Jay Dolgmage - An Archive and Anatomy of Disability Myths
What are Jay Dolmage's Disability Myths
Jay Dolmage’s Disability Myths are not actually typical myths in Dolmage’s own words, “I call these myths, but I also situate them also as stereotypes and tropes. These may not be fully “mythological,” in the rich rhetorical sense of myth I will try to put forward throughout this book. But these are myths in the manner of Roland Barthes’s Mythologies: meanings are attached to these images, and they become routinized and easily consumed (1972, 92).”(Dolmage, 2016) Using names from various sources that will be on the sources page of this website, Dolmage lists 10 different myths. The goal with these myths was not to focus purely on the negatives of disabilities, there is a fine line between the negative and positives therefore it is necessary to look at both sides of the coin. Though these myths may seem to focus purely on the negatives of disability, the fact that these negatives appear so easily in our society means that it is important to understand them.
Why a website?
When Jay Dolmage made the disability myths that this website is about, he made it in a book. The first problem with this is color. Color plays a huge part in engaging an audience and effecting how they consume your content. Colors all influence emotions and thoughts and most people do not realize it. For example, this website’s main color is blue which subconsciously promotes reliability and trustworthiness. This is a level of control Dolmage did not have when he was making these myths because he was limited to black and white. The second reason is formatting. When Dolmage’s words were put into a book they were condensed and restricted. All his great words were jammed onto pages in small text in large blocks. This makes the content a lot less user friendly and will cause people to want to skim the content or skip it all together.... With a website I have complete control over fonts, their sizes, and layouts. Being on a website also allows the content to have features that you could never do in a book like animations and scalability. The third reason is accessibility to external content. This is most apparent when Dolmage gives examples of disability myths. Since everything is in a book when Dolmage makes a reference to something he must hope that you either already understand the reference or can find a source that will allow you to further understand it. With a website I can directly link to external references such as YouTube or Wikipedia. This allows me to make sure that even if the user does not understand the reference, they have easy access to references that show exactly what I am trying to use as an example. The fourth reason is accessibility. With content in a book, you must physically own that specific book in order to have that content. With a website all you need is access to one of the billions of devices around the world with an internet connection and you can access it. This also allows the content to be consumed in a large variety of ways such as a desktop device or a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. For these reasons I think it is beneficial to adapt Jay Dolmag’s content to a website to make it modern and accessible. How was this website made? My knowledge of WebDesign goes back to when I was 13 years old as that was when I first started doing it and made my own website. Since then, I have gained a lot of experience in hand coding websites using modern design principles. To code this site, I used Adobe Dreamweaver which is a WebDesign text editor that allows you to see and edit your changes to your website in real time. To gather free use images for the site I used a image aggregator called to source images that I could use without licenses or paying any money. For the languages that were used to make up the site I used a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. HTML is a markup language that creates the framework of the website and can be thought of as the foundation of the house. Then CSS was used to add the design of the website and give it color like the frame and roof of a house. Finally comes JavaScript which adds functionality to the site such as the slides and can be thought of as the doors and appliances in a house. Once I used all of this to create the site all that was left was to host the site so anyone could access it via the internet. For this I used GitHub, which is the world's largest code repository, because they allow you to host your website for free on their servers if it receives low user traffic. All of this was used to create the website you are now viewing.
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Myth #1: Kill-or-Cure
This disability myth is common in today’s literature and media. The idea behind this myth is that by the end of a story a character with a disability will either be cured of the disability or be killed off.
Examples Forest Gump - At the beginning of the movie when Forest is remembering his childhood he has a walking disability that forces him to wear leg braces. A few scenes later young forest is getting chased by bullies on bikes while he is stuck on foot. He starts trying to run and his leg braces fall off and he starts sprinting like he never had a walking disability. From this point forward in the movie he was cured of his disability.
Darth Vader – After switching to the dark side and losing a fight against his old master Obi Wan Kenobi. Anakin Skywalker is severely disfigured and disabled from falling in lava. Although being put in a suit “cures” him of his disabilities being the main villain in future movies he is eventually killed.
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Myth #2: Physical Deformity as Sign of Internal Flaw
This is a common stereotype not only in the media but also within our own minds. This myth points out the way of thinking that if someone has some physical disability, they must also lack mental capabilities that someone without the disability would have.
Hunchback of Notre Dame - The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a crippled bell boy who lives in the tower of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Due to his disfigurement most people who see him either think he is a monster or stupid. Though his perceived lack of intelligence is from him being deemed a monster and not receiving a proper education.
The Hulk – The Hulk is a massive green man of pure rage and will smash anything he feels like. At the surface he may just seem like a big dumb creature that wants to destroy everything but that is far from the truth. The Hulk when he is not angry is a scientist who got the ability to turn into the hulk from a failed experiment.
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Myth #3: Disability as a Sign From Above
This is a very common theme in sacred literature like the Bible and Greek mythology. This is the notion that if someone has a disability then it was God’s decision or punishment and that there is a reason behind the disability.
St. Paul – The story of St. Paul is an interesting one. Before the incident St. Paul was a very sinful man as all he saw in his eyes where sin. In order to change his vision to no longer see sin Jesus caused St. Paul to get struck by lightning causing him to go blind for 3 days. After having his vision wiped St. Paul was able to no longer see sin and went on to become an apostle.
Moses – It is not commonly known that Moses had a stutter and even lesser known as to why that is. When Moses was a child, he lived in Egypt as the adopted son of a Pharoh. As a kid he liked to play with the Pharoh’s crown and the Pharoh’s advisors were worried once day Mosses would steal the crown. Rather than put him to death they devised a test where they put a bowl full of gold and another bowl full of hot coals in front of him. If he grabbed the gold then he would be put to death and if he grabbed the coals, it would be deemed, he just liked shiny things. When he did the test, he initially reached for the gold, but an angel intervened and placed his hands in the coals saving him. As a reaction to his hands being burned Moses immediately stuck his hands in his mouth burning his tongue causing him to have a stutter for the rest of his life.
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Myth #4: Disability Drop
This was more common during the 20th century when places like insane asylums were a thing. This is the notion that all disabilities are being faked or overexaggerated and can be cured.
Primal Fear – Erin Stampler Primal Fear follows the story about an altar boy name Erin Sampler who is accused of murder. In attempt to get an insanity plea for a reduced sentence Erin fools everyone into thinking that he has a multi-personality disorder. At the end of the movie Erin reveals that he never actually had any other personas to the shock of the other characters.
Tiktokers faking disabilities - This was a trend that happened during the Summer of 2021 and is well documented due to all of it happening online. This trend was tiktokers faking mental disabilities, most commonly terrets all for online clout and attention. This caused a huge scandal as a lot of these tiktokers were outed for faking it.
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Myth #5: Overcoming or Compensating
This is something that you’ll see commonly on social media as inspirational motivation. This is when someone adapts or uses something to compensate or overcome their disability.
War Machine - After being shot out of the sky in “Captain America: Civil War” War Machine plumets straight into the ground. Although he survives the fall leaves his body paralyzed. Though this is not the end of War Machine as in later movies he is seen still paralyzed but able to gain movement through the use of bionic suits like he used before the accident.
Avatar the Last Airbender: Toph – Even though Toph is blind she is regarded as the best earth bender ever even inventing metal bending. This is because even though she can not see through her eyes she overcomes this by seeing through her feet and ears. Toph uses what she hears along with sensing the vibrations she feels through her feet to paint a picture of the world around her overcoming her blindness.
Bullock, J. D. (1994). Was Saint Paul struck blind and converted by lightning? Survey of Ophthalmology, 39(2), 151–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/0039-6257(94)90161-9
Dolmage, J. (2016). Disability rhetoric. Syracuse University Press.
Faking Disorders on Tik Tok. (n.d.). www.youtube.com. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em0VvqH6HiM&t=1s
Movieclips. (2011). Run, Forrest, Run! - Forrest Gump (2/9) Movie CLIP (1994) HD. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2-MCPa_3rU
Posner, F. (n.d.). Seven Heroes With Disabilities in the Bible. Chabab.org. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4321466/jewish/Seven-Heroes-With-Disabilities-in-the-Bible.htm
Quasimodo. (2021, September 18). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasimodo
The Entire Darth Vader Story Finally Explained. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieUP860n5OQ
Toph (The Blind Bandit) VS The Boulder. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oHtHs81qPM
War Machine Falls Scene - Airport Battle - Captain America: Civil War - Movie CLIP HD. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDROiMF3_r0
Wikipedia Contributors. (2019, December 7). Primal Fear (film). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primal_Fear_(film)
