Go to the mat is slang for
“fight until one side or another is victorious.
“This term comes from wrestling and evokes the holding of an opponent
when both contestants are down on the mat, the padded floor-covering used in matches.”(Dictionary.com)
In the Disney Channel movie Going to the Mat, Jace chooses to fight the stereotype of a blind musician to become a wrestler, literally going to the mat.
Wrestling becomes his focus when a character Mary-Beth “saw a blind guy do it once.” It’s worth noting that the abilities of individual disabled people are not transferable to a whole group.
Results Of Stereotyping
This coming-of-age sports movie is generic. It only uses the trope that blind people have heightened senses when it is plot convenient.
The generic beats involve Jace working hard to overcome his blindness.
The first and last scenes, where other characters learn about Jace’s disability, is irrelevant. They do not see disability.
This is problematic because it does not recognize societal shortcomings regarding minority groups.
These scenes also fail to acknowledge the inequity of living within a minority group.
Jace is a basic white guy at the top of the disability hierarchy. The simple plot beats serve their
Purpose in presenting Going to the Mat as an after-school special about accepting yourself.
This generic coming-of-age storyline about moving to a small town,
joining a sports team to be liked, and then working hard to be the best on the team adds the extra element of Jace’s disability.
“The bizarre implication is that visual impairment brings about significant alterations in the bearer’s sense of taste.” (Bolt, 10)
Kernels of Accuracy
Bolt refers to this assumption about visually impaired people possessing “extraordinary senses.”
Another seemingly positive representation of blindness is demonstrating it as a disability that eliminates distractions.
Along the lines of extraordinary senses, it assumes visually impaired people have an advantage in their ability to work hard and problem-solve because they have dialed in sensory input.
These representations are common.
The kernel of accuracy in these stereotypes is
“People with impaired vision might well learn to use such capacities more effectively, but, far from being automatic, any compensation is the product of persistent practice” (Kirtley, 1975).
Disability Chip on the Shoulder
While Going to the Mat does feature extraordinary senses and musical tropes, Jace is not more intelligent than other characters because of his disability. He is self-centered because of the assumptions he’s faced throughout life.
The plot involves Jace being mad about moving from NYC to Utah. He boasts to his “hillbilly” classmates that New York City is the best place to live.
Jace’s condescending way of treating people in Utah betrays his problem with being blind. After John meets Mary-Beth, she tells him she’ll be one of his readers.
Jace immediately says, “Why? Because it looks good on your college resume?” Again, Jace thinks Mary-Beth is taking advantage of Jace’s blindness.
In another scene, Mary Beth is seen reading to Jace about the oppression of colonization, and his response is, “welcome to my world.” This demonstrates how self-centered Jace is. After he complains that nobody likes him,
Mary Beth tells him, “no one cares that you’re blind; they’re turned off because they think you’re a total jerk.”
Sources
Bolt, D. (2006). Beneficial Blindness: Literary Representation and the So-Called Positive Stereotyping of People with Impaired Vision. Journal of Disability Studies, (12), 1-31. https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/library/bolt-Beneficial-Blindness.pdf
Kirtley, D. D. (1975). Blindness in the arts. The psychology of blindness (pp. 49-92). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.