Wednesday, 14 November 2007
The mad woman in the bedroom
‘Mad’, ‘needs therapy’, ‘mentally disturbed’-this appears to be the ‘kindest’ commentary for Samina Malik. I am disturbed myself at how many commentators, especially women, are judging her behaviour as some outward manifestation of an inner-medical imbalance. Too often, whenever a woman deviates from whatever society dictates is the gold standard for sane, her behaviour is sexualised or pathologised. What’s this need to pathologise what we don’t understand, find a box and tie it up with a pretty pink ribbon? Once we find the suitable box, in this case 'bordering on insane' then we can smugly proclaim she probably just needs therapy. We pity, wring our hands, emote with more lyrical intensity than Samina's bloody terrible poetry and we all feel better cos we've been nice, kind and generous in our judgement. But it's still a judgement.Mental illness is no joke and there's a vast ocean of difference between it and angsting for the zietgeist.It’s too easy to tag the label ‘mad’ to a woman. Now why can’t we just treat Samina as we would a similar aged, middle class, public school educated, white, christian boy, eh? Let’s just strive for consistency here not special treatment because she is 'mentally disturbed'.It's not a question of whether Samina is mad or bad but that this is bad law.
The mad woman in the bedroom
‘Mad’, ‘needs therapy’, ‘mentally disturbed’-this appears to be the ‘kindest’ commentary for Samina Malik. I am disturbed myself at how many commentators, especially women, are judging her behaviour as some outward manifestation of an inner-medical imbalance. Too often, whenever a woman deviates from whatever society dictates is the gold standard for sane, her behaviour is sexualised or pathologised. What’s this need to pathologise what we don’t understand, find a box and tie it up with a pretty pink ribbon? Once we find the suitable box, in this case 'bordering on insane' then we can smugly proclaim she probably just needs therapy. We pity, wring our hands, emote with more lyrical intensity than Samina's bloody terrible poetry and we all feel better cos we've been nice, kind and generous in our judgement. But it's still a judgement.Mental illness is no joke and there's a vast ocean of difference between it and angsting for the zietgeist.It’s too easy to tag the label ‘mad’ to a woman. Now why can’t we just treat Samina as we would a similar aged, middle class, public school educated, white, christian boy, eh? Let’s just strive for consistency here not special treatment because she is 'mentally disturbed'.It's not a question of whether Samina is mad or bad but that this is bad law.
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From blogger: Probably Blonde
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