The Asylum "offensive to the mentally ill"

[Tarin Maria]

Well, I'm just saying that bullying from people who think mental health issues are a joke causes people to commit suicide, and no scare maze has ever caused that....

 

[Meat Pie]

And where does that bullying come from? A culture that preys on the mentally ill. Things which perpetuate that culture will perpetuate the bullying.

 

[Poisson]

And where does bullying come from? A culture that preys on the mentally ill. Things which perpetuate that culture will perpetuate the bullying.

So I'm mentally ill? I was bullied....

 

[Tarin Maria]

The attitude of people is where the bullying comes from. Those who look different are attacked. Those who admit their weaknesses are attacked. Surely if its THAT much of a big deal to all these people, they should be advocating and promoting a better attitude to those who are different or struggling.

 

[John]

The way I see it, is that if the vast majority of people do not see something as potentially offensive, then any calls to ban it are always going to come across as whining/PC gone mad/whatever. In that case, you need to look to address the root cause of why people see it as acceptable, and how (or even if) to try to change that mindset, before you call for things to be banned.

Asylum is the wrong target for mental health campaigners at the wrong time, as we've not at a point where making passing references to mental health issues are considered taboo. Whether or not it should be is a separate argument.

It's all largely irrelevant anyway, you could rename asylum to silence the critics without changing the nature of the attraction in any way.

 

[Plastic Person]

You're obviously all completely mental.

 

[Meat Pie]

What? You've misunderstood me Poison Tom. The bullying on the basis of mental illness is what I was referring to, not all bullying.

But that said bullying is always influenced by the wider cultural attitudes towards difference. I was bullied horrifically my whole school life for my weight. The hostile attitudes towards overweight people in the media as well as the equivalency between being fat and being stupid in films/stories/cartoons gave children a view that it was ok to treat me badly. The same applies to race, sexuality, mental health, whatever. If it is seen to be as acceptable to mock a vulnerable section of society then it will be replicated in schools.

Having grown up with that hellish experience that has delivered me to the mentally unstable situation that I have today, I am able to look objectively at the causes and I can see that if bullying is to be stopped, then you have to deal with it both in terms of societal attitudes and dealing with it at the most nuts and bolts level in schools (punishment for the bully and help and attention for the victim).

 

[Scott]

Just a quickie from me... (ooh, matron)

There's been a bit of wandering from the topic on hand in here and (over the last couple of pages) it's been starting to get out of hand. We've removed a handful of posts from the thread which have taken on a personal and attacking nature which is something that we do not condone on TowersStreet.

If there is an issue with somebody's posting, or the way that things have been said then please report it to us by pressing the 'Flag Post' button. This will draw the offending material to our attention instantly and allow us to deal with it there and then before it inevitably snowballs into something which becomes more personal and off topic.

We appreciate that everyone is allowed an opinion and that this is a public forum that everyone can use however we do not condone personal attacks nor do we want to set out that message to anyone reading our forums. We decided to allow the topic to continue but if any personal digs re-surface we won't hesitate to lock the debate until people have cooled off.

We're all mature enough to have a debate about something nicely. Act like it.

 

[Nick]

My reaction to this thread: tl;dr.

 

[Amy]

How can it be offensive towards people with common mental health issues such as depression, anxiety or autism when the actors featured in the scaremaze are clearly meant to be people like Jeffrey Dahmer or Ian Brady, not people with common mental health problems?

Some people. :

I have been avoiding getting involved in this, partly because I can genuinely understand both sides of the debate. I struggle with anxiety myself, and having recently been ridiculed for it by somebody EXTREMELY close to me who should know better, I do feel that these issues shouldn't be made fun of lightly. I also feel though, that lighthearted fun is to be taken as such.

However, in addition to backing up what somebody else pointed out, which is that Autism is not a mental illness, but a developmental, neurological condition; I also wanted to add that when asylums existed, it wasn't just murderers and psychopaths who were placed in them. People with Autism, learning difficulties, even unmarried women who had children out of wedlock were placed in asylums. As someone working with children with autism, it's scary to even think about it. But until the 1970s children with disabilities were considered ineducable and were the responsibility of the healthcare system rather than education.

It may well be the intention of Thorpe that by using the name "The Asylum" people understand that the focus is murderers and psychopaths, but by using such a name (which as far as I'm aware, is no longer used), it conjures up the image of an old-fashioned institute which did house people with autism.

I've kind of lost track of my point tbh, but like I said I really can understand both sides of the debate. It's a difficult one!

 

[Bob]

I seriously think this whole issue is just pathetic.

I don't think its pathetic to stand up for what you believe in. The way both sides of the argument have conducted themselves is what is questionable. If you turn up dressed as a Zombie, you shouldn't be taken seriously, and in Thorpe's case saying things like they've never had complaints before was completely ignoring what was a genuine concern for some people.

It's fine though, Thorpe are going to change the name and the campaigning people will feel like they have won even though all they did was give Thorpe free publicity. It's win win.

 

[Rob]

Anyway, here is an update from Thorpe Park that I don't think has been posted in here yet:

A Thorpe Park spokesperson said: ‘Thorpe Park has not agreed to change anything. However we have listened to the debate the Asylum Maze has provoked. For us, this has always been about a particular context – the maze forms just a small part of a larger adult aimed Halloween event.

‘No offence was ever intended, it is not nor was it ever intended to be a realistic interpretation of a mental health or any other institution. We have taken this debate extremely seriously, and will take all of the points raised into account when planning any future events for 2014.’

So they have not agreed to change anything. And why should they? No one has found it offensive for the last eight years until now. It clearly is not offensive. It's just a huge over reaction that has taken off thanks to social media and the internet.

However if it is changed it might be a good thing. If Towers had a maze that hadn't really changed for that period of time we'd all be going mad calling for a new one. So maybe this can allow Thorpe to come up with a new maze.