Aspies, Psychos, Stigma, and...Donuts?
Published June 17, 2009 @ 10:28AM PT
Back in March a new doughnut shop opened in California to the protests to the disability community. The issue? "Psycho Donuts" has a "fun mental institution" theme, including donuts named for DSM diagnoses and a real straight jacket to try on "for fun" in a padded cell.
More recently, a critical article by Aspie Kim Hing of the DeAnza College in Cupertino, CA was published, which not only gives a first hand account of what it's like for someone with multiple DSM diagnoses (and a keen sense of anti-discrimination policy) to be assaulted by Psycho Donuts' version of "fun" but addresses some key issues in the debate.
Many of the comments online supporting Psycho Donuts make the argument that people are being "too sensitive" or taking the situation "too seriously" and Psycho Donuts is for fun and never intended offense. That issues with mental illness and institutions should be worked out with doctors and administrators, not with doughnut shop owners.
However, these complaints don't really address the core problem that is upsetting the advocates. The core problem that there is overwhelming stigma and discrimination against people who have a DSM diagnosis, be it a mental illness or a developmental or intellectual disability. It is because of this level of culturally acceptable stigmatization that Psycho Donuts is allowed to continue what it is doing virtually unquestioned, much the same way that racial discrimination was allowed to continue virtually unquestioned in the popular films of the 1930's in the U.S. (watch some old films that include African American or Asian characters and you'll see what I mean--it's really shocking to the modern audience, although the cultural norm at the time).
Hing, whose ire was invoked by the appearance of Psycho Donuts in her film class at DeAnza, makes this point with precision,
There is a federal law, ADA, that protects those with disabilities from discrimination at school. DeAnza College is funded by the State of California. I do not expect to be publicly humiliated and to have my disability ridiculed at a school sponsored event. While this is a free country, not everything that is creative is allowed at school.
I am certain that if the owner covered a donut with black licorice and named it "Nigger", he would never have been allowed on campus.
I do not feel I should be subjected to this at school.
The core issue is discrimination and stigmatization. Not donuts.
[Ed. I've changed the picture for this post after it was pointed out to me that the selected picture was from a national chain--I had no idea; shows you how little I actually get out of my house, like, ever...Sorry!]
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Comments (10)
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Dora is committed to improving quality of life for individuals on the autistic spectrum--including herself! She is Co-director of the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education and a member of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network's Board of Directors.
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Wow, that's all local to me -- I've actually seen (but not been in) that donut shop. And I also attended De Anza College for a while circa 1998-1999. In any case, I actually read about "Psycho Donuts" about a month ago elsewhere online and my impression was definitely that it was probably going to be extremely difficult to explain why objecting to the theme/decor is not just a matter of being "oversensitive". Because, well, I know people who have spent time in psychiatric wards and my guess is that they probably wouldn't enjoy eating near straitjacket props, etc. :/
Posted by Anne Corwin on 06/17/2009 @ 07:34PM PT
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I attended there the same year,and it was my only truly successful attempt at college. At the time it was the highest-rated community college in the state for disabled students, and I never had a complaint about the disabled students program. If that had been on campus back then I'd have never been able to stand going there at all, nor would many other students I met who'd been in the psych system.
Posted by Amanda Baggs on 06/18/2009 @ 06:24PM PT
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Amanda: Yeah, the De Anza disability center was pretty excellent, at least in the sense that if it hadn't been there I doubt I would have gone on to transfer and graduate. I was seriously at my wit's end when I walked in there.
Posted by Anne Corwin on 06/18/2009 @ 09:29PM PT
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Just for reference (to other people) what I meant is that I don't think I'd have been able to go there if this donut shop had been there at the time. I'm realizing from the conversaiton it could look ambiguous.
Posted by Amanda Baggs on 06/19/2009 @ 01:42PM PT
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I am female.
Posted by Kim Hing on 06/18/2009 @ 08:30AM PT
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Thanks Kim, and sorry about that! I've fixed the post. This may be my most mistake-ridden post ever, ack--
Posted by Dora Raymaker on 06/18/2009 @ 10:51AM PT
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I am surprised that this donut shop is permitted. Most colleges today have have speech and behavioral codes. But a complaint has to be filed. I wonder if anyone has brought an action against the donut shop at the college? It may force the college to do something. I would have thought the counseling center associated with he college would have voiced a complaint on behalf of their patients.
Posted by Elise Butowsky on 06/18/2009 @ 12:11PM PT
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I wonder how many individuals would think we were to "too sensitive" or taking the situation "too seriously" if they had to walk in our shoes for a while, the amount of abusive, discrimination I have received since being diagnosed unbelievable, its like people think I should keep pretending live a lie and of course they have no idea what that is like, every reminder of an invisible misunderstood difference certainly does not help, as many of us already suffer anxiety exposure from society itself.
Posted by Alyson Bradley on 06/21/2009 @ 02:33PM PT
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Reminds me of the "Black"-theme restaurants that were ever so popular when I was a child in the 1960s and even on into the 1970s. Places like Coon's Chicken Inn (Portland Oregon--some people think it was made up for the film "Ghost World" but it was a real place), the Sambo's chain, and so on.
There's a reason we don't see these anymore. I have a feeling that the Taco John's chain doesn't use a Mexican sleeping under a sombrero as their symbol anymore either.
I'm totally OK with people who experience mental health or neurological difficulties making light of things themselves (for instance, I loved The Cramps, who had plenty of lyrics and imagery that could have been insulting coming from people who weren't well known to be "mentally interesting" themselves). But this is really just taking the p*ss, as we say over here in England...
Posted by Mitzi Waltz on 06/21/2009 @ 04:01PM PT
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I actually find the comparisons to racial stereotyping encouraging. I mean, if those kinds of restaurants are now closed down ...
Why isn't there a Change.org petition to have this place shut down / rethemed?
Posted by Jared Spurbeck on 06/21/2009 @ 06:45PM PT
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