The main thesis of the film Murderball is that people that are disabled are able to do just as much as able bodies are if not more. I am an able bodied person and I do not think I would be able to, let alone have the guts to, play wheelchair rugby.
The main argument of the film is that disabled people are just as good as people that do not have a disability. For example people with disabilities are tired of getting looked down on, felt sorry for, etc. Like when Mark Zupan was explaining his situation at the bar. When the guy felt sorry for him and Zupan was like "Fucking hit me, I'll hit you back." He just wants to be treated equal. He wants equal opportunity with everything like we as able bodied people have. If you wanna pick a fight with someone in a wheelchair, pick it, they can probably kick your ass! And second another thing that is looked down on is if people in wheelchairs can have sexual intercourse. And as the movie goes into great detail about, you can still have sexual intercourse.
The main thesis of the film relates to the course materials because we have been talking about deviant bodies and how they are portrayed in society. And as we have discussed in class be disabled is being deviant. You are looked at differently.
The point I found most interesting was that when people just get into their wheelchair for the first time and for the next couple years they are really hopeful that they will be able to walk again. It takes some major adjusting to the wheelchair and the lifestyle. But after a few years they get the attitude of "okay I am never going to walk again, so lets make this the best". I feel that Zupan and the other characters in the film do that and they really show it, that just because you are in a wheelchair does not mean life cannot be great. You would think that Strain Theory would play a role here. Strain Theory is "how some social structures exert a definite pressure upon certain persons in the society to engage in nonconforming rather than conforming conduct" (Merton, as stated in Alex, Thomas, and Addrain, 2010). I would think they would have some strain at things. And they may, but they do not show it at least. The found a sport they can play and they are darn good at it. They embrace it!
There was not a point in the film that was not least convincing or anything. I really liked the film and I thought it was a great thing to show us. It was good information because there are a lot of people, and i was one at one time, that just feel sorry for people in wheelchairs and think they are helpless, but they are not.
Something I would like to look more into is how other people in wheelchairs feel about things. Talk to people that just got into their accident and then talk to them 5 or more years later. And also talk to different types of people, women, children, different races, etc. The film only showed white males that played wheelchair rugby really. Like what we read in the Bitch Magazine blog about "Supercrip." Its interesting how we portray the disabled and how they portray themselves.
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-transcontinental-disability-choir-disability-archetypes-supercrip
Merton, Robert K. "Strain Theory." Readings in Deviant Behavior. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2010. 21-26. Print.
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