Meaning of supercrip | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A disabled person, particularly an athlete, who achieves exceptional success or accomplishments in spite of the challenges they face, serving as an inspiration to others.
2. A disabled fictional character with extraordinary abilities or superpowers.

Examples

“Roosevelt was the quintessential American "supercrip," to use a term coined by disability activists.”

“The athletes also believe that the supercrip model is good for the able-bodied public because it shows disabled individuals in a "positive" light.”

“In other words, there is the remarkably healthy inspirational and independent supercrip that I became at the height of my Paralympic career, and then there is the sickly, dependent, revolting gimp that I became as I transitioned to using tools like oxygen, a backrest, and attendant care.”

“Yet because of the history and proliferation of the supercrip in films in television shows – not only with autism but supercrips with other disabilities as well – viewers are primed for the supercrip autistic and are therefore not expecting (in some ways) a view of autism that comes across to many in the autism community as more realistic or honest.”

“Another potential siting of disability masquerade connecting the superhero and 'supercrip' is M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable (2000), which establishes a kind of disability continuum between the villain Elijah Price/Mr Glass, who lives with osteogenesis imperfecta, and the hero David Dunn, who is seemingly impervious to physical harm.”

“As I have argued throughout this book, the supercrip model represented by a sword-fighting blind masseur or a shoot-from-the-hip, deaf gangster is very entertaining but does little to advocate the critical needs of this particular minority group.”

CEFR level