July is Disability Pride Month - a celebration of individuality and diversity in every sense of the word. Disability is a wide spectrum that includes neurological differences as well. Recent studies have shown that people with disabilities have had significantly less media representation in the past few years.
Cinema has a long history of demonizing characters with disabilities or altogether ignoring them. In fact, recent studies have found that people with disabilities and especially QUEER people of color with disabilities have been “nearly invisible” recently.
In Horror specifically, tropes like the “circus freak” are often damaging to societal views towards these communities. It’s important to celebrate authentically written characters and creatives with disabilities in the industry.
Here’s just a few actors making a difference in representation across the Horror genre:
Jyoti Amge - American Horror Story: Freak Show
(Primordial Dwarfism)
Millicent Simmonds - A Quiet Place / A Quiet Place Part II (Deaf)
Milly Shapiro - Hereditary (Cleidocranial Dysostosis)
Gaten Matarazzo - Stranger Things (Cleidocranial Dysplasia)
Jamie Brewer - American Horror Story: Murder House (Down Syndrome)
Keep this list growing! Who would you add?