The Staged Stigma of Disability

Hello and Happy New Year! Welcome to my first blog post of 2020. Today's post will be a bit more ranty than usual, but bear with me as it's something I feel needs to be talked about. Recently, a group of Hollywood stars and film executives signed onto a letter calling out Hollywood's "systematic exclusion" of disabled people in movies. The letter calls on the entertainment industry to audition people with disabilities and also cast qualified actors with disabilities, which would improve their visibility while also expanding the pool of talent overall Among the actors that have signed onto this letter are Mark Ruffalo, Danny DeVito, Edward Norton, and perhaps most surprisingly to me personally, Bryan Cranston. While I appreciate and respect any person who will stand up for the rights of the disabled and inclusion of actors who identify as disabled, the irony of Bryan Cranston signing onto this letter while not acknowledging his own past issues in this space is