Do you think people with Down Syndrome look funny?

[Darya]

I've learned to be "None judgemental", especially towards people who have no choice over their condition.. Perhaps one of the reason that it came natural to me was having a sister who has born with Down Syndrome and often tends to draw some "looks" from the strangers...

So I was wondering ,how do you guys ( honestly) react when you see a person with Down Syndrome ? (i.e on media, in person,..etc)??

 

[Thalassa]

Of course they do, and humans are programmed to that which looks genetically damaged in a way that is completely natural. It's not even about "social acceptability" it's about something innate.

However, people can be socialized to respond with kindness to people with visible illnesses.

I don't stare at people with DS because they're so common, and its so easy to spot with the facial features that it's something I've easily identified and noticed with very little shock or concern since early childhood. I don't think it's been a big deal to me since I was a small child; just like anything in life, once it's been accepted as something that happens in life which I can classify, then it affects me a lot less, unless it impacts me personally.

I think people with DS are just people, but I've honestly always been uncomfortable around people who fall within the mental retardation spectrum for some reason, though people with severe mental illness don't have this effect on me at all unless they're dangerous.

 

[Darya]

Of course they do, and humans are programmed to that which looks genetically damaged in a way that is completely natural. It's not even about "social acceptability" it's about something innate.

However, people can be socialized to respond with kindness to people with visible illnesses.

I don't stare at people with DS because they're so common, and its so easy to spot with the facial features that it's something I've easily identified and noticed with very little shock or concern since early childhood. I don't think it's been a big deal to me since I was a small child; just like anything in life, once it's been accepted as something that happens in life which I can classify, then it affects me a lot less, unless it impacts me personally.

I think people with DS are just people, but I've honestly always been uncomfortable around people who fall within the mental retardation spectrum for some reason, though people with severe mental illness don't have this effect on me at all unless they're dangerous.

I appreciate the honesty..I am not having any issue with looking twice when you see a person who looks different, as I have when I see a blind person or person who maybe schizophernic....

Wondering about the thinking process of someone (adult) who looks at a person with DS and laughs, or make a face ,....You dont have to be "Nice", not to do that .....since she/he didnt choose to have an extra chromosome (a copy of chromsome 21)...

 

[Pseudo]

I typically have a dilemma with anyone who has a visibly handicap where I don't want to seem to be staring but I also don't want to make it seem like I'm trying to avoid looking at them. They don't make me feel uncomfortable but I worry about making them or their families feel uncomfortable. That is really the stressor for me, trying to make sure I'm treating them respectfully.

 

[Darya]

Also based on personal exp being around them ( not just my sister), they are kind, gentle and most have certain amount of intelligence ( i.e good memory, talented in artistic expression , can take care of their own hygine,.. etc ). Perhpas there is certain amount of "unknowness" associated with them....

 

[Darya]

@ Pseudo

I understand your dilemma ... looking at them perhaps longer than usual,.. its OK and as marmie dearest puts "innate" and wont make them uncomfortable..and the family is not in denial either.. I am mainly talking about long stares,... and making faces...

 

[011235813]

Yes, they look funny. No, I wouldn't react visibly because it's common enough and they didn't ask to be born that way. However, I do view them as different, and yes, I do pity them for it. It would be naive to suggest that those things wouldn't inevitably colour my reactions.

 

[Darya]

Yes, they look funny. No, I wouldn't react visibly because it's common enough and they didn't ask to be born that way. However, I do view them as different, and yes, I do pity them for it. It would be naive to suggest that those things wouldn't inevitably colour my reactions.

Why Funny? Let me try to be as unbiased...they have a pair of eye, a nose ..... infact , most are cute, have a great skin and nose that I kill for... Do you find their look Funny bc of them being different , or bc you never have been personally interacted with one??

 

[Thalassa]

I appreciate the honesty..I am not having any issue with looking twice when you see a person who looks different, as I have when I see a blind person or person who maybe schizophernic....

Wondering about the thinking process of someone (adult) who looks at a person with DS and laughs, or make a face ,....You dont have to be "Nice", not to do that .....since she/he didnt choose to have an extra chromosome (a copy of chromsome 21)...

Yeah I'm not sure how this happens, especially in adults who seem otherwise intelligent, educated, and even socially sensitive to a degree. I can think of two IxTJs right off the top of my head who seem to think down's syndrome, or at least the appearance or suggestion of it, is funny.

But you know how there's a thin line between love and hate? There's a thin line between what is funny and disturbing in the mind. And maybe adults who laugh or feel compelled to make jokes about it are somehow more disturbed by Down's Syndrome for whatever reason.

I know I laugh at immature things sometimes, like when my friend's four year old declares that a male dog "has his period" or when she takes a pair of her mother's bikini panties and puts them on, with the sides of the panties hitched up over the shoulders, like she's wearing a sling-shot leotard.

 

[011235813]

Why Funny? Let me try to be as unbiased...they have a pair of eye, a nose ..... infact , most are cute, have a great skin and nose that I kill for... Do you find it Funny bc of them being different , or bc you never have been personally interact with one??

I took funny to mean "out of the norm", certainly not funny as in something I'd laugh at.

I've interacted with several people with Down's, it's not unfamiliar to me.

 

[Darya]

Yes, it is not easy for their immediate family especially the primary care taker..... But in many ways ( not trying to be an INFJish and emotional...) they bring a sense of purity and give you a new outlook towards others, life... I can say without any doubt that having my sister in my life has made a less judgmental, less rigid person... There are many "normal" good looking people who can have an opposite affect .......

 

[Darya]

Yeah I'm not sure how this happens, especially in adults who seem otherwise intelligent, educated, and even socially sensitive to a degree. I can think of two IxTJs right off the top of my head who seem to think down's syndrome, or at least the appearance or suggestion of it, is funny.

But you know how there's a thin line between love and hate? There's a thin line between what is funny and disturbing in the mind. And maybe adults who laugh or feel compelled to make jokes about it are somehow more disturbed by Down's Syndrome for whatever reason.

I know I laugh at immature things sometimes, like when my friend's four year old declares that a male dog "has his period" or when she takes a pair of her mother's bikini panties and puts them on, with the sides of the panties hitched up over the shoulders, like she's wearing a sling-shot leotard.

Lol.. I Have looked at stupid and perhaps meaningless scenes and LAUGHED OUT LOUD .. I am not suggesting us to be perfect human being at all time.. as I am far from it...

I believe one of the main reason for people to find them automatically funny looking is the " style of parenting" thay have raised by as children. If you were taught by your father or your drunk uncle tom who saw "any handicapped" people in the street and on T.V and laugh at them, while others find him hillarious, then it is likely you grow up to do the same perhaps even unconsciously...

 

[SoraMayhem]

I very rarely interact with people who have Down Syndrome in my daily life, but when I see them in public it doesn't faze me. In the media, I typically pity them, especially on internet forums, because most people are downright horrible about anything that slightly differs from the norm, or things they don't understand.

 

[Pseudo]

Why Funny? Let me try to be as unbiased...they have a pair of eye, a nose ..... infact , most are cute, have a great skin and nose that I kill for... Do you find their look Funny bc of them being different , or bc you never have been personally interacted with one??

Maybe it's that "cuteness" that people are responding to? Because the features of a DS persons face are not familiar to them, then sort of forget it's a person and think of it as just an amusing expression. Maybe the same way people find little people funny because think of them as cute little elves rather than real people? I don't know. I don't find it funny but I also don't find people just making silly faces to be all that funny.

People who make fun of handicaps send me into full on screaming-in-public-rage mode

 

[Darya]

Just a question.. Why do we even Pity them?? It is truly bc we undersand the hardships and discrimination they exprience -OR- bc they make us feel more "normal" and superior ??

 

[Thalassa]

Lol.. I Have looked at stupid and perhaps meaningless scenes and laughed out LOUD .. I am noy suggesting us to be perfect human being at all time.. as I am far from it...
I belive one of the main reason for people to find them automatically funny looking is the " style of parenting" thay have raised by as children. If yoy were thought by your father or your drunk uncle tom to see "any handicapped" people in the street and on T.V and laugh at them, while others find you hillarious, then it is likely you grow up to do the same...

Yeah I guess so, I actually have never explored this as a theory, of why some people think it's funny for someone to be sick or disabled. I've always thought it was mean, even when I was a kid, though I sometimes said rude honest things as a small child, like that my grandmother smelled bad when she was dying of cancer, I didn't necessarily find it funny.

People tend to laugh at things that embarrass them or shock them, like have you ever laughed when someone randomly hit their head really hard? And you know you'd be pissed if someone did that to you, but it's like an instinctive nervous laugh or something?

I have this sort of sense of humor where I do laugh at things that are physically incongruent (like a four year old in her mom's sexy panties, because four year olds aren't sexy and the panties don't even fit her, it actually made her step-father angry that me and the girl's mom automatically thought it was funny that her four year old did this) ...but I don't think it's funny for people to be disabled, mentally or physically.

I do laugh at mean things, though, like my verbal humor can be very "mean" and some people would wonder why I think those things are funny...and I don't know. I just remember being 9 years old and already thinking a black comedy like Clue was hilarious, and then at 15 laughing at Uncle Vanya. Some people don't get that either, how cruelty or misery can be funny.

So I'm not perfect. I just don't like to make fun of people for things they cannot help, and I think it's childish or cruel to do so.

Maybe it's a form of insecurity? Like I'm the big, normal, healthy person and I'm picking on you because you're safely not? I've noticed men do it more than women, or maybe that's my imagination.

 

[Darya]

Maybe it's that "cuteness" that people are responding to? Because the features of a DS persons face are not familiar to them, then sort of forget it's a person and think of it as just an amusing expression. Maybe the same way people find little people funny because think of them as cute little elves rather than real people? I don't know. I don't find it funny but I also don't find people just making silly faces to be all that funny.

People who make fun of handicaps send me into full on screaming-in-public-rage mode

An interesting Post... Umm cutness= looking funny....Maybe... Just a note, they do have various other facial expressions ,as they do cry, look sad, nervous,, anxious, concerned, even flirtious..

 

[Darya]

Yeah I guess so, I actually have never explored this as a theory, of why some people think it's funny for someone to be sick or disabled. I've always thought it was mean, even when I was a kid, though I sometimes said rude honest things as a small child, like that my grandmother smelled bad when she was dying of cancer, I didn't necessarily find it funny.

People tend to laugh at things that embarrass them or shock them, like have you ever laughed when someone randomly hit their head really hard? And you know you'd be pissed if someone did that to you, but it's like an instinctive nervous laugh or something?

I have this sort of sense of humor where I do laugh at things that are physically incongruent (like a four year old in her mom's sexy panties, because four year olds aren't sexy and the panties don't even fit her, it actually made her step-father angry that me and the girl's mom automatically thought it was funny that her four year old did this) ...but I don't think it's funny for people to be disabled, mentally or physically.

I do laugh at mean things, though, like my verbal humor can be very "mean" and some people would wonder why I think those things are funny...and I don't know. I just remember being 9 years old and already thinking a black comedy like Clue was hilarious, and then at 15 laughing at Uncle Vanya. Some people don't get that either, how cruelty or misery can be funny.

So I'm not perfect. I just don't like to make fun of people for things they cannot help, and I think it's childish or cruel to do so.

Maybe it's a form of insecurity? Like I'm the big, normal, healthy person and I'm picking on you because you're safely not? I've noticed men do it more than women, or maybe that's my imagination.

Thanks for your great post... I tend to be OK with children doing less than perfect acts or even be cruel.. Not love it but tend to look at their parents and question their parenting..I have many cousins who have children..... and since my sister has always been exposed to them , they see her as just another cousin, perhas they have beeen informed by their parents about her condition so thay are "knowldgeable" about her and interact with her with warmth, compassion, and acceptance..

Males SEEM to mock others more... Perhaps sense of humor ( Mockery) is the only medium through which they can mask their insecurity or even fear....Or even compassion

 

[Pseudo]

Maybe it's a form of insecurity? Like I'm the big, normal, healthy person and I'm picking on you because you're safely not? I've noticed men do it more than women, or maybe that's my imagination.

Sometimes I like to dissect humor and look at what makes it work. It seems like what separates the dry/black/mean humor you said you liked (and I like) from making fun of handicaps is creativity. There's nothing witty or unexpected about pointing out that someone has down syndrome or can't walk. So to me it would see these jokes are less about being funny and more about reinforcing the idea that they are better than others for not having an affliction.

 

[Pseudo]

An interesting Post... Umm cutness= looking funny....Maybe... Just a note, they do have various other facial expressions ,as they do cry, look sad, nervous,, anxious, concerned, even flirtious..

I meant that the people who find it funny would be subconsciously thinking of the typical DS features as an expression rather than facial features. And I do think that cuteness is attached to funniness. People seem to laugh endlessly at things children do even if it's a mundane as sneezing or putting on shoes or talking.