Take a good look at this photograph. (If you can’t see it clearly, Glenn Close is standing next to her sister. Glenn wears a t-shirt that says “Sister”. Her sister wears a shirt that says “Bipolar”.)
You can also watch this story on the ABC News website about the making of their TV commercial: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/glenn-close-sister-jessie-close-tackle-mental-illness/story?id=8871476
The story is about how Glenn Close and her sister, who has Bipolar, are raising awareness and trying to educate people.
Ostensibly, their goal is to lessen the stigma of mental illness.
Sorry, Glenn. You lose.
Take a close look at the photo.
These t-shirts speak to identity. Glenn IS “Sister.” Her sister IS “Bipolar.”
Why doesn’t her sister’s shirt say “I Have Bipolar?”
Later in the spot there are other people with other t-shirts, including schizophrenia, PTSD, etc., and these t-shirts “read” much better. After all, schizophrenia is a disease; schizophreniac is a person with the disease. PTSD is a disorder, a person is said to have PTSD.
But the word “bipolar” is used as both the noun and the adjective. Bipolar is the disease. A person is described as BEING bipolar.
And boy isn’t that unfair.
Can you imagine a campaign with a celebrity in a t-shirt that proudly proclaims “Sister” and her sibling wearing a shirt that merely says “Cancer” or “Diabetes” or some other illness.
I AM a person who has to live with bipolar.
I AM a person who has an illness that will likely shadow me the rest of my life.
I AM NOT the disease itself, and neither is anyone else who lives with this illness, but the King’s English is working against me.
Until she is diabetes and he is cancer, I am not bipolar.
Me vs. Me on Prozac 