My Disability is Not Your Costume
Halloween is just around the corner, and despite the CoronaVirus pandemic, many people are still planning their costumes for a variety of activities. Personally, I’ve never been much for the Halloween festivities anyway. Growing up as a wheelchair user, it just wasn’t accessible. Still, I love a good costume as much as the next person. […]
The Cripped-Up Horror of Halloween Movies
What do Split, Phantom of the Opera, A Quiet Place, and Bird Box have in common? All four movies utilize disability as a means to create thrill and horror. But do they all do disability justice? CW: This article contains descriptions of murder, gore, trauma, and suicide within dramatic film. Split (2016) is a horror movie featuring a villain […]
Asylum or Ableism? Halloween’s Glamorization of Mental Illness
During the 1960s, people with mental illness were reintegrated into society, following mass deinstitutionalization efforts of the United States government, rendering state-funded mental hospitals outdated. Many of these buildings were repurposed as “haunted houses”, with heart-stopping tours and actors dressed in hospital gowns smeared with blood. Hundreds of people flock to these attractions every fall, […]
The Real Trick in Trick-or-Treat is the Lack of Access for Disabled People
By: Emeily Flyr The time has come, spooky season! October has finally made it’s long anticipated arrival with all it has to offer. Air is crisp, leaves are changing colors by the minute, pumpkin flavored everything, and finally, the long awaited day, Halloween. Halloween for me has always looked different than the “average” abled-bodied spooky […]