Blackface/Yellowface/*face
In "Blackface/Yellowface/*face" Wheelchair Dancer muses about identity politics, performance arts and disability culture:
Despite years of discrimination and oppression and despite a history that is as appalling as the histories of other minoritized groups, there is no performing arts context for disability face. And even though exaggeration of certain physical aspects of certain impairments, there (perhaps fortunately) has not been a systematic reworking of these localized moments into a "tradition." Any attempt at disability face would look like a party costume. And that's kind of the impression I get when I see non-disabled types acting disabled roles.Other posts by Wheelchair Dancer on the intersection of race and disability include this, this, this and this.
So, over to you. What would disability face look like? Would you be able to distinguish disability face from disability drag? What would disability drag look like (and here I really do mean *drag,* as opposed to *dress up*). Could PWD with one impairment drag another? Could you drag your own impairment? Or would it have to be non-disabled people dragging disability? When does drag become disability face?
Could there really be a set of performances of disability in which we can separate an actor dressing up as disabled in order to create, with some degree of verisimilitude, a disabled role (because you *know* there are no disabled actors who can do this kind of stuff) from someone in disability face? Would it have to be literally a "face" to be disability face?
Cross-posted at Alas, A Blog
10 comments:
thanks for the post and cross post, Kay
WCD
I'm a bit confused as to the difference between "drag" and "dress up". Is "drag" when it's sexual? Or is it whether or not the person dressing up is trying to convince others that it's "real" (which, in the drags acts i've encountered, it isn't - the "joke" is precisely that everyone knows the performer is a different sex/gender from hir character)?
We call it "cripping up" in the UK when a non-disabled actor plays a disabled character - in reference to "blacking up" which is what white Shakespearean actors did when playing eg. Othello.
It gets a lot more complex IMO when non-physical impairments (eg autism) are involved...
Open question to readers of this blog: Do you object to non-disabled actors portraying disabled characters? Or just to those actors doing it badly, i.e. without authenticity and believability? Are there any narrative films out there that feature disabled characters that you think got it right?
WCD: Welcome. I hope some extra discussion lands back at your place. I haven't commented on what you said yet, but I'll be back to your place for that. I also hope you add your thoughts on that performance now that you've seen it.
I am against disablism. Disablism is bullshit! On the other hand...Robert De Niro was pretty good in Rainman. So I guess it comes down to a matter of availabilty (of quality acting from the disabled). BTW-Has anybody ever told you you have a beautiful eye?!
Shiva: I asked WCD what she meant by those terms at her original post, but I'm sure the definitions are up for debate.
Sophie: I don't totally object to nondisabled actors playing disabled characters. Some stories even require it if they tell of a range of abilities or a sudden impairment preceded by able-bodiedness. And I don't believe that only those currently disabled have a corner on the story of imperfect bodies.
But. I strongly object to the fact that disabled actors are not in the public eye while A-list nondisabled actors routinely win Oscars for playing disabled characters of all kinds. Part of the reason they win is usually described as their "amazing transformation," which I think is usually a subtle way of saying "This beautiful person did some very convincing slumming."
The Station Agent is a great movie where a little person and his physical difference blends into a story about several people's differences and oddities.
I liked 'The Station Agent' a lot. And I think you're views on the matter are sound. I wonder how many producers even try to find disabled actors. I wonder if it even occurs to them. As for acting accolades, you're right. And have you also noticed that anytime a handsome or beautiful actor/actress gains weight or goes dowdy for a role, it also becomes an awards magnet. Weird.
OK, i probably should re-post my comment/query at the original post...
The Station Agent was a good film, but a little frustrating for me; it seemed to be one of those films which don't really do much or go anywhere, then end in a mysterious way which seemed unlinked to what went before. That could just be my prejudice in favour of classical linear narratives in film, though...
I thought Tom Cruise did well in BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (to name a random example), and was carefully coached by Ron Kovic to "sit properly" and so on. Kovic and Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay and Kovic was the technical advisor. As Kay said, it was important that he be able to do the soldier/Vietnam sequences.
One thing that annoys me, is when someone is playing a role and suddenly they "lean over" inappropriately (Cruise was careful not to do that) or they don't have a wheelchair cushion, or something that just isn't accurate. I think that leads to stuff like kids expecting their disabled classmates to be able to lean over that way, or asking them unnecessary questions about the cushion ("What's that for?")... if they saw it portrayed, they'd think, "Oh, they sit on a cushion to be comfortable," and not find it odd at all.
I was also annoyed that in Christopher Reeve's movie about Brooke Ellison, he edited out the respirator noise. I see why he did it (he said it interfered with recording dialogue) but I think in scenes with little or no dialogue it could have been present, to remind the audience that IT IS always present in Brooke's life. (After all, the kids at Harvard heard it in every class she attended. ) In the scene where the respirator shut off, and the nurses restarted it, then suddenly you could hear it.. and it was like, huh?
Vents freak people out, and it would have been nice to "normalize it" for the movie.
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