Hitting the Share Button
Anyone else find this offensive rather than funny?
These sort of posts drive me mad! I just don’t get it, and yet posts like this one, and those similar to it, are shared and re-shared all over the place, with laughing emojis depicting just how funny they are and comments like, “Yeah, me too!” or “I’ll need that to get through!” This one is particular was accompanied when I saw it by the words, “Lockdown day 2”. My kids call posts like this memes, but it’s not a word I’ve ever used so I feel a bit daft saying it, but I’m sure you all know what sort of posts I’m referring to.
What I see when I look at this one in particular, is a woman who doesn’t really want to be with her kids if she needs a box of wine to herself, and those kids, albeit it on TV look a lot better behaved than most! I see a woman who maybe needs some help if it’s got this far. The one thing I don’t see is anything amusing. It seems to me that all it is doing is reinforcing how wine is supposed to help, and numb our feelings. At a time like this though, with so much going on I think it is entirely the wrong message to send out. Especially to our children. They need to know that we are okay, because if we aren’t how will they be? They need to see us taking sensible steps to protect ourselves and our families and through that, our wider communities. Drowning our sorrows in alcohol will not do that, and instead will just show them that we can’t cope, that we need to rely on something external to help us get through. Of course, as they get older that message will be remembered.
I find it so frustrating in this day and age, when our media and advertising are so policed in many ways, that things like this are out there. I’m not saying we should remove all humour, I just think there should be some common sense. You don’t see adverts for cigarettes because people know they are addictive and cause cancer, so why do we still see adverts for alcohol? It does the same thing, only under the misconception that it’s ‘cool’. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, but little videos like this send out the wrong message, and while I know at the moment, we all need a little bit of relief, a laugh and a joke to keep normality where we can, I really don’t think this is the way to do it.
Sorry if this sounds like a rant! The stupidity of some of the posts I’ve seen recently just gets to me. I hate the idea of it undermining anyone’s sobriety, especially at a time when things are so difficult so for many anyway. But what do you think?
Take care, and stay safe.
Claire
x
💖💖💖
Here's the link in case you want to watch the whole thing!
https://www.facebook.com/paula.raccagna/videos/3161271870572994/UzpfSTEwMTUzOTAxNDU3MDAxMDoyMzkxMjIwMDc0NzgzNzY/