Poor Representation of Disability

Rating: 1/10 (1 April 2018)

The 2017 film Wonder Woman tells the story of DC Comics's female superhero, Diana (Gal Gadot). Diana is an Amazonian warrior that leaves home to help fight WWII and ends up discovering her full powers and true destiny. There has been much debate surrounding whether or not the movie should be lauded or condemned by feminists. Some argue that the film is a "masterpiece of subversive feminism" due to its featuring of a gender norm defying, strong female lead while others claim that Diana's objectification is "a step backwards".
Despite the fact that the film has received a lot of attention from progressive people who are concerned about norms and stereotypes, the negative portrayal of disability in the film seems to have slipped by them. Few critics in the mainstream media are discussing how the one obviously disabled character in the film is the villain, Doctor Isabel Maru (Elena Anaya) that is nicknamed Doctor Poison. The character has a scarred face that she wears a mask to cover, and these facial differences are supposed to make her worthy of both fear and pity:
"With her primitive facial prosthetic and raspy voice, both due to the horrific scarring one has to assume was a result of her work, she comes off as vulnerable and haunted. However, that vulnerability helps mask the real darkness she hides within."
DC Comics is using and enforcing the notion that differences are 'horrific' and sources of 'vulnerability'. Unlike many villains that oppose comic book heroes, Dr. Maru does not have a special power and is not only known by a nickname like 'The Green Goblin' or 'Doomsday'. She is just a human, and only her facial scarring sets her apart from the very humans that Diana spends the whole movie trying to save. Dr. Maru is portrayed as disabled to dehumanize her.
This message, that to be disabled is to be evil, is not unique to Wonder Woman. In fact, it is a common pattern in movies. Captain Hook in Peter Pan, Darth Vader in Star Wars, and the evil witch in Snow White are all in some way disabled. These villain's disabilities are supposed to make them seem scarier to the audience.
The ubiquity of this movie trope is a testament to the fact that there is already a common conception that disabilities are something to be feared - it only works because people already believe it. Negative portrayal of disability in film is both a cause and an effect of this stereotype, and using the stereotype serves to deepen the pervasive stigma surrounding disability.
Towards the end of the film, Diana is faced with the option of whether or not to kill Dr. Maru. While she is making this decision, Dr. Maru's mask falls off and her scarred face is revealed. Diana takes pity on Dr. Maru and chooses not to kill her. By showing Dr. Maru's deformed face for the first time, the audience is meant to see her vulnerability and also pity her. Her disability is supposed to define her as helpless, regardless of how evil she was made to seem earlier on. With just one image of a disability, the audience is meant to completely change their perception of the character - yet again, defining the character by her disability.
Movie viewers, especially children, are impressionable. Writer Alaina Leary explains that only showing disabled characters as "sympathetic and pitiable or villainous and evil" enforces "the idea that disabled people don't live full, meaningful lives the same way non-disabled people do". Children whose interaction with disability may be limited to what they see on a screen will not understand the experiences of people with disabilities, and they will grow up to be adults who further ableist ideas.
People with disabilities are not defined by just their disability, and they are definitely not something to only be feared or pitied. Like anyone else, people with disabilities are to be loved, admired, respected, and more. It is time for some disabled characters that enhance these aspects.