Why I often hate the Discovery Channel
So I'm trying to plan a story which involves realistic mutations (i.e. not the X-men- no powers), and I was researching birth defects, mutations, and other developmental stuff when I came across this video on youtube (which shows preserved infants and fetuses with very serious deformities, so don't watch it if you're easily upset or triggered by this sort of thing).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcsZZ9Duxw&feature=channel
This is a problem.
I watched some other clips from the same program and found myself horrified by the exploitive, gawking, and unprofessional tone of the piece, but this was the worst. Let's be clear: I'm not a scientist, and my motives in looking at this aren't exactly pure. I am looking for ideas and information to write a story which involves characters with severe physical deformities, so I suppose there's an element of gawking in what I'm doing. And I have no problem with the idea of scientific study being done on dead humans- in fact I plan on donating my own body to science when I die, especially since I have a sort of birth defect/abnormality (blepharophimosis or BPES, not that big a deal for me).
However.
I am also looking at these articles and videos as someone trying to present very human characters, with personalities which are not formed by their mutations. I am trying to learn about conditions I know little about, in order to not misrepresent them. And I am not doing this because I want to look at a freakshow.
The program, Human Mutations, is shot through color filters, high-contrast lighting, and distorted lenses, all of which make the show seem like a horror movie. The host puts his face in the camera and refers to the preserved invants as "horrors", calling Teratology (the study of physiological abnormalities) "the science of monsters". He confesses to "a...guilty pleasure in the macabre, seeing things which you can hardly imagine exist". He forgets that these were humans before they died.
It's all in the intent, really. I feel like it's okay for me to look at these specimens because I'm going into it with a great deal of respect- I'm seeing the people I read about as people, not curiosities or freaks or monsters. And it's alright for scientists to study these deformities, because they're doing it in the name of knowledge and, perhaps, prevention. But the way this show is narrated, scored, and filmed seems more like a monster movie or a carnival freakshow than an actual scientific inquiry. And at the end of the day, this clip just made me monumentally sad. Not just because of the fact that these infants died because of their deformities, but because their bodies are still on display, being stared at without questioning why, or how, or who this person might have been. Just a cheap thrill on the Discovery Channel, exploited without any benefit to anyone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcsZZ9Duxw&feature=channel
This is a problem.
I watched some other clips from the same program and found myself horrified by the exploitive, gawking, and unprofessional tone of the piece, but this was the worst. Let's be clear: I'm not a scientist, and my motives in looking at this aren't exactly pure. I am looking for ideas and information to write a story which involves characters with severe physical deformities, so I suppose there's an element of gawking in what I'm doing. And I have no problem with the idea of scientific study being done on dead humans- in fact I plan on donating my own body to science when I die, especially since I have a sort of birth defect/abnormality (blepharophimosis or BPES, not that big a deal for me).
However.
I am also looking at these articles and videos as someone trying to present very human characters, with personalities which are not formed by their mutations. I am trying to learn about conditions I know little about, in order to not misrepresent them. And I am not doing this because I want to look at a freakshow.
The program, Human Mutations, is shot through color filters, high-contrast lighting, and distorted lenses, all of which make the show seem like a horror movie. The host puts his face in the camera and refers to the preserved invants as "horrors", calling Teratology (the study of physiological abnormalities) "the science of monsters". He confesses to "a...guilty pleasure in the macabre, seeing things which you can hardly imagine exist". He forgets that these were humans before they died.
It's all in the intent, really. I feel like it's okay for me to look at these specimens because I'm going into it with a great deal of respect- I'm seeing the people I read about as people, not curiosities or freaks or monsters. And it's alright for scientists to study these deformities, because they're doing it in the name of knowledge and, perhaps, prevention. But the way this show is narrated, scored, and filmed seems more like a monster movie or a carnival freakshow than an actual scientific inquiry. And at the end of the day, this clip just made me monumentally sad. Not just because of the fact that these infants died because of their deformities, but because their bodies are still on display, being stared at without questioning why, or how, or who this person might have been. Just a cheap thrill on the Discovery Channel, exploited without any benefit to anyone.