Wednesday, October 03, 2007

ENVIRO-MENTALISM?

So much church communication is, well, a bit rubbish. Which makes the new YouTube video campaign by Christian Aid - highlighting the demand for an 80 per cent carbon emission cut in the upcoming Climate Change Bill - particularly gratifying. This is my favourite of the two. Full story here.

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5 comments:

David Mackinder said...

at the risk of seeming entirely humourless, I have misgivings about the 'mentalist' part of this. A major Christian organisation (unwittingly/unintentionally) reinforcing stereotypes about mental illness?

11:08 AM
Simon Barrow said...

Hello Dave. Good to hear from you. Yes, this thought crossed my mind too. But I think it's fairly clearly about surreally eccentric behaviour; certainly not having a go at people with either mental health problems or learning difficulties. The argument over "mentalist" as a piece of street slang has parallels with the "a bit gay" debate, I guess. Some say that this is an insult which presupposes acceptance of what it parodies, others that it has the capacity to reinforce stereotypes and prejudice. The difficulty is that both are probably true, depending on context. Context is vital. Though I don't say this to dismiss the issue. It will be interesting to see if a debate emerges about this. I'll mention it to CA.

2:51 PM
Simon Barrow said...

Just had a word with Christian Aid. They say they did try to make the character as non-humanoid as possible, and they deliberately didn't use the word 'mental'. They are monitoring response.

4:47 PM
David Mackinder said...

thanks for your reply and for speaking to CA about it. I think you're spot on about the parallel with the 'bit gay' debate. Without the 'mentalist' part in the caption, I would naturally have interpreted this as a quixotic, over-the-top character -- though chainsawing an SUV or destroying an airplane's engines might also conjure up associations with extremists.

As you say, context is vital, so intra-group jokes permit what would not be tolerated from an outsider.

6:38 PM
Simon Barrow said...

No problem, Dave. Drop me an email (simon DOT barrow AT ekklesia DOT co DOT uk). It would be good to be in touch again.

9:28 PM

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