Open Access“Other” Characters: The Gendering and Racialization of “Disability” Within Newbery Award-Winning Books, 1922-2012
Author(s) -
Adie Nelson,
Veronica Nelson
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
canadian journal of family and youth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1718-9748
DOI - 10.29173/cjfy27143
Subject(s) - racialization , dehumanization , gender studies , essentialism , ableism , identity (music) , disability studies , white (mutation) , salience (neuroscience) , eugenics , sociology , psychology , race (biology) , political science , aesthetics , anthropology , art , law , biochemistry , chemistry , cognitive psychology , gene
Disability rights activists have long urged recognition of the import of cultural representations and their salience in the Othering process. Previous research on children’s picture books and novels has noted that persons with disabilities are commonly depicted in stereotypic and dehumanizing ways. This article explores the extent to which stereotypes of disability may be gendered and/or racialized by examining children’s books that won the American Library Association’s Newbery Medal between 1922-2012. It notes that the crafting of female and male characters with disabilities within these books pays homage to traditional gender roles, images and symbols and, most notably, reiterates an active-masculine/passive-feminine dichotomization. In addition, these representations suggest how racial essentialism is implicated in the production of “disability” within children’s literature, with non-white “racial” identity equated with various forms of impairment.