Full transcript
0:04[music]
0:09[music]
0:17>> Hello everyone. I welcome you to the
0:18course introduction to medical
0:20humanities. This is the lecture 13 of
0:22the unit three.
0:24Like I mentioned earlier, we are going
0:26to deal with four particular broader
0:29theoretical frameworks in this unit.
0:32It is the second one. I I had already
0:34discussed reproductive justice. Today,
0:37I'm going to talk about ableism. And I
0:40will follow it up with mental health
0:41narratives and trauma narratives. So,
0:44before I begin, uh let me talk about
0:48what is the keyword in the lecture.
0:52The lecture is titled deconstructing
0:54ableism. So, what does ableism mean to
0:57us?
0:58Ableism means that the structures of the
1:01society that
1:03decide what is a ruling body, what is an
1:06able body, what is a strengthened body.
1:09So, this
1:12kind of a parameter sets that other
1:15bodies are not able. So,
1:18in the modern day discourse, how
1:21literary and cinematic narratives are
1:24emphasizing on its deconstruction, that
1:27is something that I'm going to discuss
1:29today in this lecture. A brief
1:31theoretical framework is extremely
1:33essential to the understanding of uh how
1:36we are going to close read the films
1:39that we have chosen.
1:42A quick overview of what I will be doing
1:45today. I will be discussing three levels
1:47of ableism. I will talk about models of
1:50disability, the concept of ruling body,
1:53follow it up with the cinematic tropes,
1:55and how this entire reflection and
1:59representation
2:00is actually moving the discourse of
2:04inclusion
2:06and transformation within the scope of
2:08disability studies. That is something
2:11that is our focus today.
2:13Now,
2:14when we think of ableism, like I said
2:18earlier, it is a structure.
2:21It is a structure that is providing
2:23meaning to each body that is existing in
2:26the society. Now, if you look at this
2:30particular structure, there are three
2:32important components that we have to
2:35notice. Please look at your screen. We
2:37talk about regulating bodies. We talk
2:40about binary categorization and we
2:44emphasize on normalcy and value. Now,
2:47what does that mean? Let me go one by
2:49one.
2:50Now, when we talk about regulating
2:53bodies,
2:54each of these bodies, through the
2:56framework of ableism, has been assigned
3:00a certain kind of meaning.
3:03Meaning of being productive,
3:06full of strength, all kinds of
3:08established standards of productivity.
3:12This system manages and monitors bodies
3:15to ensure that they meet established
3:18standards. So, there are many ways in
3:20which you might have heard of that uh
3:22boys have more strength, uh girls are
3:25made uh are weak, uh boys don't cry. All
3:29these phenomena is actually gender
3:31neutral. But, what happens? The ableism
3:35decides that there is a structure to be
3:37provided to a particular kind of a body,
3:40and hence
3:41those standardization starts regulating
3:45what is normal and what is abnormal,
3:48what is able, what is disabled, what is
3:51productive, what is not productive, like
3:53that. And therefore, once these
3:56standardization start taking place, you
3:58reach
3:59only two kinds of categorization. So, I
4:03am not saying that there is a problem
4:06with deciding this is able and this is
4:08not able, but in society, you cannot
4:12make those categorizations because there
4:14are many in between spaces that will be
4:16there. So, what will happen to those
4:18spaces is something that ableism, when
4:21you look at it as a theoretical
4:23framework, it questions. Now, in this
4:26kind of binary categorizations, what
4:28happens that anybody who is differently
4:32abled
4:34is looked as
4:37deficient in the medical model,
4:40but at other times, it can be excessive,
4:43tragic, or inspirational.
4:45So, the very fact that somebody is
4:48living with a different kind of body,
4:52which is not
4:53following the established standards, can
4:56be actually inspirational. So, while
4:58inspirational, you see, is a positive
5:01word, it can act very negative in the
5:04discourse of ableism. Finally,
5:07in terms of normalcy and value, the
5:10society decides what is a productive,
5:13beautiful, and intelligent body, and
5:15therefore, there are set parameters.
5:18You must have heard of this phrase
5:20called everybody is beautiful.
5:22Now, this is a very body affirmation
5:25kind of a sentence, but within the
5:27discourse of ableism, we believe that
5:29the standardization has happened, and
5:32when you think of productive, it is
5:35certain meaning, like it is a fixed
5:37meaning. When you think of beautiful, it
5:39is again fixed, and same happens with
5:41intelligent, and therefore, anything
5:43which is not falling to the standards
5:47decided as intelligent becomes a
5:49different body. And again, in the
5:54whole structure of society, it falls
5:56short. Three levels of
5:58ableism we discuss in the theoretical
6:01model of ableism, we come across these
6:04three levels. One is at the individual
6:07level. Now, what is the individual level
6:10of ableism? It means that a person who
6:14is born differently
6:16starts feeling that my body is inferior.
6:20Now, there are visible assumptions of
6:22inferiority or inspirational tropes that
6:25reinforce disability as normal. So, the
6:28moment you do not align yourself with
6:30the standard practices of what is a
6:33normal body, what is an able body, you
6:35yourself start feeling inferior. And
6:38this is what is termed as individual
6:41prejudice within the level of ableism.
6:44The second is that of institutional
6:48ableism. In this particular
6:51format or in this particular level, what
6:55happens that systems reward speed and
6:57constant performance assuming an ideal
7:00body in design. So, what is an ideal
7:02body where there is constant
7:04performance, there is constant
7:06ability to take pressure, there is
7:09constant ability to produce, there is
7:11constant ability to deliver. So, you
7:14know,
7:15system is rewarding these kind of
7:16people. So, what happens to those people
7:19who cannot be all this, who cannot be
7:21maybe, you know, as productive as the
7:23other person, who cannot be as
7:25performance oriented as the other
7:26person? What happens? So, institute also
7:30works like that. Apart from that, we
7:32find that
7:34most of the organizations,
7:36whether it is school, hospital,
7:38corporations, all these are made in such
7:42a way where we only find people with
7:45high performance as able-bodied.
7:49In that sense,
7:51a final level comes into play, which is
7:54called the structural
7:56ableism. And in this
7:58structural ableism, we see that the
8:02society at large is,
8:05you know, equating maturity and bodily
8:09control with civility as able-bodied.
8:12So, there are so many features that are
8:15assigned to an able-bodied, and there is
8:17where
8:18the problem lies because when you think
8:21of all these three levels of ableism
8:24into one, it creates a different kind of
8:28narrative within the disability
8:29discourse. That is the reason we are
8:31taking it up for analysis. Uh before we
8:34move further, we should discuss it with
8:37the models of disability. I have already
8:39discussed this with you earlier, where
8:41we discussed the medical model and the
8:44social model of disability. And here, I
8:47will just kind of reiterate with more
8:49elaboration on how this model works. And
8:53also put it together for a little
8:55comparison. So, what is the feature?
8:58Let's just kind of quickly go through it
9:00uh on your screen, everybody. It is the
9:03locus of the problem. What is the
9:06problem exactly is what you have to look
9:08into. What is their primary goal, role
9:12of the disabled, what is it that they
9:14are primarily catering to, and
9:16expertise. Now, with these four
9:20parameters, we analyze the medical and
9:23the social here. Now,
9:26broadly speaking,
9:28what is medical and what is social? So,
9:31medical is identifying a lack or a
9:34disease or a diagnosis or a problem in a
9:37particular
9:39body and then
9:41by identifying the problem
9:44finding a cure. If you ask how medical
9:48works, broadly we can define in the
9:50sense of medical humanities like this.
9:53What is then social? Social is assigning
9:57a meaning to this particular disease or
10:01to this particular feature. Now, in
10:04terms of medical, there is a body.
10:07A body with certain kind of defect.
10:11In society, in the social model of
10:13disability, this defective body is
10:17assigned a social meaning.
10:21So, when you say cancer, it is not just
10:25a disease. It is a
10:28It is also marked with a social meaning.
10:32So, there are many ways in which we can
10:34talk about In fact, I particularly like
10:37the word divyang used these days because
10:41it it kind of restructures,
10:45refashions the meaning in which
10:47disability has been perceived where we
10:49think of people who are differently
10:52abled as specially abled. So, you know,
10:54even a small term
10:56that is changed leads to our perception
11:00change. So, you know,
11:01let us come back to medical model of
11:04disability before I kind of go into
11:06different domain.
11:07So, medical model talks about body and
11:10social model talks about how society
11:13perceives that body. What is the kind of
11:15meaning that is assigned to that
11:17defective body. The second is that of
11:19normalization and why it is important
11:22because when we think of a particular
11:24kind of body as normal, defiance or a
11:27deviant kind of a body. So, that becomes
11:31disabled. So, the normalization process
11:34is very medical because it kind of
11:37it is like ticking the boxes. If you are
11:39this, yes, normal. If it you are this,
11:41this is normal. Now, this is a
11:42problematic thing because human beings
11:45are not algorithmic in their
11:48birth. They can be very different. So
11:51many people, maybe 200 people are
11:53watching this course, and all of us have
11:55a different kind of nose. Now, we did
11:57not decide what kind of nose we will
11:59have. When we say that this kind of nose
12:02is normal, every other nose becomes
12:05abnormal. Now, this categorization is
12:07problematic because it leads to the
12:09binary as I discussed, the
12:11able-disabled, normal-abnormal. So,
12:15normalization is a medical phenomena. In
12:18the social model of disability, they say
12:21that this whole categorization is taking
12:24place in society. It is it can be
12:27reformed. So, you think that it can be a
12:31systemic reform as well. So, if society
12:34is
12:35sensitive towards it, it can also
12:38change.
12:39The patients are to be fixed. So,
12:42if there is a body
12:44and there is a problem, it has to be
12:46fixed.
12:47But,
12:48in social model of disability, it says
12:51it may or may not be fixed, and it's
12:53absolutely fine because each body has
12:56been born with a right to live.
13:00And it's a basic right. Therefore, all
13:03citizens, everybody, has the right to
13:07life. And it is not contingent upon
13:10being a certain way. Therefore, in the
13:13medical model of disability, they become
13:16patient first. But, in the social model
13:19of disability, it's an individual that
13:21is important.
13:23Of course, when you talk about medical
13:26model of disability, the expertise lies
13:28with the doctors and clinicians, but in
13:31social model of disability, we value the
13:34experience of the people who are living.
13:38So, it is not that each person with a
13:42certain kind of, you know,
13:45uh special ability is living in the same
13:48way.
13:49Even with special ability of the same
13:52kind, people can have different
13:54experiences based on which
13:58place they are living, what is their
14:00class, what is their education, what is
14:02the infrastructural support they are
14:04getting. So, there are a lot of
14:06permutations combinations that we have
14:08to think of, and especially in the
14:10context of India where there are several
14:12intersections, even intersection of
14:14language that is important. We cannot
14:16rule out the possibility of lived
14:19experience being very different, and
14:21therefore when we think of uh defining
14:24ableism in the context of India, we have
14:27to think of merging these models, and
14:30there is where medical humanities comes
14:32into play, which integrates this medical
14:35model of disability to the social model
14:37of disability to find out a blend and a
14:41way to navigate into it. This concept is
14:44important, uh
14:45like I said, ableism talks about the
14:48ruling body, and because I will be
14:51taking a lot of references from Hindi
14:53cinema, I thought it was a good idea to
14:56talk to you briefly about the ruling
14:58body before I
15:00I mean, jump to analyzing Hindi cinema.
15:03So, if you look at
15:06ruling body, if you look at the
15:09protagonists in the
15:12Hindi films, you will find, or even
15:15otherwise, uh in general discourse, if
15:17you look at If you give just a prompt to
15:20ChatGPT about ruling body, it will come
15:23across as able-bodied, male,
15:26fair-skinned, emotionally controlled. In
15:29fact,
15:30just go to uh any of these uh
15:33matrimonial websites, you will find
15:35everybody needs a tall uh person,
15:38everybody needs a fair person. You know,
15:40so uh these are
15:43prejudices or these are societal
15:45constructs that are very much there in
15:47the society. And what they do is that
15:51they create a discourse of ruling body.
15:54So, even in terms of gender, it
15:56categorizes man, woman. So, where is the
15:59spectrum? So, when you think of all
16:02these things as
16:04existing in society, it becomes very
16:06problematic because the moment you do
16:08these categorizations,
16:10the in-between spaces lose their
16:13meaning.
16:14Let us come to Hindi cinema and I am
16:18I am sorry that I am making most of my
16:20references from Hindi cinema because
16:23that is my familiarity ground. I am sure
16:26if you look at your film corpus, you
16:28will find same theme but different
16:30narratives. But in all these films, what
16:33is there? You will have power,
16:36they will be justice-oriented, and they
16:39will have moral authority.
16:41Now, most of the times when we look at
16:44Hindi cinema and how disability, you
16:47know, how their heroes are projected or
16:49how the protagonist is projected, uh you
16:52will find that they are full of power,
16:53they are completely just people, they do
16:56not do any kind of wrong. And there is
16:58immense sense of moral authority uh into
17:02them. So, now when you create a
17:05larger-than-life picture, what happens
17:08to people who can be slightly morally
17:10deviant, who do not have power, who do
17:13not I mean, there is no standard
17:16justice. So, different meanings can be
17:19assigned to it. So, when you think of
17:21Hindi cinema as well, it's a very
17:23problematic discourse of how protagonist
17:25is assigned a certain kind of meaning to
17:28their body itself. Now, disability is
17:31often excluded. If you look at this
17:34trope in Hindi cinema, you will find
17:37that
17:38many times, even if the character is
17:42projected as specially abled,
17:45they will
17:47by the end of the film, get cured. Some
17:50miracle will happen.
17:52They will drink some water.
17:54Some spiritual uh thing will happen.
17:57Maybe they will come across a person,
17:59some jadi buti.
18:01One thing or the other, the result is
18:03that by the end of the film, before the
18:06climax takes place,
18:08the person is all right. Now,
18:11while
18:13at an imaginary level, a creative level,
18:15this is not problematic, but you know
18:18that cinema has huge amount of impact on
18:21society. If society impacts cinema,
18:24cinema also impacts society. And
18:27therefore, this can be problematic
18:29because in real life also, we are
18:31expecting that kind of a transition, but
18:34this is not possible, or even if it is
18:37possible, this cannot be normal.
18:41Uh let us take these tropes that have
18:44been used in Hindi cinema. Uh in fact,
18:47when I uh take up the next unit where I
18:49discuss uh childhood and disability and
18:52disability and masculinity in detail, I
18:55will discuss more tropes, but here I
18:57will quickly introduce you because these
19:00films are important when we talk about
19:02ableism in the Indian context, in the
19:06context of Indian cinema.
19:07Now, the first one is inspirational
19:10trope. Like I said earlier,
19:12inspirational looks to be a very
19:14positive word, but it is problematic.
19:17Why? Because when you say somebody being
19:20specially abled
19:22is inspirational, what you are doing is
19:26that you you are making their life a
19:28very normal life
19:31different from what they are living.
19:34So, even deciding that something is
19:36inspirational is problematic.
19:39Uh if you look at this particular film,
19:40it's called Khoshish. And Khoshish uh is
19:44directed by Gulzar, and
19:46it had a deaf couple as uh
19:50the protagonists. Now, it is
19:53the film, you can say, is very ahead of
19:55its times because uh taking a character
19:58like that and making them the lead of
20:01the film, this was a progressive move at
20:03that point of time. But, if you look at
20:06the entire film, disability becomes a
20:09moral test for the audience to admire.
20:12And why does that happen? Because there
20:13is a
20:14trope of inspiration over there. I mean,
20:17they are managing their life, they are
20:18communicating, they are they are uh
20:20living a a day-to-day life, and that
20:23becomes very inspirational. So, as an
20:25audience also, it was something which
20:28was a kind of a moral test. Uh
20:31the second is the savior narrative. So,
20:33there is this person who's specially
20:36abled, but there will be one
20:40abled body which will save them. So, the
20:43savior narrative is also there. Two
20:45films I take up here. One is Black,
20:48which is directed by Bhansali, and the
20:50second is Taare Zameen Par. I'm sure you
20:54are familiar with this film. You must
20:55have seen as well.
20:57Now, uh in the in the film Black, if you
21:00look at the character of uh the
21:03specially abled Rani Mukerji, you will
21:05find that uh
21:07the teacher uh
21:09acts as a savior of the chaotic body. So
21:13the teacher becomes the person who kind
21:17of saves her from the maladies of being
21:20blind.
21:22Similarly in Taare Zameen Par you find
21:25that Aamir Khan
21:27comes as a compassionate teacher who
21:30identifies
21:31that the child is blessed with special
21:35abilities. He's the one to realize that
21:37he has a different kind of potential and
21:41then he addresses that and talks to the
21:44parents and kind of creates a
21:47a certain kind of ambience that is not
21:49just individual centric but also leading
21:54to systemic reform in certain sense.
21:57The third film
21:58is that of
22:00Barfi and in this particular film you
22:03see that there is an aestheticized
22:06disability. So there is a romantic kind
22:09of an angle given to it in Barfi and
22:12disability doesn't look like disability
22:15and in fact there's a charm to the
22:19disability discourse in this film. So
22:21you will find that this film is very
22:24different from how
22:26the cinematic trope of disability has
22:28been used in different kind of Hindi
22:32cinema. So even with this whole
22:36discourse that is happening which is uh
22:39anti-ableism,
22:41this reduces disability to a charm and
22:44whimsy. So many whimsical things
22:47if you notice notice some of the images
22:49and frames you will find that the main
22:51characters do very whimsical things and
22:55structural barriers fade behind a
22:57lovable quirky protagonist. So they show
23:01that how the person is responding to
23:05his disability is very different. I will
23:08discuss this in another lecture when I'm
23:10dealing with cinematic and literary
23:12narratives.
23:15Uh quickly, um I will take up Sitare
23:17Zamin Par, uh which is uh a very
23:19important film because if this is the
23:23film in which disability is not framed
23:26as a tragedy.
23:28You know, uh in the reproductive justice
23:30discourse, we always identify Pad Man as
23:34a very important film in the context of
23:36India because
23:38it may or may not have done well, I
23:41don't know. I'm not going into those
23:43numbers, but what that film did was that
23:46it brought
23:48the discussion of menstruation to the
23:51dining table conversation. So, it became
23:56a day-to-day conversation around
23:59natural things happening to women. So,
24:01it destigmatized
24:03uh menstruation. Similarly, Sitare Zamin
24:06Par is also is a very important film, a
24:09very important intervention because it
24:11is in this film, we come across
24:15the disability discourse which is not
24:18framed as tragedy. Rather, the focus is
24:22on abilities on your screen, not
24:25deficits. And that's an important word.
24:28The deficit and the ability. So, when
24:30you look at deficit, it's a negative
24:33word. When you look at ability, it's a
24:35positive word. So,
24:37language has a lot to play with how you
24:41perceive and represent certain aspects
24:43of disability.
24:46This also means that there was a
24:49discourse of adaptation over
24:52normalization. So, what is normal? Able
24:56body is normal, productive body is
24:58normal, beautiful body is normal,
25:01intelligent body is normal, but this
25:03film said one has to adopt to all the
25:06bodies that you are born with. So, you
25:09know, each body is beautiful, each body
25:12is productive in its own way. And that
25:15is what it kind of
25:17talked about.
25:18It also led to barriers which are
25:20societal and accessibilities uneven.
25:23Most of the institutions some 10 years
25:25back did not have ramps where people can
25:29just go.
25:30Now, you know, that is an important
25:33part of infrastructure. If you see any
25:37building that is constructed in last 5
25:40to 7 10 years, you will see that the
25:43accessibility point is taken into
25:45consideration and that is a point
25:48uh
25:48which is prioritized as number one. So,
25:51uh what does it say? This whole film is
25:54about inclusive storytelling. That
25:58whether you are able-bodied or not, this
26:01society is as much yours as it is mine.
26:05You know, that kind of a discourse
26:06happens in Taare Zameen Par and
26:08therefore, maybe the film is not
26:10perfect, but it definitely marks the
26:13transition, which is where I come to the
26:15last slide which talks about inclusion
26:18to transformation. So, the very idea
26:21that these kind of discourses are being
26:24discussed, this is what is being
26:26included is a way towards
26:28transformation. Why? Because humanity
26:31defined through the ruling body excludes
26:34many life. When you make When you
26:36standardize the ruling body, when you
26:38standardize the able body, when you
26:40standardize the productive body, what
26:42you do? You exclude everything else that
26:46can be also
26:47a very important construct in society.
26:50Ableism reveals how societies distribute
26:53value and dignity. They assign value to
26:56people who are able. They assign dignity
26:59to people who are able. So, what will
27:01happen to people who are not so able?
27:04And that is where
27:06you know, these films, these literary
27:07narratives point out. And therefore,
27:10when we think of these standardization,
27:13we think that norms are constructed
27:15which are not natural.
27:18So, a societal change has to happen
27:20through different kind of discourses.
27:23And therefore, when you just think of it
27:25in the medical way, that is a very
27:27myopic way of going about. It has to
27:29blend with the social social
27:31understanding. And that is what we are
27:33talking about when we think of inclusion
27:36to transformation. And finally,
27:38anti-ableism demands institutional
27:40redesign and ethical imagination. So,
27:43when we think of ethical imagination, we
27:46think that each body is natural.
27:49And it's born with its natural capacity.
27:52And hence, its strength lies within that
27:55scope or scape. And finally, the society
27:59has to get ready. The societal
28:02infrastructure has to get ready to be
28:05able to accept that normalcy of the
28:07other person. This is where I end. I'll
28:10see you in the next class, which is on
28:12mental health. I I am personally
28:15very intrigued. I was very happy
28:17preparing that lecture. And I hope you
28:19will also be happy listening to what I
28:21say in the next lecture. See you. Thank
28:23you.