Disability, bodies, & representation in popular culture: reading Garland-Thomson & Kafer through Atypical and CODA

(These essays are meant as my own preparation and supplemental synopsis for my students, anyone is welcome to read and comment)

Feminist theory has long interrogated the politics of bodies and representation; yet, disability has often remained at its margins. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s (2002) essay Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory insists that feminist frameworks must take disability seriously as a category of analysis, arguing that disability, like gender, is a system of representation and power that regulates whose bodies are deemed normal and desirable. Similarly, Alison Kafer’s (2013) Feminist, Queer, Crip critiques cultural narratives that assume a desirable future is necessarily an able-bodied one, offering instead a politics of “crip time” and “crip futurity” that reimagine time, productivity, and inclusion. Taken together, these theorists push disability into the center of feminist, queer, and cultural analysis.

To illustrate their ideas, this essay analyzes two widely discussed popular culture texts: Netflix’s Atypical (2017–2021) and Sian Heder’s Oscar-winning film CODA (2021). Atypical follows Sam Gardner, an autistic teenager facing independence, relationships, and family life. Its mainstream…