NotNormativelyHuman 303
potential as disability empowerment. Critics of the show have always
argued that. While the program has received much attention, especially
onsocialmedia(Ellis94-95),andthusfacilitatedadiscussionaboutthe
social and cultural resonances of disability, its "attempt to reposition
disabilitywithindiscoursesofbeautyandfemininity"(Ellis93)hasmet
withharshcriticism:"TriumphovertragedyalwaysmakesforgoodTV.
Every voyeur's fetish about people with impairments is facilitated.
Minimizedandmodified—daintywheelchairswiththedelicacyofhaute
coutureclothes—impairmentsinaneatshinypackage"(McDonaghqtd.
in Ellis 97). The fact that all the actresses in the show are sexually
attractiveyoungwomenclearlyfactorsintotheequation.
Viewers and critics may debate over whether these shows with their
telethon versions of impairment actually do deliver at least a modicum
of an upbeat message, namely that disability based on physical
impairment does not stop anyone from having a satisfying life. One
might just as well argue, in more critical and systematic vein, that they
representaformofdisabilitymimicry, anexpressionofthedesireforthe
non-normative Other, "as a subject of a difference that is almost the
same, but not quite" (Bhabha, Location of Culture 86; emphasis
original). As in Bhabha's description of the colonialist ambivalence
toward social and cultural non-normativity, what I am here calling
disabilitymimicryislikewisealso"constructedaroundanambivalence.
.. mimicry emerges as the representation of a difference that is itself a
process of disavowal" (Bhabha,Location of Culture86). As a sort of
footnote, let me add that, especially from the perspective of cultural
critique, it is certainly worthwhile to notice a blind spot in disability
representations of this kind: cognitive or psychological impairments. It
seems as if the idea of leaving behind disability, "this message that we
can live our lives to the fullest and have a positive outlook," as the
producer ofPush Girlsput it (Angelo n. pag.), seems not so easy to
transposeintothedomainofpsychologicalnon-normativities.
Whateverthesenarrativesmightmeanfortheindividualsconcerned;
fromacritical,maybepolemicalperspectiveitcanbearguedthatinthe
textual or filmic examples discussed above, fictional or factional,
disability is in the final reckoninga condition to be left behind—like
poverty was in the rags to riches stories, or captivity in captivity