Gosh I don't post very much do I. Sorry about that. I'm not quitting. I do post on tumblr a lot, and fairly often converse about disability stuff on there. But when I'm at school it's kind of like there are the things that I run away to when I'm stressed, and it used to be this blog but now it's more often tumblr. But you know after I graduate and all I'll be able to focus and write here more. I have lots of ideas, unfortunately, as usual, including:
1. disability and gender expression, especially painful gender expression. If you have sensory & cognitive problems, being feminine or masculine can hurt, maybe being feminine especially. Among liberal people, I feel like it's often seen as a weak/oppressed behavior for someone to care so much what they look like that they would suffer for it, but given the sort of things that cause me to suffer or be overtaxed, not suffering would kind of mean not expressing myself through presentation at all. So that's interesting.
2. this post I already wrote in a notebook months ago where I talked about 3 different ways of portraying disability in pop culture: medical model (dour fiction where authority figures are always right), fake social model (funny and interesting fiction where authority figures are wrong, but the "disabled" character isn't really disabled), and actual social model. And I discuss the movie It's Kind of a Funny Story which was an admirable attempt at making a mainstream movie in social model, but was annoyingly written off by reviewers when they couldn't categorize it as medical or fake social model. So this one I just have to type up.
3. really long post which I have written a lot of, where I attempt to show that both person-first language and disability-first language are offensive, so we basically can't win and should stop caring.
4. possibly a post about The United States of Tara? As someone who doesn't have DID or have any friends with DID, my understanding is that the show portrays DID quite unrealistically so I probably should reject it. But I can't just see it as a guilty pleasure that I stick with because I've been watching it for years--there's something about the show's portrayal of disability that is really down-to-earth.
Showing posts with label united states of tara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label united states of tara. Show all posts
13 April, 2011
20 March, 2010
Okay someone better get excited
A few months ago I made a post about how much I liked the TV show United States of Tara last year. The first episode of the second season is airing on Monday and I'll probably be posting about every episode so I thought I would briefly shill for it and attempt to get other people interested.
Before I start, though, I should say that I wasn't as conscious of ableism when I watched the first season as I am now. I'm also probably much less conscious of ableism regarding mental illness than I am regarding any other kind; writing about ableism tends to focus on physical disabilities, and in real life my experience is with developmental disabilities, so I think I'm less likely to notice when people with mental illness are being discriminated against. United States of Tara is about a woman with a rare, "exotic" mental illness, Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's a comedy (/drama). Even though I don't know anyone with DID, I am pretty sure that Tara's experience in the show is very unrealistic. She has very distinct, cartoonish alter egos who are different ages and genders from her, have their own specific styles of dressing and talking, and behave outrageously. Tara's feelings about her mental illness, and people's reactions to it, are often portrayed as serious--but the actual behavior of the alters is usually meant to be funny.
I don't know how I would feel about this if I had DID or a similar illness. I think that I like how Tara's DID isn't portrayed as something incredibly tragic and heavy. It obviously is a problem, but for Tara's family, the alters are just another part of life and they can be funny. Of course, maybe I'm just rationalizing this because I like the show. I'm hoping that FWD/Forward or another blog that writes about disability issues in TV shows will have some posts about United States of Tara.
But yeah, now that I've done disclaimering here are some reasons I watch the show:
1. I love Toni Collette a lot (because I'm gay okay, fuck you, it is not my fault).
2. It's written by Diablo Cody--which I know is the opposite of a reason to watch something in some people's opinion, but I really don't get all the hate. I mean, so what, the characters say snarky things and make references. I think it's fun.
3. Some of the reactions people have to Tara's DID are really spot-on depictions of the stupid things people say about invisible disabilities, like when Tara's sister refuses to believe that Tara's DID is real and claims that she fakes it for attention, or when one of Tara's clients says "I think all women have DID, a little, because we all have to be so many different people in one day."
4. Tara's 15-year-old daughter is a cool character because she is a stereotypical rebellious teenage girl (she dresses in an "edgy" way, has sex, etc.) but she is really smart and resourceful. Tara gets stressed out about the things her daughter does, but we're not actually made to think that the daughter is stupid or a bad person.
5. Tara's 14-year-old son is even better because he's a gay character who is neither written as a stereotype or written against stereotypes. He happens to be quirky and kind of girly, but not in a really obvious musical-theater way like Kurt from Glee. He's just an odd kid who is gay. Also, even though there are problems that come from him being gay, they're not necessarily the expected ones. His parents and sister are completely used to him being gay, for example, and don't even see it as an issue.
Before I start, though, I should say that I wasn't as conscious of ableism when I watched the first season as I am now. I'm also probably much less conscious of ableism regarding mental illness than I am regarding any other kind; writing about ableism tends to focus on physical disabilities, and in real life my experience is with developmental disabilities, so I think I'm less likely to notice when people with mental illness are being discriminated against. United States of Tara is about a woman with a rare, "exotic" mental illness, Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's a comedy (/drama). Even though I don't know anyone with DID, I am pretty sure that Tara's experience in the show is very unrealistic. She has very distinct, cartoonish alter egos who are different ages and genders from her, have their own specific styles of dressing and talking, and behave outrageously. Tara's feelings about her mental illness, and people's reactions to it, are often portrayed as serious--but the actual behavior of the alters is usually meant to be funny.
I don't know how I would feel about this if I had DID or a similar illness. I think that I like how Tara's DID isn't portrayed as something incredibly tragic and heavy. It obviously is a problem, but for Tara's family, the alters are just another part of life and they can be funny. Of course, maybe I'm just rationalizing this because I like the show. I'm hoping that FWD/Forward or another blog that writes about disability issues in TV shows will have some posts about United States of Tara.
But yeah, now that I've done disclaimering here are some reasons I watch the show:
1. I love Toni Collette a lot (because I'm gay okay, fuck you, it is not my fault).
2. It's written by Diablo Cody--which I know is the opposite of a reason to watch something in some people's opinion, but I really don't get all the hate. I mean, so what, the characters say snarky things and make references. I think it's fun.
3. Some of the reactions people have to Tara's DID are really spot-on depictions of the stupid things people say about invisible disabilities, like when Tara's sister refuses to believe that Tara's DID is real and claims that she fakes it for attention, or when one of Tara's clients says "I think all women have DID, a little, because we all have to be so many different people in one day."
4. Tara's 15-year-old daughter is a cool character because she is a stereotypical rebellious teenage girl (she dresses in an "edgy" way, has sex, etc.) but she is really smart and resourceful. Tara gets stressed out about the things her daughter does, but we're not actually made to think that the daughter is stupid or a bad person.
5. Tara's 14-year-old son is even better because he's a gay character who is neither written as a stereotype or written against stereotypes. He happens to be quirky and kind of girly, but not in a really obvious musical-theater way like Kurt from Glee. He's just an odd kid who is gay. Also, even though there are problems that come from him being gay, they're not necessarily the expected ones. His parents and sister are completely used to him being gay, for example, and don't even see it as an issue.
03 January, 2010
Everyone has it
I'm rewatching United States of Tara which was the light of my Winter Term last year. (This year it's not starting until March, so I guess I'll have to find happiness in hanging out with my friends, or reading, or something like that.) I don't know enough about DID to know if it is an accurate portrayal and I'm sure that it might be offensive to me if I had more experience with DID. However, I just wanted to share THE BEST SCENE:
Annoying lady: Oh, I kind of feel like everyone has it, you know? A little. I mean, how many different women do we all have to be in one day?
Awesome. I think this happens with every disability there is. Oh, buddy, your real life is such a poignant metaphor for my tribulations! ADORABLE!
Additionally, Tara's son Marshall is by far my favorite gay TV character. He's not some sort of overcompensatory football player like the guy on Dawson's Creek, but he's not like Kurt from Glee either. He is kind of stereotypically gay, but it's in his own way--he wears suits to school, is obsessed with old movies, and bakes. He's weird and unique in a girly way, not just straight-up girly in the most obvious way possible, like Kurt.
Plus, he's completely comfortable with his homosexuality at the age of fourteen, and so are his sister and parents. This doesn't mean that it never causes him problems, but just that everyone is used to the fact that he's gay and it's just another thing he has to deal with. This is kind of the way the family acts about Tara's DID, too--they're just trying to live with it. Which may be completely unrealistic, I have no idea, but it seems kind of positive, maybe?
Annoying lady: Oh, I kind of feel like everyone has it, you know? A little. I mean, how many different women do we all have to be in one day?
Awesome. I think this happens with every disability there is. Oh, buddy, your real life is such a poignant metaphor for my tribulations! ADORABLE!
Additionally, Tara's son Marshall is by far my favorite gay TV character. He's not some sort of overcompensatory football player like the guy on Dawson's Creek, but he's not like Kurt from Glee either. He is kind of stereotypically gay, but it's in his own way--he wears suits to school, is obsessed with old movies, and bakes. He's weird and unique in a girly way, not just straight-up girly in the most obvious way possible, like Kurt.
Plus, he's completely comfortable with his homosexuality at the age of fourteen, and so are his sister and parents. This doesn't mean that it never causes him problems, but just that everyone is used to the fact that he's gay and it's just another thing he has to deal with. This is kind of the way the family acts about Tara's DID, too--they're just trying to live with it. Which may be completely unrealistic, I have no idea, but it seems kind of positive, maybe?
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