Orange is the New Black is Dead Wrong About Disability

[Shaka Zulu]

Looks like there's a flaw in this critically acclaimed and popular series:

The Netflix drama is back with a third season, and if you’re like me, it monopolized the better part of the last two weekends. The show deserves credit for sparking dialogue and increasing awareness about mass incarceration in the U.S., particularly among people who hadn't previously considered criminal justice reform to be their thing.

One of the very first scenes of the third season is a flashback to the character Pennsatucky’s childhood. We watch as her mother forces her to chug an entire two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew. Pan right to the sign showing us that they’re at the Social Security Administration office. Then we hear Mom say, with a young Pennsatucky now bouncing off the walls behind her, “So I understand, Supplemental Security Income benefits for kids like mine are $314 a month, is that right?”

The implication is clear: Mom is attempting to simulate the symptoms of ADHD in her child in order to fraudulently obtain SSI benefits. This scene caused me to have several flashbacks of my own. First, to the mid-1990's, when a flurry of media reports accused parents of “coaching” their children to “act disabled” in order to feign eligibility for SSI benefits. The “crazy checks” media frenzy, as it came to be known, spurred Congress to narrow the program’s eligibility rules, causing more than 100,000 children with disabilities to lose critically needed benefits. The media claims were later shown to be baseless, but the damage had already been done, and Congress had already legislated by anecdote.

My head swirling, I was next transported to 2012, when New York Times columnist Nick Kristof sparked yet another kids’ SSI media hubbub by accusing parents of pulling their kids out of literacy programs in order to obtain SSI benefits. Mr. Kristof’s claims that the program incents parents to keep their kids from learning to read were similarly unsupported by the facts—but that didn't stop NPR from doubling down on his claims with their own (widely discredited) “reporting” just a few months later. Legislation that would kick young people with disabilities off of SSI if they miss school is now pending in Congress.

Orange is the New Black is Dead Wrong About Disability

I can't believe I'm even saying this, but boy, do I miss the shows of the early '60's that were socially inclined (East Side/West Side, The Defenders, Slattery's People) and had heroes that helped others and also didn't imply that the poor and disadvantaged were trying to scam the system. I wonder if not having the Television Code made this possible?

 

[FPAlpha]

You do realize that this show is about criminal women and that many of them came out of dysfunctional families that more or less put them on track towards prison?

This was the case with Pensatucky too.. a mother trying to scam social security is surely not a good role model for her kid.

So i don't know what you are talking about. There's tons of shows with all kinds of central themes, it sounds to me you'd be more suited to something like the Cosby's than this show. Just because there are now shows on air that show reality (with a dramatic influence of course or else we'd be all watching documentaries 24/7) doesn't mean the TV landscape is going down the drain, it has just widened its program since the early 60's.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I assumed she wanted her kid to piss herself in the interview.

Also that Mountain Dew deal is very pathetic in Pennsatucky's later life

If poor Pennsatucky got a few extra hot dogs out of her mom scamming some more dollars out of the system, good.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

You do realize that this show is about criminal women and that many of them came out of dysfunctional families that more or less put them on track towards prison?

This was the case with Pensatucky too.. a mother trying to scam social security is surely not a good role model for her kid.

So i don't know what you are talking about. There's tons of shows with all kinds of central themes, it sounds to me you'd be more suited to something like the Cosby's than this show. Just because there are now shows on air that show reality (with a dramatic influence of course or else we'd be all watching documentaries 24/7) doesn't mean the TV landscape is going down the drain, it has just widened its program since the early 60's.

I'm sorry, but implying this kind of thing isn't good for (North) Americans (we have a precarious set-up as far as having social programs are concerned due to the vast amount of neoconservative think tanks that exist in both Canada and the USA), and what was said in the article is quite sound as I see it. There's a better way for the writers of this show to depict how Pensatucky ended up where she was than implying dice-loading stuff like this which just confirms the negative bias of those that are against any aid to people who need it.

And also, for the record, I despise The Cosby Show, in particular for the first episode's having Cliff Huxtable threaten Theo Huxtable with a beating for not doing well in school, ans well as all of the other sanctimonious things shown in it. I'm not saying that most TV shows have to be like that show, I just wish (like the writer of the article) that scriptwriters be conscious of what they do on shows.

 

[137th Gebirg]

There's a better way for the writers of this show to depict how Pensatucky ended up where she was than implying dice-loading stuff like this which just confirms the negative bias of those that are against any aid to people who need it.

Why? You're talking like people who game the system are either in the vast minority or don't exist at all. You accuse the show-runners of doing the exact same thing in reverse when, in fact, both are broad generalizations based on socio-political bias. Both types exist, as well as subsets of both types. Yes, there are undisputedly people with genuine need of such services, and there are also people who know how to exploit loopholes for personal gain. It just so happened that, in this case, Pensatucky's mom was one of the cheaters, because it suited the storyline to make her such. It makes her story more tragic and is a bit of character rebuilding after her introduction as a profoundly unappealing meth-addled zealot. It gives her character depth and makes her more sympathetic. It doesn't in any way mean the show is implying they're all like that.

This scene caused me to have several flashbacks of my own.

Hence the bias. You're projecting.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

There's a better way for the writers of this show to depict how Pensatucky ended up where she was than implying dice-loading stuff like this which just confirms the negative bias of those that are against any aid to people who need it.

Why? You're talking like people who game the system are either in the vast minority or don't exist at all. You accuse the show-runners of doing the exact same thing in reverse when, in fact, both are broad generalizations based on socio-political bias. Both types exist, as well as subsets of both types. Yes, there are undisputedly people with genuine need of such services, and there are also people who know how to exploit loopholes for personal gain. It just so happened that, in this case, Pensatucky's mom was one of the cheaters, because it suited the storyline to make her such. It makes her story more tragic and is a bit of character rebuilding after her introduction as a profoundly unappealing meth-addled zealot. It gives her character depth and makes her more sympathetic. It doesn't in any way mean the show is implying they're all like that.

This scene caused me to have several flashbacks of my own.

Hence the bias. You're projecting.

Actually, the author of the article I quoted from was the one you're accusing of 'projecting'-I'm just agreeing with her. And she's right, this kind of thing has happened before, and caused a lot of hardship to families and children that are disabled. The writers could have tried to read/research about these distortions of reality and adjusted Ms. Pensatucky's back story to not have this as a factor.

Like it or not, TV does have an impact on things, and the author of the article's arguing about this story point should be considered.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

How does the writer of the article or the op know that Pennsatucky's mom succeeded in "gaming" the system?

Perhaps the dirt poor mother was herself taken in during the 80's by the "anti-entitlement mob" who were rallying against the "entitlement swilling horde" and tried to "join" said horde to pick up easy money.

After addicting her child to the demon brew aka Mountain Dew, this future mother of the year probably was sent out of Social Services to drive home, with a stern lecture and a daughter with a full bladder and precious little impulse control.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I can see why this would make parents of people with disabilities upset. A lot of right wingers try to cut funding to their programs by claiming that this kind of story is representative of all the people who depend on the system.

These kinds of cases are not representative of real families who need the system, but that doesn't mean zero cases like this exist.

Whenever a television shows portrays any member of any group, it's tempting to jump to the conclusion that this person is meant to be a representative of the group. It's just not true, and Pensatucky's story is not meant to be representative of any group. It's just meant to explain how she turned out the way she did.

 

[sidious618]

The idea of a television code is morally repugnant as is the idea that all characters have to be nice/upstanding. I can't comment on the specifics of Orange is the New Black because I haven't seen it, but a "television code" is never an answer.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^I don't want the Code back myself, but I've wondered if having it meant that plot points like this were forbidden? It probably resulted in a better understanding for people of those with special needs.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

So, what's the objection here? That a show about a women's prison shows women who grew up in a home environment where fraudulent and criminal behavior took place, and that that negatively influenced their later behavior? Stop the presses!

Why would someone take the example of fraudulent behavior given in the show and assume it was suggesting all cases of ADHD were illegitimate and that this kind of fraud is rampant (Disclaimer: I haven't watched S3 yet, so I'm just going based on the OP's description)?

Do you equally assume that because one character is a murderer on the show that all elderly Caribbean housekeepers are plotting people's demise? Do you assume that all white bisexual women are drug mules?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It's not television's job to make people better understand people with special needs, it's television's job to tell an entertaining and interesting story. If I want to be preached at with moral messages I'll watch a network sitcom.

It's a good idea to have people talking about the fact that this portrayal is inaccurate, or at least a rare exception. But we shouldn't be demanding for television shows to tell the moral message we feel it should.

 

[the G-man]

Wouldn't it be equally as likely to play into some supposed "neoconservative" narrative to NOT show the inmates as victims of bad childhoods and parental abuse, by creating the implication that their incarceration was solely the result of their own bad choices and/or wickedness?

 

[HaplessCrewman]

Methinks the OP has seen too much Star Trek.

OITNB takes the point of view of its characters who are criminals. It assumes the viewers know right from wrong.

Does the OP also object to shows that portray the villains getting away with crimes without punishment?

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^Not really me, just the author of the article. Keep in mind that this is an anti-poverty organization that's trying to affect positive change in the USA, and that they see things like this as encouraging the neocon retrogressives who are against anything that they consider a waste of money on people who don't deserve it.

 

[the G-man]

^Not really me, just the author of the article. Keep in mind that this is an anti-poverty organization that's trying to affect positive change in the USA, and that they see things like this as encouraging the neocon retrogressives who are against anything that they consider a waste of money on people who don't deserve it.

Wouldn't it be equally as likely to play into some supposed "neoconservative" narrative to NOT show the inmates as victims of bad childhoods and parental abuse, by creating the implication that their incarceration was solely the result of their own bad choices and/or wickedness?

BTW, why do you keep using the phrase "neoconservative," as opposed to, say, "ultra conservative" or whatever else you're trying to call people who might oppose increased or existing government spending?

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^My bad, but it is usually neoconservatives that don't like spending on programs like these.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Let's also bear in mind that people with disabilities are not the only group Orange Is The New Black portrays in an inaccurate way. Piper Kerman herself has said that lesbianism, while present, was not a significant part of her prison experience. And I'm pretty sure most prison guards aren't psycho drug dealing rapists.

 

[the G-man]

^My bad, but it is usually neoconservatives that don't like spending on programs like these.

Not exactly.

While neoconservatives-like most conservatives-tend to favor (to one extent or another) limited government spending on social programs , Neoconservative usually refers more to a foreign-policy platform. Neoconservative is more tied to military intervention then about domestic issues.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Shhh!! Don't confuse the issue with facts...