The phantom gaze : invisible disability in repo men.

Abstract

Can the disabled body be (in)visibly produced and reconciled alongside the norm? We overlook what is normally present in our daily lives, to focus on that which is unseen, hidden from sight, or unusual. In other words, the normal body is conveniently dismissed as a fixed location of familiarity and recognition whereas the disabled body becomes a site of resistance and volatility. This is especially true for the disabled body whose apparent impairment and physical limitation is highlighted in films. However, despite the supposed increase of visual access towards exotic narratives and characters playing disability roles, we fail to see the implicit constructs set up from the beginning which highlight otherwise. Physically disabled characters which cannot be “accommodated in the ranks of the norm(als)” are often dealt with negative and stereotypical outcomes that include “either left behind or punished for its lack of conformity” (Snyder and Mitchell, “Narrative Prosthesis” 56)—the former referring to being forgotten due to preoccupations with rehabilitation and the latter as usually death. I am arguing that people with invisible disability, defined as that which occur on the inside of the body, like a missing or dysfunctional organ and which are not so easily represented, can divert the common objectification placed on them and replace it with a new gaze that is not necessarily limiting to what is shown on screen. Namely, this new gaze adds the dimension of touch/ feeling for a more collective embodiment of disability in films, creating more resolutions for the disabled subject other than either/ or states.