a conversation about ableism, disability, and the portrayal of wheelchair-using characters in comics! With Gabriella (the Girl Who Sits) and Dayspring (Power of X)!

Episode description

Welcome to a very special episode of Graymalkin Lane. Charles Xavier is many things: the most powerful mutant mind on the planet, the leader of an army of super-powered teenagers, a designer of weapons and robots, and a man with a mysterious and complicated background, but he has always stood out for one reason above all others. Charles Xavier is in a wheelchair. 

For nearly 60 years, Professor X has been an inspiration to the disabled community. Whether you know him as the complicated secret-keeper in the comics, the decisive leader in his hover-chair in the cartoons, or the compassionate mutant rights advocate played by Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy in the films, you've been inspired by this character. But despite his complexities, Xavier is a character directly associated with being in a wheelchair, and he has almost always been written by (and portrayed by) people who don't have disabilities. 

For this conversation-based episode, Chad is joined by Dayspring (from the Power of X podcast) and special guest Gabriel Garbero (who writes the Girl Who Sits blog) to talk all about ableism, disability, and the portrayal of characters who use wheelchairs in comic books.