Tonight, in celebration of the upcoming Halloween holiday, ABC will re-air a Modern Family episode, called “AwesomeLand.” This episode, which was shown for the first time last year, is anything but awesome — as the cast takes part in the creation of an “insane asylum”–themed haunted house filled with horribly offensive depictions of individuals with mental health issues.
These images, portraying individuals with brain disorders as “scary,” “dangerous,” and “deranged,” perpetuates discrimination against those affected by these medical issues! Is Modern Family really all that modern if it takes part in this kind of dehumanizing portrayal of people living with these challenges?
Last year we joined forces with the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) and many others in condemning this episode, and asked ABC to reform its attitude towards individuals with mental health issues. I even spoke about how an episode such as this one reveals just how far we have to go in terms of awareness of mental illness and brain disorders as medical issues. It still feels like, “[A]s a movement we are not even on the back of the bus, we are under it.”
As my colleague Liza Long has commented, this depiction furthers an “us vs. them” mentality, in which we spread the myth that mental illness and brain disorders are a choice. They are not a choice. Brain disorders are an illness like any other illness. Can you imagine how we would react if, instead of simulating a psychiatric hospital, this episode had simulated a haunted cancer ward or haunted diabetes clinic? Such a choice is unthinkable. And so, too, should the choice to portray individuals with brain illnesses in this way be.
It is shocking that we, and our community of mental health advocates, have to speak out yet again about this episode. Yesterday, Pete Earley, the best selling author and mental health advocate, called on three ABC executives by name to remove the episode. And on Tuesday, Mary Giliberti, executive director of NAMI, remarked:
The episode sends a message that ABC does not consider people living with mental illness to truly be part of its modern family or vision. It is a profound disappointment that a show that has been applauded for inclusivity now chooses to dismiss concerns from part of the disability community. […]
We challenge the network to live up to its own code of Corporate Citizenship and Social Responsibility, which proclaims to seek: “A happier tomorrow. A healthier tomorrow. Where we are all driven to care for the world we share.”
We ask you to join us in protesting these insensitive portrayals of individuals with brain disorders. Join the #UnModernFamily conversation on Twitter and tell ABC just how unmodern their depictions of these health issues really are.
