Tell Six Flags that Bigotry Is Too Scary for Fright Fest

On Saturday, October 15, I went to Fright Fest at Six Flags St. Louis. The bigotry I found there was more frightening than any of the Halloween attractions.

Rotten Heterosexism

For starters, there was the sexism and homophobia at P.T. Barnum's Side Show. Presented by the Rotten Brothers, the show began with a voice-over straight from the chauvinistic days of yore: "Gentlemen, please heed to your lady friends if one of them shall faint by the ghastly acts." Just a little something to give the show (in the Rotten Brothers' words) "an authentic feel." Too bad little kids won't understand the intention. All that kids are going to pick up from that line is that boys are brave and girls are weak.

The show continued in that manner, and they asked for "a brave little boy" to volunteer. Why not a brave little girl? One of the Brothers later told me on Facebook, it was because little girls "are more brave and can and have upstaged" him. He also said that his wife is one of the bravest people he knows.

Later in the show, they asked for "a married couple" to volunteer, "preferably a man and a woman." That was when I walked out. My partner later confirmed to me that they never did ask for a girl to volunteer.

Again on Facebook, one of the Rotten Brothers claimed that both of them support same-sex marriage. He said that the joke was simply "pointing out the issue." He also said that his gay friends think the joke is funny.

Someone pointed out that the joke was merely pandering to their conservative audience. We continued to dialogue for a while, and I was impressed that the Rotten Brothers weren't deleting comments.

The next morning, however, the thread was gone, replaced by the following status update:

This is a family friendly website. I have been forced by my wife to delete an interesting thread. I knew I shouldn't have left my pants out for her to put on.

So much for all of that feminist talk he had engaged in earlier.

Stigma for Sale

The other bigotry I found at Six Flags was in the form of one of their haunted houses. Dubbed "Insanity Alley," the description in the flyer is as follows:

Welcomed by our very own Nurse Luna Tick, terror awaits those who dare to take a stroll through our Insanity Alley. Come on in, stay awhile, and see how the truly insane live! Did we mention new patients are always welcome???

This description -- and the accompanying imagery -- perpetuate the damaging myth that people with mental illnesses are creepy, violent and dangerous. In truth, most people with mental illnesses are not to be feared, and are far more likely to harm themselves than anyone else.

When I complained to Guest Relations about both of these attractions, the response I received from Terese Bargman, entertainment manager at Six Flags St. Louis, included the claim that the shows at Fright Fest are "over the top," "not reality," and "not meant to be insulting." From her email to me:

The product here at the park is in no way real, we do not harm individuals in the productions or the haunted attractions. There is no entity of the shows and talent in the park that is meant to be taken as realistic, it is all designed to be a fun time in the spirit of Halloween. All of the attractions and street shows are very over the top, that again is in the nature and fun of the Halloween spirit. [...] People come to the park to get scared, they know it is not real but simply engage in the drama for the shear [sic] fun.

Sound reasonable to you? How about if I tweak the description of Insanity Alley just a bit?

"Terror awaits those who dare to take a stroll through our Ghetto Alley. Come on in, stay awhile, and see how the truly impoverished live! Did we mention new gang members are always welcome???"

If that were one of the haunted houses at Fright Fest, the news would be all over it, and there would be mass protesting of Six Flags. The excuse that the attractions are not real just doesn't cut it. All of the other haunted houses feature spooky themes that are entirely fictional -- zombies, trolls, sinister clowns, classic horror films -- except for "The Slaughter House," which is scary by definition. It is unacceptable to exploit a real, highly stigmatized and disadvantaged group of people in order to make money scaring people. (Did I mention that it costs an extra $7 to get into Insanity Alley?)

Take Action!

Please contact Six Flags and tell them that bigotry in their shows and attractions is unacceptable. You can log a complaint by calling Guest Relations at 636-938-5300 x397, or you can do it online here. (Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the email comment form.  Select "Comments/Concerns" as your reason for writing and "Six Flags St. Louis" as the park.)

In your complaint, please emphasize the following points:

• The Rotten Brothers should be told to remove the bigotry from their act. If they refuse to comply, then Six Flags should not hire them again.
• Six Flags should take care in the future to avoid hiring performers who make bigoted comments or jokes in their shows.
• "Insanity Alley" is stigmatizing and should be removed from Fright Fest.
• Six Flags should take care in the future not to feature attractions that unfairly portray disadvantaged groups of people.

RFT “Criminally Stupid” When Reporting on Mental Illness, Trans Issues

With all due gratitude to the Riverfront Times for featuring the Activist Hub as one of its favorite blogs and our beloved Adam Shriver as “Best Gadfly” of 2010, I feel the need to call them out on something. The RFT has been incredibly insensitive when reporting on people with mental illnesses and those who are transgender.

Take Chad Garrison’s recent article about a man—Trip Powers—shot by a police officer on Sunday after allegedly breaking into a Denny’s restaurant. The article is posted online in the blogs under the “Criminally Stupid” category. Garrison quips that the man was shot, “while seriously craving a Grand Slam omelette. Or maybe it was a Moons Over My Hammy?”

According to Powers’s mother, Teri Powers, a licensed clinical social worker, her son Trip is suffering from a mental illness, and he is not a criminal. “Everyone involved should recognize that keeping Trip jailed and without psychiatric treatment and medication is doing him an injustice,” Teri told me via Facebook message. Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is doing a respectful series on Trip Powers and his situation. So why the stigmatizing sarcasm from a reporter for the Riverfront Times?

This is not the first time that the RFT has ridiculed someone with a mental illness. Remember Susan Stone? She was also written about under the “Criminally Stupid” category.

Now, I’m not a psychiatrist, but I’m pretty familiar with mental illnesses. I saw Stone at the Metro East Pride vigil in October. It seemed pretty clear to me then, based on some of the things she said, that she was suffering from some kind of mental illness.

While other local media showed disrespect to Stone, using her legal (male) name and referencing her with pronouns that do not match her gender presentation, the RFT went one step further by nominating her as “Ass Clown of the Week,” calling her “he/rself,” and “s/he” in that article.

It sounds to me as though the RFT could use some sensitivity training.

Words Can Break Our Hearts

http://www.nami.org/

Today, I want to talk about hate speech.

No, not “nigger,” “tranny,” or “faggot.” Not “God hates fags and Lady Gaga”—though these are indeed hateful words to direct towards another, and we cannot stand idly by as the body count continues to rise.

I want to talk about “crazy,” “psycho,” and “crackpot.” Or “wackadoodle” and “damaged goods.”

But why stop at “crazy”? How about “crazy bitch”? Or maybe even “batshit crazy”?

Is this not what you had in mind when I said that I wanted to talk about hate speech?

Now I want to talk about stigma. Mental illness is highly stigmatized. Stigma ensures that people with mental illnesses remain second-class citizens even though “disability” is a protected status under current nondiscrimination laws.

For privacy reasons, I’m not going to describe in detail the situation that prompted this post. I’ll just say that the lack of response from the community was highly disappointing to me. People who would never tolerate hate speech being directed towards someone like them remained silent when a person with a mental illness was being targeted. Community leaders either didn't notice, or stood by and said nothing as a woman who had likely been through hell was verbally attacked many times over, and even had her existence dismissed by one particularly cruel comment: "[G]irls like this make me sick. There is no reason for them to exist."

In my opinion, if you say something like that, you have blood on your hands. Hateful statements like the one above fall just short of a call for violence, and may, in fact, encourage someone who has been teetering on the edge to finally step over it and attempt suicide.*

And if you say nothing after hearing such a statement, you're complicit. As much as we value our illusory independence, we are actually interdependent beings. In spite of the rampant individualism in the U.S., we have a social responsibility to treat one another with kindness and respect, and to step in when someone is being mistreated.

If you want allies, you must be an ally. You must speak out against all forms of hate speech. It is not censorship to tell someone you think that they are doing harm.

It does get better. But it's not enough to tell people to "tough it out." We need to stop the bullying, of and by kids and adults alike. Whatever prejudice it's driven by, and whomever it's directed towards, we must step in and intervene whenever we witness hatred in action.

Words matter. Words can kill. As Robert Fulghum aptly said, “Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.”


* If you are thinking about suicide or you believe that someone you know may be at risk, you can get help by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).