I've been watching a lot of the YouTube channel The Take lately. I've been going through and watching all their trope videos. Thanks to them I've been introduced to The Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. I'm not sure I love the concept, but I do love the phrase.
Today I watched their video about the crazy woman trope.
I liked it.
It fits well with my world view of mental illness—that mental illness is more often caused by society than it is by the brain.
I think society causes mental illness in two ways.
First: The parameters of mental illnesses are determined by society—What's normal and okay vs what's abnormal and not okay; What's quirky crazy, what's relatable crazy, and what's villain/disturbing crazy.
Second: I think a lot of mental illness is caused by abuse—either abuse from society in general such as the mistreatment and marginalization of women and people of color...or abuse caused by individuals.
As for the brain, I think there can be chemical or physiological malfunctions, such as in schizophrenia. But I think even then, the level of abuse the person endures probably determines how sick they become from their brain problems.
The Take was refreshing to me, because I feel too often society and abusers get a free pass while blame goes to the mentally ill person. I think these days, we ARE less likely to view the mentally ill with disgust and scorn. We're more likely to view them with sympathy. They can't help it. They're sick. We're told to view them in the same way we view someone with leukemia or diabetes. They can't help themselves. We shouldn't hate them. We should try to help them. But still...I think this sympathy is another way of putting blame on the victims. Something is inherently wrong with THEM rather than society...or the person who has been abusing them.
One of the challenges in determining cause and blame is abusers can be so cleverly deceptive.
On Coronation Street, Yasmeen (Shelley King) has suffered severe psychological from her manipulative husband Geoff (Ian Bartholomew).
Before Geoff, Yasmeen was outgoing and strong. Geoff changed all that. She has become weak, timid, confused, and very submissive.
One night, after a fight, they go to the local pub. Geoff has recently burned all of Yasmeen's clothes in a bonfire. He forces her to wear a red dress that he originally bought for one of his escorts. The dress is too big on her, and it's also not appropriate pub fair. She comes to the pub looking like a moody bitch who is really lost when it comes to fashion.
Yasmeen wears the red dress, and she's acts odd at the pub, because she's a very abused women. But to her neighbors, at the pub, she's.....
I can't think of a good adjective.
I'll just say they judge her.
Later Geoff and Yasmeen go home to where Geoff verbally attacks Yasmeen in a very frightening, cruel, and confrontational way. If you're curious to what I'm trying to describe, here's a video of the scene.
Yasmeen ends up defending herself with a broken bottle. She stabs Geoff in the neck.
Unfortunately, he doesn't die.
So...for many neighbors, Yasmeen comes off as the woman who went bad-weird; then totally lost it and tried to kill her innocent and supportive husband.
Fortunately for Yasmeen, though, there ARE a few people who know the truth or suspect the truth.
Geoff has people on his side—especially his son (Joe Duttine) and granddaughter (Ellie Leach). This is understandable, because Geoff has always been good to them. He's hid his dark side when they're around. On top of that, Geoff uses the clever manipulative ploy of showing sympathy towards Yasmeen. He paints himself as the man who despite enduring abuse from his wife; then almost being almost murdered by her, still loves her; still wants to be married to her.; forgives her, and is not going to testify against her.
What a sweetie.
This is not the first time that Coronation Street has had a storyline where the abuser pretends to be the abused. Back when I first started watching, there was a storyline where Tyrone (Alan Halsall) was accused of abuse by his physically abusive girlfriend Kirsty (Natalie Gumede). Since it's more often men that abuse women than vice versa, it was easy for Kirsty to have her lies believed. Tyrone suffered not only abuse but also being falsely accused and not believed.
In a recent, disturbing scene Tyrone and his partner Fiz (Jennie McAlpine) overhear someone giving Geoff a hard time—accusing him of being abusive. Because of Tyrone's experiences, he immediately takes Geoff's side. He and Fiz approach Geoff with lots of TLC and tell him they're on his side. They explain that Tyrone too was an abused person falsely accused of abuse. They think they're offering kindness to a person going through what they went through, but instead they're actually offering sympathy to the person who is filling Kirsty's shoes.
So....
I think before we judge someone as being inherently defective-whether we do so with pity or scorn- we should ask ourselves what has happened in this person's life that might have made them the way they are. And if we hear stories of someone being mistreated, we should at least briefly entertain the idea that the opposite is happening. They might be a clever manipulator who is collecting very undeserved sympathy.
With Coronation Street, I KNOW Geoff is the abuser and Yasmeen is the victim, because I watched the scenes of Yasmeen being abused. That's the great and easy thing with fiction. But if it was real life, it could be that Yasmeen is an evil-mad woman who has tortured her poor husband, tried to kill him, and is now trying to play the victim.
It's so hard to know.
The idea that we might not know—that we could get it wrong and end up vilifying the wrong people...that in itself makes me feel kind of crazy. Or...I should say even more crazy than I already am.
Today I watched their video about the crazy woman trope.
I liked it.
It fits well with my world view of mental illness—that mental illness is more often caused by society than it is by the brain.
I think society causes mental illness in two ways.
First: The parameters of mental illnesses are determined by society—What's normal and okay vs what's abnormal and not okay; What's quirky crazy, what's relatable crazy, and what's villain/disturbing crazy.
Second: I think a lot of mental illness is caused by abuse—either abuse from society in general such as the mistreatment and marginalization of women and people of color...or abuse caused by individuals.
As for the brain, I think there can be chemical or physiological malfunctions, such as in schizophrenia. But I think even then, the level of abuse the person endures probably determines how sick they become from their brain problems.
The Take was refreshing to me, because I feel too often society and abusers get a free pass while blame goes to the mentally ill person. I think these days, we ARE less likely to view the mentally ill with disgust and scorn. We're more likely to view them with sympathy. They can't help it. They're sick. We're told to view them in the same way we view someone with leukemia or diabetes. They can't help themselves. We shouldn't hate them. We should try to help them. But still...I think this sympathy is another way of putting blame on the victims. Something is inherently wrong with THEM rather than society...or the person who has been abusing them.
One of the challenges in determining cause and blame is abusers can be so cleverly deceptive.
On Coronation Street, Yasmeen (Shelley King) has suffered severe psychological from her manipulative husband Geoff (Ian Bartholomew).
Before Geoff, Yasmeen was outgoing and strong. Geoff changed all that. She has become weak, timid, confused, and very submissive.
One night, after a fight, they go to the local pub. Geoff has recently burned all of Yasmeen's clothes in a bonfire. He forces her to wear a red dress that he originally bought for one of his escorts. The dress is too big on her, and it's also not appropriate pub fair. She comes to the pub looking like a moody bitch who is really lost when it comes to fashion.
Yasmeen wears the red dress, and she's acts odd at the pub, because she's a very abused women. But to her neighbors, at the pub, she's.....
I can't think of a good adjective.
I'll just say they judge her.
Later Geoff and Yasmeen go home to where Geoff verbally attacks Yasmeen in a very frightening, cruel, and confrontational way. If you're curious to what I'm trying to describe, here's a video of the scene.
Yasmeen ends up defending herself with a broken bottle. She stabs Geoff in the neck.
Unfortunately, he doesn't die.
So...for many neighbors, Yasmeen comes off as the woman who went bad-weird; then totally lost it and tried to kill her innocent and supportive husband.
Fortunately for Yasmeen, though, there ARE a few people who know the truth or suspect the truth.
Geoff has people on his side—especially his son (Joe Duttine) and granddaughter (Ellie Leach). This is understandable, because Geoff has always been good to them. He's hid his dark side when they're around. On top of that, Geoff uses the clever manipulative ploy of showing sympathy towards Yasmeen. He paints himself as the man who despite enduring abuse from his wife; then almost being almost murdered by her, still loves her; still wants to be married to her.; forgives her, and is not going to testify against her.
What a sweetie.
This is not the first time that Coronation Street has had a storyline where the abuser pretends to be the abused. Back when I first started watching, there was a storyline where Tyrone (Alan Halsall) was accused of abuse by his physically abusive girlfriend Kirsty (Natalie Gumede). Since it's more often men that abuse women than vice versa, it was easy for Kirsty to have her lies believed. Tyrone suffered not only abuse but also being falsely accused and not believed.
In a recent, disturbing scene Tyrone and his partner Fiz (Jennie McAlpine) overhear someone giving Geoff a hard time—accusing him of being abusive. Because of Tyrone's experiences, he immediately takes Geoff's side. He and Fiz approach Geoff with lots of TLC and tell him they're on his side. They explain that Tyrone too was an abused person falsely accused of abuse. They think they're offering kindness to a person going through what they went through, but instead they're actually offering sympathy to the person who is filling Kirsty's shoes.
So....
I think before we judge someone as being inherently defective-whether we do so with pity or scorn- we should ask ourselves what has happened in this person's life that might have made them the way they are. And if we hear stories of someone being mistreated, we should at least briefly entertain the idea that the opposite is happening. They might be a clever manipulator who is collecting very undeserved sympathy.
With Coronation Street, I KNOW Geoff is the abuser and Yasmeen is the victim, because I watched the scenes of Yasmeen being abused. That's the great and easy thing with fiction. But if it was real life, it could be that Yasmeen is an evil-mad woman who has tortured her poor husband, tried to kill him, and is now trying to play the victim.
It's so hard to know.
The idea that we might not know—that we could get it wrong and end up vilifying the wrong people...that in itself makes me feel kind of crazy. Or...I should say even more crazy than I already am.
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