offended.
Right now I'm reading Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D by Lizzie Simon. I got to a chapter that was absolutely infuriating. She mentions an article from The NYPress, an alternative newspaper in New York (obviously). I've never read anything more offensive and ignorant in my entire life. This particular article is from some sort of "Best of" issue. Earlier in the book, Lizzie describes a poster that she saw on a subway that touched her in a profound way, and was happy to notice that these posters were all over the city. It had a picture of a business woman in a suit and said, "For People with Mental Illness, Treatment is Working". I assume it was meant to be taken in two ways: One way is that the current treatment for mental illnesses are working, and the second way is that it's possible to be successful despite having bipolar disorder, chronic depression, schizophrenia, or what have you. It's a rather thoughtful ad, from what I've read about it. Of course, this all happened in 1999, I believe, so it's almost 8 years old.
Anyway, when Lizzie is reading through The NYPress, she sees that one of the "Best Ofs" has been awarded to the subway ad, but in a rather horribly offensive and ignorant way. If I may:
Best Scary Subway Ad
Crazy Train. It's the kind of bland subway advertisement you wouldn't look twice at if you didn't read the logo in the corner. It's just a picture of a well-dressed woman in an office, smiling pleasantly at the camera. Until you read the logo, it could easily be an ad for a law firm or a job placement agency. But there it is, "For People with Mental Illness. . ." With that, everything's turned on its head. Take a look at the picture again--suddenly the pleasant smile on the woman's face has become a pain grimaced, stretched tight across the skull already at the point of bursting with homicidal fantasies. Her hands, at first just clasped together calmly in her lap, become claws, clamped together in a vain attempt to keep them from slashing out the cameraman's, or her own eyes. We see a lot of crazy people on the streets, on the elevator, and in the office. We know what they look like. We know what they're up to--what they're planning and what they're capable of--and we'll tell you this: It's no good. The pleasant office she's sitting in in that picture? We bet within a week the walls are smeared and splattered with buckets of her fellow employees' blood, and riddled with bullet holes after she's gone marching through the halls with an arsenal of high-powered weapons strapped to her body. "Treatment Works"; yeah, sure, in some cases--but just to be on the safe side, especially given recent events across the country, just keep them the hell away from us, okay?
Oh, for the love of god. Like I said, this was written years ago, but that doesn't mean much. People still have an incredible amount of prejudice against people like myself, but sweet Jesus, this is an alternative newspaper; they're generally more well-informed and accepting than regular newspapers, yet I've never read anything this offensive in regular newspapers. It's almost as if they did this for the backlash it would cause and the amount of people they would hurt. Or maybe they said these horrible things because they were trying to be "shocking" or "blunt". I call this being an idiot.
My first reaction, of course, was anger and shock. My second was more analytical. Imagine if the phrase "mental illness" was replaced with "blacks" or "Jews." Imagine the fury it would ignite! And rightly so, if I say so myself. This newspaper would've been out of print in no time. I find it interesting that they believe people with psychological disorders will automatically be prone to violence, when in fact we are more likely to be victims of violent crimes. Would they say the same thing about people who are developmentally challenged or people with autism? I doubt it.
I also wonder if they know that the Nazis were in favor of eradicating anyone with mental illness along with Jews, homosexuals, and anyone else they felt to be undesirable.
No, the sad truth is that I think whoever is responsible for letting this be published had watched one too many horror movies and read about Arkham Asylum in the Batman comics far too much. It's also very possible that the author knows someone who suffers from a psychiatric disorder, but he/she seems "normal" and disinclined to go on a mass murder spree, so the author doesn't know it because he's been too wrapped in being a shithead to ask.
This isn't uncommon. My mother wrote a short story about watching Law & Order with Daddy and me, and how the schizophrenic is always the killer, and anyone with manic depression is killed and discusses how my erratic my moods were at the time. She brought it to writer's workshop, and the woman teaching it didn't think it was non-fiction because (and I quote), "Things like that don't happen in real families."
Honestly! The ignorance of the general public had always driven me a little batty, but if it continues, I might just be forced to educate them. In any case, when I want my share of alternative news, I think I'll just stick with the Village Voice.
Anyway, when Lizzie is reading through The NYPress, she sees that one of the "Best Ofs" has been awarded to the subway ad, but in a rather horribly offensive and ignorant way. If I may:
Best Scary Subway Ad
Crazy Train. It's the kind of bland subway advertisement you wouldn't look twice at if you didn't read the logo in the corner. It's just a picture of a well-dressed woman in an office, smiling pleasantly at the camera. Until you read the logo, it could easily be an ad for a law firm or a job placement agency. But there it is, "For People with Mental Illness. . ." With that, everything's turned on its head. Take a look at the picture again--suddenly the pleasant smile on the woman's face has become a pain grimaced, stretched tight across the skull already at the point of bursting with homicidal fantasies. Her hands, at first just clasped together calmly in her lap, become claws, clamped together in a vain attempt to keep them from slashing out the cameraman's, or her own eyes. We see a lot of crazy people on the streets, on the elevator, and in the office. We know what they look like. We know what they're up to--what they're planning and what they're capable of--and we'll tell you this: It's no good. The pleasant office she's sitting in in that picture? We bet within a week the walls are smeared and splattered with buckets of her fellow employees' blood, and riddled with bullet holes after she's gone marching through the halls with an arsenal of high-powered weapons strapped to her body. "Treatment Works"; yeah, sure, in some cases--but just to be on the safe side, especially given recent events across the country, just keep them the hell away from us, okay?
Oh, for the love of god. Like I said, this was written years ago, but that doesn't mean much. People still have an incredible amount of prejudice against people like myself, but sweet Jesus, this is an alternative newspaper; they're generally more well-informed and accepting than regular newspapers, yet I've never read anything this offensive in regular newspapers. It's almost as if they did this for the backlash it would cause and the amount of people they would hurt. Or maybe they said these horrible things because they were trying to be "shocking" or "blunt". I call this being an idiot.
My first reaction, of course, was anger and shock. My second was more analytical. Imagine if the phrase "mental illness" was replaced with "blacks" or "Jews." Imagine the fury it would ignite! And rightly so, if I say so myself. This newspaper would've been out of print in no time. I find it interesting that they believe people with psychological disorders will automatically be prone to violence, when in fact we are more likely to be victims of violent crimes. Would they say the same thing about people who are developmentally challenged or people with autism? I doubt it.
I also wonder if they know that the Nazis were in favor of eradicating anyone with mental illness along with Jews, homosexuals, and anyone else they felt to be undesirable.
No, the sad truth is that I think whoever is responsible for letting this be published had watched one too many horror movies and read about Arkham Asylum in the Batman comics far too much. It's also very possible that the author knows someone who suffers from a psychiatric disorder, but he/she seems "normal" and disinclined to go on a mass murder spree, so the author doesn't know it because he's been too wrapped in being a shithead to ask.
This isn't uncommon. My mother wrote a short story about watching Law & Order with Daddy and me, and how the schizophrenic is always the killer, and anyone with manic depression is killed and discusses how my erratic my moods were at the time. She brought it to writer's workshop, and the woman teaching it didn't think it was non-fiction because (and I quote), "Things like that don't happen in real families."
Honestly! The ignorance of the general public had always driven me a little batty, but if it continues, I might just be forced to educate them. In any case, when I want my share of alternative news, I think I'll just stick with the Village Voice.
posted by Crazy In Shreveport at 8:58 PM
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