Is there a group that it's still socially acceptable to attack, stigmatize, and stereotype?
Apparently it's people with psychiatric diagnoses.
You can't turn on a crime drama on TV without seeing the guilty, or scary, mental patient. YOu can barely go to the movies without finding a psychotic killer, or a heartwarming story of a mental patient overcoming adversity. Either way, the underlying thread is that those people are not like us.
We see it in Vermont, too. You probably remember a few years ago, when the Vermont Teddy Bear Company decided to make a profit by mocking mental patients with their Crazy For You Bear. They actually seemed surprised when people were offended.
Now, those lovely folks at Vermont Commons, sponsors of the Second Vermont Republic and their neo-confederate buddies, are helping advertise for a play called Mixed Nuts.
Yup, those madcap Vermont State Hospital inmates–always good for a laugh.
Keep it up, guys.
I don’t see why SVR isn’t allowed to sponsor their member bios in musical form.
What is the message they are trying to convey here?
You’d have to be crazy to support an independent Republic of Vermont?
Only crazy people want independence from America?
Or maybe, you have to be criminally insane to actually pull it off?
Whatever they are trying to say, it always comes off as they are the ones that are dangerous…
I used to like the concept of a separate nation made up of northern New England and the Maritime provinces, but once I heard of the ‘cozy’ relationship between some of the SVR and the racist bigots of the south I wanted nothing more to do with them.
VT Teddy Bear doesn’t surprise me as they were one of the companies that continued to advertise on Glenn Beck’s show.
I think you are making something small into a huge deal. The world is not PC all the time. A FICTIONAL play and a teddy bear are not rallying against mental patients. The straight jacket is used all the time in various ways, and lets face it they do serve a specific purpose of restraint but I believe the mental patient with a straight jacket image is something made popular through the media. I dont think creativity should be to blame for some stereotyped hospital inmates.
Couple the chaotic state of Vermont’s mental health system and the lack of any clear direction for the future, and a teddy bear may soon be the best we can offer mentally ill Vermonters.
Not being the most sensitive of people, I’m not gonna chime in on the “offensive vs. too sensitive” thing, but at least the VT Commons people did get the “nuts” part right. As in batshit insane.
…a significant issue raised by the original post.
The arts often have a transgressive quality. The shock of “tasteless” art may promote insight and change or may just be gross, but the RIGHT to make tasteless art is a prime value. The right to make BAD art (“Let the eagle soar,”) is a prime value. It’s also a prime value to be able to say that you don’t approve of an artistic venture that you feel exploits and stigmatizes people’s sufferings.
If I understood the original post correctly, the real issues surrounding the Vermont State Hospital and the real people who are patients there are going to become fodder for a MUSICAL COMEDY designed to promote a political POV. Or, even more bizarrely, reference to those real issues will be replaced by stereotypes and caricatures…in order to promote a political POV. It’s difficult to imagine that a musical comedy could deal with any of this in anything other than a superficial and tasteless way. It’s even more difficult to imagine that using VSH as a vehicle for SVCR can produce insight or even make a valid point.
The “escape from the asylum” plot line usually caricatures and stereotypes human beings who suffer from illnesses difficult to treat. Humor can be a great way to bust open society’s bad behavior, but it’s a sharp tool that cuts many ways, and it’s hard to see this plot line doing anything positive for people already experiencing dismissive, stigmatizing responses from our society.
John Odum quotes that I mention “homogeneous communities.” He doesn’t mention the context – an article against sectarianism where I basically say tolerate but don’t promote such communities – per the below. Having lived in mostly minority white communities the last forty years, and preferring it, I have a problem with people who live in majority white communities accusing me of racism, if only by innuendo. (As for the effect of sunspots on human activity, nah, the sudden rise in solar activity has nothing to do with the massive uprisings across the Arab world. It’s just… it’s just… oh, it’s just something!!!
From: Secession and Sectarianism
http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2008/02/12/secede-survive-secession-and-sectarianism
“The declarations of intent of the most sectarian secessionists frighten people into believing all secessionists have extremist political, economic or cultural views they intend to impose on everyone else. That’s why wise secessionists, and the various networks and organizations they create, should stress their goal is giving people choice, including, but not limited to, creating homogeneous communities. We do not want to give the impression our goal is to replace today’s many diverse and multi-cultural communities with a “diversity” of homogeneous ones when it is not. Diversity is what makes people and cultures stronger.”