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Disability Representation in MG and YA Lit (Alternate title: I am tired of your ableism)

Why does it matter?

Mostly, because people keep forgetting about disability as a point of diversity.

Even though disabled youth make up at least 5 percent of all schoolchildren, according to federal data. More generally, disabled people comprise one-fifth of the U.S. population.

The absence of human, cultural, linguistic, and family diversity in children's and young adult literature attests to the growing disparity and inequity in the publishing industry in the United States. Stories matter. Lived experiences across human cultures including realities about appearance, behavior, economic circumstances, gender, national origin, social class, spiritual belief, weight, life, and thought matter. —National Council of Teachers of English (2015)
As a child, I saw no disabled women — queer or otherwise — in real life or on page or screen. When disabled characters finally began to appear in books and on screen, they were caricatures: tragic cripples, angry cripples, helpless cripples, one-dimensional characters whose bodies were portrayed as sources of disgust and despair. These stories were written by nondisabled authors; they reinforced the ableist narrative because that’s all they knew, it’s all they could imagine: How terrible it would be to be disabled! —Nicola Griffin

The language of ableism

In 1977, the Interracial Books for Children Bulletin devoted an issue to stereotypes of disabled people in children's literature.

It sounds very similar to the conversations we're having today, 41 years later—including injunctions against using words like the disabled (or the deaf, the blind, etc.), crazy, deaf and dumb, and mongoloid and stereotypical depictions of disabled people to avoid.

Tropes versus disabled people

  • Object of stares, which also includes the object of pity and the object of curiosity;
  • Helpless disability, which also includes the tropes of the object of violence and lack of agency;
  • Metaphor for badness, which includes the tropes of disability as sinister or evil and the object of dread;
  • Magical cures, which also includes the tropes of cosmetic disability and the disabled protagonist who wants to be cured;
  • Disability as atmosphere, which also includes one-dimensional and background disability;
  • Inspirational disability, which includes the tropes of the supercrip, holy innocent, magical disability, and inspiration porn;
  • Laughable and objects of ridicule;
  • Disability as less than, which includes the tropes of disabled people as burdens, getting in their own way, nonsexual, incapable of fully participating in life, incapable of growth, and subhuman organism;
  • Disability as the moral test, or a way for the author to tell the reader something about the protagonist; and
  • Disability as normality*.
Just because you have books in your library that talk about disability doesn’t mean you have good books in your library that talk about disability. —Vera Elwood (@VeraHElwood)

Books chosen

Books with disabled characters by nondisabled authors.
Books with disabled characters by disabled authors (not necessarily #OwnVoices stories).

The Fries Test

  1. Does the work have more than one disabled character?
  2. Do the disabled characters have their own narrative purpose other than the education and profit of a nondisabled character?
  3. Is the character’s disability not eradicated either by curing or killing?

Passing the Fries Test does not mean it's a good book from a disability representation standpoint. This is a pretty low bar, but plenty of books manage to not clear it.

The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind by Meg Medina

  • Magical realism YA about a holy girl leaving her village to find better opportunities in the city.
  • Luis, the main disabled character, is never seen alive on the page. He's killed off to be the catalyst to get the protagonist to leave her village.
  • Tropes: object of pity, helpless disability (object of violence, lack of agency), metaphor for bad, disability as atmosphere, disability as less than (burden, subhuman organism), disability as the moral test for the protagonist.
  • The Fries Test: Fails.
Luis had been born with a lame leg, the right foot limp as a dead fish.

Pinned by Sharon G. Flake

  • Middle-grade contemporary fiction about two Black teens.
  • Both billed as disabled, but that's unclear.
  • Tropes: Inspiration porn (supercrip), helpless disability (object of violence, lack of agency), disability as a metaphor for badness, object of staring, violence, disability as atmosphere, disability as less than.
  • The Fries Test: Fails.
"He don't treat you right. And he's handicapped. Look. No Legs."

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles

  • YA contemporary fiction about two disabled young women, one white woman with developmental disabilities and one Black woman whose disabilities are the result of violence.
  • Tropes: Object of pity, object of violence, lack of agency, metaphor for badness, holy innocent, object of ridicule, disability as less than.
  • The Fries Test: Passes.
"I swear, Biddy don't know up to hide a thing. Everything she think just hop up and sit on that ashy white face for anybody to see. Her face brighten up like somebody turnt on a lamp in front of a mirror."

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

  • A middle grade contemporary fiction about a 10-year-old boy with facial disfigurement.
  • Tropes: Object of pity, helpless disability (object of violence, lack of agency), protagonist who wants to be cured, inspirational disability (super crip), object of ridicule, disability as less than (subhuman organism), disability as the moral test.
  • The Fries Test: Fails.
As for your other concerns regarding our new student August, please note that he does not have special needs. He is neither disabled, handicapped, nor developmentally delayed in any way.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

  • YA romance between a seemingly disabled protagonist and a nondisabled teenage boy.
  • Maddy isn't actually disabled; her mother likely has Munchausen by proxy syndrome.
  • Tropes: Object of pity, helpless disability (lack of agency), metaphor for badness (sinister/evil), magical cures, disability as atmosphere, inspirational disability (eternally sunny), disability as less than (burden, get in their own way, incapable of participating in life), disability as the moral test.
  • The Fries Test: Fails.
"When I first started with you I thought it was only a matter of time before depression would take you over. And there was that one summer when it came close, but it didn't happen. Every day you get up and learn something new. Everyday you find something to be happy about. Every single day you have a smile for me."

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

  • #OwnVoices YA dystopic science fiction story about living with chronic pain.
  • Shows that #OwnVoices doesn't automatically mean good representation.
  • Tropes: Helpless disability (object of violence, lack of agency, metaphor for badness (sinister/evil, object of dread), magical cures (protagonist who wants to be cured), disability as less than (burden, get in their own way, incapable of participating in live, subhuman organism).
  • The Fries Test: Fails.
"That your daughter's gift causes her to invite pain into herself, and project pain into others, suggests something about what's going on inside her," he said. "A cursory assessment says that on some level, she feels she deserves it. And she feels others deserve it as well."

Paperboy by Vince Vawter

  • #OwnVoices middle grade historical fiction about an 11-year-old boy with a stutter.
  • Mix of authentic and stereotypical depictions of disability across four characters: Victor, the protagonist; Mrs. Worthington, who has depression and addiction; and TV Boy, is Deaf; Ara T, a Black homeless man with "fits," likely schizophrenia.
  • Tropes: object of pity, helpless disability (object of violence, lack of agency), metaphor for badness, protagonist who wants to be cured, laughable, disability as less than (burden, gets in their own way).
  • The Fries Test: Fails.
I would forget what they were saying and start pretending that I was a puppet and wishing that somebody would pull the strings to make my mouth move so I didn't stutter.

The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi

  • Middle grade speculative fiction with a disabled secondary character (Ahmad, the brother, has ADHD). Ahmad runs into the Gauntlet of Blood and Sand—like Jumanji with a Middle Eastern twist—and his sister, Farah, and her friends have to rescue him and all the other children trapped in the game.
  • Written by a disabled author.
  • Tropes: Disability as atmosphere (one-dimensional character), object of ridicule, disability as less than (burden, get int heir own way), disability as the moral test for the protagonist.
  • The Fries Test: Fails.
Farah watched his every move. Living with Ahmad had taught Farah that the best way was to play with one eye forward at all times. Of course you have to worry about him snatching the dice, having a tantrum, and tossing Monopoly money up in the air for no apparent reason, or even slyly sliding a token back with an extended toe.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

  • YA romance/adventure/historical fiction/speculative fiction about three teens—two of whom are disabled—who go on a Grand Tour across Europe and get into a ton of trouble.
  • Written by a disabled author.
  • Two disabled characters: Monty, who has facial disfigurement and partial deafness caused by injury and PTSD and turns to self-destructive behaviors (casual sex, drinking) to self-medicate, and Percy, who has epilepsy.
  • Tropes: Disability as normality, helpless disability (object of violence), metaphor for bad, magical cure, disability as less than (burden).
  • Trope subversion: Magical cure, metaphor for bad, disability as less than (burden, nonsexual, unable to fully participate in their own life), disability as the moral test for the protagonist.
  • The Fries Test: Passes.
"I don't want the cure-all. If we find it, I'm not going to use it." "Why not?" "Because ... I don't think I have to be well to be happy."

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

  • YA fantasy #OwnVoices heist story that features an unwilling team-up to pull off the impossible.
  • Three disabled characters: Kaz, who has PTSD, chronic pain, and a limp; Jesper, who has ADHD and self-medicates with risky behaviors, such as gambling; and Wylan, who has a learning disability.
  • Trope: Disability as a metaphor for badness (sinister/evil, object of dread), disability as normality.
  • Trope subversion: Object of pity, helpless disability (object of violence, lack of violence), metaphor for badness (sinister/evil, object of dread), magical cures.
  • The Fries Test: Passes.
"What's with that?" Jesper asked, gesturing to Kaz's walking stick. Kaz's laugh was low and humorless. "Who'd deny a poor cripple his cane?" "If the cripple is you, then any man with sense."

Ableist language used in the above 10 novels

Least amount of ableist language: The Gauntlet

  • Lame
  • Stupid, stupidity, stupidest
  • Crazy, crazier
  • Dumb, dumbest, dumbstruck, dummy
  • Idiot
  • ADD
  • Slow
  • Mentally ill
  • Disabled
  • Illiterate
  • Retard, retarded
  • Speddie (special education)
  • Differently abled
  • Mentally challenged
  • Fool, fools
  • Loony
  • Turn a deaf ear
  • Madness, mad, madmen
  • Mute
  • Lunatic
  • Cripple, crippled
  • Imbecile, imbeciles
  • Deaf
  • Insanity, insane
  • Blinding, blindly, blinds
  • Mania, manic
  • Delusion, deluded
  • Panic attack
  • Freak
  • Moron
  • Addiction
  • Unstable
  • Obsession
  • Crackpot
  • Demented
  • Handicapped

Header image by Leonardo Santamaria.

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