☰
World NewsCovid-19NewsUK NewsUS NewsPolitics2020 electionCultureLifePeopleTechEntertainmentIdentitiesGenderClassLGBTQ+RaceEducation
Start writing a post

I'm pleading for pop culture to stop playing OCD for laughs

April 08, 2021

Melvin Udall in As Good as it Gets

Indy100-Conversations
and
Iannis Aliferis

I've had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) since I was a child and I'm now in my early 40s. For all of this time, I have felt like I should be apologizing for it.

It's like this invisible phantom that engulfs one in fear and doubt and brings dark clouds to a shiny day at the park. The sense of guilt has always followed me due to the disorder being a part of my everyday life. For whenever I would try to talk about it to a friend or a relative, to explain a certain lifestyle choice, to touch upon its debilitating nature, I've often been looked at funny in return.

There've been other times still when I've been flat out accused of simply making excuses and of just being lazy. Lastly, there've been also situations, on more than one occasion, when I was told the following by a friend or acquaintance: "Oh, yeah, ha, I'm a bit OCD too, sometimes I have to double-check that I've locked the door."

My fellow OCD afflicts out there, tell me that doesn't infuriate you big time. For the record, unless you check that door desperately, repeatedly and then some, for fear that absolute tragedy will befall you and your loved ones if you don't, then you do not have OCD.

I have recently concluded that this sense of dismissal, of slight irreverence, is due to the way that OCD is presented in popular culture. Barring some exceptions, of course, most of the time there's a slight cavalier, played for laughs quality to the depiction of characters with the disorder in films or TV series.

Sure, characters such as Melvin Udall in As Good as it Gets and Adrian Monk in Monk play at being the suffering protagonists, (and quite well at that), but their affliction is largely employed into the service of humour, the emphasis always falling on the comedy. Further notable examples include the character of Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, Kevin Casey in Scrubs and Monica Geller in Friends. All these sitcoms adding, unintentionally, to the trivialisation of this condition.

Take the last season of the excellent Fargo series as a further, and more recent, example. It features the prominent character of Odis Weff played exquisitely by actor Jack Huston, (who also had a memorable role in Boardwalk Empire). The portrait of the debilitating nature of the character's OCD is handled truly well, yet even this example isn't spared from going down, albeit briefly, the comic relief route. This is in no way a criticism of the series itself, of which I'm a huge fan, and I urge anyone to watch it if they haven't so already.

Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a comical approach in the depiction of OCD in the world of entertainment. Far from it, after all, laughter is therapy as they say, and I'm not a fan of restrictions of expression when it comes to creativity, either. I'm simply stating that there should be more of the other side of the coin as well, one that does not include the humour. More films like The Aviator, for example, to balance things out. We should become more mindful of the suffering, the anguish and the struggle so that we as a society can have a more complete idea of what living with this disorder truly means. Of course, what also doesn't help is that it's quite difficult to display a full picture of the suffering as most of the time, the fear, the strife, the struggle, they all happen in the mind. Something which doesn't translate to the screen as well, thus it's understandable that there's a story emphasis on elements of the disorder such as repetition, symmetry, hoarding and germphobia, all of which are more visual in interpretation and lend themselves well to mockery. None the less, an effort should be made to lessen the caricature-like display of OCD in pop culture. If anything, we have seen enough of that already; it might be time now to move on.

Like all mental disorders, a level of understanding needs to be applied to obsessive-compulsive disorder. It can be a misunderstood condition and a person with it can suffer in silence and in hiding. So - understanding helps, and so can cognitive behavioral therapy. There's medication, and meditation too. Lastly, there's something else we should include, for, if OCD is a fear-based illness, then the key to dealing with it lies in the opposite of that, and that is none other than love.

Trending Topics

Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.