TV Land Strikes Again

TV Land Redux Redux

So last night Connie and I were channel surfing while eating dinner and between the game show where the husband and wife are asked to disclose the kind of sound their bed springs make and the prison show where we’re asked to become complicit "gazers" as underprivileged and undereducated people are incarcerated—between these shows we found ABC’s program 20/20 (their version of Dateline) and lo and behold they were doing a segment on people who have serious genetically transmitted birth deformities and neurological illnesses. What caught my attention was the "framing language" that the producers were using: one woman’s illness was introduced with a sinister analogy: "Like a poisoned apple from a tree, (insert patient’s name) this illness befell her, etc." The implication is of course layered with cultural meanings. Like Eve this woman ate the taboo apple? Like Snow White she ate the poisoned fruit? I couldn’t believe my ears! Genetically inherited diseases do not manifest themselves like the fruits of superstitions or biblical narratives. The uncomprehending television viewer, hearing this without analysis would be inclined to think that genetic misfortune may be a kind of divine punishment. Doesn’t this sound familiar? Tobit, in the Old Testament is blinded by the Lord. Tiresias is blinded by Hera in Greek mythology. Certainly if you have a disability you’ve done something wrong where the gods are concerned. I was absolutely dismayed to see ABC using this kind of nonsense as a framing device for their story about real people. Thank God the phone rang! Perhaps the phone rang like a poisoned apple falling from the tree of life?

S.K.

Comments

[fridawrites]

I don't know why the media feel the obligation to transform every aspect of disability to a metaphor or a symbol. It just doesn't work. Not everything fits inside the box. Perhaps there is the same compulsion to explain why a disability or illness happens as to explain why the universe is--maybe society "needs" creation myths for disability. When my mother had a life-threatening illness, a few people asked her what she'd done wrong, didn't she believe in God, etc. Ignoring their own mortality, I guess.