By Masingita Masunga
For almost 30 years I have been hearing the same line repeated across soapies and television dramas:
“I’m pregnant, not disabled.”
I just heard it again on Scandal.
What exactly is this line supposed to mean?
The intention is usually clear. The character is saying that pregnancy does not make her helpless, weak, or incapable. She wants to be treated as competent and independent.
But there is a problem.
The line only works if disability is understood as the opposite of competence and independence.
In other words, it rejects one stereotype by relying on another.
The underlying message becomes:
“Don’t treat me as incapable because I’m pregnant. That’s how people with are treated.”
How do you correct one stereotype with another?
How is that empowerment?
The hypocrisy is striking. Writers would immediately recognise the problem if a character said, “I’m pregnant, not old,” or “I’m pregnant, not mentally ill.” Yet disability continues to be used as a convenient shorthand for weakness, dependence, incapacity, and limitation.
This is not a compliment to pregnant women. It is a casual insult to people with disabilities.
What makes it even more concerning is that this is not an isolated incident. The phrase has appeared repeatedly for decades, across productions, channels, generations of writers, and changing political eras. It has become so normalised that many people no longer stop to consider what assumptions it carries.
South Africa is a constitutional democracy founded on equality, dignity, and human rights. Yet one of the most persistent disability stereotypes continues to pass through writers’ rooms, script editors, producers, broadcasters, and commissioning processes without challenge.
After raising this issue on various platforms and at different levels for nearly three decades, I am left asking:
At what point does “oversight” stop being an excuse?
At what point do we acknowledge that disability rights are still being treated as optional when it comes to media representation?
If the intention is simply to say that pregnancy does not make someone incapable, there are countless ways to say it:
“I’m pregnant, not helpless.”
“I’m pregnant, not incapable.”
“I’m pregnant. I can do it myself.”
Those statements make the point without perpetuating harmful stereotypes about people with disabilities
Disability should not be the punchline, the comparison, or the shorthand for incapacity.
We deserve better writing than that.
