It's my honor to have a piece in the Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction issue of Uncanny Magazine. Between Lightspeed and Uncanny Magazine, Disabled People Destroy has allowed voices from multiple marginalized communities to speak openly about the stories that matter most to us and the fandom community. The issue is packed with excellent stories and essays by the likes of Fran Wilde, Merc Rustad, and Nisi Shawl. I've been waiting for this issue for years.
My essay is about the representation of disability in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly as it appears in Infinity War. Infinity War is the biggest nexus for MCU characters to date, and has a number of disabled characters in its cast: War Machine, Nebula, Bucky Barnes, and Thor are a few. Yet they're handled carelessly, either marginalizing them based on their disabilities, or seeking to erase those disabilities from view. It speaks to how few disabled people work on the Marvel films, how few write them and act in them, and it's time for that to change.
Marvel is celebrating their biggest box office hit and ten years of blockbusters. It's time for Rocket Raccoon to stop stealing disabled people's prosthetics.
You can read the entire essay for free right here.
You can buy the whole issue right here.
Thanks for reading! I have more good news for y'all coming soon.
Sigh. And hiss and spit.
ReplyDeleteI well remember someone telling me after my diagnosis that 'You don't look like you have MS. You should get another opinion.'
And I resent that disabilty is supposed to define who I am. Not what I can do, or what I can do without assistance, but who I am. And the concept that illness/disabilit is somehow deserved/self induced. I could go on and on, but won't.
Looking forward to reading your next piece of news. And will explore that issue further. Thank you.