tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429623157764566539.post520301520718106564..comments2016-08-07T09:16:26.256-05:00Comments on AM~Erica Says So: AM~Erica is So Offended You're So OffendedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429623157764566539.post-42235671212674193832013-03-09T09:29:56.418-06:002013-03-09T09:29:56.418-06:00Thank you for your insight. I'm not sure if yo...Thank you for your insight. I'm not sure if you read the follow up post with my, or I'm guessing you found this blog post from the NickMom page, but there was good back & forth. It's not lightening up the food allergies. I still stick to that. I thought it was funny about how they portrayed uninformed moms in charge of a bake sale. Do I think everything should be labled for these reasons? Absolutely! But it was about them trying too hard to make everything OK...and it became offensive in that area. It was totally satirical to the over-the-top moms.<br /><br />Now then...as I pointed out in the extra commentary...instead of going crazy-bollistic over this video, use it as a teaching tool. It's the "What Not To Do". There are many companies, churches, organizations, schools (name another teaching gathering here) who use satirical videos to get a point across. And used in both senses of, "well...maybe not this over-the-top," or maybe to, "is this what you want to look like?" <br /><br />And I bring up the bullying, as I said in my additional commentary, that the comments that I came across while looking into this video more, were so vile & threatening. It was very riotous mobs with torches & pitchforks. Any positive or conversational feedback just wasn't there, or few & far between. I know bullying when I see it...I have dealt with it thru my own kids & myself while in school. So I was appalled at what I was reading from moms.<br /><br />Now then...it's people like you (this is not going negative, I promise) who are doing good in keeping conversation going. And it's good to keep it going in a positive light. But if you bring attention to something that wasn't that known before, either you can help educate, or you can put something on a pedestal you didn't mean to. No one I know of knew what NickMom was until my friend, a mom of a child with severe food allergies, came across the protest. She was offended at first, but realized it was satirical. She asked for my opinion after watching the video. She didn't guide my thoughts on it. As it turned out, she was already agreeing with me. But in all of this, more people are now aware of NickMom.<br /><br />What needs to happen is to keep up good conversation. Keep up telling folks what the sufferer goes thru. It's like the moms with depression...which I am one...and just keeping it open & talking about it. Let your kids know it's about educating. And if someone tries to make a joke about the allergy, then there is a way to educate, not belittle.<br /><br />I still believe this video should be shown at PTA planning meetings when a bake sale is trying to be set up to either:<br />A) show them that labeling is good, but don't discriminate...or the best way you feel it should be handled<br /><br />or<br /><br />B) convince them of doing a different fundraiser.<br /><br />And it's also good to have humor around what you do. And it's good to keep talking about it in the open. The stigma from these illnesses comes from secrecy...or what seems to be. And we can also use "those who don't get it" as educational tools & examples. Not in a bullying sense of throwing them under the bus & belittling, but instead asking if there was anything wrong or right about the example given.<br /><br />So, like I said, and if you haven't already, check out the commentary I gave on it, too. There was some good conversation back & forth & included much of what I just let you know here, too.<br /><br />Hope that helps.AM~Ericahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03129942644688199577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429623157764566539.post-15281037537400346292013-03-09T07:58:17.325-06:002013-03-09T07:58:17.325-06:00Erica, I agree with much of what you say. I do thi...Erica, I agree with much of what you say. I do think food-allergy parents often take things much too seriously, and it did seem like the over-the-top reaction on the Nickmom site was also a kind of bullying. <br /><br />At the same time...I think you are missing an item on your "no joke" list: making fun of kids with a disability. <br /><br />I get your point that there is a fine line (VERY fine) between making fun of the child and making fun of the parent, and if this were the only example ever in popular culture, I might agree. BUT - using food allergies as a laugh line is habitual for Hollywood. No other medical condition is so consistently fodder for the punchline. (If you don't believe me, my blog gives many other examples:<br /><br />http://foodallergybitch.blogspot.com/2013/02/nickmom-bake-sales-and-food-allergy.html<br /><br />http://foodallergybitch.blogspot.com/2012/01/yucking-it-up-hollywood-and-food.html<br /><br />For whatever reason, people's thinking about food allergies has become polarized. People make a judgement about kids with food allergies that has nothing to do with medicine. They are "wimpy", "delicate", "overprotected". At the extreme, it gets all mixed in with conservative thinking and these allergic kids are out to remove rights from other individuals. (Remember Sarah Palin bringing protest cookies to the no-food school?)<br /><br />Sadly, for (most of the) moms and kids in the middle of all this, it isn't a political fight about personal freedoms. If we make a big deal of things, we're bitches and bullies and we "can't take a joke." If we play down the seriousness of the allergies, our kids can find themselves in unsafe situations. <br /><br />So what's the right choice here? Laugh along with it and hope people eventually stop targeting a medical condition? Did that work for the parents of "retards" (and I use the word only to demonstrate the issue)? How about AIDS patients? Those are two other medical conditions that underwent social polarization and where people thought the parents objecting were overreacting and oversensitive. Eventually, people's thinking changed because these communities stopped rolling over and taking it. <br /><br />You say this didn't target the kids...but, of course, it does. I have a teenager. He does everything he can to hide his food allergies from others because he doesn't want to deal with the social stigma. Now he's going off to college and it's a constant fight to get him to tell people, even when telling would make him safer. THAT'S the downside of putting this type of thing on national TV. Parents and allergic children don't see the nuance that it's "making fun of the moms, not the kids." They just see that food allergies are fair game for bullying. <br /><br />And isn't bullying already on your list? Your blog seems to blame the victim simply because these families took one punch back after years of Hollywood abuse. It's a false equivalency. <br /><br />If you (as a parent who obviously found this funny) have suggestions for how to turn food allergies back into a *medical condition* instead of a punch line, I'd love to hear them. Food Allergy Bitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10243380102426383939noreply@blogger.com