, or in television. They do not! A more accurate picture of the media’s perspective towards disability is one of betrayal, hypocrisy and ignorance. Though, why should the media be any different than the Labour Government?

Mainstreaming is the normalisation of the abnormal; which, in terms of television, is the discontinuation of specialist programming such as LINK (ITV on a Sunday morning) to be replaced by the invisible integration of disability issues into other non-specialist programming. Thus, you can expect to see more Kilroy, or Esther Rantzen shows on the subject of disability. Superficially this might seem attractive, thus the few mediocre, and non-threatening disabled people allowed to work in media are very keen on the idea. Undoubtedly, such people will be rewarded appropriately within the media for their legitimising support and, as such, the betrayal of all other disabled people.

What’s wrong with mainstreaming? Primarily, it is rooted in a normalising philosophy that supports the fundamental inequality of the status quo. It challenges nothing whilst reinforcing the very beliefs and structures that disempower disabled people throughout society. To put it crudely, mainstreaming will only benefit the able disabled, denigrating the more severely disabled even more than they already are. It will actually put disabled people back ten years; it’s a plain case of ‘I’m alright Jack’. It is no surprise to discover that most of the media’s disabled people are practising white educated middle class (real or pseudo) disabled people who tend to have minimal or acquired disabilities; the able disabled ever keen to see themselves as really normal. For the kind of people they are it would be quite startling for them to think differently; but it does the majority of the disabled no favours.

The real problem for disabled people is that those higher up in the media - the Michael Jackson’s (Channel 4) and Alan Yentob’s (BBC) of this world – seem to support the notion of mainstreaming. Are they that insecure that they need to normalise me/us in their image. I don’t have a problem with who I am (a congenital cripple) so why the hell should they. We need the space and the opportunity to explore our lives our way. We need specialist disability programming –just not that which is on at the moment - that is truly accessible to us all, and not created by the elite of the disabled who have little in common with the real disabled of our society. It would be a surprise to those who commission the programmes as well: it would be creative; it would be witty; and it would be challenging. Let’s face it, anything is better than the retro-parodies of crappy ‘normal’ programmes that we get to see now (i.e. the BBC’s Disability Programme Unit’s From The Edge).

Disabled people are more under threat than ever, however liberal society may want to portray itself. Abortion, infanticide, and the genetic screening out of the congenitally abnormal is common place; 95% of those conceived with my condition, Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, and those with Down’s Syndrome, will never see a television set so what do we matter! And with euthanasia coming to a hospital near you, even those with acquired disabilities will need to watch out in the future. Unless of course they are the able disabled, the intellectually advanced retarded, the mentally fit mentally ill, the normal abnormal, etc.

The same sad notion of mainstreaming, and betrayal, is happening in the film world too. Chris Smith at the ministry of Media, Sport and Culture in the allocation of the Lottery Film funds, for example, has failed to delivery any thing productive for disabled people other than pay lip service to equal opportunities. The passive drain of public money in to commercial films’ that rapes disabled people of their lives for a dramatic thrill in the reinforcement of the ideology of the normal is a tragedy of the highest order in my view; and somewhat surprising from Chris Smith. A man who must surely be aware of the oppressive nature of the hegemony of the ‘normal’. It will be interesting to see how he and the Arts Council of England (ACE) deal with an innovative disability and film project, in the last round of lottery’s Arts for Everyone, from the British Film Institute (bfi); a film project that is from, and about, disabled people writing and directing their own films for widespread education and screening purposes. A project that is already being seen as a role model in the rest of Europe, and one that will create a real impetus for change in the attitudes of the film industry and the public around the issue of disability. The bfi had the courage to develop it with disabled people, will Chris Smith and ACE have the courage to fund it.

For the BBC and, especially, Channel 4 mainstreaming is the final betrayal of their remits in the scramble for ratings. In no other area of programming would such a proposed philosophy be allowed. Lets see Channel 4 say they will only have gay or black issues/people in the mainstream of their programming. The gay and black community would, rightly, be outraged. It would be insulting as well as a social lie; an illusion of assimilation where pride in our differences should be. Equally, it is would be creating a false reality that bears no relationship to the real world. The very fact the status quo would be very happy with such policies surely signals the error of its way. Mainstreaming should be at the core of existing practices within the media (and society) not a new initiative in relation to specific action and community programming and issues. It is like only having Scottish issues only in Programmes that are made from London – it simply won’t happen, and when it does it will have no relevance as it will be from outsiders. Will Gus McDonald make any difference to the disabled of Scotland in his new role?

If the new notion of mainstreaming of disability issues and disabled people in the media were merely a lack of progression I would probably not waste my time attacking it but it is creating a situation that has very real consequences for disabled people in their every day lives. It is creating an unrealistic expectation of disabled people that can only serve to further the destruction of those of us who are unable, or unwilling, to pass ourselves off as able disabled people (most of us). Such an expectation is the reason why those disability activists who seek more ‘positive’ images of disability are doing us no favours. In the language of the positivist brigade ‘positive’ ends up being reduced by those who use it to mean sanitised white middle class able disabled images of disability - an even more unrealistic and derogatory imagery than that which they seemingly despise.

If only disabled people would get over the notion that we are invisible in the media, we are not; just look at the soaps on television. We are everywhere and should be proud of that, even to the extent that when we are raped of our experiences it is revealing of the ambiguous nature of society’s feeling towards us. To sanitise us out of the true picture is death, both for us and the creative use and power of film and television.

1372 Words

Paul Darke is a contributor to Freaks, Lies and Celluloid on Radio 4 next Tuesday evening at 8pm.