Harmful Tropes: Disability as Moral Failing

Harmful Tropes: Disability as Moral Failing

Harmful tropes are narrative shortcuts that reinforce negative stereotypes, justify toxic behavior, or demean marginalized groups. Here, we discuss them and give you tips for avoiding them in your work.

Trope: The trope of linking villainy with physical differences or disabilities is pervasive.

Why is it harmful?: By creating a link between physical disability and villainy, you’re telling your audience that if you are disabled, you’re evil or inherently flawed in some way. It also displays disabled characters as miserable or “broken” people, where the only path to true happiness would be through curing the disability. It also reduces disability to inspiration porn, where the character must overcome their disability and be an inspiration to the able-bodied people around them or stay miserable and beneath others.

Examples in media: Death's agent in Final Destination: Looks Could Kill is a severe burn victim, who the entity promised to make beautiful again if she helped it; almost every James Bond villain.

How to avoid it?: Don’t equate visible differences, mobility aids, or chronic conditions with a corrupted personality or bitterness. Show...