FilmDis

01/12/2023

New article by Ashtyn about disability representation.

A sample:
"disabled media in a post Me Before You world. Have things got better? Have they gotten worse? Has this one atrocious movie made a change in the disability politics of Hollywood at all?

Somewhere along the way, the plans for the article changed. As much of a problem as pieces like Me Before You are, they are a symptom of a problem as opposed to a root cause of it.

Hollywood is a business that thrives on consumption. Creators live or die on what audiences are willing to watch. No matter how good of a writer, actor, or director you are, the reality is that if no one watches your shows, then people stop paying to have them made."

To keep reading:

Dom & Ashtyn added a post for monthly subscribers!

12/07/2023

Check out this awesome article by Ashtyn & Dom!

“I’ve got a great story for you! It’s about my life as a disabled person. It’s never been made, and I think it would be something great that you could make to show the world what it’s like to be me!”   This is a recurring email we get. It’s a message we receive on … Continued

23/05/2023

Hollywood, pay your writers!

28/03/2023

Creed III, which features Deaf actress Mila Davis-Kent playing Amara, is a lesson in how Deaf characters should be represented.

27/03/2023

We are making the video accessible from the launch party for our paper – the FilmDIs Study into Disability Representation on Television: The Pandemic Years.

Note: please note that in the first 10 minutes is some background noise that Dom as a hard of hearing person did not catch but after that we ask everybody to turn down the microphone so the rest of the presentation is easy to hear.
You can also use the captioning which we had written up for us and added to the video.

Breakdown of Event:
– Opening by Lottie Moody
– Intro by Dom Evans
– Reading from Paper
– Data Presentation by Dom & Ashtyn
– Awards for best disabled representation
– Q & A

Note: there are some annoying background issues that Dom did not hear because he is hard of hearing, at the beginning, but people are asked to new their micr...

16/03/2023

Back in November the FilmDis community helped us come up with the plot points for a short film. That script, Rights for Waffles, was such an unexpected success, that we have decided to create a series of shorts. We need you to help us decide what the second chapter of this project will be!

All you need to do is go to the link provided and choose the options that you would most want to see in the final product. No wrong answers! You can pick whatever you want. It's anonymous, so we won't know who voted for what, and you can vote as many times as you want between now and April 2!

Feel free to share - the more votes the better!

FilmDis is writing a screenplay this April and we’re looking to our community to help. You tell us what you want and we will use those perimeters to write a screenplay. Fill out the following form and note your choices by Sunday April 2. At the end of the night we will discover the top choices in ...

13/03/2023

Check out the various ways that disabled characters identify as LGBTQIA in our study into disability representation on television!



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ID: A pie chart showing the number of disabled characters that identify as LGBTQIA+ by their identity. Red (Gay) with 34 characters, Orange (Le***an) with 17 characters, Yellow (Bisexual/Pansexual) with 16 characters, Green (Q***r) with 4 characters, Blue (Homosexual) with 2 characters, Purple (Homoromantic) with 1 character, and Black (Sexually Fluid) with 1 character.

12/03/2023

We do feel that the disabled community can be a little horse before the cart with their activism in Hollywood.

The entire industry needs a shift in perspective when it comes to disabled representation, and accepting the crumbs given while not addressing the broader issues with representation and inclusion, is doing nothing to help create real change in the industry.

12/03/2023

You may not be surprised to know that the least represented disability communities have remained the same throughout our studies as well.

While intellectual disability representation has never been so abysmal, the other categories, particularly Blind/Low Vision and Deaf/HOH have changed places in which has the most representation for the bottom five.

We have lots of thoughts at the differences between the most represented and least represented communities!

It's notable to note that there is no LGBTQIA representation in any of these categories except for 1 Deaf le***an.



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ID: A pie chart showing the number of characters with the least represented disabilities. Blue (Blind/Low Vision) with 21 characters, Yellow (Deaf/HoH) with 17 characters, Green (Learning) with 11 characters, Brown (Dwarfism) with 11 characters, and Purple (Intellectual Disabilities) with 4 characters.

12/03/2023

For all of our studies these have remained the top five communities for disabled representation on television.

Because there are more characters, there's more chance for diversity in these categories.

We look forward to exploring what motivates these characters in our next study due to be released possibly by the end of this year.



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ID: A pie chart showing the number of characters with the most represented disabilities. Blue (Addiction) with 289 characters, Yellow (Chronic) with 250 characters, Green (Neurodivergent) with 240 characters, Orange (Multiple) with 119 characters, and Purple (Cancer) with 98 characters.

12/03/2023

A huge amount of work goes into our study into disability representation on television.

Just for watching shows we did the equivalent of 115 days of continuous nonstop 24/7 television watching work. That doesn't count the over a month of work we did , on the paper, easy language guide, and fact sheet, as well as the money we paid out-of-pocket for all accessibility and editing.

We are lucky to receive a small grant from GADIM, but we definitely need more support to be able to continue the essential work we do.

If you're interested and able, here are some of the ways you can support us:

Want to be a sponsor? We are looking for sponsors for our 2022/2023 study into disability representation on television. This study will be even bigger than our last study as we will be recording motivations behind representation. You can email us if you're interested in sponsoring this important work:
https://www.filmdis.com/contact-us/

Want to monetarily support FilmDis orthe work we do but maybe don't have the ability to sponsor us? You can contribute to our Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/FilmDis

Also, you can donate directly to us and to our data analyst, William (who has been unemployed/searching for a job and could really use the boost) here:
paypal.me/FilmDis

Pay William Neeley
paypal.me/neew98

Finally, maybe you want to get Ashtyn or I something to brighten our day you can purchase something from one of our wish lists here:
Ash: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3GB3BBJ1AZ85Q?ref_=wl_share
Dom: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/QDMJDRLAYO95?ref_=wl_share

The free way to support us is to share anything we post on this page here on Facebook and on other social media! – Please don't think this doesn't do much.

We have had a lot of trouble getting people to share our work, so this is hugely important and helpful to us. So thank you in advance if you do this.

Become a patron of Film Dis Media today: Get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.

11/03/2023

We thought we would give you more information about the racial breakdown of disabled characters on television.

This is what the landscape for for what disability representation on television looks like.



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ID: The racial breakdown of disabled characters on television. Dark blue background with white horizontal lines at the top and bottom of the slide. Text at the top: "Racial Breakdown"

There are three white boxes centered in the middle of the slide.

First box black text: "White representation [bullet points] 887 white characters, 66% of disabled characters on TV are white, 50 more white disabled characters than last study, white representation isn't better in terms of story, but it's definitely more present"

Second box black text: "Black representation [bullet points] 238 Black characters, 30 more Black disabled characters than the last study, mainly adults and elders are represented leaving children and teens without representation, creators need to do better"

Third box black text: IPOC representation [bullet points] 217 characters, 50 more I POC characters than the last study, not nearly enough characters as this is split by Asian, Latine, Indigenous/first Nations and other identities, much more work needs to be done

11/03/2023

Every person deserves to see themselves represented in the media!



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D: a slide from a presentation. Background is white with black text. A horizontal black line is at the top and bottom of the slide. Italicized text at the top: "Words to remember"

Quote in the center with a thick tiny – above and below the quote.

Text in the middle: "Together we can ensure that no child has to live with the confusing notion that they aren't important or valid enough to see themselves represented on TV."

The quote is by Ashtyn Law

11/03/2023

It's really frustrating to see TV showrunners cast nondisabled actors as disabled leading roles over and over again.

They then tokenize actually disabled actors by putting them in secondary roles – supporting sometimes, but usually one-dimensional bit characters.

These are throwaway characters and these creators get away with it because they say well, but I cast all these disabled people after the fact! And disabled people often celebrate any little conclusion.

It's a consistent problem, and the message it gives disabled people is that we don't deserve to be the lead character in our own stories.

We don't deserve to be seen.

If we can't play ourselves who can disabled actors play?

And this is a consistent pattern we see time and time again when disability is represented – often in the same communities over and over – the Blind community, the autistic community... Sometimes physical disabilities.

Recent examples off the top of our head?

In The Dark
See
Atypical
American Horror Story: Freakshow
The Good Doctor

This is a pattern, a trope, and it harms the communities represented.

11/03/2023

Our latest study into disability representation on television is our third study.

This is a slide from our launch day presentation that shows the difference between our three studies.

Our first covered the 2018-2019 television seasons, and we watched a total of 180 shows together.

Our last two studies we watched 250 shows.

However, our previous study we only watched 250 seasons of television, and this study, which covered a two-year period, we ended up watching 282 seasons.

There were fewer shows with disabled characters but more disabled characters overall.

Disability representation can impact everything in a disabled person's life..


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ID: dark blue background. There are white horizontal lines at the top and bottom of the slide. Text at the top: "Study Comparisons Where we've been & where we're at"

On the left side a table: it lists study years, characters, number of shows with disabled characters, total number of shows watched.

Data includes: 2018-2019, 708 disabled characters, 151 shows with disabled characters, 180 shows watched – 2019-2000 2 1,198 disabled characters, 218 shows with disabled characters, 250 shows watched – 2020-2022 1,342 disabled characters, 216 shows with disabled characters, 250 shows watched

10/03/2023

So, we are concluding our discussion today about LGBTQIA disabled representation by posting the breakdown of white disabled LGBTQIA characters.

No surprise but white disabled representation is the most prevalent LGBTQIA disabled representation. Even then, it's not that diverse.

There are 58 characters. This is about 4% of disabled representation. That's at least double the amount of Black and IPOC LGBTQIA disabled representation added together.

So, while most of the LGBTQIA representation is going here, it's primarily Gay representation.

In fact, white gay representation on its own offers more characters than Black and IPOC LGBTQIA disabled representation added together.

It should be noted that Bisexual/Pansexual disabled representation is added together, and that is for all gender identities added together, so not even all of our Bisexual/Pansexual representation of white disabled characters can compete with Gay representation.

This is the only category this year with any trans female representation and it outnumbers all other transs representation with three characters.

Trans disabled characters of any racial identity are so rare that there is very little we can tell you about this representation other than it needs to be more plentiful.

This category really shows how slanted representation is towards cisgender white characters when it comes to representing disability in Hollywood.



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ID: A bar chart showing the number of White Disabled LGBTQIA characters by their Sexuality. Options are Gay (Dark Red) with 28 characters, Bisexual (Red) with 12 characters, Le***an (Orange) with 10 characters, Trans-Le***an (Yellow) with 2 characters, Trans-Non-Binary (Green) with 1 character, Trans (Bluel) with 1 character, Non-Binary (Purple) with 1 character, GNC-Gay (Rose) with 1 character, GNC (Dark Pink) with 1 character, and Asexual (Black) with 1 character.

10/03/2023

We are continuing our discussion on LGBTQIA disabled representation with a look at Indigenous + other non-Black POC LGBTQIA disability representation.

The IPOC category remains the smallest.

We always find this egregious given the fact that there's so many different racial breakdowns in communities represented, but in such small numbers they don't compete with other representation – particularly white disabled representation.

There is slightly more diversity and representation than Black disabled representation, as IPOC also contains 1 non-binary character.

They are a non-binary male who uses he/they pronounce and is neurodivergent although his particular disability is NOS or not otherwise specified.

There is also a Trans male character, who is an amputee.

It's interesting to note that there are also no trans females – which is interesting because in previous studies that was the only trans representation – Black and Brown trans women.

We lost the show Pose from this study though so that explains that.

At the end of the day, only having 10 characters that are disabled LGBTQIA and IPOC is not doing these communities any favors!



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ID: A bar graph showing the number of Disabled IPOC LGBTQIA Characters by Sexuality. Le***an (Red) with 3 characters, Bisexual (Orange) with 3 characters, Gay (Yellow) with 2 characters, Trans (Blue) with 1 character, and NB (Purple) with 1 character.

10/03/2023

Today we are going to talk all about LGBTQIA disabled representation, particularly how it is split amongst racial breakdowns.

We found 1342 disabled characters, but for Black LGBTQIA disabled representation, there are only 14 characters.

The graph below shows the breakdown between Le***an, gay, bisexual, and trans.

Black representation only includes one disabled trans character. They are a Black Trans male with cancer.

There is less diversity represented when it comes to LGBTQIA representation for Black disabled characters as opposed to White or IPOC LGBTQIA representation.



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ID: A bar graph showing the number of Black LGBTQIA characters by orientation. Options are Le***an (Red) with 6 characters, Gay (Yellow) with 5 characters, Bisexual (Green) with 2 characters, and Trans (Blue) with 1 character.

09/03/2023

We wanted to show you how disability representation on television is broken down by race when it comes to whether the actors playing disabled characters are really disabled or not!

Check out these three graphs which help explain this!



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ID: A pie chart showing the number of characters with an unknown disability status by their race. Green (Black) with 160 characters, Red (IPOC) with 130 characters, and Yellow (White) with 553 characters.

A donut pie chart showing the number of characters played through Disabled Mimicry by Race. Purple (Black) with 66 characters, Grey (IPOC) with 71 characters, and Blue (White) with 258 characters.

A donut pie chart showing the number of actors by disability status. Green (No) with 395 actors, Blue (Unknown) with 843 actors, and Purple (Yes) with 110 actors.

09/03/2023

"An earlier episode in the same series featured a plotline that some have criticized for promoting a harmful trope. The episode — spoiler alert — focused on two men living outside Boston, played by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett, who meet after the outbreak and fall in love. But years later when one becomes seriously ill and starts to use a wheelchair, they both decide to die by su***de.

Evans said disabled people can internalize that message and think less of their own lives.

“So every person who watches a ‘better dead than disabled’ narrative is absorbing that… imagine if the only messages you see are stories like this. And this is a major storyline we see over and over and over,” Evans said. “This is why I'm so drawn to the work, because I was a kid who was influenced by the media.”"

Industry professionals say the “gatekeepers” in Hollywood are major barriers.

09/03/2023

This is how we break up disability representation in our study. We are always up for thoughts on this so please feel free to reach out an email us.

We break down disability rep into the following categories, and break down the data by various intersections.



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ID: a screenshot from a slide presentation the background is dark blue with white faded into it in kind of splashes. Text on the top middle of the graphic: "The Categories" Said categories include:

"the disabilities [bullet points] addiction, amputee, blind/low vision, body & Facial Differences, cancer, chronic, Deaf/HOH, dwarfism, intellectual disability, learning disability, multiple disabilities, neurological, neurodivergent, and physical.

"The intersections – gender identity [bullet points] cisgender male, cisgender female, non-binary, trans female, trans male, trans non-binary person, gender nonconforming

– Racial identity [bullet points] white, Black, IPOC (Indigenous, Latine, Asian)
– Sexual Identity [bullet points] le***an, gay, bisexual, q***r, pansexual, asexual
– age group [bullet points] baby (under two), child (3-12), teenager (13-19), adult (20-60), Elder (60+)

09/03/2023

Both of us are bisexual, so we haven't been particularly thrilled at the number of disabled bisexual characters that were counted in our last study.

This is out of 1342 disabled characters.



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ID: A pie chart showing the number of Bisexual Disabled Characters by disability mimicry. Blue (Unknown) with 10 characters, Purple (No) with 6 characters, and Pink (Yes) with 1 character.

08/03/2023

Years ago, we started , a chat on twitter to discuss the exclusion of disability at the OSCARS and other award shows.

We started a revolution with our discussion so much so that multiple people have tried to take the work away from us, but nobody can replicate originality!

Since then, every year around the Oscars we have a new conversation and with the release of our FilmDis study into disability representation on television, will be discussing the state of disability representation in the Hollywood all weekend long!

This follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as we discussed the abysmal state of representation in Hollywood.

The award shows don't care about us. So, let's have a meaningful conversation instead.

07/03/2023

Before we released the study Dom asked people on his social media to guess how many hours of television he and Ashtyn watched. Nobody was right but with some help he got some people close.

The truth is, this is a full-time job. Together, Ashtyn and Dom watched 2768 hours of TV.

That broke down individually as:

Dom: 1279 hours
Ashtyn: 1489 hours

At the current rate, we make $3 per hour just for the watching of all of this television. This doesn't count all of the other work we do.

We would like to keep doing these studies, but without funding we are nervous about the future of the study.

You can email us to find out how you can help sponsor our study or support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FilmDis

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ID: an image from a slide presentation. At the top: "what sets FilmDis apart?" There is a black line above this.

On the left side beneath that: a pink couch with a masculine appearing person with dark hair and a beard is looking at a feminine appearing person with blue hair. Both of them have big smiles and their teeth are showing. In front of them is a television that says "Binge Watching" on the screen with a circle with a triangle in it beneath that and the words "Play All" underneath. The TV screen is blue and is on a dark pink stand.

On the right side is text: "2768 hours of TV that we watched for this study 250 the number of shows that we watched and analyzed teaser to credits Dom & Ashtyn watch every single episode of the shows they analyze for the study to not only count the amount of disability on TV, but to analyze the representation that is offered"

05/03/2023

It's finally here! The launch of our latest study – in the form of a 160+ page paper, fact sheet, and easy language guide all available on our website!

Please feel free to look through the paper, the fact sheet, and/or the guide in both Google documents and/or accessible PDF.

To access the paper/study:
https://www.filmdis.com/our-work/research-projects/

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ID: starry cosmos background in purple, blue, green and red. White bar in the center with purple text: "FilmDis White Paper on Disability Representation on Television: Examining 250 TV Shows." Second white box down below with green text: "The Pandemic Years – June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2022 –"

03/03/2023

We are really getting excited for our launch this weekend!

Are you ready?!

We've got more sneak peeks the next few days, which we will share as a part of our weekly activities!

For now, check out the top nationalities for disabled characters from our latest study!

You can check out the full study at our website live on March 5th!
https://www.filmdis.com/our-work/research-projects/
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ID: A bar graph showing the number of disabled characters by nationality. The bars are blue. Options are American (1088), British (80), Canadian (40), Fantasy/Fictional (23), Unknown (10), Australian (9), Mexican (7), Irish (7), French (7), and Dutch (7).

02/03/2023

A sneak peek!

On Sunday you can finally read our latest study into disability representation on television!

We thought we would give you a sneak peek at the breakdown of white cisgender disabled males based on sexuality!

With only 4 white cisgender disabled bisexual males, let's just say television has a long way to be more inclusive when it comes to disability on television!

You can check out our full paper here on March 5!
https://www.filmdis.com/our-work/research-projects/

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ID: A donut pie chart showing the number of disabled White Cisgender Male characters by their Sexuality. Green (Heterosexual) with 308 characters, Brown (Unknown) with 182 characters, Blue (Gay) with 28 characters, and Tan (Bisexual/Pansexual) with 4 characters.

19/02/2023

We are so excited to announce the release of our upcoming paper/study!

Exciting things are happening!

You can read our new paper at filmdis.com on March 5, 2023!

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A background with a cosmetic and circular wavy pattern with black and white cosmic clouds in the background. There is a pink/red to purple to blue gradient on the background.

In the middle top is a white box with black text that reads, "FilmDis
White Paper on Disability Representation on Television: Examining 250 Shows"

Underneath in white text: "The Pandemic Years – June 1, 2020 10 May 31, 2022 –
Released March 5"

06/01/2023

ID: An image that is half-Black and half-white. On the Black side there is an image of a lightbulb and the words Did You Know? On the opposite side are some decorative vines with small leaves and in between them text that reads, "You can't "play" someone disabled. Unlike a job, a person cannot take their disability off at the end of the day. It is always with them and it carries a cultural difference that non-disabled people will never understand." At the bottom there is text for the website filmdis.com

05/01/2023

"When you’re trying to improve the representation landscape in media you get a lot of naysayers. Part of that comes from the misunderstanding that you can watch something that has problematic elements and still understand that those issues are problematic. When we say something is problematic, fans of that thing want us to understand that if people like it, or if they feel seen by it in some way, that our opinion is incorrect.

First of all, we’re not giving you our opinion on anything. When we talk about representation we’re doing it with a firm understanding of film/TV/media analysis, filmmaking, and screenwriting. As we have been doing our FilmDis Study on Disabled Representation on TV since 2018, we also have a keen understanding of the correlation between disabled representation on television and how that representation leads to the treatment of disabled people in society.

So, when we say that a portrayal is harmful, we’re saying that not as an opinion but as an educated fact. We don’t just say…”The Good Doctor is a bad show.” We tell you why it’s hurting people. Whether I find parts of this show relatable or entertaining (on a personal level I don’t) is beside the point. My focus is on what people are gaining from the disability portrayals on whatever show we are talking about and whether those portrayals could be improved upon if the hired actor had the disability the character on the show has (usually that answer is yes)."

A community member wants to know what the greatest thing people misunderstand about disability representation on TV. Here it is.

03/01/2023

Disabled people should not be reduced to specific traits. Sure, disabled people can do things that are inspirational, but reducing us to being nothing more than inspirations for nondisabled society is problematic and harmful!

We are so much more than stereotypes and misconceptions!

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ID: ID: A purple image with a darker purple line in the center. On the left the image reads in bold “What Disabled People Are:” and underneath it says “Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers, Friends, Entrepreneurs, Employees, Heterosexual, Gay, Le***an, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Anything they want” On the right side it reads “What Disabled People Aren’t” and underneath it says “Burdens, Pities, Teachable Moments, Special Needs, Punchlines, Incapable, Unfortunate, Child-Like, Innocent, Unknowing, Inspirational.” At the bottom there is text that says “Join the chat: https://www.facebook.com/FilmDis

02/01/2023

This year, we'd like to do this little challenge about movies that offer disability representation!

We look forward to seeing all your movie suggestions!

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ID: A square image bordered in white with a black and orange center. In the middle of the image is a film clapper, 3D glasses, and popcorn, to the side are two cats wearing 3D glasses holding popcorn, ice cream, and the other’s hand as they watch a movie. The top text reads: 12 Movie Challenge.

The additional text on the side and bottom reads: “Must include Disability Representation. Send us your movie ideas. We will pick/watch 1 per month. Look out monthly for our reviews to your picks. http://www.filmdis.com

29/12/2022

You deserve to exist and have love simply because you are you!

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ID: ID: A light pink/off-white background with blocky blue text that reads: Your existence is no one's burden." Under the text is a handdrawn tree with different colored pink hearts where the leaves would be. To the left of the tree is a dark haired female-appearing person in a blue dress sitting in a wheelchair. The seat is orange and it has pink wheels. She is dancing with a male-appearing person who is standing wearing blue shoes, black and white striped pants, and a pink shirt. He has blue hair. One of their hands are holding the other and they both have a hand pointed towards the sky. Beside them is a little brown-haired male-appearing child in a light blue shirt and blue shorts. He is using crutches. On the other side of the tree is a male-appearing child sitting and reading a red book. He's wearing a yellow shirt and jeans. Above his head in a rainbow pattern are a series of letters in green, yellow, blue, and red.

A pinkish bar is at the bottom of the image with text in blue reading "FilmDis Disability in Media Consulting." with the url http://www.filmdis.com/

21/12/2022

Some interesting and important thoughts on representation.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/dec/13/fantasy-dwarfism-problem?fbclid=IwAR1-6WJZ9l7yeVMOlxXYywumsq-jtokIk3yOk8sefGhY28P6y9WArfOtycc

From the idea that people with dwarfism are fictional creatures to deeply weird on-screen portrayals, our depiction has long been insulting. Might Willow and The Witcher change all that?