Inspiration Porn Stars
Life got you feeling down? Ever feel like you can’t achieve your goals and dreams? Want to feel less shit about your depressing life? Well, our lovely Inspiration Porn Stars are sure to clear your blues. We have a wide range of 1-dimensional disabled beauties going about their lives, that are sure to fill you with a sense of inspiration to do anything.
To those unfamiliar, ‘inspiration porn’ is a term coined by the late Stella Young. It describes when media of disabled people is designed to inspire an abled-bodied audience, and in doing so objectifies those living with disabilities and passive-aggressively shames them. It can also be seen with disabled side characters who only serve to prop up the abled protagonist.
Barbara Gordon from Batman
Her paralysing injury at the hands of the Joker was literally done for the impact it would have on the men around her in her life. Doesn’t get to be Batgirl again until she’s ‘fixed’ through unspecified means. Because we can’t have a cool superhero in a wheelchair despite all the money Batman has.
Auggie from the book/film Wonder
He spends the entire film being understandably upset about how he’s treated like a monster by his peers and a fragile object by his family. He is finally acknowledged and stops being bullies by the school after ‘inspiring hope’ in them – except he didn’t, he just made a cool thing for a science fair which is what he should have been awarded for.
Professor X
For a character in an action series, he mostly spends his time being the literal guy in the chair and giving advice instead of using his incredible powers in an exciting way. The bitch could make his enemies fight each other while making ‘why are you hitting yourself’ jokes! Not to mention all the stupid times he’s been cured by space bullshit.
Artie Abrams from Glee
Artie is one of the poorest attempts to write a paraplegic wheelchair user I've ever seen in my life. The vast majority of his storylines relate to his disability and his desire to be fixed, visualised by the number of dance sequences the show has his abled-bodied actor do. Along with perpetuating the stereotype that all wheelchair users want to walk, they come in with the one-two punch of making him a misogynistic prick. As if being disabled somehow makes him less of a man and he has to make up for it by being rude to the vast majority of his love interests in the show. For a show with such a rollercoaster in terms of representation, this is a massive fucking low.
Give me more characters like Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender who got to be badass and have a complicated relationship with her blindness. Or The Spiderverse’s Sunspider, whose 10 seconds of screentime with that wicked spider chair made me happier than any other film I’ve seen in recent years. Let our stories inspire awe and wonder not because we are disabled people living a normal life, but because we’re capable of doing the same feats of excellence as those who aren’t perceived as different.