Another Doctor with a Cane: Dr. Gregory House on House M.D.

Another Doctor with a Cane: Dr. Gregory House on House M.D.

In 2004, a new medical drama aired on Fox called House M.D. in which the titular character Dr. Gregory  House, a disabled doctor, walking with the help of a cane and addicted to painkillers was an unconventional, misanthropic medical genius who led a team of diagnosticians and diagnosed and managed mysterious ailments in his patients. As a result of these various personality traits coming together to form a complicated character, it was seen that when House was just seen as someone who hates people, this trait of his became a thin veil which rendered his disability invisible and subsequently marginalized and erased it.

This can clearly be seen in the following artifact:
At the October 2010 meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), an affinity group presentation on doctors in film and television evolved into a heated debate over House M.D. The group, comprised of PhDs in the humanities along with medical doctors and attorneys, focused solely on Dr. House's treatment of patients while overlooking his disability. The point is that even an audience relatively attuned to cultural constructions of disability could not see House's disability beyond his bad behavior. The conversation raises questions like "How is disability rendered invisible in popular media?" "How does House M.D. both perform and erase disability?" (Altavilla, 2013)

As a result, we see that even though disabled doctors did make an appearance on the small screen and there was certain representation in the media, it didn’t always translate into improved societal understanding and acceptance of them in reality.

House M.D.

Altavilla, G. (2013). Queer narrative prosthesis: disability and sexuality in Richard III and House MD.