The ‘Miraculous Cure’ Trope Is Not The Disability Representation We Need

By Mariah Ramsawakh

I watch a lot of TV and a lot of movies, especially in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. I love shows about alien cultures and fighting demons.

I’m also disabled. You wouldn’t know it by looking at me, but I have myelomeningocele spina bifida. So what does that have to do with my love of science fiction and fantasy?

Well, kind of everything. I’ve started to notice some startling things about how disabled characters are portrayed in pretty much every form of media, from books and movies to TV shows and comic books. Science fiction makes use of magical prostheses that require no physical rehabilitation or any personal life adjustments, and fantasy stories will often use magic or alternate timelines to wipe disability from the character slate.

It wasn’t so glaring until I rewatched old seasons of Supernatural on Netflix. At one point in the show, a character named Bobby’s spine is broken, leaving him paralyzed in a wheelchair. He’d spent his whole life as a blue-collar, manual-labor kind of guy, and his was a struggle I could really identify with. Though I’m not paralyzed, it’s very difficult for me to maintain leg muscle because the nerves in my legs aren’t all there. I can’t do things I used to be able to do. I saw the same…