Prosthesis
Description
For my artifact I chose a scene from the movie Men of Honor.
This is based on the true story of Carl Brashear. Who lost his leg while on
active duty. In the movie there is a scene where Carl played by Cuba Gooding
Jr. was recovering in a Navy hospital he came across articles about WWII pilots
that had lost limbs and were able to return to active duty with the aid of a
prosthesis. He then tells the doctor to cut off his leg. The Scene that I am
using is after he has his leg cut off he has to participate in a hearing on
whether or not he is able to return to active duty. What is not show in the
clips is some of the moments leading up to the scene that I have chosen. While
in the court the officer in charge of the hearing makes several attempts to
discourage Cuba Gooding Jr. from returning to active duty. Including citing
that the weight of the prosthetic leg would affect what would happen if he were
to die while undersea. He does his best to make a joke about it saying that if
he were to die he will do his best to die like a navy man. What is show is the “12
steps” which all men must be able to do in the new diving rig in order to
become a Navy Diver. Carl Brashear would accomplish the “12 steps” and be
reinstated to full active duty. He would go on to become the first African
American to become a Navy Master Diver in 1970.
Analysis
In the reading Serlin talks about
how the loss of a limb can lead to being emasculated. He does however go on to
say that these men should be encouraged to go about their lives in as normal of
a manner as possible. Within the essay he takes a paragraph from the physical
therapist Donald Kerr and Singe Brunnstrom which states “[T]he family [should
learn] to ignore the amputation and to expect and even require the amputee to
take care of himself, to share in household duties, and to participate in
social activities.” I don’t have any problem with this. I feel that expecting
an amputee to still perform some day to day task would have allowed him to
regain some sense of “normalcy”. I see it as a way to allow these men to get
their lives back as much as they possibly can. General Motors would take a step
in allowing the wounded G.I.’s get back to a sense of normality. They created a
car for amputees that could be completely controlled from the steering wheel. Giving
these men the ability to drive and get around on their own would go a long way
to allowing these men the ability to feel normal. The fact that they wouldn’t
have to rely on other to help them get from place to place would prevent them
from feeling helpless. In the comic strips that are in the reading it is seen
that the person applying for the job looks completely normal to the naked eye.
But it is later revealed that he has a prosthetic limb. Serlin states that it
shows two expressions of “American” expressions of masculine competence. The
character in the comic is a symbol of many of the returning veterans; all they
wanted to do was prove that they were as good as anyone else. I agree with
this, why should it matter if you have a fake leg in the office place. It
doesn’t put you at any kind of a disadvantage to someone with two legs made of
flesh, blood, and bones. In Serlins
essay he says that disabled men often turned in better work than those not
handicapped. I see this as these handicapped men trying to prove their self
worth and that just because they may be at a physical disadvantage that they
were in no mean at a disadvantage when it came to the work place.
Questions
Do you think that one
of the reasons that this was such a big story was because Carl Brashear was the
first black Navy diver? How would this have been different if he was a white
Navy officer? What if he didn’t want to continue his career as a navy diver?
Why do you think Serlin focused so much on the loss of limbs
and the relation to a loss of masculinity?
On page 59 Serlin states that “wartime experience showed
that disabled men often turned in better work that those not handicapped.” Do
you think the reasoning behind this is because they felt that they weren’t as
“masculine“ as the me that were defined as able bodied so they felt like they
had to make up for it by working harder?
On page 67 it states that Dreyfuss made his photographs
“civilized” the otherwise painful and traumatic representations of amputees and
prosthesis. Why was it necessary to civilize these things if they were already
meant to return a sense of normalcy to those that were wearing them?
Chris Murray
Nice presentation today! Even though we shared the same topic, I liked how our artifacts played off each other. I liked a lot of the questions you posed about race and disabilities. There was a lot of good discussion about our artifacts, and a lot of good points were made.The discussion was very fluid and I'm glad it worked out well!
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