Major Assignment I Unit I prompt

The evolvement of Societal Perception of Pica-Like Disorders Through Fame and Media 

Can a man really consume such a large indigestible object like a Caesar 150? How jarring is it to have a person single-handedly abolish the do’s and don’ts taught to you in kindergarten, teachers at this very moment could be yelling “Don’t eat that!!” at their screens out of habit. Seriously speaking, looking at these kinds of headlines makes one wonder how exactly did we get here? In modern-day media, it has become more noticeable the strange attraction towards watching people do weird things. From swallowing lightbulbs to eating mattresses to marrying a car, the internet has it all in reach to view but this isn’t the first time this type of content has garnered attention. From the late 19th-century to the early 20th-century, freak shows and circuses became increasingly popular amongst the public. The whole purpose of a freak show is to see weird, unsettling, and thrill-inducing acts, so the concept is nothing new, only reshaped to adapt to our advancing society. Nonetheless, the era of freak shows impacted the current representation of people differing from the norm in modern media. Freak shows cultivated well-known stereotypes such as people who are violent and have nothing positive to contribute to society. Representations in the media of psychological disorders are depicted in a negative light but also treatments like psych wards, asylums, or talking to a therapist have all been labeled as taboo as well. On the other hand, in more recent years, psychological disorders have been getting a lot more positive attention. A multitude of people want to be a part of this community and share their experiences online in hopes of connecting with others who share and understand their struggles, real or fake. Having a seemingly positive outlook on psychological disorders doesn’t always result in a positive impact. This begs the question of how has the dynamic between those who watch abnormal eating behavior for entertainment and those who target this demographic for fame continued to heighten American society’s negative perception and lack of empathy towards people suffering from those disorders?

         The purpose of this essay is to analyze how the mental health frenzy in the media leans toward more negative depictions of behaviors stemming from pica-like disorders and how society’s perception of abnormal behaviors impacts the mental health community. I will also compare the different elements that go into depicting individuals who suffer from pica-like disorders in the media. To address these ideas, I will be exploring the different layers that go into creating media including, genre, purpose, historical context, audience, and the platform it is viewed on. Doing so will help to further understand the impact each element in media has on the public’s opinion on physiological disorders. I will draw upon the article  Medium, Inspire the Mind, to further understand how genre and cinematic decisions impact the audience. Finally, I shall discuss the weird bubble of mindless media consumption we indulge in to satisfy our morbid desire to see the bizarre and to leave the reader some self-reflection questions. 

 

           When has the consumption of this type of media become the norm? Some may believe that this strange fascination with watching the abnormal has been a recent development due to advances in media. Yet, many of these well-established stereotypes used in media mimicked and exaggerated symptoms that were a result of commonly known disorders, this practice stems from historical roots where the same gimmicks and stereotypes would be featured in freak shows and circuses. Before psychological disorders started to become recognized as separate and complex diseases anything could be chalked up as insane and joked about. However, a more positive outlook on the mental health community has been gaining popularity as the 21st-century rolls in. Yes, the public perception indeed came a long way from how society used to outcast this minority group of those suffering from psychological disorders to a more nuanced and acceptable environment. However, it is significant to note that these well-established stereotypes still hold relevance in today’s media when taking a step back and observing contemporary themes that subtly contain this problematic behavior.  Producers and directors have caught wind of this positive shift and are being more careful in adapting their framework in an attempt to mask these problematic behaviors due to political correctness. Political correctness has become a more nuanced term utilized to describe measures taken to avoid offending disadvantaged members of a particular group, in this case, the representations of the mental health community in media.  For example, having the stylistic choice of being a documentary accomplishes one: taking guilt away from the viewer making it known that it’s okay to stare since at the end of the day these individuals are getting treatment to improve their quality of life. And two: having these abnormal behaviors on full display allows the viewer the space to judge and comment freely on the extremes being caught on camera similar to how viewers used to do out in the open. 

           If we take a closer look into how media represents people with psychological disorders, differences can be observed based on what genre of media it falls under. For example, dramas and coming-of-age movies have a more positive outlook on the struggle with mental health. They seem to paint a more genuine and accurate picture according to, Inspire The Mind by Melisa Kose, “Drama films deal with depression and trauma in ways which are more genuine to real-life sufferers of these afflictions and are far better instances of progressive depictions of individuals and their relationship with their mental health”. Particularly looking at a movie depicting the struggles with Pica, Swallow is a drama following a pregnant woman in an unhappy marriage which contains some accurate depictions of Pica disorder. However, it still has a tense psychological aspect, a more popular characteristic shared in movies depicting mental illness. Shows and movies that have the main genre be Sci-fi or a psychological thriller tend to aim for a more stigmatizing surface-level depiction when in reality it’s more complex than they let on. This begs the question if the genre is the deciding factor in how psychological disorders get depicted in media. 

          If you had to choose what to watch in your spare time would it be a mediocre show with lots of shock value and comedy or a long educational documentary? The media tends to prefer shock value and comedy because it does so well in garnering views and exposure than documentaries in a general sense. Shows like My Strange Addiction or Hoarders on TLC give polarizing takes on individuals who struggle with abnormal and even compulsive behaviors. One of the polarizing takes TLC presents on their show is labeling these abnormal behaviors seen in shows like My Strange addiction or Hoarders, as being more closely related to an addiction than a psychological disorder. Networks like TLC bring people onto shows that struggle from symptoms of psychological disorders under the pretense of providing treatment when in actuality these individuals provide become ridiculed on national television. The media itself isn’t outwardly commenting negatively about those they bring onto the show instead allows those watching to do so free of guilt or shame. Some of these so-called “addictions”  include a lot of Pica-like Disorder, easting mattresses, rocks, chalk, and febreeze spray can fall under this disorder and treatment is available to help alleviate these issues. Despite that, they depict these behaviors as addictions which in America already have stigmatizations associated with the word addiction. Labeling something it is not create harmful repercussions because it is more of an obsessive compulsory issue doing these actions to prevent something bad from occurring. Shows like My Strange Addiction allow some of these individuals to use commonly known stereotypes to get their Five minutes of fame instead of sharing their truthful and genuine experiences. These actions have a significant impact leading others to believe that people with similar traits to the ones being shown can potentially fake it. This, in turn,  can make it incredibly difficult for these intricacies to be taken seriously and get the support they need. 

       The frenzy with the Tide Pod Challenge is an example where someone got their Five minutes of fame by replicating stigmatizing traits and posting it online specifically on the platform Youtube where information gets picked up quickly by the public. This challenge was aimed at kids comparing a Tide Pod to candy because of its colorfulness. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPC),   there were only 86 hospitalizations associated with the tide pod challenge, surprising compared to the traction gained online.  The media however picked up this story and spun it into an exasperated narrative, with news anchors coving this story for months. Many exaggerated and out-of-context statistics claiming thousands of children were hospitalized as a warning to parents of the dangers the internet had on children. Why do people go to such great lengths to obtain this fame and ”positive” encouragement from media recognition? How did we go from one extreme to the other, not wanting to be associated with the taboo topic of mental illness to now 1 in 4 Americans admitting to having a disorder (John Hopkins Medicine)? Did those like Todd Robbins, a man who has approximately eaten 4,000 lightbulbs, or others like Michael Lotito, a man who ate a whole plane over the course of 2 years have similar reasons for doing what they did? Did they do these acts because of the fame they knew would come as a result of these bizarre actions or is fame the only positive space where they can show this side of themselves without being ashamed as a way to survive in society?

         The media shouldn’t be the only credited source as to why we have these negative connotations and perceptions of psychological disorders because it is simply a personified version of society’s morbid interest in watching the abnormal. Media is not the root of all evil and has had positive achievements in the past like letting others know they are not alone in their struggles. However, because it does not require much thought to scroll through the endless depths that is the internet it does feed into consumerism. These media outlets highlight how they can influence aspects of our culture and how it is perceived through societal lenses. The shift on the perception of the mental health community noted earlier from a negative to a more positive outlook can be seen in media depictions. This can further reinforce the idea that objects can shape our cultural identities because of how media can guide how our society views ongoing ideas and concepts.

Work Cited:

Carter, Savannah. (2020). Portrayals Of Mental Illness Of Teens In Popular TV Shows: 13 Reasons Why and Atypical (Bachelor’s thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA).

Dapcevich, Madison. “Meet Michel Lotito, the Man Who Ate an Entire Airplane … or so He Claimed.” Snopes.com, Madison Dapcevich, 7 Mar. 2022, https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/03/07/michel-lotito-ate-entire-airplane/. 

Kose, Melisa. “Mental Health through the Lens of Cinema, Episode 1: The Divide between Genres.” Medium, Inspire the Mind, 1 Mar. 2019, https://medium.com/inspire-the-mind/mental-health-through-the-lens-of-cinema-episode-1-the-divide-between-genres-e7d3eab0001d. 

Ledford, Becki. “The Truth about My Strange Addiction.” TheList.com, The List, 26 May 2021, https://www.thelist.com/408669/the-truth-about-my-strange-addiction/ 

“Mental Health Disorder Statistics.” Johns Hopkins Medicine, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/mental-health-disorder-statistics#:~:text=An%20estimated%2026%25%20of%20Americans,substance%20abuse%20and%20anxiety%20disorders. 

Myths and Stereotypes about Those with MH Disorders. https://www.centennialmhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Myths-and-Stereotypes-about-Those-with-MH-Disorders.pdf.