Murderball-A film review

This film was the best we have seen so far!  I was humbled watching this show because the members on this rugby team have more drive and have achieved more than most able-bodied individuals.  I like how this film takes a look at how we as a society label and dehumanize persons who are disabled in some manner.  Mark Zupan, the main focus of this documentary gives real life advice on how a person who could walk one day and not the next deals with this new challenge. He takes the viewer through a timeline of coping and how it takes many years to deal emotionally and mentally what has happened to you and then you modify your life.  He is very inspirational not because he is in a wheelchair but his infectious attitude about life.  The film follows Team USA and Team Canada mostly and the competitive world of quad rugby.  The most powerful point that this film makes is the reference to ableism.  In the article, What is Ableist Language and Why Should You Care?, Thomas Hehir states that “Ableism is the devaluation of disability that results in societal attitudes that uncritically assert that it is better for a child to walk than to roll, speak than sign or read print than read Braille.” This is the message that is sold to us through the media and it takes films like Murderball to shatter these ridiculous notions that we have.  Like in the video Spinal Muscular Atrophy Doesn’t Define Me’ that we watched in Section 1.  Being disabled or having an illness doesn’t define you as a person.  It is not who you are or what you feel.  

Reference
Image Disability-Google Images
Spinal Muscular Atrophy 'Doesn't Define Me', Video, Sociology 360 Deviance Class Blog
Bitch Magazine. What is Ableist Language and Why Should You Care?