Reimagining Halloween Ableism: Why Disability Isn’t a Costume

Disability isn't a costume. On Halloween, remember that conflating impairment or disfigurement with ugliness, evil, or horror causes real harm to people with physical and facial differences.

As a young girl with scoliosis and kyphosis, the only images I ever saw of people like me were “hunchbacks” in the movies. These were typically ugly and "deformed" men with extreme spinal curvatures like Quasimodo. They were seen as pitiable, socially isolated, and monstrous because of their bodily difference. As a child, these representations taught me that my body was a source of shame, stigma, and horror. The back brace I was required to wear made me the target of bullies, amplifying my profound sense of exclusion and otherness.

If you're dressing up for Halloween or costuming your kids, please remember that how you represent what's "frightening" has a significant impact on people with bodily, limb, or facial differences. From the Phantom of the Opera to the Joker to Dr. Poison from Wonder Woman, scarred and disfigured villains have been a persistent trope in Hollywood cinema.

In recent years, activists have raised awareness about the harm caused by the disfigured/disabled villain trope. But many people still use scars, burns, prosthetic limbs, and other physical disfigurements as "props" for Halloween costumes without thinking about how they are othering people with physical disabilities.

People with apparent (and non-apparent) differences aren't "scary." What's truly scary is the harm and injustice that ableism causes in our lives, communities, and organizations.

ID: Image of Heath Ledger as the Joker in the 2008 film The Dark Knight. Ledger is wearing his signature “chaotic,” sweaty clown makeup featuring a prosthetic scar that makes him look as though he is smiling. He is wearing a purple jacket and purple gloves and holding a Joker playing card.