#TINY TIM CHRISTMAS HOW TO#

The Cratchit family becomes their own trope, the “Noble Sacrificer” - the caregivers who sacrifice all personal needs and desires in order to provide and care for their disabled charge, again lacking in any other depth, arc, or development. He does not exist as a character in his own right, but only to make Bob Cratchit all the more pitiable and to make Scrooge feel guilty. His father recounts Tim saying that he “hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.” Tiny Tim has no character arc, no development, no future beyond bringing endless joy to his family and making other people appreciate that they aren’t him. You know when your mom tried to guilt you about the starving children in Africa to get you to eat the microwaved, un-seasoned veggies she served you? She’s using those Sweet Innocents to guilt you because at least you aren’t them, right?

#TINY TIM CHRISTMAS HOW TO#

They’ll never survive in the big, scary world out there all by themselves, but who cares? They have such a good-natured temperament that we can’t help but want to take care of them, and they teach us so much about ourselves and how to appreciate life, that they’re worth keeping around.

Holy Innocents or Sweet InnocentsĪ staple of the Victorian Era, the Sweet Innocent is the cripple with a heart of gold who needs to be cared for and looked after, also known as the “Charity Cripple.” The emphasis of this stereotype is that every Holy Innocent is a capitol-V Victim of their circumstance. And so, in the spirit of peace on Earth and goodwill, let’s go over a brief list of common stereotypes of disability in popular media. While we are living in a time of growing positive portrayals of people with disabilities in the media – or as I like the call it, the Age of Ali Stroker – it’s more important than ever to acknowledge the way disability has been depicted in the past and how it still affects our views on disability and people with disabilities today. Tiny Tim is a prime example of a “holy innocent,” one of the many stereotypes of people with disabilities we see again and again in popular culture. He’s sweet, he’s optimistic, he’s got a little crutch – he’s a cliché. Whether they be casts of humans, cartoons, or Muppets, they all have one thing in common: Tiny Tim, everyone’s favorite cripple.

Tiny tim christmas