Being able to "see" yourself in pop culture

[rainbow_goddess]

We discussed this a little bit when we talked about TV characters who showed signs of having Asperger's Syndrome, and then sammmason mentioned Jack Osborne being diagnosed with MS, and this got me to wondering: how often, if ever, do you see someone with your disability/diagnosis in popular culture -- either as a fictional character on TV or in movies, or a

Comments

[quiet000001]

There's some golfer whose name I forget (because I don't follow golf) who has psoriatic arthritis, but I'm not sure how much I count him because mostly he's in advertising for Enbrel, and that annoys me. (I get very frustrated by the attitude that the treatment options with the best advertising budgets are The Best Thing To Do and trying to have a sensible conversation with a doctor about the pros and cons of Enbrel seems to be impossible. Drives me nuts.)

Also, Lee Ann Rhimes apparently has psoriasis and mentioned it, although I don't know if she's ever been photographed with visible psoriasis which might help with the public awareness thing. But at least she's spoken out about how hard it is on your self-image and so on, which I do respect.

[nightshade1972]

Phil Mickelson, I think.

[beckyc]

I am not aware of any famous person who has the same type of asthma that I do.

I am not aware of any accurate fictional representation of the type of asthma I have either.

For that matter, I see very little evidence that any actor, asthmatic or otherwise, knows how to take an inhaler. In almost every scene where a person is shown taking an inhaler, they do it wrong. It is not a breath freshening spray, you do not spray it on your tongue.

(I am also not aware of any celebrities with the various other conditions I have either)

[quiet000001]

It is not a breath freshening spray, you do not spray it on your tongue.

I always had the hardest time with that. (I don't have asthma as such, but some food additive makes me get wheezy - not in a 'hey, epi-pen!' way, though, so a doctor thought an inhaler might help. ON THE TONGUE EVERY SINGLE TIME. Gack. Ick ick ick.)

I wonder what they use to 'fake' inhalers for filming. Asthma is common enough that I wouldn't be surprised if some actors actually do know how to properly use an inhaler, so maybe the fake inhaler is difficult to use in a way that looks right. (Given the possible need for multiple takes, they're not going to use anything actually medicated even if the actor in question does actually routinely use something, you know?)

[beckyc]

I do have to use placebos at my reviews, and if it's aerosol based (as inhalers on telly almost inevitably are!) then they're really pretty similar.

For completeness, I should mention that there IS a sublingual method of epinephrine delivery and that's actually how I take epinephrine (you spray it 5 times under the tongue) and OH MY GOODNESS IT BURNS IT BURNS!

Still not a breath freshener though ;-)

[anobjectinspace]

Do you remember the movie Panic Room? The kid in that had diabetes but I don't know anything about the types so I can't tell you what type she was portraying.

[nightshade1972]

I don't like depictions of epilepsy on film/TV. I get that the producer/director doesn't want the actor to hurt himself...but their depiction of a "seizure" is invariably much too mild. My seizures also tend to be on one side of my body, and the actors I see usually twitch their entire body.

I've rarely seen hydrocephalus depicted on film/TV. Usually it's on some medical show, where they cue the dark, dramatic music as the doctor announces, very serious-faced, that Your Child Has An Awful Disease Which Requires Brain Surgery! It's much easier to pretend to talk about spina bifida--all they have to do is plop the actor in a wheelchair, and write something into the script, at which point it never gets mentioned again, beyond seeing the character in the wheelchair all the time.

[precious_muse]

I kinda remember that guy who played Radio on "Mash" had a deformity in one of his hands. He was very self-conscious about it; the camera did a lot to conceal it on the show. He didn't reveal it until a telethon one year.

Off the top of my head, there are some others: Howie Mandel has OCD, Willard Scott has panic attacks, Jay Leno has dyslexia, John Madden is afraid of flying, and of course there's Michael J. Fox. As far as diabetese is concerned, I actually think quite a few celebrities have it. B. B. King does, Paula Dean discovers she has it. Mostly, though, I'm thinking of a local celebrity, a weatherman who just passed away.

[kittenmommy]

I kinda remember that guy who played Radio on "Mash" had a deformity in one of his hands.

Radar. And yeah, I remember reading about that.

[precious_muse]

Oh yeah. That shows how often I watch that show.

[kittenmommy]

LOL! That's OK! ;)