“Where’s Your Imagination?”: Using the Social Model to Deconstruct Stereotypes about Diabetes on Stage

Abstract

Theater makers and educators often overlook harmful comments about diabetes that appear on stage or in dramatic literature. Artists and teachers do this because such comments express the normalized, yet stigmatizing, stereotypes about diabetes embedded in U.S. culture. These conflate individual behavior, obesity and inactive lifestyle with diabetes (Bock 2012) and overlook the important social forces that impact the diabetic body. This paper argues that to expand our view and to help us better understand the lived experiences of people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, we need to include social forces in our narratives. To this end, I analyze two case studies, a 2018 production of Robbie McCauley’s Sugar and the published script for Irma Mayorga and Virginia Grise’s The Panza Monologues (2014). I demonstrate how these theatre makers point to the social structures that have influenced diabetic bodies in their communities. Theater educators can use these performance texts in the classroom for a more nuanced exploration of diabetes on stage. In the discussion section, I encourage artists and educators to engage historical context, economic factors, and the voices in the room to encourage critical thinking around this specific chronic illness, and around health in general.