May 5, 2019

"Before opening night, more than 12,000 people signed a petition calling for the theater to cancel the show."

"They argued that using a puppet to portray [the autistic character] Laurence 'dehumanizes autistic children' and promotes the harmful 'common misconceptions that we lack feelings and empathy.' They also slammed the play for focusing on the parents’ experience over Laurence’s perspective. These critics adopted the hashtag '#puppetgate' to spread the word on Twitter; many included another hashtag, #ActuallyAutistic, widely used by people on the spectrum.... The backlash took playwright Alex Oates by surprise. He wrote the script based on his years of experience as a care worker for a severely autistic child. He sought input from people on the spectrum and the parents of the child who had inspired the story. As for the puppet, it seemed more sensitive to him to use a 'creative medium' than to ask an actor to mimic the condition. The controversy over Oates’s play is just one example of a deep divide in the autism community: On one side are parents of autistic children with severe traits — including intellectual disability, limited language ability and self-harm — who say autism is a medical condition that needs often-intense treatment. On the other side are supporters of 'neurodiversity,' who maintain that the condition represents a neurological difference and a disability — one that society should accept and accommodate rather than try to prevent or cure."

From "A medical condition or just a difference? The question roils autism community" (WaPo).

The problem of the puppet and the play is only a small part of what's at the link. I was struck by that part of the article because I just watched "Won't You Be My Neighbor," the documentary about Mr. Rogers, and in a memorable part — I wish I could find a clip — there was analysis of the use of puppets on the show, which also used human actors. It was clear that the purpose served by the puppets was the opposite of dehumanization. Rogers used the tiger puppet to express his own most intimate inner self and to say the things that he as a human actor could not say. The puppet was more revealing, more feeling, more human. Off the show, and meeting children in person, he used the tiger puppet to connect with children. In one clip, using the tiger, he draws a boy into revealing his sadness about the death of his dog. There can be so much humanity in puppetry.

I could say many more things about the linked article. I'd like to say more about the neurodiversity movement, which I think is important and has a downside to it (which is that the less severely affected persons are the ones doing the talking). But in the interest of keeping a blog post short, I simply want to cry out against the disrespect for puppetry!

31 comments:

madAsHell said...

Show me on the puppet where the man touched you!!

Yancey Ward said...

Being Dustin Hoffman.

chuck said...

"Show me the puppet and I'll show you the crime" -- Beria

I worry that the movement will end up as a repeat of what happened after the asylums were shutdown and the patients mainstreamed.

MaxedOutMama said...

Sensitivity hive mind.

BarrySanders20 said...

So many people wanting to ban speech. Retards discussion.

Matt Sablan said...

Artists have been using fiction or the illusion of the impersonal to state their true feelings for years. The fact that people don't know this, and don't understand it, makes me feel like our education system failed them.

StephenFearby said...

The outcry was probably sponsored by the British Actors' Equity Association since one of their members was inappropriately denied an opportunity to play the part.

The usual suspects they hired include former members of Cambridge Analytica:

"The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal was a major political scandal in early 2018 when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the personal data of millions of people's Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political purposes."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal

If you swallow this conspiracy theory you probably also believe in the veracity of the Steele Dossier.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

If you ever meet someone who cares for autistic children, shake that persons hand and say thank you. They do God's work.
I cannot say that I would be offended by a puppet esp if it was written by someone who has first hand knowledge of how incredibly challenging it is to work with anyone who is severely autistic.

my 2 cents.
That is all. Thanks.

stever said...

I have MS. Neurodiversity sounds good but so would be a cure.

Sebastian said...

"Before opening night, more than 12,000 people signed a petition calling for the theater to cancel the show. They argued that using a puppet to portray [the autistic character] Laurence 'dehumanizes autistic children' and promotes the harmful 'common misconceptions that we lack feelings and empathy.' They also slammed the play for focusing on the parents’ experience over Laurence’s perspective. These critics adopted the hashtag '#puppetgate'"

Progs or conservatives bitching about puppets? Any guesses?

Two-eyed Jack said...

I loved Avenue Q, but that was probably my puppephobic bigotry coming out

Matt Sablan said...

"Progs or conservatives bitching about puppets? Any guesses?"

-- I'm wondering how many of these 12,000 people liked Avenue Q.

Automatic_Wing said...

Of course the issue here is that the two groups of people that fall under the label "autistic" who don't really have much in common with each other. I have a 30 year old autistic son who functions at about a 3 or 4 year old level, and his problems are nothing like the problems of someone who has some autistic like traits but is still high functioning enough to do woke activism on Twitter.

High functioning people with autistic traits used to get labeled as Aspergers Syndrome, but someone decided that wasn't politically correct. So now we have one descriptor for everyone from the completely uncommunicative to people who are more or less normal.

ccscientist said...

It is true that some autistic people turn out ok, but some never learn to speak, repeatedly bang their heads on the wall, or can't even tie their shoes. Such people are not merely "neurodiverse"--they need intense help. It is disengenuous for the first group to speak on behalf of the second (who perhaps cannot speak at all).

Freeman Hunt said...

Of course the issue here is that the two groups of people that fall under the label "autistic" who don't really have much in common with each other. I have a 30 year old autistic son who functions at about a 3 or 4 year old level, and his problems are nothing like the problems of someone who has some autistic like traits but is still high functioning enough to do woke activism on Twitter.

High functioning people with autistic traits used to get labeled as Aspergers Syndrome, but someone decided that wasn't politically correct. So now we have one descriptor for everyone from the completely uncommunicative to people who are more or less normal.


I agree, and I think it's stupid. Plus, even doctors and psychologists recognize that there's a big difference and still use the term "Asperger's" for one group in conversation. It's just not official anymore.

I agree with the neurodiversity movement as regards Asperger's. Those people are fine. I'd say there's nothing wrong with them. Leave them alone. (I have plenty of friends and acquaintances who likely have Asperger's. I wouldn't change anything about them.) But the people who are profoundly disabled need help.

Henry said...

High functioning people with autistic traits used to get labeled as Aspergers Syndrome, but someone decided that wasn't politically correct. So now we have one descriptor for everyone from the completely uncommunicative to people who are more or less normal.

Clinician Tony Attwood has a made a strong case that the Asperger's diagnosis is clarifying and should not have been dropped. He's extremely critical of the DSM-5 decision to lump all autistic-related disorders into a single spectrum.

There are other aspects of the entire DSM concept that are highly troubling. It's checklist approach to diagnosis is reductive and destructive. You can give the DSM to an intern and pretend you are providing mental healthcare.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

arent they allowed a little 'autistic license'?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

...and by being Putin's puppet, guess who ruined puppetry?
TRUMP!!!

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

ok--we thought Asparagus' Syndrome was when your urine smelled funny afterwards.

D 2 said...

"But in the interest of keeping a blog post short, I simply want to cry out against the disrespect for puppetry!"

I might bet a quarter - maybe even a dollar - that sentence was never written in all of human history.

Ken B said...

Being John Malkovitch.

Quaestor said...

12,000 people signed a petition demand a puppet show be banned.

Dummies versus mannequins, its come to this, folks.

Fascism is democracy interpreted by idiots. You know who they are, a few of them show up here from time to time.

Keep your powder dry.

Quaestor said...

The worst puppet show I ever attended was a version of Parsifal performed with hand puppets and recorded music. It was a student project that evidently got performance rights to a Bayreuth Festival recording.

After nearly four hours I was pretty sure the dummies were the ones with their hands shoved up the actors' backsides. One of them was me for sitting there meekly accepting the abuse.

elkh1 said...

"...supporters of 'neurodiversity,' who maintain that the condition represents a neurological difference and a disability — one that society should accept and accommodate rather than try to prevent or cure."

Yeah right, try it yourself.

How uncaring and condescending these "supporters" are? What rights do they have to decide the child's condition should not be prevented or cured?

Not puppet, definitely not an actor culturally appropriating the autistic child's condition. Let the autistic child play himself.

Ty said...

Oh we got a bigger dressing room than the puppets, well that's refreshing.

Yancey Ward said...

To me, puppets aren’t funny.
In fact, they’re kind of scary.
I’ve wondered where this started
and I think it goes back to the time I went to a play,
and a puppet killed my dad.

Jack Handey reimaged.

Ralph L said...

My sister told me on Friday that her Aspie friends wouldn't change a thing, but that could be similar to the many gay activists trying to make a silk purse. There's a subset that really wants to fit in but can't, or can't well, which must be frustrating, mortifying, and demoralizing as hell. I wish I'd been nicer to the 2 boys I knew growing up who almost certainly were HF autistics. It wasn't like I was popular myself.

Law & Order CI had a show about a militant deaf activist who went so far as to murder his deaf girlfriend who wanted an implant.

Henry said...

elkh1 -- As soon as you come up with that cure, announce it to the world.

Robert Cook said...

How do these 12,000 people know using a puppet to portray an autistic character will "dehumanize" the character and/or those afflicted with it in life if they haven't seen the play? Fucking censors. Art is art, and the only discussion should be about whether it is well-done or badly done.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

If you can get an autistic child, a severely autistic child to take part in a play, that is no small accomplishment.

Most people are ignorant of what Autism really is - esp severe autism. Say - a 14 year old who doesn't speak and has the mentality of a 5 year old. That is autism.

oh and fuck blogger

mtrobertslaw said...

Another skirmish in the war against normal.