Tropes to avoid

This section looks at certain storytelling tropes that should be avoided. While there is some overlap with the section Framing, the intention here is to talk more about the language we journalists use to tell our stories. There are more storytelling tropes like this, many of which can be seen both in news media and in popular culture. But the following six constitute a starting point. Once you learn how to spot them, you’ll see them everywhere. Can you think of any other tropes like this?

Trope to avoid 1: The inspirational overcomer

As we've shown, most overcoming narratives are false. However, inspiration-porn narratives that feature people overcoming their disabilities while actually doing nothing of the sort are still ubiquitous. Along with Mary Johnson, I believe able-bodied people use these narratives to mark out an exception[1]. The people they apply this trope to are “good” disabled people. They’re trying to be fixed, to become “normal,” and they always have a great attitude. They do not claim that their rights have been violated but work to overcome the internal obstacle of their disability. Presenting their disability as the only obstacle that matters works to shift responsibility away from those propping up structural oppression.

Trope to avoid 2: The bitter cripple

This trope is the other side of the coin. Unlike the inspirational overcomer, the bitter cripple is angry. Perhaps they are angry about disablism. Perhaps they are angry at you. Obviously, they’re bitter because of their sad and pathetic state — not because you did something worth getting angry about. The bitter cripple does not have a good attitude. They insist on being disabled, rather than on overcoming their own disability. They don’t express gratitude for all the help that able-bodied people provide and instead have the nerve to ask for more.

Trope to avoid 3: The faker

This disabled person is on disability benefits, yet you saw them with their friends having fun. Obviously, the fun costs money, meaning they’re a faker mooching off the public. Perhaps they’re committing benefit fraud or making up their illness. Perhaps they just want attention. Perhaps they’re not really disabled or ill and should just get a job. Perhaps they manifested their condition by not thinking right. Perhaps they’re just depressed. Someone who is really disabled in the way that they claim to be would behave differently. If a wheelchair user stands up, that must be evidence either of a miracle or of duplicity. Maybe they’re just lazy or fat and would no longer be disabled if they got motivated and lost weight. Regardless, many people are sure that they would not behave the way they see the faker doing and that they know exactly how this person should behave.

Trope to avoid 4: Someone who is better off dead 

According to this narrative (“I’d kill myself if I were in that person's shoes, so wanting to die is only natural”), if such people don’t want to kill themselves and, in fact, enjoy their lives, they are either inspirational overcomers (see Trope to avoid 1), committing a feat of superhuman strength by existing, or in denial about the real nature of their lives.
A related trope is someone who believes their disabled children or spouse would be better off dead (see Sources). The family, spouse, or caregiver is sometimes viewed almost as a hero and, at the very least, as relatable — how are they supposed to deal with the stress and agony? If their loved one — the disabled person — wants to live, the disabled person is mistaken.

 
Trope to avoid 5: The eternal child 

Someone, sometimes with a diagnosed intellectual disability and sometimes with any disability at all, is presented as having the mind of a child or as perpetually innocent or as functioning at the level of a certain age. They can be referred to as a child, and it's not up to them whether they are quoted or participate in certain things — it's up to their caregivers. According to this narrative, such people are vulnerable to exploitation, which is always performed by strangers and never by those who claim to have their best interests at heart. If they express opinions or have priorities different from those of the people who claim to have their best interests at heart, then they have been deceived by cruel scammers or they don't know what's good for them. Either way, they must be protected.

Trope to avoid 6: The burden on society

Are there some lives that maybe you think should not continue? Are there some lives that perhaps do not cause any joy for the people living them, that are so deprived no one could possibly want to extend them? Could a better life be lived by somebody else if they were just to go away? At what point does the financial burden of keeping someone alive and in reasonably good health with a reasonable quality of life simply become too much to bear for a society? These people are not productive workers and are surely not enjoying their lives, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask them to lay down their lives as well — at least that would give them some meaning and purpose. If somebody can’t be cured, maybe they should die. After all, that's usually how it happens in the movies.