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Stigma And Mental Illness: Character Analysis

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Understanding Stigma and Mental Illness The two characters that I have selected to analyze are Carrie Matheson and Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren. Carrie Matheson is a character from the television show Homeland and is played by actress Clair Danes (Homeland, 2011). Homeland is based on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which tracks down terrorist around the world. The television show follows Carrie Matheson who is a lead CIA agent, and shows all the hardships she has to go through to catch the terrorist. The twist of the show is that Carrie actually suffers from bipolar disorder and has to deal with the mental illness while she is on her missions. In the first episode of the show, Carrie is seen taking medication every time she is exposed …show more content…

This show is centered around women who are in a prison facility and follows them around during their incarceration. Among the inmates is a character that goes by the name Crazy Eyes. She is portrayed as an emotionally unstable woman with a violent past (Orange Is The New Black, 2013). The show’s choice of naming the character “Crazy Eyes” itself reinforces the stigma associated with mental illness. Crazy Eyes is depicted as a bellicose person, which reinforces one of the typical myths around mental illness. One of the main myths that surrounds mental illness, is that individuals suffering from mental illness are violent and dangerous (CMHA, 2015, p.5). Crazy Eyes’ mental illness is often used as comic relief and her illness is not seen as a serious issue. The other inmates continuously call her names like crazy, psycho bitch, and they often claim that she is an unstable …show more content…

While watching OITNB I found the show to be stereotyping, trivializing, offending, as well as patronizing crazy in every possible way. Through out the show I observed the characters use words like crazy as soon as they interacted with Crazy Eyes. From a viewers’ perspective, one sees that the characters automatically judge and belittle her throughout the series. Many of the characters on the show also patronize Crazy Eyes by not taking her seriously and making jokes about her to her face. She is continuously denigrated amongst the inmates and her opinions do not matter to them. A clear example of this is when the main character of the show Piper first meets Crazy Eyes. In this instance, the other inmates inform Piper not to get close to her because she is nuts. Piper ignores the inmates’ advice and continues to have a relationship with Crazy Eyes. During their time together, Crazy Eyes is shown to be obsessively possessive of Piper. On one instance, Crazy Eyes beats up another inmate for making a negative comment towards Piper. Crazy Eyes is also shown watching Piper sleep, and is also shown to be following Piper during yard time (Orange Is The New Black, 2013). The way that Crazy Eyes is portrayed contributes to negative stereotypes surrounding mental illness. The stigma that is shown in OITNB surrounding Crazy Eyes is the abnormal behaviour she exhibits, and

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