suzanne evas mythmaking
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Mythmaking:
Brain Injury in Popular Movies
Suzanne Evas, PhD
Coordinator, Barwon ABI Project, Barwon Health
and Hopeless Movie Nerd
• The following presentation has been rated
• Depictions of violence to people’s brains,
some naughty words now and then, and
some conceptual thinking included
The Studio Edit• Public perceptions are shaped and influenced by
popular/mass media (film, tv, news)
• Public perceptions affect public policy, which determines
legislation and funding
• Many popular/mass media portrayals of ABI (and
disability in general) rely on tropes,and stereotypes.
• We must learn to embrace and effectively use
popular/mass media if we want to change public
perceptions.
The Director’s Cut• Film & Disability Tropes
• Why stereotypes endure
• Public perceptions of ABI: Believing Myths
• Brain injury, amnesia & memory loss as plot devices
• Examples of ABI in movies (AKA The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly)
• Changing the conversation through popular media
• Discussion: Action plan for next 12 months
Disability Tropes in Film & TV
A trope is “a recurring image or
representation in the mainstream
culture that is widely recognisable.”
Disability Tropes in Film & TV(Barnes, 1992) The disabled person as:
• pitiable or pathetic
• An object of curiosity or
violence
• Sinister or evil
• The super cripple
• Atmosphere
• Laughable
• His/her own worst enemy
• A burden
• Non-sexual
• Unable to participate in
daily life
• (tvtropes.com) Single episode disability
• Eternal innocence
Disability Tropes in Film & TVShakespeare (1999) :
• "a lazy short-cut….
• "impairment is made the most important thing"
• "objectified and distanced from the audience“
• “not accurate or fair reflections of the actual experience
of disabled people.”
• “reinforce negative attitudes towards disabled people,
and ignorance about the nature of disability"
• "crude, one-dimensional and simplistic."
Why Stereotypes endure
• Repetition in fiction
• Generalisation to other forms of media
• Conformity/Culture reinforcement
• Human need to organise and catagorise people easily
• Reinforce discrimination, exploitation, marginalisation
(Bagliari & Shapiro, 2012)
Believing Media Myths
• 2010 survey in Britain. 38% of respondents said their
knowledge of brain injury was learned from the media
(Chapman & Hudson)
Believing Media MythsStatement % agreed (UK,
2010)
% agreed
(US, 2006)
When people are knocked unconscious, most wake up
shortly with no lasting effects. (F)77% 48%
After head injury, people can forget who they are and not
recognise others, but be normal in every other way. (F)91% 93%
How quickly a person recovers depends mainly on how
hard they work at recovering. (F)50% 53%
Emotional problems after head injury are usually not
related to brain damage. (F)32% 16%
Complete recovery from a severe head injury is not
possible, no matter how badly the person wants to
recover. (T)
27% 28%
Brain injury, amnesia & memory loss as
plot devicesAs a storytelling trope:
• outline for a mystery tale as protagonist tries to discover
their past and how they lost their memory
• backstory and exposition can be spread out over the
course of the story as new facts are gradually uncovered
• opportunity for twist endings (Shaw-Williams, 2014)
• Allows audience to identify with character as we also
have to discover what is happening at same time (Baker,
2014)
Challenge: As a sector, how can
we better embrace popular
media to educate the public
about ABI?
Your ideas?
Credits• Baglieri, S & Shapiro, A. (2012). Disability Studies and the Inclusive Classroom: Critical
Practices for Creating Least Restrictive Attitudes. Routledge.
• Barnes, C. (1992). Disabling Imagery and the Media. BCOPD, Ryburn Publishing.
• Baker, C (2014). I Can't Remember Why, But Movies About Amnesia Are Awesome |
Angry Nerd. Online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTpZAWccWTY
• Baxendale, S (2004) Memories aren’t made of this: Amnesia at the movies, BMJ,
329(7480): 1480–1483
• Chapman, RC & Hudson, JM (2010). Beliefs about brain injury in Britain, Brain Injury,
24(6):797-801
• Guilmette, TJ & Paglia, MF (2004) The public’s misconceptions about traumatic brain
injury: A follow up survey, Archives of clinical neuropsychology, 19 (2): 183-189
• Shakespeare, T. (1999) Art and lies? Representations of disability on film. In: Corker,
M. and French, S. (eds.) Disability Discourse Buckingham: Open University Press: 164-
172
• Shaw-Williams, H. (2014) H. Shaw-Williams, Before I Go to Sleep’ Trailer: Nicole
Kidman’s ‘Memento’ Nightmare. Online http://screenrant.com/before-i-go-to-sleep-
trailer-2014/
• http://www.disabilityplanet.co.uk/critical-analysis.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_in_the_media
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