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It's political correctness gone mental

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So, tell me honestly, does that title offend you? It's a serious question – I put it there deliberately. The reason being that, last week, Asda paid £25,000 to mental health charity Mind for advertising what was deemed to be a completely unacceptable Halloween costume. Pictured below, it was advertised as a 'mental patient fancy dress costume'. Tesco, which advertised something similar, is paying the same charity an undisclosed sum.

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There were similar complaints about a 'psycho ward' costume too, showing an orange jump suit, fake meat cleaver or machete, and Hannibal Lecter-style face/jaw gag. Completely coincidentally, the latter even featured on family show The Simpsons last week when Bart was lynched for something he hadn't done.

The uproar about these costumes all over the internet was immense. Mental health charities were appalled at the 'unacceptable' costumes and  descriptions and Twitter was awash with scathing tweets. Asda immediately withdrew the costumes after they'd been on the shelves for two days after a complaint from a customer. Interesting that it took a customer to complain in order for the action to be taken rather than anyone within the company. I wonder if anyone internally did a double-take when it first hit the shelves.

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Tony Blair's former Director of Communications, Alastair Campbell, who has written about his experiences with mental health issues, also called the sale of such costumes 'unacceptable'. He told BBC London: 'We are trying to change attitudes towards mental illness so people do not stigmatise it, and [then] something like this comes along and it just reminds you we are basically still in the Dark Ages.'

Ex-footballer Stan Collymore, who has also battled with depression, took to Twitter to criticise Asda: 'Do you actually realise how many people are hanging themselves because of being frightened of the stigma?' he tweeted.

I'm not quite sure where I stand on this issue, personally. Whilst I definitely acknowledge that mental health issues themselves are certainly no joke, and I do sympathise with Mind's point of view that being careless with words and labels can fuel the stigmas surrounding the matter, are we simply in danger of making everything taboo?

Let me draw a parallel. As a stammerer myself, I found nothing offensive about Michael Palin struggling away in A Fish Called Wanda, nor Ronnie Barker gibbering away in Open All Hours. The latter especially was nothing but a caricature in any case – nobody actually stammers like that – and it was just a bit of harmless light-hearted relief, in my book.

I do know, however, that not all stammerers feel the same way about it, and I entirely respect their point of view and their reasons for holding that view. But to suggest that the entire stammering community was up in arms about Arkwright bossing around G-G-G-Granville from noon till ni-ni-ni-ni-ni.... ni-ni-ni-ni-ni-ni... all day simply isn't true.

Interestingly, many of the comments on the BBC News website from people who suffer with mental health issues themselves think the uproar is totally out of proportion. Someone called Rick says: 'I have suffered with severe OCD – a mental health issue – for about 30 years and anyone who knows what goes through your mind will know it can be bad. However, I have no problem with Asda selling this and think the uproar is ridiculous. What next? A ban on Alfred Hitchcock's “Psycho” and every other horror film of the last 80 years? A ban on literature featuring the same? Wake up, people.'

Another commentator called Mishius thinks that the uproar is actually counterproductive: 'I would say these [labels] are distasteful, but by having such a huge reaction against it, and essentially making mental health a “no-go” area, you just end up increasing the stigma attached to the subject, which works against everything the mental health charities say they're trying to do.'

A point well made. But does anyone really think these days that people with mental health issues are dangerous, knife-wielding maniacs? Well, probably the most ignorant people in the world do, but then those people will always exist and we can't baby everybody. On the American game show 'Smarter than a 5th grader' (ie, a 10-year-old), former American Idol contestant [adult] Kellie Pickler thought Europe was a country and wasn't really sure if France was or not. But yeah, they all definitely speak French in Europe... Hm. So yes, somebody as ignorant as her probably would think that people with mental health issues are all Hannibal Lecter types.

But toe-curling embarrassments aside, is this simply a case of semantics and choice of vocabulary? If it had been called a 'slasher costume', for instance, would that have been ok? I mean, they're still slaying people viciously, right? So it's just the 'mental' part which is offensive? Or what about the 'Hannibal Lecter costume' or the 'Scream costume'? Acceptable? Not acceptable?

All I know is, when Glastonbury comes around again next year, the BBC had better be careful that nobody on air describes the crowd as 'going mental' when a long-awaited big act comes on stage – as was printed in the NME, Esquire and other respectable publications this summer.

by Ashley Morrison

Ashley is a copywriter, editor and blogger

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