Authenticity in representations of down syndrome in contemporary cinema: The "supercrip" in the Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

Abstract

The issue of disability and its representation in the media offers a useful example for studying the relationship between hegemonical discourses and marginal narratives. Disability has been used previously to identify the workings of a dominant ideology (Mitchell 17), but its role as an experience of social and political dimensions has been largely neglected in the cultural field. Disabled characters have been a potent narrative source, but their representation has been limited to undesirable identities, often associated with degeneracy and infirmity (Rodan, Ellis, Lebeck 16). This study examines the issue of disability as reflected in a recent American cinema production, The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019). In the film, a Down syndrome actor, Zack Gottsagen, plays himself, performing with actors like Dakota Johnson and Shia LaBeouf. Validating Zack's personal experience allows an emphasis on disability in terms of its own significance, an approach which appears to be a response to a broader call for emancipated portrayals of the disabled on screen. A focus is placed on mechanisms that disregard the socially constructed representation of Down syndrome to offer a more progressive portrayal of the disabled, while also considering the dominant narrative's role through the film's exploitation of its contrastive efficiency (Mitchell 28), thereby echoing the workings of the structural limitations that draw upon a long history of cultural trivialization.