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WhatIsWhat 1.0 2003

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Embrace Ones Disability, Running from it is for the Movies

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ABOVE: An excerpt from the film Forest Gump. The main character, Forest, is chased by bullies and runs away while shedding his braces. The scene is a touchstone for the entire film in which Forest, a mildly developmentally disabled adult, lives a life full of romance, adventure and prosperity while blissfully unaware of his dumb luck. I am thankful not to have seen the film Forest Gump as a young child with braces on my legs who also ran from bullies.

 

BELOW: Bill Shannon in braces 1976. The example of Gump serves the dominant narrative of overcoming and rising above physical disability by becoming able-bodied as opposed to the reality of the majority of disabled peoples lives which involves incorporating, accomodating and living with a disability.

BILL SHANNON, whatiswhat.com, disability, dance, performance art, installation

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
This Work, Embrace Ones Disability, Running from it is for the Movies, by Bill Shannon is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license.