Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump crammed his foot in his mouth again when he made fun of reporter Serge Kovaleski by mocking the reporter’s disability during a campaign rally. Kovaleski has a chronic condition that affects his motor skills.
Trump has since said he didn’t know the reporter was disabled and instead thought Kovaleski was flustered.
This is hard to believe, given Kovaleski reported on Trump for years and the two were on a first-name basis. Even if Trump hadn’t known about Kovaleski’s disability, it is insensitive and childish for a politician to mock someone’s behavior and intelligence with pantomime in front of millions of people.
The failing @nytimes should be focused on good reporting and the papers financial survival and not with constant hits on Donald Trump!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2015
Herein I Dispute Trump's claims.
Donald Trump Says His Mocking of New York Times Reporter Was Misread https://t.co/HJsU43Z8CK
— Serge Kovaleski (@sergenyt) November 27, 2015
Yet this is not the only headline in which disability representation has surfaced. Kylie Jenner had an interview with the aptly named Interview magazine. In it, she said she feels that fame has crippled her. In order to represent such crippling artistically, Jenner was staged as a glamorous wheelchair user. Despite the glamour of the photo, Interview magazine portrays Jenner as a victim hindered by her situation, which is not flattering to people with actual disabilities.
Reactions to Jenner have been mixed. A large portion of people are upset and claim Jenner is exploiting disability in order to make an artistic statement. A smaller portion claim while Jenner’s portrayal was certainly problematic, they appreciate that disability has been allowed to enter the glamorous world of fashion in some way or another.
Clearly, both have introduced two distinct discussions about disability into the national dialogue.
Trump was clearly in the wrong, and we find his mocking of a person who is handicapped extremely offensive. People with disabilities have struggled enough without a major public figure making fun of them on such a public scale.
Jenner’s use of disability is a bit more nuanced. Given the material in the interview, it’s clear she means the wheelchair is a burden, not a good thing, and we can say this use of the wheelchair is problematic. But we don’t necessarily think she meant to be offensive in the way that Trump did. There doesn’t have to be anything unfashionable about wheelchairs, and Jenner’s photo alone portrays that.
However, when taken in the context of her article, the use of the wheelchair, which is a means of liberation for many, becomes an offensive misunderstanding of the machine.
What becomes readily obvious in both cases is that due to a lack of proper representation and information, people with disabilities are more often exploited than they are appreciated and helped.
We hope that these two instances of ableism allow disabled groups to speak up, and we encourage a renewed discussion around these topics and issues.
The next time disability makes national headlines we hope it is because an actual disabled person has done something and not because others have used them as statements.
