About the Author: Ridwana Miah is a young individual who has been stuttering since she was child. Beyond that, she enjoys writing articles, poems and stories, where it allows her to freely weave her words and share them with others. She enjoys using her stutter as a device to write poems to allow others to get a glimpse of what it is like to have a stutter. She has recently completed her paralegal studies and enjoys helping people and giving back to the community.

“What’s your name?” asks the cool senior, who is the main character, to the freshman.
“My n-n-n-n-n n-aaa-me is R-r-r-…R-r-r-r-yi-yi-aaaaaa-n”.

The cool senior and his friends breakout in a contagious laugh, while the freshman gets red faced and walks away. The audience in the theater breakout in a hysterical laugh, and SCENE. The freshman, the stutterer, was a device used to bring a lighthearted moment. He is the weak kid with an auditory gag, imperfect, and got two minutes of screentime for humorous effect.

Representation in the mainstream media has become a prime focus in contemporary works, whether that be in the form of depicting race, culture, tradition, religion, ethnicity, or disability. In recent years, we have witnessed the constant development to offer high quality work which does justice to providing an inclusive media and shedding light on different communities, and the vast social, cultural, and racial issues. Inclusivity and representation have become a brand and tool for media. The entertainment industry has always been very open about taking up the challenge of depicting and representing characters with mental or physical disabilities on screen. There are comparisons in regards to the portrayal of such characters, from earlier times and contemporary times. Earlier times, these characters were used as prop to ignite amusement, laughter and more meat to the plot, however in contemporary times, they are used in their full sense, in the role of main character, shedding away any stereotypical connotation. The same cannot be said about characters who are portrayed to have a speech impediment. There are wide elements of caricature in the portrayal of a stutterer on screen which takes away the authenticity of what truly encompasses the journey of a stutterer. And it truly underrepresents the true experience of the 70 million in population worldwide who suffer from it on a daily basis. The paper aims to touch upon the portrayal of famous characters in mainstream media who have a speech impediment and how those characters were utilized, and how there has to be a change when it comes to the representation of such characters if they fully want to represent that demographic.

I am not going to deny that pop culture has done a marvelous job of authentically representing the daily life of an actual stutterer by adapting the story of King George VI of The United Kingdom, into the big screen. In The Kings Speech, the main character, King George VI, played by Colin Firth, did more than justice to his role but embodied the stutter in his character as if he was a stutterer himself.  This has led me to demonstrate a contrast of two different characters in pop culture where they depict a speech impediment; Porky Pig from the Looney Tunes series, and King George VI from The Kings Speech, which can give you a better idea of how it was presented and interpreted by the audience. 

Porky Pig from the Looney Tunes, made his first appearance in the Warner Bros show in 1935. His endearing quality was having a stutter. The story behind Porky Pig’s stutter was that it was due to genetic abnormalities, where stutter runs in the family, therefore, Porky Pig was always at risk of developing a stutter due to his father, Phineas Pig, being a severe stutterer (Johnson, 1987). The question here is, how much of the stutter was meant to accurately represent stuttering and how much of it was used as a device to offer the audience a moment of laughter? The latter statement prevails, we do agree that Porky Pig was a stutterer for the whole duration of the show, but his main role was to offer the audience the apt to break into a laughter with his distorted speech. Researcher Gerald Johnson conducted a study in 1987, where he determined that Porky’s stuttering was “disfluent on a rather high 23% of his words and displayed atypical and exaggerated characteristics of stuttering” (Johnson, 2008). Interesting fact , which further demonstrates how the goal was to not accurately represent stuttering, but to rather make a gimmick out of it. Initially, the voice over of Porky Pig was played by actor Joe Dougherty, who in reality had a severe stutter. Dougherty played the role for two years until he was dismissed and replaced by Mel Blanc, a non-stutterer. Ironically, the reason behind his dismissal was that Dougherty offered the invaluable authenticity to the character portrayed, but  the production houses simply couldn’t accommodate the longer shooting sessions, increased number of retakes and the inherent “inconvenience” Dougherty brought to the set. It was a kick to the stomach kind of a moment for Dougherty because anyone would think “how can you sketch a character who I can relate to, where I am naturally able to deliver the “speech impediment” arch you are aiming for. Then get frustrated for the very reason that my stutter was too much to handle and replace it with someone who does not know about stuttering.” Blanc, who replaced Dougherty, had a different characterization of stuttering, he described it as more of “talk with a grunt” since that is how Pigs spoke and he commented “I don’t think anybody stutters that badly”. (Lawson et al. 2004). Which is untrue, in reality stuttering is a complex disorder which differs from each individual as multiple factors influence the disfluency in speech; therefore, every stutterer’s journey is not the same. Blanc went ahead to play the role for 52 years; with the same opinion he had formed in his mind about what a stutter was.

The stigma of speech impediment did not even spare royalty or monarchies. This is how extreme stigma was that even those in high power were scrutinized for their speech impediment, even though they are capable of doing their job. Fast forward to 2010, The Kings Speech, released on the big screen and set a precedent to depict the experience of an actual stutterer. It was not just a series of repeated words and debilitating anxiousness, but it was more about presenting the complex experience of one who must live with it on a daily basis. The character was realistic and relatable, it took an approach to allow anyone who stutters to resonate with the main character’s experience, but importantly it was able to demonstrate the determination and belief in oneself that they can do it even with a stutter.  The movie did not have the idea of completely diminishing the stutter, but rather shows the connection that the King and his speech pathologist makes in the process of adopting a series of therapies which can control the stutter and adopting techniques that are useful to maneuver through a bout of stutter.

The story revolves around King George VI (formerly known as Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George, Duke of York) played by Colin Firth, who is preparing to take the throne as King George IV of Great Britain. However, his crippling stuttering and anxiety stands as a hurdle in taking on this role as he is required to give a speech to the greater public. It showcases Prince Albert’s emotional, physical, and psychological struggle caused by his stutter, and constantly socially ostracized for the way he spoke. During those times, stuttering was frowned upon, it was associated with someone not being fit or regarded as normal, it was a sign of weakness, which the prince’s father repeatedly implicated when he would get angry at Prince Albert for stuttering. The humiliation and self-doubt that Prince Albert felt when stuttering was easily relatable to those who stutter. A significant amount of pain, frustration and anger is displayed by Prince Albert whenever he would stutter which led him to question his worth and his manhood. He felt a significant amount of isolation from his family, who could not comprehend the way he spoke and why could he not just talk normally. Time was nearing to be sworn into the throne and wanting to deliver an exceptional speech to his people, Prince Albert came to the decision of hiring Australian speech-pathologist, Lionel Logue. This is where we get to witness the ups and downs of dealing with stuttering but also accepting it to be a part of you and not something alienating from you. It not only showcases a close relationship being formed between the two, but shows how with the help of Logue, he is able to appreciate the stutter as a part of him which there is no definitive cure to, but it is something to carry as a sign of strength and not of weakness. Logue’s dedication to help Prince Albert, and Prince Albert’s determination to embrace the stutter as a part of him and flawlessly deliver his speech, demonstrates that perseverance has succeeded. It embodied the stutter and stripped away the social stigma that it upholds in the society. Prince Albert became King George VI, and with a stutter, he finished his term up till his death. Everything that Prince Albert felt from the beginning of his journey with stuttering till the end in becoming King George VI, is what resonates with those who stutter. Prince Albert goes on to show that one can achieve great things when they start accepting themselves for who they are and accept that they are not defined by their stutter and their stutter is not something to be holding them back.

Finally, there is a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of mainstream media portraying characters with speech impediment. Although there are few positive depictions of characters with speech impediment, trying to break the stigma, a large portion of negative portrayal outnumbers the positive ones. It is imperative for writers and filmmakers to not only make an effort but actually dedicate their time in discovering a realistic day to day life of someone who lives with a speech impediment, before writing a character sketch. Our society is known to consume mainstream media in exponential amounts, audiences use the consumption of different media as a benchmark to constructing opinions and thoughts, and truth to be told a huge number of people make assumptions of those who stutter based on these works. Just like characters with other mental and physical disabilities get a dedicated share of research, and studies done in order to accurately represent them on the big screen, the same sort of dedication should be given to those with speech impediments. Reinforcing a positive portrayal of such character does not only gives exposure to the “invisible disorder” or “invisible disability” but it gives those who stutter a reassurance that this is normal, that they are as able bodied as anyone else, they are not a weak character and they are capable of painting dreams and achieving them while embracing their stutter. As someone who stutters since a young age, I began embracing my stutter in my 20’s. I began to view it as a small pet that I carry along with me, which gets fussy from time to time but eventually calms down. It stays by my side no matter how far I throw the piece of stick; it will always be a part of me.  I view my stutter as a sign of strength and not a weakness, I see it as something that has pushed me to my limits and even though in self-doubt, it has allowed me to take up challenges.

 

Reference 

 Johnson, J. (2008). The Visualization of the Twisted Tongue: Portrayals of Stuttering in Film, Television, and Comic Books. The Journal of Popular Culture. 

Johnson, G. (1987).  A Clinical Study of Porky Pig Cartoons. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Lawson, T., & Persons, A. (2005). The magic behind the voices: A who’s who of cartoon voice actors. University Press of Mississippi.