Research Paper on:
Stereotypes, Bias, and the Disabled

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
connection with other people. He allows his conceptualization of what a blind person is like, i.e., his belief in cultural stereotype, to be an obstacle from connecting to another person  in a meaningful way. Nevertheless, his wifes blind friend, Robert, refuses to allow the narrator to remain so closed off. He persists in trying to communicate till he succeeds and  the result if a life-changing epiphany of understanding for the narrator, as he makes a connection with Robert, realizing what it means to communicate openly and freely with another human  being (Caver, 2007). The narrators bias against the disabled plays a key role in his initial, extremely-rude reaction to Robert. The following research paper explores the topic of bias against  the disabled, and inaccuracy of stereotypical images. The way in which disability, such as blindness, has been portrayed in popular cinema includes  the "filmic stereotypes about the disabled as unsightly, ugly [and] sexually undesirable" (Johnson, 2009, p. 480). Cinema has been particularly preoccupied with the idea of a beautiful, attractive woman  who is fatally. These films "dehumanize Blind woman and perpetuate stereotypes within a broader social context" (Johnson, 2009, p. 481). By portraying blind women as totally helpless, which was a  hallmark of cinematic portrayals of blindness in the 1960s and 70s, dramatized the fears of the able-bodied concerning disability, as well as about "being disabled, about the possibility of becoming  disabled, and about the loss of power such acquired disability supposedly brings" (Johnson, 2009, p. 493). As this indicates, Johnsons analysis of stereotypical portrayals of blind women in film substantiates  the premise that prejudice against the blind evolves primarily from personal fears of becoming disabled, as well as from the inherent fear that people typically harbor against any experience with