How TV/film portray women who have lost a child - sick of it

[FreakInTheSheets]

Hi all

*Contains spoilers for "The Cuckoo" on Ch5 starring Jill Halfpenny.

I'm sick of this. Women who are infertile/suffered pregnancy loss/lost a child/gave one up for adoption. Invariably portrayed as violent, unhinged and dangerous.

Liable to sleep with your husband, stalk you, abduct your child and possibly kill you.

No, they are just women who have suffered a loss and are trying to get on with their lives. Why the need to use them as a lazy, stereotyped TV trope CONSTANTLY?!

Sick of it.

It’s just a programme. Lots of programmes are based on extremes. A programme about a woman trying to get on with her life wouldn’t attract as many viewers. I’m sure people realise that women who have gone through the things you’ve mentioned are just normal people getting in with life and are not a rush to anyone.

I really enjoyed The Cuckoo. Jill Halfpenny is a great actor.

If there’s a programme involving certain topics that I find difficult, I don’t watch them.

Risk it rush

Ffs. Risk not rush

It's just tv. They have to make it dramatic or no one would watch!

I had this exact conversation with my husband. The same old lazy trope in so many films and TV dramas.

I think it really adds to the 'othering' of women who don't, or can't, have the family they would like.

It's not just women who have lost a child. Once you see the lazy stereotyping you can't not see it, and it ruins a lot of tv.

Yes, of course women who have chosen not to have children (for whatever, possibly very sensible reason) are portrayed as bitch career women wearing suits.

I always hated the hand that rocks the cradle for that reason. The idea that a woman will just take any child to replace the one she’s lost is so damaging and insulting.

Stepmothers are always evil, single white men are always sexual predators, there’s lots of this on tv.

They make drama; ignore it.

That’s very true. There are so many crappy ‘categories’ women are plopped into - murder dramas (nearly always a woman/women who is the victim ), women in the workplace (hard nosed, sharp elbowed, ruthless or a bit of a hopeless drudge). Horror films - full of women as crazed nuns, killer nannies, negligent/abusive mothers, dangerously mentally ill. Comedy - too many stereotypes to count even though less so than in previous decades. Crime dramas relentlessly resorting to plots based on women as rape/abuse/kidnap/missing person victims.

Good writing doesn’t need these lazy, tired and insulting tropes. With child loss , the reality and ramifications of life afterwards, is all that a scriptwriter needs to write something that would feel real, raw and thought provoking, without any need to resort to portraying bereaved mothers as violent, a risk to society or completely unhinged.