Disability is in vogue. Last night, Rosemarie Garland-Thompson of Emory University spoke in Eggers Hall on the recent views of disability in popular culture. Her lecture, ‘Can or Should Disability Be Chic? Images of Disability in Late Capitalism,’ addressed her exploration of these images and their effects on consumers and culture in general.’The title of the lecture is pretty much a description of my entire scholarly project,’ Thompson said. ‘Disability is a concept and a social identity, as well as a communicative and social experience.”This kind of work is very important,’ said Louise Wilkinson, dean of the School of Education. ‘We have a unique set of strengths at SU with faculty, staff, and students. There is a long-standing idea of inclusion, and it’s a great privilege to be a part of and support this.’Thompson is in the process of writing books on the dynamics of staring and the philosophies of cultural euthanasia. Her work within the disabled community addresses how the culture’s representation can affect social justice.’What would happen,’ she asked, ‘if society fully recognized and evaluated human variation?’The majority of Thompson’s lecture focused on the entrance of disabled people into the advertising world. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act passed through Congress, guaranteeing civil rights to disabled people and allowing their entry into the social norm, Thompson said. This act began the movement in department store ads, magazine spreads and photography depicting disability as normal, she said.’You can sort of see it as a mixed blessing,’ Thompson said. ‘On one hand, they’re now appropriating us as a target market, but on the other, it’s ultimately a democratizing gesture.’Thompson divided disability advertising into four different categories: sentimental, sensational, mainstream and radical. Sentimental advertising has migrated from charity to retail and works to assure the viewer of the company’s tolerance. Ads that re-sexualize people with disabilities are seen as sensational, Thompson said, adding that public opinion is the effective check on marketing. Mainstream images, such as Barbie’s wheelchair-bound friend Becky, challenge notions of normalcy in feminist ways, she said.’Girls might be liberated from restrictive images,’ Thompson said. ‘It shakes up established categories and expectations.’In radical advertising, companies are ceaselessly seeking novelty, she said. The ads are grounded in the normal, but enlist disability to achieve the novel at the same time. These ads can sometimes spill over into the category of freak show, and, like mainstream ads, can be inadvertently progressive, Thompson said.’Freak show forced us into exploitative curiosity and staring that is now socially unacceptable,’ she said.Thompson also criticized the controversial Nuveen advertisement aired during the Super Bowl in 2000. The spot depicted a digitized Christopher Reeve rising from his wheelchair and walking across a stage, which made him look like a combination of George W. Bush and Frankenstein, Thompson said.’Seldom do we find images suggesting that the lives of people in wheelchairs may be full and satisfying, as they often are,’ she said.Thompson’s lecture was accompanied by a slide show of images of disability. She explained the movement in the media towards the use of famous disabled models or athletes to sell product, citing model Heather McCartney, skater Chris Paretti, artist and film star Dan Kepleger and model and athlete Aimee Mullins as prime examples. She also brought up the use of mastectomy scars to challenge not only disability bias but sexism as well.These images ‘quench post-modernity’s search for the provocative image,’ she said. ‘The images imply that the system can produce politically progressive counter-images that disrupt visual interpretations.”It was eye-opening and gave different perspectives of disability,’ said Erika Nixon, a senior psychology major. ‘Now (disability) is seen and used in ads and consumer culture. Sometimes it’s acceptable and sometimes not. It’s interesting to see how it’s acceptable to us.’Thompson ended with two of her favorite images of disabled women. The first was a 1993 New York Times Magazine cover depicting fashion model Veruska exposing her mastectomy scar as a source of pride and beauty. The second was a New York Times Magazine cover from 10 years later, showing wheelchair-bound lawyer Harriet McBryde Johnson. ‘This is only one part of the range of human experience,’ Thompson said. ‘It puts a face on disability that the world desperately needs to see.’