Some Thoughts on Blindness in Daredevil

If you’re talking about disability representation, Matt Murdock/Daredevil is a dubious name to include.  No, he can’t see, but his superpowers completely negate that fact, and really, a blind superhero’s power being “superhuman sense of hearing/smell/taste” is pretty cliché.  However, I like the ways that perceptions of Matt’s recognized disability interact with his secret pastime of superpowered vigilantism (a few spoilers.)

When you’re talking secret identities, “mild-mannered” is the typical description.  Who would ever even consider that that geek Peter Parker is really Spider-Man?  You want a secret identity to be unremarkable, above reproach.  In Matt’s case, “blind defense attorney” is definitely noteworthy – most people haven’t had much regular interaction with blind people – but it’s also very out-of-range in terms of anyone suspecting him.  Absolutely no one is going to look at this blind guy and wonder if he’s really the masked vigilante cleaning up Hell’s Kitchen at night.  It’s the perfect camouflage.

Matt’s blindness serves as more explicit cover as well.  His line of work leads to copious injuries, and while his friends notice them, they easily buy his lies about walking into doors or tripping down the stairs.  People like Foggy and Karen love Matt and don’t treat him like a “special” person, but they also find it credible that his disability would make him more susceptible to these sorts of clumsy accidents.  When they think about blindness, they probably try to imagine what it would be like if they couldn’t see.  Close their eyes and grope around for a few seconds, and it’s not much of a leap to say, “I don’t know how Matt does it!  No wonder he gets banged up now and then!”  Foggy entreats him to be more careful, and Karen worries about him when the streets are dangerous.

Additionally, Matt sometimes uses “the blind card” to manipulate people.  In season two, there’s an incident where he needs to get a certain person alone so he can steal the man’s key card without security catching him.  It’s simple for him to arrange to “accidentally” bump into the guy, spilling wine over him and forcing him to go to the restroom to clean up.  It’s a great scene because you see the exact moment the guy realizes Matt is blind and swallows his irritation with a “not his fault – he couldn’t help it” attitude.

But even though all this helps Matt a lot, I think it also feeds into his recklessness and penchant for diving headlong into danger.  I get the impression that he kind of resents people seeing him as helpless or incapable when he’s not (just as I imagine the same is also true for most non-powered blind people.)  It’s a buildup of frustration that lets itself out at night when he’s being Daredevil, where his drive to show what he can really do often lands him in major trouble because he just never knows when to quit.  It’s an interesting dynamic that reminds me of the first season of Agent Carter.  Peggy similarly uses people’s underestimation of her to her advantage, blaming secret-spy-related absences on her period or laying on the “helpless woman” act to deflect any suspicion, and just like Matt, perpetuating these stereotypes benefits her but also aggravates her and makes her determined to prove once and for all that she’s not what people think of her.  With both characters, it’s a nice exploration of how perception works in society and effects people’s lives.