There is a thought experiment that Psychology students are
sometimes asked to do which helps them to understand paranoia. Close your
eyes for a minute and imagine the color red. Begin to imagine that the
color red is sparkly, that when you look at anything red it will glitter at you
like a star. Once you've thought about that for a while, open your eyes
and go outside.
You will notice just how much red there is out there. It's all over the
place.
This can work for many, if not all, things in this world. When I first got my "P" plates, for example, the road was suddenly full of other "P" platers. So when I heard my first Tourette syndrome joke (the movie "The wedding singer") I thought that this was the same thing. I was very sensitive about my Tourette's and believed that I just noticed these jibes because of the diagnosis.
As the years have passed I've begun to realise that it's not
just me, there are more Tourette jokes out there. In a way, this is a sort
of recognition...at least now people have heard of TS. Not, it seems, as a
legitimate medical condition but as a new source of jokes. I knew the
American's were chronic offenders. Madonna was quoted as saying something
was as fascinating to her as "...watching a man with Tourette syndrome
walking through the park." Bart Simpson faked Tourette syndrome to
get out of a test. The number of people on Yahoo! profiles who claim to
enjoy faking Tourette syndrome in public is greater than the number who are genuine
Touretters. "Tourette syndrome Barbie" Persistent petitioning by
Tourette groups finally got Mattel to threaten legal action against Tourette
syndrome Barbie. Unfortunately
the issue was copyright infringement, not the fact it was insulting. But
it doesn't seem to have been effective either. Yahoo! still has an entire
sub-category devoted to TS Barbie. Since most of the links to it are
broken because of the copyright infringement I am going to, somewhat recklessly,
link to it here.
http://www.gophergas.com/funstuff/t-barbie.htm is a working version of the
animation. Notice the URL ..../funstuff/..... I'll let you
make up your own mind.
However, TS Barbie has started a bit of a trend. If you go to the
Victoria Tourette syndrome society's website,
you will see a TS Gilles de la Tourette! To be historically accurate,
Gilles de la Tourette didn't have Tourette syndrome, but the picture makes a
nice talking point.
I only realised that this "pun" had appeared in Australia when a friend of a friend commented that a cat who was acting silly "must have Tourette syndrome". It took my breath away for a moment, it was right out of left field.
I considered being indignant.
Luckily a reality check kicked in, and I realised that I had just made
the comment that the cat was acting "schitz". Without knowing
it, I have been using terms like "psycho", "psychotic",
"schitzoid", "schitzo", and "schizophrenic" all my life and even
when I had a friend who has Schizophrenia I never considered that I
might be hurting someone.
These terms are so deep in the language we, or at least I, never
think about what they mean. It's like a time I was at the football when I
was twelve and everyone was yelling out "you're a wanker
Umpire!". So I joined in. Mum asked me if I knew what it
meant. "It means you're stupid, doesn't it?" I said, guessing
like crazy. So she told me what a wanker was...
I have never been more embarrassed in my life!
So now I'm confused. I can see how things get out of
control. 7 Oct 2002, for example, the mental health lobby made
a complaint about a hair care product that has called itself
"Schizophrenia" and "head case". Likewise, being told
to "get a F***ing sense of humor" by the creator of TS Barbie was just
a waste of his breath.
At the same time, maybe the odd joke about Tourette syndrome's twitches
shouldn't offend me as much as it does. Perhaps when someone laughs about
the surgeon with tics, I should just nod and think "it's not malicious,
they just don't know."
29/07/2004
Since I wrote this page a couple of years ago, a few things have changed...and a lot hasn't.
I cannot remember the movie, but Heather Grahame and that guy from American pie fall in love and then find out they're brother and sister. (help my memory...email me if you know which one I mean) In it, the guy is trying to win over her parents and he talks about playing golf. "I think I catch Tourette syndrome whenever I play...B****y F***ing ball...etc."
Billy Connelly gave a short routine about a man with Tourette's who swore along to Christmas carols. "Hark the F**k! herald angels sing Bum!"
It's still very popular to have your Touretters swearing.
It has now gotten to the stage where my other half automatically goes "Oh, hah
flipping hah!" very sarcastically when a bad Tourette syndrome joke is made.
But he makes TS jokes all the time.
The difference is obvious. While these movie references tend to dehumanise
Touretters and just make them swearing mad people, the bad puns my other half
makes show a certain understanding.
Let's be honest...I have killed relationships by admitting I
have Tourette's. So it was a hard thing to do to admit it to him.
But it was even harder for him to understand.
My man is very typical Aussie bloke. He would go to work if he was dying
of leprosy, and claim to his last breath that he can "work through it, the mind
is a powerful thing". The concept that my brain didn't always do what it
was told was alien to him. Over the years, however, he's started to slide
in little jibes. If I ever make a reference to clocks...I know I'm in for
it. But the jokes, despite being very bad, are accurate. And they're
not insulting. They show a deep understanding of the condition, and I
obviously appreciate that.
I recently watched 'Harvey Krumpet' the Oscar winning short animated film. I was initially dismayed to see that Harvey was born with Tourette syndrome. "Here we go," I thought "prepare for a lot of cursing." But Harvey didn't have that symptom. Not only that, but his condition was never played up on. Throughout the short, he twitched in a frighteningly familiar way, but that was background. He still lived a full life, and you still ended up liking him. I thought Harvey was the nicest representation of Tourette's I've seen yet.
So maybe attitudes are changing slowly. Mine especially. I recently auditioned for the part of Mad Margaret in Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore. I was passed over for a much more sedate and grandly mad woman, but a discussion in the rehearsal hall with another potential Mad Margaret led to the suggestion that she should have tics. I said, in my new 'let everyone know' frame of mind, "Well, mine did. I have Tourette syndrome!" and laughed. The laugh, I think, was a mistake in hindsight as the other woman immediately spouted Margaret's dialogue with a liberal sprinkling of s**ts and f**ks. But, being in a good mood, I joined in. I still have to find the right time to correct her...but I'll get there.
I'm a little less cynical now.