Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Olivia Corby
While mental illness isnt something anyone should be afraid of, it also isnt something
that people should aspire to have. Mental illness is encompassing; its consuming; it hurts. Pain
isnt pretty.
Despite the severity, in film, mental illness is depicted in a mystery man, as a sexy
woman, as a knowledgeable and edgy teenager. We, as a society, arent doing enough to
discourage the incorrect correlation between beauty and tragedy. In fact, by refusing to
Film is a great force for challenging norms and inequalities and has always been an
influential platform for encouraging change in society. Its for that reason that the portrayal of
mental illness in film is a critical way of promoting understanding and reducing the stigma that
affects millions of sufferers. Nonetheless, the understanding society has will depend on how the
difficult topic is depicted; while many films have represented mental illness sensitively, many
more seem to glamorize the sufferers of the illness or even the illness itself. Making tragedy into
beauty has disturbing effects on society as a whole but particularly on the young, to such an
extent that even films that do show the illnesses ultimately encourage idolising the disturbed. Of
all the ways mental illness is endorsed, I see romanticism as by far the worst.
One of the most prominent examples that comes to mind is The Virgin Suicides (1999).
The story is told from the point of view of men looking back to when they were young boys,
infatuated with four suicidally depressed sisters. Always showing the girls in pretty skirts,
twirling their hair. The narrators speak of the beauty and the intrigue of these mysterious sisters
and the boys corresponding desperation to know the girls better. As the film progresses the boys
gather more information about the girls, revealing more of their struggles with school,
psychologists, and their family, yet this only makes the boys long for them more. Other girls at
the school are presented as less interesting because they are not shrouded in the mystery of
secrets and illness. The effects of romanticising mental illness are not cancelled out by the later
harrowing scenes of their suicides. The girls untimely deaths has not stopped the now grown up
boys, the narrators of the film, from obsessing about the girls, from wanting to know more, and
from talking about it years after the matter. Further, the film is a paradigm example of over-
exaggerating the link between mental illness and sexuality, where the vulnerability of the women
is linked heavily with her promiscuity and mental illness is effectively sexualised.
Misery loves company and sometimes a shared sadness can be seen as a way to fit in.
Hitting close to home, teenagers are the most susceptible to these images and messages. These
attributes are in at least one of your favorite shows or movies. It is important for the media to
stop selling mental illness to the public like its a cosmetic; it is equally important for consumers
to be cognizant of the media and take off the rosy-colored glasses that lead to the romanticism of
mental illness.