Dopey's Legacy Maybe, but Gus Gus's?

In "Dopey's Legacy: Stereotypical Portrayals of Intellectual Disability in the Classic Animated Films" I can maybe get on board with Karen Schwartz, Zana Marie Lutfiyya, and Nancy Hansen in their argument that Dopey presents an unfavorable view of those with mental illness. However, I feel that when they drag Gus Gus into the argument their argument becomes a little thin. Dopey, in my opinion, does seem to represent the animators' opinions of the mentally disable, especially considering the animators said that Dopey's features were characterized as, "Down's syndrome-like," and he was meant to be "mentally retarded," or and an, "idiot." When you watch Snow White, you see that the other dwarves mistreat Dopey: they leave him behind or push him into danger, he's given only the simplest tasks, and he's often out of step or acting differently from the other dwarves. Dopey is also unable to speak, which is often a characteristic of those suffering from mental illnesses like autism. Children could identify these characteristics in Dopey, his challenges in social situations and his inability to speak, and learn that marginalizing people who exhibit these characteristics is not only ok, but also funny. On the other hand (I'm just considering this now), Dopey is one of the most lovable dwarves and Snow White isn't afraid of him and doesn't mistreat him. Maybe because of that it would teach children that people with those same characteristics as Dopey are equally lovable, thereby making it easier for them to interact with the mentally disabled. It is more likely they would observe the other dwarves behaviors and see those as the acceptable response to Dopey's actions and be cruel, but even still I would be surprised if children recognized Dopey as a mentally-disabled-inspired character. Even though in my opinion Dopey is the most-likely character to represent a mentally disabled person, he's never explicitly said to be mentally disabled. The animators are a little insensitive, though, for what they said about characterizing (or really more caricaturing) Down's syndrome-like features and the features of the mentally retarded. That was not cool, Disney animators, not cool.

Their analysis of Gus Gus I feel is a little bit of a stretch when they identify him as another possibly mentally disabled character. When I watched Cinderella, I always just assumed Gus Gus was the youngest mouse. He always seemed the most naive and most innocent, but I never saw him as "slow." I think that weakened their argument that Disney misrepresents the mentally disabled because it seemed like they were reaching for any character that could pass as possibly being mentally disabled and they were definitively saying these characters represented Disney's attack on the mentally handicapped. While I definitely believe there is severe misrepresentation of mental illness in films and in television, I don't believe that Disney has the same vendetta against the mentally handicapped that the authors of "Dopey's Legacy" seem to be accusing them of. I think the authors are willing to call almost anything an attack on the mentally handicapped in order to prove their point. For example, they say that Dumb and Dumber is an offense and again I will cite Gus Gus, neither of whom I would identify as mentally handicapped. Dumb and Dumber I would classify as two stupid guys, not necessarily two guys with mental disabilities (I am not terribly familiar with most of the movies the authors cite so I may be wrong as well and too callous) and like I said previously, Gus Gus is childish. I am too unfamiliar with the other texts they address to comment, I've never seen of Forrest Gump for example, but I question the authors' credibility because of these other examples. I'm neither too familiar with mental disability nor am I too familiar with most of these movies, but from what I gather these authors took a solid idea a little too far. I can see maybe Dopey's legacy, but I believe the authors should have stopped there and their message about protecting the interests of the mentally handicapped would have resonated more with me.