Is Thorpe Park's Asylum an appropriate theme?

[SaiyanHajime]

There's a fab discussion going on about whether Thorpe Park's Asylum is appropriate.

One powerful comment on Twitter by @Sectioned_ read... "So seriously now, you'd be prepared to go to a horror maze based on the "gay men are child molesters" stereotype?"

http://airgates.co.uk/2013/10/20/mental-health-mazes/

Your thoughts?

 

[Thekingin64]

As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just a good bit of fun.

I can never really get the theme of scare mazes anyway.

 

[Darren B]

I get the argument but no matter what you do in life you're always going to offend someone.

You could go on all day linking theme park activities, ride names and theming to events that have affected someone's life in a negative manner, but at the end of the day it's not picking at individual's, and it's certainly not trying to force people's opinions to think of something in a different manner. Theme parks are not to be taken seriously, they are a source of fun!

If you look in Dave Morton's PTR he reviews a walk through attraction in which you contract aids! Now that I could understand people taking offence to, but the asylum? I think it's political correctness gone mad if Thorpe are forced to close it.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Going with what's been said it is almost impossible to do something without offending someone these days. Haven't not experienced it myself I cannot speak for what the inside is like but I can assume that it is just there for the scare factor not to offend people or cause upset or anything like that. If people don't agree with it then they don't have to go and experience it, simples.

 

[Smithy]

Ignoring the specifics, it's an interesting discussion in general and one which is rightly getting more and more recognition in the public eye. Should mental illnesses just be grouped together? Of course not, but in some instances a naive use of 'mental hospital' or 'psycho' can help fuel mis-understandings.

Not commenting specifically on any of the mazes of Asylum in particular as I've not a clue about them, and I've also read some utter drivel on the matter. But I do think it's a debate that should, and will, happen.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Stop thinking about this as offencive or looking for worse examples, and just ask yourselves is it appropriate to portray the mentally ill as dangerous?

The reality is that we tend to associate "psychotic" with "dangerous". I'm guilty.

The criminally insane are some of the most terrifying characters in popular culture.

Should we be trying to change this perception?

Or is criminally insane the key point of distinction here? Do I fear the mentally ill I encounter in everyday life? No, I don't. Does anyone? Yeah, they do. I know people personally who fear those who talk to themselves or flap their arms and rock in the street.

 

[Serena]

I don't think it's simply a case of 'if you don't agree with it, don't go on it," as it's not the actual experience that's the problem. Not going in The Asylum is not going to change the fact that - to a mentally ill person- there is a horror maze which is designed to be scary, themed around something you genuinely suffer from.

I can see that those who have experienced mental health issues would not like to be portrayed in the negative way that they are in The Asylum - as manic blood stained nutters with no self control. But, it is quite clearly not supposed to be a reflective representation, just a dramatic interpretation, taking place in a theme park. Which is a fundamentally a place where you leave reality at the door.

I would be surprised if anyone who has been in The Asylum managed to draw any parallels between the content of the maze and the reality of mental heath issues/the sectioning process. I understand why these campaigners don't like the notion of their illnesses being transformed into a form of entertainment for guests at a theme park; but at the same time I think their reaction is a tad over-sensitive and ill-assuming of the general public. Do they really think people will go in The Asylum and come out thinking that people with depression/psychosis/schizophrenia are genuinely to be feared?

The stigma that is attached to mental heath problems is constantly reinforced in television, film and the media - celebrity breakdowns / depression is often reported in ways to make it sound like a weakness. People with manic disorders / bi-polar are made to seem like wayward and difficult to be around. So while The Asylum can be included as part of this negative portrayal of mentally ill people in society, I think aiming to close it down is aiming at the wrong target because it is clearly designed to be a misrepresentation.

 

[nealbie]

Stop thinking about this as offencive or looking for worse examples, and just ask yourselves is it appropriate to portray the mentally ill as dangerous?

Is it appropriate to portray the mentally ill as dangerous? No, of course it isn't. Is it appropriate to portray a fantastically heightened and exaggerated incarnation of the mentally ill as dangerous and make a scare attraction based off such a characterisation? It's a non-issue.

It's not even a case of the criminally insane. Using Thorpe's Asylum maze specifically as an example, this is an attraction where the characters are pure fantasy, it never pretends to be real, it's over the top and ridiculous in nature. To to top it all off you get chased out the door by a man wielding a chainsaw!

Naturally, if you have a connection to the subject matter you're going to be a lot more touchy about it as a subject and invent controversy where there is none. Like how you'd feel seeing an ex with someone new, for example. So those involved in mental health care, etc are going to find it much more difficult to get past the initial shock of others providing or finding entertainment based on an issue that they don't find funny in the slightest.

Alas, knee-jerk reactions and sensationalism are the foundations of the world we live in.

 

[gavin]

Ban it!

While we're at it, ban every film and tv show that portrays the criminally insane as dangerous. Every one of what must be thousands of them. Then build a bonfire in every town to burn books by Thomas Harris, Karin Slaughter and hundreds of others.

Kids should also be punished for telling "escaped lunatic" stories during camping trips or sleepovers.

Can we then move onto banning anything with the name "Hurricane" or "Typhoon" next, or rides themed to such terrible natural disasters?

Thanks.

 

[Ian]

People are too quick to be offended on somebody elses behalf nowadays. Personally I think it's acceptable to take the piss out of anybody and anyone (within reason!), life is too short to be serious all of the time. It's a fictional maze that is using an asylum as the backdrop. Big deal.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Did last season's American Horror Story garner such a reaction?

These days all it takes is one offended person to raise the issue and then loads jump on the bandwagon... Something usually evident in TV related complaints were the initial batch of complaints are minimal, then it goes more public and gets more attention and reaction...

See the recent 'racism' incident with the England national team as a prime example of this...


As for Asylum, are people treating it as a serious description of those with serious mental problems or an over-exaggeration of such problems to scare effect due to the well known portrayal of those problems due to the media?

I doubt most of Thorpe's guests really think it's a serious example of what a real-life asylum actually is, just this seems to be someone who has had that experience trying to change the stigma surrounding it when really it should be directed at the mass media rather than a theme park...

As also mentioned on the Airgates article, what about Sanctuary or Carnival of Screams at Towers and their portrayals of mental hospitals and circuses to promote a scary atmosphere? Just as damaging as Thorpe if you think of them that way... Hell Towers even did a PR stunt about Carnival if I recall with protesting clowns...


World we live in where too many too easily get offended...

Not as good as BunnyGate though...

 

[furie]

I don't think we even have asylums any more do we? They're now mental health hospitals, or psychiatric care homes for the criminally insane - or whatever.

The use of an archaic term in the name shows it's a flight of fantasy.

I can kind of understand where the protesters are coming from, but in context, it's clearly just complete fantasy. Anyone who really thinks that modern psychiatric care and patients are like those at Thorpe need their heads checking

I hope they're also complaining about The Cabin in the Woods, which portrays backwater Americans as buck toothed psychos with a larger collection of other people's limbs than brain cells?

Of course, Halloween should be banned completely. Most of America and the UK class themselves as "Christians" and Halloween is a celebration which is condemned by Christianity. It's a heathen celebration and is essentially worshipping old gods and demons. MMF has a couple of friends he's not allowed to talk to about Halloween, because their parents get upset that their child's soul may be in danger (I'm not making this **** up) by hearing about it.

So yeah, ban the whole bally lot

 

[Screaming Coasters]

In all honesty - The Freezer was a MUCH better maze than Asylum.. Please Thorpe Park, change it back!!!

 

[SaiyanHajime]

I think most of you are missing the point.

I agree with Phil in general, but where I'm getting hung up is this...

The other day, I was having a TED lecture marathon (as you do) and there's a few by those with "severe" mental illnesses discussing their experiences as successful people with mental illness.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6CILJA110Y[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syjEN3peCJw[/youtube]

The only reason these even exist is because they are trying to raise awareness that apparently "normal" people have mental illness and those with such conditions can lead successful lives... Past that, I was telling my mother about Elyn Saks over dinner. Her attitude was "should someone who is psychotic really be teaching???" After further discussion turns out she was hung up over the term "psychotic" implying "dangerous".

What does it actually mean? Wiki says... "Psychosis (from the Greek ψυχή "psyche", for mind/soul, and -ωσις "-osis", for abnormal condition or derangement) refers to an abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality". People suffering from psychosis are described as psychotic."

There's a misunderstanding there, and I'm certain my mum isn't alone. I'd guess that most people have some fear of those who talk to themselves or move in strange flailing ways, especially when they are alone wondering the streets. People do make the automatic connection between "mentally ill" and "potentially dangerous". And it works both ways... When someone commits a horrendous crime, we assume they must be "sick in the head".

There's no denying there is very real discrimination against those with severe mental illness.

The problem, as I discussed with Phil on Twitter, is where do you draw the line?

There's a Holocaust museum in the USA where you've given ID cards and guided through a narrative of being captured, taken to concentration camps and even gassed, coming out in a "memorial" room with the tagline "think about what you saw". Why would anyone go here? It's offensive on both sides of the coin, surely? If it's entertainment, its offensive by it's very nature, but films do the same. And if it's just about trying to show people how horrific it was, it couldn't possibly attain that and is thus patronising.

If Asylum is a problem, why wasn't Freezer? Didn't that just demonize abattoir workers? Didn't that imply that they were mentally ill? Isn't that offensive on more levels? Will we one day live in world where PETA get their way and abattoir workers are discriminated against by the mainstream? And then what's the difference?

I don't see any real problem with Asylum, but I do think it's odd that it's got away with existing for so long. The world changes, people's perceptions of what's acceptable change.

Also, nadroJ posted this on Facebook the other day.... http://t.co/GUZZUahezH It's about A Bill and Ted show at Universal being homophobic.

"After becoming gay, Superman's voice and posture changes. His lips purse, his toes point inward, and his wrists become limp. His new voice sounds like a homophobic uncle doing a drunken impression of Richard Simmons, complete with lisps and frequent use of the word "faaaaaaabulous!"

Bill and Ted, understandably, are bummed. Their initial excitement at having Superman with them on their quest turns to disappointment as, obviously, now that Superman is gay, he is not going to be of any use to them. "Who could possibly make a worse Superman?" asks Bill. "Ben Affleck?" responds Ted. "

Is this okay?

 

[marc]

Tbh the way things are going at the moment nothing will be acceptable.

Maybe Saw should be banned as it's not right for people that have been kept in traps etc. All the people that were put on the rack etc their families might be offended.

Maybe inferno should be re themed as people who have lost everything in a volcano eruption might be offended.

Today amazon stopped the sale of the Jimmy Savile zombie suit due to complaints. Now that costume was taking it too far.

This horror maze has been around for years, so so why now has this been mentioned now?

I read about the Bill and Ted thing and yes it's not right but it's in the news so they got what they want. People will now go to see what the big deal is.

The concentration camp thing in the USA is a good way to show what people went through, you could say people who want to visit the camps are wrong.

I'm gay I'm Jewish and I've been in a hospital and I'm not offended by any of it. It is what it is and the more people kick off the more it gets in the new and draws attention which is a bigger problem. A good example is the spurs stuff, it's been going on since before we were born only now it's a big deal.

Sorry I think all this has been blown out of proportion.

 

[Nic]

This got a mention (albeit, only in passing) on BBC breakfast the other day. There was a segment about the mental health treatment provided by the NHS and they interviewed some woman who had been given crap treatment. She was commenting on attitudes to mental illness, and used The Asylum as an example of a "disgusting" portrayal.

To be honest, I'd not even considered it in that way until then. I'd never looked at these types of themed attractions and thought "Eugh, that's a bit insensitive" or whatever. Now, whether that's proof that the general public and the media are too blasé about this kinda thing, I don't know. As others have said, it's obviously a fantasy with a mere hint of truth to give it context, in the same way as you'd find in countless films/games/books/etc.

It is certainly an interesting discussion though.

 

[marc]

Where does it stop though?

There are loads of horror films based on this type of thing, should these no longer be shown?

 

[Ben]

Really?

This is actually an issue? This isn't a wind-up?

There's a serious leap from someone licking windows to what they do in Asylum. Let's ban all entertainment based around murder because it offends real murderers. WONT SOMEBODY THINK OF THE MCCANNS!

This is dumb. I feel dumber for having read this topic.

 

[furie]

Like I said to Joey on Twitter, the issue for me is that I don't even for the slightest second think this is what mental health is about, or how it is handled. It's as real to me as How to Train Your Dragon is a history of the Vikings.

I just don't get it, because I know that it's complete fantasy.

I suspect the issue is that people (like Joey's Mum) don't know the difference between the word psychotic and psychopath and have never experienced or educated themselves about real mental health issues and how it's dealt with.

So the question then really is "is this confirming stereotypes for the uneducated?" and I guess that's what the complaint is. However, instead of trying to sweep it under the carpet and make everyone live a life of loving everyone and never EVER offending anyone in the slightest (good luck with that) - why not take it as an example and show why it's false, use it to build awareness of the difference between this fantasy and the reality of it. Use it as a discussion point to educate and you'll get people on your side in being more aware of the truth, but people can still be terrified with a fantasy notion of an asylum (which don't exist any more) filled with the criminally insane (which do exist and we should be terrified of) wielding chainsaws (which they don't in hospitals, but if they did, you should be scared).

 

[furie]

Brilliantly, went from this to Facebook to find this:

It's an alleged list of reasons people were put into an asylum in Victorian times - do people really believe it's like this?