How ‘The Shape Of Water’ Makes People With Disabilities Feel Less Human

Elsa Sjunneson-Henry was psyched when she heard about Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water.”

As a speculative fiction author and editor who is legally blind and deaf, Sjunneson-Henry couldn’t wait to see a science fiction film featuring a protagonist with a disability.

“I was super excited to potentially see a movie about a disabled woman as a hero in a genre setting,” Sjunneson-Henry told HuffPost.

The film has garnered 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture — and many entertainment trade outlets predict it will win. It stars Sally Hawkins as Elisa, a cleaning woman who works at a top-secret government lab in the 1960s. Elisa, who is mute, lives a lonely life despite having two caring friends who are also outsiders — Giles (Richard Jenkins), who is gay, and Zelda (Octavia Spencer), who is black.


Source : huffingtonpost