Editing Disability (section)

===== Eternally Innocent =====
Characters with disabilities are frequently portrayed in movies as being angelic or childish. These films include ''[[Rain Man]]'' (1988), ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' (1994) and ''[[I Am Sam]]'' (2001).<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal |last=Byrne |first=Peter |date=May 18, 2002 |title=I Am Sam |journal=BMJ: British Medical Journal |volume=324 |issue=7347 |pages=1223 |doi=10.1136/bmj.324.7347.1223 |issn=0959-8138 |pmc=1123184}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pettey |first1=Homer B. |title=Mind Reeling: Psychopathology on Film |date=2020 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-8102-9}}</ref>

The innocent and endearing person with a disability often points out the inadequacies of their "normal" adult peers, which helps them achieve salvation.<ref name=":11" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Reynolds |first1=Thomas E. |title=Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality |date=2008 |publisher=Brazos Press |isbn=978-1-4412-0263-5}}</ref>

Like all the others, this stereotype perpetuates patronizing perceptions that are simply untrue and are therefore damaging.<ref>{{cite web |title=Disability stereotypes in the media {{!}} Aruma |url=https://www.aruma.com.au/about-us/blog/run-forest-run-disability-stereotypes-in-the-media/ |website=Aruma Disability Services |access-date=October 8, 2022 |language=en |date=August 24, 2020}}</ref>

While there are many disability tropes, disability aesthetics attempts to dispel them by accurately depicting disabled bodies in art and media.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Siebers |first=Tobin |date=2005 |title=Disability Aesthetics |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25486181 |journal=PMLA |volume=120 |issue=2 |pages=542–546 |doi=10.1632/S0030812900167860 |jstor=25486181 |s2cid=233314914 |issn=0030-8129|url-access=subscription }}</ref>