Disempowering someone is to take away there ability to be treated equally and therefore now have no influence to make things better for themselves. In the movie, “The kids are Albright”, with Mike Irvin, disempowerment was seen in a very covert way. While millions of people see the telethon and give money they do not realized that they are being brainwashed with the images that the telethon uses to get money. The kids that they bring out are portrayed as helpless and simply have no chance of living a full and happy life. This pitying is what is disempowering the group of “Jerry’s Orphans”. By people seeing them as helpless they do not see them as people but only see their disability instead of a person living with a disability. When you are pitied you are not able to demand anything. You are at the mercy of the system that is in place. In Gattaca the disempowerment of people living with disabilities forced them into a lower SES which pengion held them into low paying jobs where they were unable to demand anything from the system but simply just hope to get by.
To empower someone you must see them as equals. In the movie Gattaca the main hero had to make others see him as equal. If you give a group of people who are disempowered laws which are set in place so that the group could make demands which would help to slowly empower them.
Children are the most disempowered group in the US simply because they are 100% dependent on there caregivers. While there are laws in place to protect them we as a society have come up with the idea that children do not have the knowledge or experience to make smart decisions in life. That is why the first thing we do is educate kids to start and build that knowledge that they need.
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