Why Some Of Our TV Soaps Need To Clean Up Their Act
Easter Monday's episode of Coronation Street saw a throwaway remark by the character 'Peter Barlow' spark some anger with viewers when he referred to matriarch 'Blanche Hunt' as being dressed as a "mental patient" when she'd unwittingly turned up a few weeks early for a murder mystery weekend dressed as Amelia Earhart.
Whilst it certainly was a far cry from the popular cultural image of "mental patients" seen as shuffling around in faded dressing gowns and slippers, answering to the call "Meds", it still highlights how the use of such language around the subject of mental health subtly re-enforces stigma and discrimination, and we really do have a right to be indignant when we encounter it.
With audiences of over 30 million on some occasions these 'soaps' are mainstream TV, and they are reaching a family audience. Writers have a moral duty to accurately represent the difficulties encountered by the people who are their target audience, and that includes those with a diagnosis of Mental Health.
The current portrayal of 'bi-polar disorder' on BBC's Eastenders almost makes me ashamed to have this diagnosis, and I wonder whether I should write to the production team and say; "gis a job, I really can do that - better!" With all due respect to the actress, Gillian Wright, tasked with the job of playing 'Jean Slater', I really can be left alone with a duvet on the sofa without the risk of setting it alight, I've yet to wander the streets in a dressing gown and prostrate myself in front of moving traffic, I can offer to cook my daughter a meal without her asking if I've taken my "meds today", nor Jean, do I giggle mindlessly unless, of course, I'm watching Eastenders!
Okay, so the use of "mental patient" wasn't directed at someone with a diagnosis, and was an analogy, but many people who have encountered Mental Health difficulties have been subjected to such language. 'Psycho, Mental, Nutter, Headcase' are all 'insults' which I have had hurled at me over time, and they do hurt. Sadly I know that I am not alone. People are hearing this language used in every day conversation, reading it in newspapers, and then hearing it on TV, and with 1 in 4 people being affected by mental health difficulties at some time within their life it can mean that they feel too ashamed or scared to seek the help they need. How can early intervention schemes work if the people who need them are too frightened about how their friends and family will react to them if they reveal their difficulties?
Would the Eastenders actor Rudolph Walker, who plays 'Patrick Trueman', be happy if we saw a remake of the 70's sitcom "Love Thy Neighbour" appear on primetime T.V? I know I wouldn't, racist slurs are truly unfunny, as well as thankfully now 'illegal'!!
I really hope that in the future we can all be praising popular TV for its positive, accurate and appropriate representation of Mental Wealth!
Subscribe
Blog Categories
We are led by:
Comments
Ironic waste of time
It seems to me that everyone is slating fictious programs that are written primerilly by closed minded individuals who have a distorted sense of reality at the very least.. some of these story lines and jibes at mental patiants arnt just there by chance.. or are they? maybe the writers should undergo psychiatric evaluation to find out whats really going on in these peoples minds..
anyway i digress from my original point..
linking in with this topic of tv programs and the entire website/organisation and overall campaign its all a total waste of time.. dont stop reading just yet i can and will completely justify my reasoning... does it strike you as ironic that one of the sponsors of this website (who happens to be in the news for donating yet aother 2 million pounds towards to cause) does infact ENDORSE STIGMA!! yes you read it right!! Comic Relief...
i've been watching some of the specials that have been done by comic relief for comic relief to raise money for comic relief that are major contributors in the funding of this entire campain.. doesnt it seem a little odd that some of the people/artists they get to raise money to fund projects like this promote STIGMA..
Perfect example's of this are the hit comedy's on BBC3 "Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps"..
"Grown ups"..and "Coming of Age".. Challenging stigma by promoting and encouraging an entire generation of young adults into getting a dual diagnosis in the comic relief special is hardly the best idea in the world.. the last five minutes of the episode was a song and dance routine called "STOP THINKING START DRINKING" challenging stigma by encouraging illness is stupid!! then to make matters worse having a jibe and using mental illness as a punchline in my opinion is just outrageous..
spend an hour or two watching the individual programs!! the new series of two pints has just finished.. the very first episode of the new series directly named and abused a number of mental health conditions from eating disorders to self harming all within in the first 30 minute episode some of the insults and down right ignorant and a lot of the statements within the first five minutes!! it goes on and on troughout the entire series there isnt a single episode of two pints that has ever been written that doesnt have some jibe against mentally ill people wether it be in jest or used as an insult.. coming of age and grown up's is no better
now bare in mind that entire BBC three channel is directed towards a demagraphic age of 14 to 35 surely these should be the demographic this campain should be targeting in order to challenge stigma.. or have i completely lost the plot again?
my question is does this organisation really know they are being funded by the very people who wether knowingly or unknowingly endorse promoting stigma?
my suggestion is before people go slating other programs for their neolithic attitudes they should open their eyes and see whas going on right under their nose.. tackle the very people who fund the campaign first!!
A Mind is a Terible Thing to Waste regardless of how fragmented its reality is!!!
Soaps
These soaps are an exaggerated version of real life, and as these sorts of behaviour are common in real life, it is reasonable for characters in the soaps to do so. I wish that these attitudes and comments would be challenged within the programmes, and it would be even better if they could have storylines which include more realistic versions of people with different mental health problems. I don't think that anything should be barred from television drama, but the broadcasters need to avoid reinforcing unreasonable stereotypes.
Media and Mental Health
My wife and daughter both have bipolar. In the same way it is (quite correctly) not acceptable for media figures to make derogatory comments on the grounds of race, sexual orientation, physical disability, or religion, it needs to become equally unacceptable for comments to be made on the grounds of mental health. On this week's 'Apprentice' programme Sir Alan Sugar made a comment about psychiatric wards, referring to the actions of one of the contestants. I hope, had he realised the hurt it caused to my family - and, I am sure, to many other people who have mental health problems - watching this otherwise excellent programme, he would not have done so. We need to make it as unacceptable to laugh at or imply that people with mental health problems are somehow lesser beings as it is to make similar comments for other minority groups.
Health professionals are guilty too
Sadly it is not only media figures who make these unthinking and hurtful remarks. Once, whilst in A&E waiting for treatment, I overheard a nurse say to nurse in training, "How did you get on with the nutters on the psychi ward then?" As I myself had been an inpatient on that ward not long ago, I felt both angry and humiliated. It made me feel ashamed of having mental health problems but at the same time I knew that I shouldn't do; it was the nurse who should have been ashamed, for using such ignorant and disrespectful language about the patients.
SOAPS
I agree totally with the others Eastenders should be stopped with the on going issues of one charter THAT does not show the correct side of mental illness,this is why people who dont have mental health issues get the wrong idea.PICK IT IN EASTENDERS AND ALL OTHERS ASK PEOPLE WITH THE ILLNESS TO WRITE THESE PARTS.
Soaps and ridiculous portrayal......
Im so glad that someone has commented on the Eastenders character jean... Oh Dear i cringe every time i see the portrayal of her as person with Bi-Polar disorder. For a time when I was unwell I actually believed this is how people around me perceived me!!! Its shocking that nothing has been done to prevent this abomination from hitting our screens.I also felt for my son, as perhaps he felt as thought this is how we were both viewed... SAD SAD SAD and really should not be broadcast to an already relentless general public who thrive on judgement myth and MISINFORMED NONSENSE!!!