A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

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part of society watching the television… you‟re one individual and it‟s a
discourse between you and the box or YouTube or whatever… (l.2:514ff.)
It is important to recall that oppression within modern capitalism, whether experienced as
disability by people with impairments or as false consciousness by the non-disabled, does
not involve being „helplessly manacled‟ (Fiske, 1995:169). There is much to be enjoyed in
going with the flow. Taylor and Harris express this thought slightly differently: „mass media
audiences are not deceived into false consciousness but, rather, willingly participate and
contrive at their own oppression‟ (Taylor and Harris, 2008:132).
I would argue that many disabled people, like most other people, find something about their
current situations that makes them worth staying in. Ali suggests that:
Some people don‟t mind it, they go oh, we‟ll take advantage of that... and they don‟t
mind the fact that people are feeling sorry for them... some people think hey, that‟s
great... actually, I can give you an example... there was a lad who used to come in...
and he was partially-sighted... he used to get c.d.s for free and he was just loving
it... you know, hey, I can get this and that... I can take all these out... copy them and
bring them back.... (l.2:217ff.)
Ben notes the high esteem in which disabled people who embrace the disabled role are held:
If you are a disabled person you‟re expected to contribute as much as anybody
else… set an example in a way… disabled charity fund raisers…you see plenty of
them in the newspapers… it used to be the most popular… it probably still is in
newspapers… representation of local disabled people… they‟re the ones who get the
OBEs and all of that… „Brave So-and-So‟ was the typical one, always used to be in
The Coventry Evening Telegraph… (l.2:293ff.)
In proposing an affirmative model which defines disability as a personal and social role
imposed upon people with impairments, and in arguing that the media play a central part in
reinforcing the expectations and relationships signified by this role, I am not suggesting a
grand conspiracy by non-disabled people to oppress people with impairments. Participants
within charity fund-raising events for disabled people believe that they are helping, just as
many disabled people believe they are being helped. I would rather describe what is
happening by borrowing Richard Hoggart‟s words: