e-mail
I received information on two different articles yesterday and they both have me hot under the collar. The theme in both of these stories are the same; People with little or no knowledge who think it’s OK to make fun of and shun people with special needs.
The first story came from my friend, Carol. I met Carol shortly before Christmas last year. We worked a seasonal job together and when we got to know each other, we discovered that we both have special needs kids. Carol’s kids are special needs in a way that is totally different from my kids. She had two kids with Fragile X Syndrome. I don’t fully understand the disorder, but I’ll do the best I can with the description. Fragile X is both a medical and physical disorder in that it affects the X chromosome involved with determining sex in a baby. XX = female, XY = male. There is a physical impairment in the X chromosome that causes both physical and mental health disorders
The way that Fragile X manifests itself causes physical characteristics that make the child appear “different” as well as behavioral and cognitive disorders that appear to be like Autism or Cognitive Delays. If someone else can explain this better, please jump in.
Here is where the news story comes in. A new movie is coming out this weekend called Tropic Thunder starring Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. The movie is highly offensive to many people and parents of special needs children. I have not seen it yet, but what I am reading makes me want to scream.
This is the actual dialog from the movie when the characters are discussing playing a person with special needs:
Stiller: “It’s what we do, right?”
Downey: “Everybody knows you never do a full retard.”
Stiller: “What do you mean?”
Downey: “Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, ‘Rain Man,’ look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, ‘Forrest Gump.’ Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain’t retarded. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard.”
Excuse me? Last time I checked this is 2008 and we sure know better by now. Someone really thought this was going to be funny? Not only is this dialog in the movie, but they are selling merchandise with the phrase “Never Go Full Retard” on it. Let’s just make fun of all people with Cognitive Delays or disabilities, because we can make a buck off of it. Let’s teach kids it’s OK to make fun of people who are different than them.
The timing of this story, right after my series on disabilities and disorders, makes me sad. We are trying to educate people about different disabilities, and here is Hollywood making fun of those very same disorders. Maybe the writers need to read these blogs before they write their next movie. Generally, people make fun of things they don’t understand. Hollywood, it’s time to start understanding! I bet if any of the writers had a family member that had a disability or disorder that made them appear “retarded” they’d have a little bit more sensitivity and just flat out brains about what they are writing.
I’ll address the next story in my next blog.
I can’t help but wonder if anyone – ANYONE at all – who was involved with this movie had (or had) a special needs child.
Many teenagers I work with don’t understand why it’s offensive to joke about things like that. When I try to explain it to them, it’s like their brains can’t comprehend it. No compassion.
Thanks for the heads up on the movie. I knew that because of it’s “R” rating, the humor would be very crude, but this is over the top.
Oh Hannah I totally understand. My son (who has MAJOR mental health issues) thought it was funny to joke about and imitate mentally retarded children. I let him know in no uncertain terms that was not acceptable in our family!