This is my Final Essay Submission
I feel that my essay links in well with my final film project in that what I have researched about mental health for essay I have used, not directly, in with my work. Know the positive and negative ways you can portray people with a mental illness, I have tried to make this as accurate as possible.
I have not just used used film research, but I have used a lot of resources from government websites and foundation/charities.
How is Mental Health Portrayed in Hollyoaks?
Introduction
–
This essay will look into and discuss the way that
the soap Hollyoaks (Redmond, 1995 - 2016) portrays mental health and the
characters in the show that have a mental illness. It will look at whether the
show has used stereotypes to as a way to portray mental health or if it
has done it accurately, whilst also investigating whether time has played a factor
in the portrayal and what changes, if any, have been made. The soap Hollyoaks
was chosen as the case study as it is a contemporary television show that on
average has around one million viewers per episode (BARB, 2017) and is a
good representative sample of the population. The essay will look into the
stereotypes of mental health and how the public sees mental health as something
negative or positive and how soaps like Hollyoaks have helped to show the
audience what mental illnesses there are and how not to be afraid of them,
along with how to talk about them.
The portrayal of mental health is a vast topic
that will not be covered fully in this essay as the scope is too large. Due to
this, Hollyoaks will be the sole investigation undertaken. Although there are a
lot of subjects and research surrounding the topic that could still be looked
into, I have narrowed it down to a case study of a recent character from the
Hollyoaks soap. The character’s name is Cindy Cunningham.
This essay takes a polyvocal approach, as the
third chapter will discuss how this essay topic relates to my practice and will
be backed up through evidence of my work and how looking at the portrayal of
mental illnesses has helped to improve my work.
The soap opera was also chosen as it explores
social issues and brings these issues to the public’s attention without forcing
it upon them and in way that is subtle, so they don’t always know it is
happening. An example of the soap opera being used to help social issues was
the Radio show the Archers, which was started in 1951 produced by Godfrey
Baseley. This radio show was used as a way to help after the war to teach people
to produce and grow their own food, but without it being forced upon them too. The document ‘How Soap Operas Bring about Social Change’
created by the DSTL (Defence, Science and
Technology Laboratory) says,
“In addition to intending to chance audience’s soap
consumption habits in favour of their sponsors’ products, soap operas have also
long been deliberately used to bring about wider social change. For
example The Archers was introduced in the UK after
WWII in order to help farmers increase their productivity. One storyline follow
the fortunes of a young pig-keeper, who was trying to make enough profit to
marry his fiancé. The wedding plans were on and off, depending on the success
of his varying schemes of increased pig production. Listeners were hooked on
the romantic developments, but at the same time much of the Britain public
became experts in pig rearing.” (DSTL, 2009)
Fast forward some fifty years and these social
explorations still exist within current soaps, including Hollyoaks. Watching soap
operas every day, the audience sees the long term development of the character
and connects with them; and in turn this can open up discussion in families or
friends watching the show, which can help the understanding of mental illnesses
as more people are communicating about it. Hollyoaks also has its own help
support, for people who watch the episode and see similarities in themselves or
other people they know, which means they can try and get help or help others. This
all helps to take away the negative stigma of mental health as it is shown in
everyday life. Even if the soaps are dramatically over exaggerated.
Chapter
1 –Key terms
What
is meant by mental health?
There are many mental
health illnesses, that range from more common e.g. depression, anxiety, OCD and
phobias to more rare illnesses e.g. bipolar disorder, personality disorders and
psychotic experiences. As said by Mind “Mental health problems can affect the way
you think, feel and behave.”(Katherine Dunn, 2016)
Mental health illnesses
can affect people at different times in their lives and can last for short
periods of time or last a life-time. Statistics from Mental Health.org states
that “One
in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their
lives.” (Mental Health, 2017). This show just how common they are and
how anyone can have a mental health problem. Below is figure 1 that shows the
number of people who have different types of mental health illnesses each year.
Figure 1 is the findings from the report in 2009.
Depression
|
2.6 in 100 people
|
Anxiety
|
4.7 in 100 people
|
Mixed anxiety and depression
|
9.7 in 100 people
|
Phobias
|
2.6 in 100 people
|
OCD
|
1.3 in 100 people
|
Panic disorder
|
1.2 in 100 people
|
Post traumatic stress disorder
|
3.0 in 100 people
|
Eating disorders
|
1.6 in 100 people
|
Figure 1 – (The Health &
Social Care Information Centre, 2009)
Again this further shows how
there are many people who suffer with a mental health illness and that because
it is more and more common that society should change to understand and get rid
of the stigma behind it.
Through the years there have been many
characters in Hollyoaks who have had mental health illnesses. Up until October
2015 these characters included: Hannah Ashworth, Lisa Hunter, Anita Roy, Newt
and Cindy Cunningham. Hannah Ashworth played by Emma Rigby had anorexia and
bulimia on the show and this storyline went on from 2005-2007 and was one of
the first soap to have someone die from an eating disorder. Emma Rigby won a
Mental Health Media Award (Metrowebukmetro, 2008). Lisa Hunter played by
Gemma Atkinson started self-harming after being bullied in the early 2000’s.
Anita Roy played by Saira Choudhry was bullied and started to bleach her skin
in 2009. Newt Played by Nico Mirallegro was diagnosed with schizophrenia in
2008. Cindy Cunningham played by Stephanie Waring has Bipolar and this acts as
an ongoing storyline. Although this essay focuses on Mental Health, Hollyoaks
has also had many other pioneering storylines that have been first of their
kind including: cancer, rape and addition.
What
is a stereotype?
A stereotype is “a fixed, over generalized belief
about a particular group or class of people” (Cardwell, 1996). This
happens when people define a set of characteristics to a certain group of
people. They are not always made on purpose and can be a subconscious act. There
are both negative and positive stereotypes. A positive stereotype can sometimes
be thought to sound similar to a compliment, it is when characteristics of a
certain group of people, are characterised in a good way. Both positive and
negative stereotyping can be argued as being just as negative, as any kind of
stereotyping as it takes away a person individuality and tries to put them in a
box.
In the case of mental health, people often
stigmatise people who have mental illnesses to be: dangerous, unpredictable and
incompetent. But in actual fact “according to data from the National
Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, only 3% of people with
mental illness are violent. That means 97% of people with mental illness are
not violent.” (Scattergood, 2016) There are cases of extreme and rare
mental health illnesses that do have violent tendencies but that does not mean
that everybody who has a mental health illness is the same. So why does society
perceive mental illness so negatively? The stereotyping of a mental illness can
affect the person with the illness. This can include getting the help they need
and so can lead to not being diagnosed, the not getting the proper treatment
and in some extreme cases suicide.
An example of stereotyping is seen in the film
franchise Batman, specifically The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008), Dr Peter
Byrne, a psychiatrist and film expert says, “Batman describes the Joker as
schizophrenic clown…” (Time to Change, 2009). The Joker in the
franchise is an evil character who is depicted as being a crazy and mentally
ill and because of this is a violent, killing character. A more contemporary
example of this is the film ‘Suicide Squad’ (Ayer, 2016) where
again the Joker begins as someone who is in an asylum, seeking medical
treatment and once he escapes, he is a dangerous character who is portrayed as
violent and does not care about killing people.
‘”Mad, bad and dangerous to
know” was his lover Lady Caroline Lamb's famous assessment of him’ (Castle,
1997). The ‘him’ in question refers to the
famous poet Lord Byron who was known for his debauchery. It is a recurring
phrase of words that has come up in many of the resources used in this essay,
which is referring to mental health illnesses. These words show the already perceived
stereotype and stigma behind mental health.
Chapter
2 – key points and case studies
One of the most recent main characters who has
a mental health illness in Hollyoaks is Cindy Cunningham, who is played by
Stephanie Waring. Cindy has bipolar disorder in the show and used the show to
gain awareness for the condition. ‘When I was told that Cindy was to find
herself battling mental health problems I was excited to take on the challenge
of such an important role as raising awareness is very important to me and
something I feel very connected too personally.’ (Stephanie Waring in Time to
Change, 2014) Stephanie herself has also suffered from post-natal
depression and although she hasn’t been through the same mental health illness
as her character she can relate in some ways through what it felt like to have
a mental health illness herself. Cindy also discusses wanting to be as accurate
as possible in her portrayal of the character.
‘Someone close to me suffers from bi-polar and they along
with health professionals helped me to research the role. It was so important
to me to do it justice. Cindy has a long way to go on her journey but I know it
is important to the producers that Cindy does recover and find a way to live a
happy life because we need the message to be a positive one.’ (Stephanie Waring
in Time to Change, 2014)
The above quote discusses how Hollyoaks are not
trying to rush the storyline of Cindy and her illness and are trying to portray
them as accurately as possible with the use of first-hand experience and
professionals. Although it can be argued that not everyone will have the same
experience when having bipolar, it is fair to say that at least the show is
trying to get rid of the negative stereotypes surround mental health. “Mental
health can be difficult to diagnose and recover from, which is why support is
so essential and why we have to stop the stigma surrounding mental health
problems, because being able to talk about it is the first step.”(Waring in Time
to Change, 2014) This quote backs up the point of communication and how
by using the soap operas as a place to start social changes, it can change
societies negative stereotype of mental health illness being something bad and
something that people with the illnesses should be ashamed of.
There are many negative depictions of mental
health which the media and television shows have had a massive impact on and are
trying to change, which is shown in the below statistics. The more it is
publicised the more people react to mental health, so if it is portrayed
negatively, people react negatively. On the other hand if they are portrayed
positively people will react positively, which is what a report by Time to
Change, working with the Glasgow Media Group in 2014 looked into. The group
reviewed 3 months of television drama to see how mental health problems were
being portrayed, which built on earlier research done in 2010. They found that
storylines are now depicting people more accurately that have mental health
problems, but picked up on other stereotypes that have now been made, like:
medication and tragic victims.
Time to Change, at the same time took a survey
of the public, to see if they saw the stereotyping of mental health in the
programs. This is some of what they found:
The report (Time to Change, 2014) found that:
• Over
half (54 per cent) of people say that seeing a well-known character on screen
has improved their understanding of mental health problems.
• 48 per
cent said it helped to change their opinion about the kind of people who can develop
these problems.
• 31 per
cent said it actively inspired them to start a conversation about the storyline
with friends, family or colleagues.
These findings back up the fact the television
shows affect the way the audience see mental health and that if the show speaks
out about it and depicts characters with mental health illness accurately and
properly that it impacts society view of them. Stephen Fry a writer and actor
says “The
media, in all its glorious incarnations, has enormous power to influence
people’s perceptions of mental health, not least in being able to challenge the
stigma that sadly still surrounds it.” (Fry in Time to Change, 2016) Meaning
the media is powerful and if the media was to portray mental health positively
they might help to destigmatise mental illnesses.
Although the media is becoming more aware of
how they are depicting people with mental health, there are still many
portrayals of mental health characters that are negative. These negative
depictions have an impact on the public’s perception. “Pictures can have a big
influence on the public. Research has shown that many people get their
information about mental illness from the mass media.”(Wahl in Psychcentral,
2004) These depictions then can have a bigger impact on people who have
a mental health illness. Since it is not an accurate portrayal, the public form
opinions that are not accurate
and this can lead to myths as there is no accurate communication. These
myths can then become fear of people who have a mental illness because there is
not a proper understanding. Some of these myths include people with a mental
illness: being violent, unpredictable and do not get better.
Time has had an effect of how these people have
been portrayed. As the essay has mentioned previously there has been a few examples of different
character in Hollyoaks having different mental illness throughout the years.
One of the earlier characters being from the 2000’s to the present day. This
essay does not have enough of a word count to be able to go into detail about
all the characters but some of the earlier ones were portrayed as more negative
and were dramatically over exaggerated compared to now. For instance, the
character Hannah Ashworth who suffered from anorexia had a friend in the show
who also suffered the same illness and in the show she died tragically. Comparing
Hannah Ashworth in 2005 to Cindy Cunningham 2016, Hannah’s storyline was more
dramatically filled compared to Cindy as Stephanie Waring the actor that plays Cindy
has already talked about her character having more of a positive/ happy ending.
Chapter
3 - Why this is related to my project?
I chose this topic for my extended essay on
because I feel it will help me develop my final film. In the essay I have
researched and discussed stereotypes and what stereotypes there are for many
mental illnesses. I can then use this to make sure that my final film does not
use the typical negative stereotypes and uses accurate portrayals of
depression. It is a very interesting subject and is something very close to me
and so it is interesting to see what other people think about the subject, it
will broaden my research and understanding of it.
While writing this essay I have thought about
how it will link to my project, the obvious reason is that this essay is
looking into mental health and my film is about my mother’s depression, but I
wanted the research I was doing for the essay to have an impact on my work and
I feel it already has and will continue too.
In the essay I have discussed stereotypes,
looking into what they are and how they affect people with mental health. I
have taken this research and made sure I am not stereotyping in my film. My
character is not violent and I have tried to portray her as accurately as possible.
I have done this through the help of my mum. Since the film is about how
depression makes her feel, she has and will continue to have a big role in the film.
She has had input into what the storyline is and what and how the protagonist
acts and feels. I understand that how depression makes my mum feel will be
completely different to how depression makes other people feel, but I wanted
people to still be able to connect with is and so the look of the character I
have done different to what my mum looks like. Although it may not feel the
same, they may still be able to connect, feel similar or sympathise with the
character and so the main characters look is very plain and simple. She does
not have any features and is just an outline with not much detail. So she can
be anyone and be relatable, she is not a portrayal of just one person, and she
could be whoever the audience wanted her to be.
Both
images are character workups of the character in my film. Figure 2 and 3^
The above images show how the character will
look in my film. I tried to create a very simple character that looked
“normal”. By normal, I mean that she could look and relate to a wide amount of
the population. The character could be interpreted however the audience wanted it
to. She looks very similar to a mannequin, that you would find in a shop, where
you could envision yourself in the clothing. This is similar to what I want my
character to stand for, I want people to able to visualise themselves as the
character. My film may not be as wide
spread and not nearly as watched as Hollyoaks or other similar soaps that portray
mental health characters, but I hope it will still has a small impact on trying
to stop the stigma of people who have mental illnesses. I want audiences to not
be afraid of people with a mental health illness.
I chose to create an animation instead of a
live action soap opera like Hollyoaks because I knew I could get across what my
mum felt and the way she explained it to me, she used very visual metaphors.
‘As I started getting into
animated docs, I came up with a manifesto of when you should [use animation]
and when you shouldn’t. Absolutely [you should] when you’re protecting
anonymity, when you’re trying to convey internal experiences and when metaphor
is better than literal interpretation: if someone’s being tortured and they’re
describing what the feeling’s like, for example.’ (Glynne in Ideas Tap, 2012)
Andy Glynne is
the director for the animated documentary series Animated Minds (Andy Glynne, 2003).
The series uses real life testimonies of people who have or still suffer with a
mental health illness. I watched the series for research and inspiration and
feel that my film would work best as a 2D animated
film. As I have mentioned previously, my mother has
been helping and we have discussed every aspect of the film a lot and although
she doesn’t mind whether she is anonymously shown or not, the way that she
explains things is very visual wouldn’t come across fully if it was done in
live action. Using animation will allow me to be more abstract in my
portrayal, and do things that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to, or that would
not look as good. Not only is this due to my preference, but also in regards to
the style and feel of the film. Using VFX, I feel, would lessen the emotional
impact and importance of the film.
Conclusion
Media needs to carry on using accurate
portrayals of people with mental health illnesses as they are helping the
public to be less afraid and react less negatively towards these people. More
and more people are seeking help and treatment for illnesses they were trying
to hide because of embarrassment and being afraid of what people might think
about them. The more the media talks about them positively, the less stigma
there is towards it.
There is still some portrayals of mental health
illnesses that are over simplified and not accurate, but the soaps and other
forms of media are slowly getting rid of the stigmas surrounding mental health
and helping society change for the better. This is through publically showing
it more and using accurate and realistic portrayals of them. This, along with
less accurate portrayals being slowly removed, or their information not taken
as accurate so easily, is a big step towards removing this stigma.
‘The media have the ability to shape and form public
opinion so it’s important that some of the country’s best loved soaps and drama
series are taking on mental health storylines, doing them accurately, not
fuelling stigma and helping improve understanding. The media Advisory Service
we offer at Time to Change has already worked on over 50 television and radio
scripts including EastEnders, Holby City and more recently Coronation Street.
We encourage all writers to make use of this service. Through their work,
writers have the ability to break down stigma and discrimination through
exploring issues and bringing them right into the nation’s living rooms.’ (Baker in Time to Change, 2014)
As discussed earlier in the essay, people have
noticed a change and have started to talk about mental health more, and the
fact the media is covering it in a more positive way is helping towards this.
Only through developing this further, and approaching
the subject more often both in television and in person will the stigma towards
mental illness decrease, and it is soaps that are popular in today’s culture
that make this an accessible and effective way of doing this.
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