Inspiration porn

File:Stella Young.jpg

The term was coined in 2012 by disability rights activist Stella Young in an editorial in Australian Broadcasting Corporation's webzine Ramp Up{{cite web|last=Young |first=Stella |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-03/young-inspiration-porn/4107006 |title=We're not here for your inspiration |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=2012-07-03 |access-date=2016-03-29}} and further explored in her TEDx Talk.{{Citation|last=Young|first=Stella|title=I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much|url=https://www.ted.com/talks/stella_young_i_m_not_your_inspiration_thank_you_very_much|language=en|access-date=2020-10-22}} About her decisions in naming inspiration porn, Young stated: "I use the term porn deliberately because of the objectification of one group of people for the benefit of another group of people."{{Cite book|last=Markotić|first=Nicole|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rNRCDQAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|title=Disability in Film and Literature|date=2016-05-26|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9649-5|language=en}} She rejected the idea that disabled people's otherwise ordinary activities should be considered extraordinary solely because of disability.

Criticisms of inspiration porn include that it "others" disabled people, that it portrays disability as a burden (as opposed to focusing on the societal obstacles that disabled people face), and that reducing disabled people to inspirations dehumanizes them,{{cite web|last1=Rakowitz|first1=Rebecca|title=Inspiration porn: A look at the objectification of the disabled community {{!}} The Crimson White|url=http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2016/12/inspiration-porn-a-look-at-the-objectification-of-the-disabled-community|website=The Crimson White|publisher=University of Alabama|access-date=5 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305202445/http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2016/12/inspiration-porn-a-look-at-the-objectification-of-the-disabled-community|archive-date=5 March 2018|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Mitchell|first1=Kate|title=On Inspiration Porn|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/on-inspiration-porn_us_596cedd0e4b05561da5a595e|website=Huffington Post|access-date=5 March 2018|date=17 July 2017}} and makes them exceptionalist examples.{{cite book|last=Henningham|first=Nikki|chapter=8. 'Part of the human condition': Women in the Australian disability rights movement|date=2014|pages=149–166|editor-last=Damousi|editor-first=Joy|title=Diversity in Leadership: Australian women, past and present|publisher=ANU Press|isbn=9781925021707|editor2-last=Rubenstein|editor2-first=Kim|editor3-last=Tomsic|editor3-first=Mary|jstor=j.ctt13wwvj5.11}} Inspiration porn itself reinforces the stereotypes society has given disabled individuals: that they are "unable" and "less competent" than those who do not have disabilities. After watching a 2016 advertisement titled We're the Superhumans from the Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, which showed a variety of disabled people accomplishing tasks in athletics, music, the household and more, alongside the repeated message of "Yes I can", a response group of disabled viewers felt it generally exploited disabled people for the pleasure and comfort of the non-disabled.{{Cite journal|last=Cameron|first=Leah|date=2018|title=Inspiring or Perpetuating Stereotypes?: The Complicated Case of Disability as Inspiration|url=https://curve.carleton.ca/b9a7cfb6-2216-44bf-b970-a33aaa0983fe|journal=Carleton University}}

In 2014, disabled actress Amelia Cavallo described inspiration porn imagery as being "the visualization of disabled people overcoming what seem like broken and substandard bodies, sensory and cognitive make ups" to make "the non-disabled public feel good about their unbroken, able bodies, senses, and cognition."{{Cite web|title=View of "Come and see Our Art of Being Real": Disabling Inspirational Porn and Rearticulating Affective Productivities {{!}} Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada|url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/tric/article/view/25322/29306|access-date=2020-12-14|website=journals.lib.unb.ca}} Forms of inspiration porn ostracize individuals and reduce their identity to their disability alone. The focus on a single narrative--that disabled persons are always inspirational--contributes to a lack of accurate understandings of disability identities and to a widespread, unrealistic expectation of heroism that disabled people should live up to.{{Cite journal|last=Shelton|first=Summer|title=Not an Inspiration Just for Existing: How Advertising Uses Physical Disabilities as Inspiration: A Categorization and Model|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318648522|journal=University of Florida}}

The Cripple punk movement, established in 2014, directly opposes the portrayal of disabled people as inspiration porn by refusing to conform to normative aesthetic and moral standards, not needing to be "good" to deserve the conditional support of non-disabled people, and reclaiming the slang crip.

The 2016 TV show Speechless explored the concept in an episode where it explains inspiration porn as "portrayal of people with disabilities as one-dimensional saints who only exist to warm the hearts and open the minds of able-bodied people."{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/speechless-disability-porn_us_5877ddf6e4b0e58057fdc342 |title='Speechless' Just Schooled Everyone On Disability 'Inspiration Porn' |work=The Huffington Post |date=2017-01-16 |access-date=2017-04-18}}

The Loudermilk episode "Wind Beneath My Wings" explores the issue as a regular character "Roger", played by Mat Fraser, who has thalidomide-induced phocomelia, struggles with receiving an award which he seems to receive for simply existing (and perhaps for playing drums) with his disability.

In the 2017 film Wonder, the main character Auggie, a child with a disability, is transitioned into public school. The film is centered on Auggie's "act as a one-man anti-bullying campaign—teaching his classmates, family members, and the viewers about acceptance"{{Cite journal|last=Lane|first=Dorothy|date=2019|title=Presuming Competence: an Examination of Ableism in Film and Television|url=https://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:662273/datastream/PDF/view|journal=Florida State University Libraries}} throughout his educational experience. The themes of the film, combined with the child actor not being disabled, led many to argue that films such as Wonder shape disability as being valuable only when meeting the emotional needs and conditions of other communities.

While the term was coined recently, inspiration porn in popular culture dates back centuries. According to author Nicole Markotić, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) uses character Tiny Tim to illustrate how "disability – in and of itself – transforms those who are otherwise ordinary into noble and dignified people."

Hilary Hughes of Entertainment Weekly criticized the album for the 2021 film Music, writing that the lyrical theme of "motivational language" flies "dangerously close to inspiration porn".{{Cite magazine|last=Hughes|first=Hilary|date=2021-02-11|title=Sia's 'Music' soundtrack can't escape the film's broader controversy|url=https://ew.com/music/music-reviews/sia-music-soundtrack-review/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212122628/https://ew.com/music/music-reviews/sia-music-soundtrack-review/|archive-date=2021-02-12|access-date=2021-02-12|magazine=Entertainment Weekly}}

• Disability in the media
• Just-world fallacy
• Poverty porn
• Rugged individualism
• Supercrip stereotype
• Survivorship bias

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|author=Ben Whitburn |title=Disability Studies |chapter=Attending to the Potholes of Disability Scholarship |editor1=Tim Corcoran |editor2=Julie White |editor3=Ben Whitburn |publisher=Sense Publishers |year=2015 |isbn=9789463001991 |pages=215–224}}
• {{cite journal|author=Katie Ellis Gerard Goggin |title=Disability Media Participation: Opportunities, Obstacles and Politics |journal=Media International Australia |volume=154 |issue=1 |pages=78–88 |date=1 February 2015 |doi=10.1177/1329878X1515400111 |s2cid=147361117 }}
• {{cite web |first=Rebecca |last=Rakowitz |title=Inspiration porn: A look at the objectification of the disabled community |url=http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2016/12/inspiration-porn-a-look-at-the-objectification-of-the-disabled-community |publisher=University of Alabama |date=2016-12-01 |access-date=2016-12-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305202445/http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2016/12/inspiration-porn-a-look-at-the-objectification-of-the-disabled-community |archive-date=2018-03-05 |url-status=dead }}

• {{cite news|last=Perry |first=David M. |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/6/inspiration-porn-further-disables-the-disabled.html |title=Inspiration Porn Further Disables the Disabled |publisher=America.aljazeera.com |date=2015-06-02 |access-date=2017-04-18}}
• {{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-31376653 |title=Is it OK to call disabled people 'inspirational'? - BBC News |publisher=Bbc.com |date=2015-02-16 |access-date=2017-04-18}}
• {{cite web|last=Jordan |first=Scott |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/08/miracle_memes_and_inspiration_porn_internet_viral_images_demean_disabled.html |title=Miracle memes and inspiration porn: Internet viral images demean disabled people |publisher=Slate.com |date=2014-08-13 |access-date=2017-04-18}}
• {{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02j0p78 |title=BBC World Service - BBC Trending, Disability as Inspiration: Positive or Patronising? |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=2015-02-08 |access-date=2017-04-18}}
• {{cite news|last=Perry |first=David M. |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/10/down-s-behind-thesmiles.html |title=Down syndrome isn't just cute |publisher=America.aljazeera.com |date=2014-10-15 |access-date=2017-04-18}}
• {{cite news|author=Elizabeth Heideman |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/24/gabby-giffords-and-the-problem-with-inspiration-porn.html |title=Gabby Giffords and the Problem with 'Inspiration Porn' |publisher=The Daily Beast |access-date=2017-04-18}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20141218111905/http://stellayoung.com/ stellayoung.com] (Archived)

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