Mairs Disability Essay

481 Words2 Pages
Disability Revisited Criticizing misrepresentation in media is much like complaining that a desert is too dry; completely obvious and there’s not too much you can do about it. To voice her frustrations, Nancy Mairs composes a very blunt, matter-of-fact, somewhat satirical, essay scolding media for their portrayal of the disabled. Although her position is understandable, her approach in the essay is slightly jumbled. Mairs tends to use too many different emotions to relay information and her opinions to her audience. As an introduction, Mairs attempts to gain sympathy and personal connection with her readers by describing her physical disabilities due to MS (multiple sclerosis). She surrounds this description with how she has never seen any representation of her in the media, her tone insinuating either annoyance or depression. Depending on how a reader “hears” the narration in their head, the next paragraph can cause a little angst or frustration. Mairs turns from a sympathy-seeking cripple into a hostile contradicting writer. She states in the first paragraph “… I haven’t noticed any women like me on television…” yet her next paragraph is centered on a television show about a woman with MS. Mairs tries to redeem herself by describing how this woman’s emotional weakness, for running back to her doctor/love interest, is inaccurate, but that is mostly a sexist representation of women and less a misrepresentation of the disabled. Mairs continues the rest of the essay in her mostly hostile fashion. She tosses in many rhetorical devices to the reader which, admittedly, makes her feel somewhat relatable and real. Her informal style of writing makes it seem like she knows her reader on an intimate level, therefor you are more inclined to accept her statements without evidence, succumbing to her requests for disability to be viewed as normal. She wraps up her essay
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