This week, as I Go-Post title, I used a reference for the Disney and Pixar animation film WALL-E. I thought it would also be a great example to use for analyzing with the tools given by Dennis Wiedman, Gelya Frank, Carolyn Baum, and Mary Law. The blockbuster movie WALL-E is about a small, trash-compacting robot (that stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) in the year 2700. This robot, WALL-E, has been working in the planet that has been uninhabited for hundreds and hundreds of years. Eventually, WALL-E meets another robot, EVE, which has come to earth to look for any signs of life on the planet. After befriending the robot, WALL-E shows EVE a green plant that he has found and to stay consistent with her directives, EVE had to retreat back to the large spaceship she originally came from, which consists of a large quantity of the existing human population which was used to evacuate the planet about 700 years earlier. WALL-E follows EVE back to the massive space cruise ship, and discovers the way of life of the human beings (Bing Movies). We see this footage of the lifestyle of the humans aboard the ship on the YouTube clip shown above. The humans disregard their bipedal structure for locomotion, and use hovering chairs to make their way around in organized, highway-like order. Every one of these chairs has a constant feed of television or offers a type of video chat with another person. For example, the first human shown in the clip is seen video chatting with a companion who is just to the side of him. We see that the humans only “eat” their meals through cups and straws, possibly symbolic of processed foods, designed efficiently to meet demand. About two minutes into the video clip, we a human fall off his chair and unable to get back up, waiting for the service bots to come put him back in his chair. The other robots created detours for passing people, as if they themselves are vehicles.
In this space cruise ship, we see that marketing and advertisement plays a key role in the lifestyle of the humans. Everything from the food in the cup, to learning the alphabets that relate to an upper power corporation, to changing into outfits that are “in” shows how the effects of corporate greed makes one lose sight of their inabilities from a physical, active, and healthy life to a lazy, convenient, and obese one. In what ways can we relate the context of this YouTube clip to the readings relating to disabilities? We must look into the message being sent by Wiedman, first. Dennis Wiedman has brought to light the disabling construct of modernity, by suggesting that chronic diseases are correlated with the progressive mindset of humankind. The large physique of the humans portrayed in the film illustrate how “the chronicities of the modern lifestyle are embodied by infrequent metabolic variation and overconsumption of calories leading to obesity” (Wiedman 43). The space cruise ship that these humans are living in is like a trap to feed a company with continuous income because the humans don’t quite have the ability to escape out of it, and don’t have any alternatives to subject themselves to. This is an accurate representation of Wiedman’s idea that “by being forcibly contained politically, economically, and bodily to small resource areas, history shows that they quickly became limited in their physical activities and dependent upon the U.S. government for energy-dense, industrially processed food” (Wiedman 46). That pretty much hits the nail on the head. Perhaps there is an exaggerated depiction of a cultural transition from a more physical group of people, to a lazy and more convenient group. It could be an example of a cultural transition that “portrays the critical juncture of modernity as populations transition from subsistence agriculture to a cash economy, from self-produced foods to a store-brought foods, from vigorous household chores to the comforts of household appliances, and from actively walking to riding in cars and trucks” (Wiedman 42).
How can a movie like WALL-E complement the works of Frank, Baum, and Law? Maybe the film played a huge role in addressing the goals of anthropologists and even therapists? “In the sophisticated interdisciplinary academic environments in which occupational therapy must survive, stronger institutional ties are need with medical anthropology, public health, disability studies, and other fields that can help to build social theory and critical standpoints affecting not only clinical encounters and life worlds of suffering, but the profession itself” (Frank 246). Occupational therapy is a great source of treatment for individuals who have to learn to adapt to the demands of society as “its practicioners address health promotion, wellness and quality of life, rehabilitation, and function,” (Frank 230) but what about prevention? I strongly believe that WALL-E was a great tool to use as a “crystal-ball effect” to show kids (who were the main audience) the flaws of ultra-convenience and processed foods. Occupational therapists deal with patients who are involved with chronic diseases, and this Pixar animation was a product that dealt with “normal” humans that evolved to have chronic conditions according to our standards. The trick here was that the film is presented to millions of children, and that is a huge way of spreading prevention and awareness through the market of entertainment.
"WALL-E - Bing Movies." Bing. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
"YouTube - Wall-E...the Sad Future of Human Kind." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
Gelya Frank, Carolyn Baum, and Mary Law. 2010. “Chronic Conditions, Health, and Well0being in Global Contexts: Occumpational Therapy in Conversation with Critical Medical Anthropology.” In Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Chronicity and the Anthropology of Illness. Lenore Manderson and Carolyn Smith-Morris, eds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Pp. 230-246.
Dennis Wiedman. 2010. “Globalizing the Chronicities of Modernity: Diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome.” In Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Chronicity and the Anthropology of Illness. Lenore Manderson and Carolyn Smith-Morris, eds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Pp 38-53.
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