MEDIA PORTRAYAL IN MUSIC VIDEOS

After learning about disability this week, and learning how it is stereotyped in the media, I started to think about music videos, and how disability is portrayed in that form of media if it is at all. At first I could not think of any music videos that showed any form of disability at all. I tried to find music videos on youtube with a disabled person in it, but the closest I could come to were music videos about people with cancer. An example was Rascal Flatts- Sarah Beth. However, I did come across a video of a girl who is deaf, but can sing with songs through sign language. I found this to be very interesting and pretty cool that someone could do that.
(The video would not upload for some reason, so here is the URL)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1EcmvdVnUI
Although I was a little upset that there were no videos that I could find that did not feature an able-bodied person, it got me to thinking about other aspects of our class that are portrayed in videos. The first one that came to mind is sexuality and gender. In Christina Aguilera’s video for Beautiful, there is a gay couple and a transgendered man among other issues. This was the only video that I could find that really dealt with any issues of race and gender. I did find some from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera’s new video that contain some gay and lesbian content, but not dealing with issues to help gays and lesbians, just about people at the clubs and at parties. If it is so difficult to find a video like this for the able-bodied, I doubt that there is a music video that deals with homosexuality and disability in one. After trying to find videos for both of these issues, I definitely noticed that there is a huge lack of portrayal for both of these issues in the media, and especially in music and their videos. It makes you think how are disabled people supposed to break free of their stereotypes of the sweet innocent, noble warrior, saintly sage, tragic victim, and the obsessive avenger if they are not given examples of anything else, and not given examples of being what is considered "normal"?

I also typed in disability in images on google, and the first picture that showed up was of a person in a wheel chair that was blurred out so that you could not see who the person was. This makes it seem like people with disability do not have identities and that they do not have personalities. The picture gives off the impression and feeling that being in a wheelchair is depressing.
After this disturbing picture, I also saw one that can make people with disability feel like they are still capable of anything and are still just as much a part of life as they would be if they were not disabled. The boy in the wheelchair in the picture is holding a basketball and standing with other able-bodied kids. Obviously portraying that being in a wheelchair cannot slow him down.

Hopefully there will be a much more broad portrayal of sexuality and disability in media in the near future.