Halloween and Ableism: Protraying (dis)Ability Through Costumes

While Halloween remains my favorite holiday of the year because of its ability to inspire young minds to create costumes and get out of their comfort zones, it is also a holiday that is full of insensitive portrayals of marginalized groups of people, even among educators, that I think we need to be careful of.

“Many people think that people with disabilities have a monopoly on pain. People with disabilities do not have a monopoly on pain, we just have a pain that nobody cares about.”

-Justin Martin, a writer, poet, and advocate from Hilliard, Ohio

The portrayal of people with disabilities for entertainment has a long history of exploitation in American media, such as films around the turn of the 20^th century that employed depictions of people with disabilities in comedy and horror films. This year, just as in many years past, I continue to see members of our community use disability as comedic relief in their Halloween costumes, such as pretending to have a walking abnormality when portraying a monster or using a walker when portraying an elderly person. The issue here is that portraying people belonging to an oppressed group as entertainment is belittling and dehumanizing. As advocate Lydia X. Z. Brown states on their website, Austistic Hoya, “This process of enfreakment has a long history that includes the freak show sideshows accompanying circuses that put people with visible disabilities and deformities on display for public amusement and pity. When it comes to these types of portrayals, it contributes to the message that says that these are not people worthy of respect or dignity for no reason other than their disabilities.” (Austistichoya.com)

As educators, we must be advocates for ALL of our students. Are you portraying a disability in a form that subliminally messages to students that it disability is a pitiful struggle? Would you feel comfortable pretending to be someone with Down Syndrome for Halloween? If not, then why do we feel comfortable portraying someone who requires a walker, cane, or wheelchair? Would you feel comfortable pretending to use a walker in front of a student whose requires the daily use of a walker? While you may laugh and then walk away from that walker at the end of the day, that student’s walker is intertwined with their being and they cannot remove themselves from needing it whenever they please. Just as we have done with blackface and many other culturally insensitive forms of entertainment, I believe it is time for us to reflect on how we portray marginalized groups as entertainment, especially when we, as educators, are the role models for the future generation.

“So, call it simulation, call it pretending, call it faking, or call it playing disability. Whatever it is, and no matter if it’s done with ill will, kindness, or anything in between, it’s not cool to play around in a wheelchair, the space that is so much a part of my identity and my reality.”

-Emily Ladau, Words I Wheel By

Where Could Mr. Callicotte's Missing Socks Be?

1^st graders' sock artworks are on their way home!

1^st grade artists have spent their last 5 art classes learning the fundamental blocks of art education. The first foundational block that students explored was workspaces. Artists work in a variety of different artmaking environments and it is important for Chapman’s artists to identify and understand what kind of space works for them.

1^st grade artists worked on a creative drawing challenge in 4 different types of artmaking spaces and identified the best space for them as artists.

The second foundational block that 1^st grade artists worked on was idea generation and imagination. In the art program here at Chapman, creative ideas hold much more value than the visual aesthetics of an artwork.

1^st grade artists were introduced to E. Paul Torrances framework for creativity (fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration), chose a path to developing a creative idea, and experimented with building materials in order to practice generated creative ideas.

Finally, I told students a story about a problem I have been having. Every time I do my laundry, I am missing socks! Sound familiar? Students were asked to set a goal for which path to creativity they would choose to help me generate ideas of where my missing socks could be. After generating ideas, sharing and receiving feedback from peers, 1^st grade artists drew their most creative idea. Each artist then experimented with watercolor resist, texture rubbing, and various drawing supplies in order to decide how they would color their sock drawings. I hope you will take the time to ask your artist about their ideas and celebrate their artwork!

Watch me revisit prior content, introduce the problem, and set goals with Ms. Jone's class!