In 1997, Olympic gold medalist and cancer survivor, Scott Hamilton said, “The only disability is a bad attitude.” This quote became the face of “inspiration porn.” Inspiration porn is a term coined by Stella Young in her 2014 TED Talk “I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much”. The term refers to quotes that romanticize disability and paint disabled people as pure, happy people whose sole purpose is to inspire and uplift non-disabled individuals. While these messages are seen as heartwarming representations of disabled people, they are actually tools of ableist propaganda which are used to further oppress disabled people and silence their voices. With this project, I asked what impact inspiration porn had on two audiences; disabled people and non-disabled people. The project began with me looking for and selecting inspiration porn quotes I wanted to work with on websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. I then moved into writing direct parodies of inspiration porn quotes and the quotes grew into personal thoughts and reflections about disability and ableism through the lenses of trauma, anger, and humor. I then put the quotes into Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and made art with them in the style of vintage band apparel. Some art approaches I experimented with are t-shirts, posters, video editing, and different writing venues. The main result of this project was a small line of apparel and accessories representing both research and artistic expression. One of the staple quotes of this project was, “Cerebral Palsy isn’t all pad thai and late-night calls with my best friend. It’s holding my breath until I can put my headphones on so I can finally block the ableist world out.” I have plans to continue distributing these messages in the future in the effort of countering the harmful messages of inspiration porn.
Critical Look at Inspiration Porn Through Graphic Design and Parody
Category
Gender, Ethnicity, Diversity, or Cultural Studies