Is the use of an asylum for Halloween offensive?

Hi

First of all I'm usually against people being offended over trivial stuff. My attitude is if it offends you then don't acknowledge it. However in this case I just wanted to ask others opinions on something that is a bit close to my life.

My children as usual browse for Halloween decorations and came across a decoration of an asylum, to what my youngest asked what it was. I explained it was a hospital for mentally sick people. To that he asked then why is it used for Halloween? To that I didn't really know what to say.

This being an important subject to me as my partner suffers from a mental illness which is severe. Being on a cocktail of medication was the only option to get to where we are now. When I really thought about the use of asylums I actually began to get angry. These are hospitals still open today but under more friendly names that help very sick people survive. I can understand from the outside these places are frightening and the people living there on mind numbing meds almost become zombie like. Should people not be educated on these things instead of using these images used in movies to sell products to compound ones fear of something they don't understand.

Finally I just want to reiterate my point that most of the people held in these places aren't monsters as they are portrayed. They are mostly mentally sick people who have had a gone through a terrible period in their life. Should we not educate instead of allowing others to profit?

a reply to: liteonit6969

i think it may refer to the old closed aslyums that may or may not not be "haunted". but i didnt see the decorations, got any links?

a reply to: liteonit6969

a reply to: liteonit6969

Yep old abandoned asylums with a sinister twist like doctors performing inhumane experiments on patients seems to be the theme people are scared of rather than the actual patients, so i don't think its offensive.

although I'm sure the PC police can come up with something.

a reply to: liteonit6969

Along these lines, ive wondered lately about people throwing around words like "crazy" or "insane" every five minutes as a descriptive meaning "intense" or "extreme". Shouldnt that be just as offensive to the mentally ill as "retarded" is to the mentally disabled? We now care enough about the mentally challenged enough to not say "retarded". When, if ever, will we extend the PC courtesy to the deranged?

I don't know.
Is somebody REALLY offended by it?
If I had a family member who had been in an asylum, I suppose I COULD legitimately take offence...but, in that case, I think that, truth be told, I'd just be looking to be offended out of faux outrage, or to make myself feel important.

Should anyone who has lost a loved one and believe they go to heaven, REALLY be offended by 'The Walking Dead'...or by ghosts being used in 'Haunted House' attractions?

Should Wiccans be offended by the ugly depictions of witches on Halloween?

Where should 'offended syndrome' end?
Really, we can ALL find new things to get all offended and crusadey about...but most of us have lives....and, truth be told, the P.C. crowd is really just bored with their own lives and suffer from low self-esteem.

Really, and why not? Just because people suffer from a mental illness does that exclude them fron any celebrations. Even halloween. Should mental health hospitals be sterile, no empathy with the outside world?
What about Christmas? No Christmas tree, no celebration.

originally posted by: Urantia1111
a reply to: liteonit6969

Along these lines, ive wondered lately about people throwing around words like "crazy" or "insane" every five minutes as a descriptive meaning "intense" or "extreme". Shouldnt that be just as offensive to the mentally ill as "retarded" is to the mentally disabled? We now care enough about the mentally challenged enough to not say "retarded". When, if ever, will we extend the PC courtesy to the deranged?

Great questions.
If I called a fellow poster in a thread here "crazy", "insane"...or "nutters"...would the Moderators remove my post for being insulting, insensitive to...or marginalizing, the mentally ill?

To be honest I'm not offended. I'm just curious if we can find someone who is offended. Lol. Living around mental illness all my life (first with my mum who is serve bi polar and now my partner who is bi polar and psychotic periods.) I feel protective of those who are in the grasp of it. There are so many variations of mental illness and with so many unique to the individual it is something that we as a species need to understand more. It breaks my heart to think of those vulnerable people being left in hospitals in time when they were treated like animals.

I will never forget the fear in my partners eyes when she first fell ill (which happened like a flick of a switch). She like others are not the monsters that are depicted by old movies. They are all vulnerable human beings who need extra care and love. If you havent got the time to provide extra care for these fragile people then hopefully someone does.

a reply to: liteonit6969

I can't quite remember the details, but when I lived in El Paso maybe 4 years ago, I remember a big to-do about some woman that had set up a mock pharmacy haunted house type of thing during Halloween but with a twist - It was made to look like a scene from a Mexican cartel shooting. Very gory, bloody. People were definitely offended by that but as far as an asylum, that's just typical Halloween #.

Yep

Mental illness is just that ................. an illness and luckily today we can diagnose and treat people.

But would I take offence over an asylum themed Halloween costume ...... No

I do think your son's question is a little bit of genius, it shows that asylums are no longer seen as horrendous, and that it's probably time to move along. If a kid doesn't get it, it's become irrelevant.

Cody

a reply to: cody599

An ironic twist is that his persistent questions may send me to an asylum.

I love when they are that age when they are so curious and inquisitive. Although being 25 it's now lost all its cuteness. (He is really 3)

a reply to: liteonit6969

LMAO

I remember it well, I swore to myself that I would NEVER say "Because I said so" to my kids and managed it, we always reasoned it out............................. Until dad was correct

It gave them a great base to learn to debate, trouble is they're 18 and 17 now, and I am reaping what I sowed ........................ I'll see you in the asylum bar, first drink on me

Cody


ETA: You don't have an avatar ....................WHY ?.................Visit us HERE and let us artists know what you'd like, it's a free service some of provide for fun and makes you instantaneously recognisable, just say Cody sent you.

a reply to: liteonit6969
What you should really do is what I did to my grand-daughter when she was eight. Sit them down and teach her to quote the theory of relativity, it's only a small equation. Teach her what the letters mean, she really does not need to know the specifics, then tell her when the teacher at school asks her about anything to do with the Earth to recite the theory of relativity. It sends the teachers ape.

a reply to: crayzeed

That's brilliant

My wife's a teacher, I'd love to see that. She keeps control by putting Game of Thrones spoilers in particularly bad homework, the grades have improved somewhat.

Cody

Erm, you probably could have done your kid a favor and explained the scare fascination behind the old asylums and not just their purpose. If people skip over that, which includes age, experimentation history, violence at them, etc, then you're not exactly being up front about why they're a part of Halloween culture like death is.

Here's an article about the backgrounds of some of the worst.
Six Abandoned Asylums with Genuinely Chilling Backstories

a reply to: Nyiah

Erm

The kid's 3 years old, maybe let him have a childhood first No offence meant

Cody

a reply to: cody599
Didn't see the age mentioned, my bad. I assumed they were referring to a elementary schooler.
It's still perfectly ok to explain some of the history in a tame manner without getting into Nightmare Zone. Some of those places are very old, sometimes people died there, sometimes people did bad things to others in them, now people think they're creepy and some people think some are haunted.

Oh and I do agree the only people who would have a conniption fit over asylums being used as part of Halloween themes/decor are the hyper PC. I imagine only the thinnest of skins would get upset over them (but be fine with mock graveyards, I betcha)

a reply to: Nyiah

No worries

I didn't want you to fall into the ATS trap, I'm with you, education is important, I'm 48 and what we teach now is important for the future, IMHO it's OK to be different, if you're different and dangerous to others ...................... and here the debate begins.

I might be going off topic

At what point are we correct and the others not ?

That's a whole other thread

Having said education is important, what do we teach ?

Cody

a reply to: liteonit6969

its used for halloween because its scary. plain and simple.

Having worked in a mental hospital, i can tell you without a doubt that it is scary as hell for the patients who are there, too.

Any place where people suffer mental anguish, and commit suicide or suffer agonizing death, is a place that is scary.

It sounds like a good time to begin explaining how people can suffer a living hell. One of those empathy building conversations.

ETA: i should add, "Asylums" were used fro more than mental illness. The term was coined in an age when there wasn't much in the way of "mental health", and things like masturbation could get you locked up for being crazy. But asylums also housed people during the TB epidemics. It was a horrible place where, in an era before notions of "medical ethics", people were tortured and/or neglected in the name of science.