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I also heavily resent the ever-present implication in mainstream media that at all touches on trauma that we cannot have any sympathy for Bad Victims. That it’s evil to write a sympathetic Bad Victim. Hell, that it’s bad to portray one at all at times. Writing a victim of trauma who’s an addict or self-destructive is already an edge case– writing trauma survivors who end up actually hurting someone else, being chronically “treatment”-resistant or having inconvenient ptsd, perpetuate the cycle, or are just kind of a total dick is considered an evil move. Instead of like. An actually complex and interesting artistic choice.
Idk. It pisses me off a lot how often Bad Victims[TM] are brushed under the rug and if you dare to speak of them/make art of them, let alone SYMPATHIZE with them you’re an irredeemable monster. And that’s just fictional characters. Don’t even get me started on the way people treat actual people who have ptsd in a way that’s at all inconvenient and problematic in their opinion.
I think it partly comes from the fact that most trauma-based stuff has a shared history of ONLY getting Bad Victims as their rep for ages before the public – and sometimes even the medical world – starts to actually take them seriously as people who need help and aren’t just inherently evil. when you finally start to get some ground, “Bad Victims” can end up feeling nasty to watch in two ways: they reinforce the idea that going through all that will turn you into a dangerous person(and therefor ANYONE who has these issues is dangerous), and the ones that are relatable can make people with those issues paranoid of being Just Like Them.
that’s certainly why Systems(D.I.D., multipersonality, multisoul, etc etc) are sick and tired of being made the monster in horror works. even the relatively good ones that take a largely sympathetic look at it can still make us out to be The Bad Guy, which ends up adding to the public view that we’re Dangerous and that there’s always a Bad Man hiding away in here. not a great thing to tell young people who are just beginning to realize they’re a system, or the parents in charge of them.
which sucks, ‘cus… i really love those kinds of portrayals. i like seeing Bad Victims, and exploring how not getting help when you need it can turn you down a REALLY dark path. i like being reminded that the Bad Guy didn’t just happen, that even the worst people you know are human and dealing with shit.
ultimately, the message shouldn’t be to stop writing them, but to also write portrayals who are doing well. and to, if possible, use those ‘bad victims’ to show off the cracks in the system, and make people think about it.
but, yknow, it’s also because people don’t like to be face to face with that kinda thing. they don’t like to have to deal with the fact that sometimes mental health issues are inconvenient, scary, or can just generally make you a dick. and they certainly don’t like to face facts that sometimes the “help” in place for us is shit and doesn’t give the support we need, and may even make us worse in some cases. (HUGE fucking shoutout to addicts who got sent to AA and basically anyone who got institutionalized when it was the last thing they needed.)
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