Though two entirely different things, stereotypes and disabilities often go hand in hand in today’s society. Every day we are exposed to our diverse culture, our children are being raised to accept differences and welcome change, but somehow negative connotations to disabilities manage to slip through the cracks. Individuals with disabilities are often thought off as a lesser being, incapable of performing what a “normal” person can. They’re stereotyped to be outcasts and less successful than the average Joe. In media they’re painted to be the comical relief of the show or movie, yet never the protagonist. It’s almost as if popular culture has this image of what the “perfect” individual looks like and apparently disabled isn’t part of that. Unfortunately, this is where our up and coming society takes a step back.
An enormous number of Americans alone are disabled, yet disabilities in media are hardly portrayed. The stereotypes of them are formed because the little representation they already have had has been negative. Society has come a long way, but there is still a lot more to overcome and even more boundaries to break. For this reason, representation matters. Positive representation of characters with disabilities in the media is fundamental. It shapes the minds of the coming generations to view everyone even a disabled person as abled. For the past couple of years, media has taken a right turn into the positive representation of our diverse culture from Sean Penn’s portrayal of a mentally challenged father in I Am Sam to Eddie Redmayne’s portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Audiences are left captivated not by the disability of the protagonist but their perseverance and triumphs throughout the film.
Though the portrayals mentioned above have positively shaped the minds of audiences, one can argue that there’s more to be done. The actors mentioned above did a wonderful job portraying those disabilities, but how different would it be if someone with the actual disability played the role. Would it really be so impossible to have a disabled actor play a leading role? The answer would be no; Game of Thrones has been a living proof of this since 2011. Game of Thrones’ Tyrion Lannister adds something different to media portrayals. Peter Dinklage doesn’t portray an individual with dwarfism, he himself has dwarfism. What this does to the portrayal of his character is that it makes it entirely accurate. In other words, who other can play a character with a disability better than someone with the disability. Strategically speaking, this benefits the showing from any backlash in regards if the actor accurately portrayed the disorder or not.
Depicted as an American fantasy drama series, it is set on fictional continents of “Westeros and Essos” in which its large cast conveys a dynamic conflict amongst the battle for the succession of the Iron Throne. Tyrion Lannister is one of Game of Thrones’ leading actors. He is the youngest of House Lannister, the richest in the Seven Kingdoms. Tyrion is also a dwarf, which has caused him a lot of struggles to prove himself worthy of his given name. Although born to a noble and powerful house, because of his disability Tyrion is not initially seen as an important character in the series. As the previous seasons have showed, Tyrion has done much more than what was expected of him since the show first aired. Tyrion Lannister’s role in Game of Thrones is more significant than meets the eye. The show is fictionally set in the late medieval period, an era where babies with any form of irregularities were often killed or abandoned. Despite Tyrion being born in an era that typically shunned people like him, his character has grown to become very powerful and well respected by characters in the show.
Aside from actually having casted someone with dwarfism to play the role of one, Game of Thrones has done a lot of other cutting edge actions to develop his character throughout the series. In the show itself Tyrion Lannister faced a lot of stereotypes such as being considered a lesser man, an “imp”, half a man emotionally and intellectually because of his disability. His character has been ridiculed and put in troublesome scenarios because of it, yet continuously awes the audience by his tenacity and relentlessness. His disability assists the plot of the show by allowing the audience to view the personal struggles of its leading characters and how it has shaped their development in the battle to the Iron Throne. In the first two seasons Tyrion Lannister is stereotyped to be stupid, because he’s not “fully developed” as a man. The shows plot has put him into several scenarios where Tyrion encounters this, and proves his intellect in the most startling ways. Despite the stereotypes, Tyrion’s character is actually portrayed to be very knowledgeable and witty, having read most, if not all, of the books in his family’s library. What this does is it allows people to view his character and see that his physical impairment has nothing to do with his mental capacity. As I mentioned earlier, Tyrion is currently one of the leading roles in the show (and let’s be frank, a lot of important leading characters have been killed off). Despite mainstreams culture tending to axe any one that’s not remotely close to “normal”, Game of Thrones has put a massive twist on what is acceptable. Many of the characters in the show have some sort of disability or uniqueness but still remain eloquent and an important role to the TV series success.
Having discussed earlier the importance of representation, Peter Dinklage’s appearance in the show has done a lot to our cultures conception of disabilities. It’s always refreshing to see someone defeating all odds, especially in careers as difficult as acting is. I’m sure Dinklage’s role in Game of Thrones has given a lot of children with the same disability motivation to go out there and try new things as well as follow their dreams. Although representation of dwarfism in our culture is pretty scarce, there are plenty of resources for people with it. Little People of America is a nonprofit organization that provides information, support, and resources to people of short stature and their families. One being sponsored by “Little People of America” is a camp program hosted in California, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. What these camps do is allow kids to get to know other people with their disability; because knowing someone that goes through the same struggles as you is always comforting. The camps provide an overall fun experience for the children in their families in a welcoming environment. Another resource by this same organization is a scholarship opportunity for people diagnosed with dwarfism as well as their immediate family members.
I personally feel that Game of Thrones’ success has been heavily due to its unique choice of characters. Their distinct features and attributes break a lot of boundaries in comparison to what we usually see in mainstream media. Paving way to the fact that it would not be difficult if mainstream media enlists more people with disabilities to play leading roles. Being a faithful watcher of Game of Thrones and having taken this course I’ve realized that Peter Dinklage’s portrayal of Tyrion Lannister is more important than normally perceived. Individuals with disabilities face a lot of obstacles in life, having to prove themselves to be just like everyone else. For someone like Peter Dinklage to face all the odds and be cast to a leading role in a very popular show is admirable. His appearance in the show alone, has definitely inspired more people like him to pursue their goals. More importantly, it has brought awareness to the disability. Stereotypes that might have been previously linked to dwarfism may be slowly but surely evaporating. All this because someone in the public eye is proving it wrong. Defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing, stereotypes cause a lot of damage to individuals that face it. Stereotypes are more than an oversimplification of one’s image; they can play a dangerous role in someone’s life. Stereotypes strip people of their true identity which can result in the person not achieving their true potential. Suppose you’re raising an intelligent kid to think he is stupid, despite him having the mental capacity to one day find a cure for cancer, he will never explore his potential because he will eventually think he in fact is stupid, when he is not. The sad truth about stereotypes is that you eventually start believing it, forcing yourself to accept to be something or someone you’re not. Individuals with disabilities face it every day. Always having to prove themselves when in reality there is nothing to prove. A disability is an impairment of any form that can restrict an individual’s ability to participate in what is “normal” in their society. More importantly, a disability is not something that people choose, thus a progressive society such as ours shouldn’t find it acceptable to stereotype them. I mentioned earlier we live in a culturally diverse era. It’s time for people to be more accepting of one another. It’s important for the generations to come to not judge others based on appearance but on the person’s character and actions. Nonetheless, society has come a long way. With media’s significance in our everyday culture we could be taking a huge leap forward (or an even bigger step back) when it comes to the representation of members with disabilities.