By Christine StapletonThe Palm Beach Post
I watched "Entertainment Tonight" because they had NEW PICTURES OF CATHERINE ZETA-JONES IN HER BIPOLAR NIGHTMARE!
The weird thing is the NEW PICTURES OF CATHERINE ZETA-JONES IN HER BIPOLAR NIGHTMARE look a lot like the old pictures of Catherine Zeta-Jones when she was not in her bipolar nightmare. She looked like her usual gorgeous, composed self.
What were the folks at "ET" expecting Catherine Zeta-Jones to look like -- Courtney Love on a bad hair day?
There are millions of people with bipolar disorder. The vast majority look and act just like everyone else when we take care of ourselves and follow our treatment regimens.
Still, one of the biggest problems we face is stigma. When the media cherry-pick specific illnesses, such as AIDS or bipolar disorder, and then feigns compassion for its victims while spoon-feeding us gossip and innuendo, we should feel a twinge of shame. But we do not.
What do we do when the media dish up salacious coverage of crimes fueled by mental illness? We pick the longest line in the grocery store and read the tabloids. I am not saying that these crimes or celebrity health crises should not be covered. The public is inherently curious.
There is nothing wrong with wondering how and why a malfunction or illness in the brain can wreak so much havoc, violence and turmoil.
That's the stuff that fuels the brilliant scientists whose research has helped so many.
But it is how the media often answer these questions that really bugs me. It may be nothing more than the inflection in the voice of a show's host or the position of a story on a newscast. It can be the two or three photos selected from hundreds to show a person at their worst. 911 tapes. CAPITAL LETTERS. Exclamation points! We eat it up.
It is a chicken-or-egg debate. Did our lust for news about the mentally ill come from the media's sensational coverage or is the media merely responding to market research and our lurid curiosity?
Don't answer that. Just change the channel.
1 comments:
I liked Girl, Interrupted a lot because of great acting, also felt the same sort of intensity, though a different way, in 12 Monkeys and some others. I just want to say hi and have a nice week.
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