Quote Of The Day From The Internets

eyesclosedmindsopen:

Oh, gag me. I’m nearly convinced that there are no decent portrayals of multiples in pop culture at all, ever, amen.

Someone in the system is always violent, usually homicidal but at least abusive, or they engage in other unlawful activities like robberies or vandalism. They, or maybe someone else, engages in self-injury and/or has an eating disorder. There’s some poor little child in the system who — oh wait, no, it’s a “poor widdle kiddie in da systum” because heaven forbid they can identify as a non-adult without reverting to ridiculous baby talk. Unless they’re a rebellious teenage wildchild stereotype. Then, you’ve probably got someone who is either a different gender than what the “host” identifies as or is actually non-heterosexual so that you can have a few “LOL YOU’RE GAY”/”WTF NO I’M NOT” moments because those are obviously hilarious. The other personalities are all completely over-the-top unrealistic stereotypes. None of them can act like just normal people. The “host” personality is some poor broken little thing, probably a woman, who can’t take care of themselves and has no idea what’s going on and aw don’t you feel so sorry for the crazy person? The other personalities are just personalities or alters or fragments, never real legitimate people. The host/core is th real person and the only one that matters.

The biggest thing I’ve learned about it in popular media is that it’s completely impossible to have one brain and body that functions somewhat smoothly as more than one person, is not a total nutjob, does not need tons of special help or hospitalization, communicates well to each other, and has an overall productive and fulfilled life.

/bitter

This is why I absolutely will not watch TV shows that purport to portray “real” multiplicity.

I know some of you guys liked “United States of Tara” and I’ll admit I only saw one episode before refusing to watch more, but sorry, the media portrays multiplicity in a way that makes money.  It’s sensationalized bullshit, as far as I’m concerned.  That one episode showed me the rebellious, over-sexualized teenager, the homebody, a homophobic guy (‘cause there’s gotta be at least one in every female bodied multiple’s system just for shits ‘n’ giggles, amirite?) and the freaked out, perpetually confused host.

No, thanks.

Do some people have issues with dissociation, lack of communication, depressed group members, those who’ve experienced trauma, are disordered, etc, etc?  Sure, but not everyone does.  

Same goes for books written about the subject, or memoirs.  I have yet to read something showing off healthy multiplicity (I’m aware there are a few stories that incorporate the concept into science fiction though).  That cruddy “Multiples” short story was supposedly positive, but it was so full of stereotypes and pulled the “multiples are smarter than the general populace” line, like, 40 times in 25 pages, so I can’t really count that either.

But, out of curiosity, is there some new show on TV about DID or multiplicity?  I’m seeing a bunch of people talking about it lately.  Not that I want to watch it, but unfortunately I don’t speak for the rest of my group. 

This is why I really, really want to write a film script about a healthy multiple system for Screnzy this year.  I pretty much know it’s not gonna go anywhere, but it’d be nice if it did, y’know?

And I mean, the thing about it is, all the “types” listed above are totally valid types of people to exist in a system—we’ve got a few people that might be considered “stereotypical” in this system.  It’s usually the way they’re portrayed (and the way the portrayal shows others reacting to them) that’s problematic.  And that’s…frustrating, because it ends with people who don’t fit the stereotype rebelling against it to the point where people who do fit the stereotype feel excluded or purposefully cast out of the plural community.  And that sucks.  (Ableist language ahead.)  What it usually is is people who belong to “healthy” or “functional” plural systems (and the more I go on, the more I dislike the term “healthy multiplicity”, though I’m not sure what a good alternative term would be, and I need one so I can revise the language on LP), especially natural plural sytems, basically saying “no, we’re not like that, we’re not crazy, we’re normal” and that leaves people who have diagnosed DID and/or belong to trauma-based plural systems and/or who aren’t 100% communicative and “functional” lashing back, which they are perfectly within their right to do, but which shouldn’t be necessary at all because no one should set up the “crazy-plural vs normal-plural” dichotomy in the first place.

So I mean, the way the media portrays plurality is problematic not just from the standpoint of people learning potentially incorrect information (or thinking that it’s one-size-fits-all information) but from the standpoint of a community divided over their reactions to it.  This is why we need more varied portrayals, and better portrayals (as in, not sensationalised) when they do happen.

-Anshin