Anyone else feel that the X Factor exploits people with learning difficulties?

[Blossomhill]

The more I watch it the more I realise that quite a few of the people auditioning (usually the people laughed at ) have some kind of learning difficulty. It makes me so upset to basically see them taken the piss out of these people for the sake of good television.

I see your point, but don't think X Factor sets out to exploit people with special needs.
I think they show x amount of people who have no talents whatsoever (after all that's what makes people tune in, that's the real entertainment for the vast majority of public), and of those people a few % may have learning difficulties. Others are just disallusioned. I think it would be sadder if they chose to leave out someone who couldn't sing and had a possible learning difficulty, to protect them. They don't need to be protected in that way imo. They came onto X factor along with everyone else, and if they were soooo bad that it's amusing then it gets aired, learning difficulties or not. If they needed protecting from X Factor and the general public then their family and friends should be the ones to protet them and tell them not to go on the show in the first place.

Looking in a as a non SN-er... I seem to agree with each post I read . I do feel that their family/friends should be protecting them, but if they are functioning enough to be living alone etc, who's to know if they told anyone what they were doing?

The whole thing is cruel - even if the people don't have a recognised SN there is surely something lacking in the people who sing so painfully badly but seem oblivious iyswim.

I do feel that the editors should show more discretion though - they must have enough of the weird and terrible to show without adding in the ones who might not have had the judgement to know what they were doing.

Its hard to know where to draw the line - there was a CP guy last year who was great, and I was at school with a DS girl with an incredible voice... by not showing the bad, surely the good should be equally unaired?

oh come on, some of them are eccentric
how about the bloke up shoved garlic cloves up his anus?

It might not set out to exploit people with SN, but they ahve the power to edit out those who they suspect might have issues beyong crap voice.

some Sn kids (mine included) have lovely voices and need a chance to shine on these shows (gareth gates ahd speech issues after all) but there si noe xcuse for using SN as a joke. Ever. We get it every day: Sam walks out with a mask on, poeple laugh. Should I be protecting him? Why? Who is he ahrming exactly? No, I shouldn't be protecting him- I should be able to let him live a really full life without the fear of bigots and crass idiots regarding him as a free for all.

When the X factor first started, it was a bit of a trapdoor into a freak show.
But now, it is an established programme.
I find it hard to believe that there are many people who enter it who don't know that someone is going to be very very rude to them.

It's also a hard one to draw a clear line. I suppose I will sound an intellectual snob, but some of the luvvies I've met who make money are really not bright at all. That's before we allow for chemical & alcohol abuse. Susan Hampshire who had a pretty good career almost couldn't read, and what in god's name would Kate Moss be doing if she wasn't a model. (Not that I know either of these people, perhaps Kate Moss is so smart she can emulate vacant druggie tart for publicity).

However, I did see a show where someone below their filter age got on and did rather well. Bit sad, and they were nice to her, but it does rather imply that there is no real checking done at all.

How would you screen people for learning disabilities without a panel of experts ? Where would you draw the line ?

There is no justification whatsoever to use any disability for a cheap laugh. Can't abide X factor and the like; I think these shows are a salutory lesson in what happens when people allow themselves to be exploited in the pursuit of their 15 minutes of fame. How many of the previous winners have actually gone on to have a lasting career, the runners up have done better.

I agree with MMDDWW's sentiments regarding such programmes.

Remember the Radio Times article about Thomas the tank engine and its cheap reference to autism in the same line?. The word "really" at the end of that sentence was in particularly poor taste.
Anyone know if the RT was somehow censured for printing this?

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i dont want to get jumped on but i thought they were all laughed at?
i have not read all posts btw.

You know i think the chicken man made the series he was in though (as an aside issue) he was such a sweet and lovely man

No doubt, if questioned, the producers of the show would say that comments like ours are reverse discrimination, i.e. "shouldnt people with sn be allowed to make fools of themselves, etc etc)

thank god my son likes books. Books will keep him busy for a lifetime. We dont even have the tv on except for some scant news and my sons videos. I cant think of ANYTHING on tv that would broaden his mind at this stage, nor mine for that matter.

thats wishful think madwoman

yes their are people out their who will enter it thinking
1)they have a genuine talent and
2)they dont realise they are going to be laughed at.

im really angry and upset about this as the way i see it SOME SN DONT LIVE IN THE WORLD AS WE DO, THEY THINK THE WORLD IS A GOOD PLACE WHERE THEIR IS NO EVIL AND WAR AND MURDER AND THEY THINK PEOPLE WONT LAUGHT AT THE THEM AS THEY JUST DONT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF SENSE OF HUMOUR, IF I TOLD MY DS TO PULL HIS SOCKS UP HE WOULD LITERATLEY DO IT, IT SCARES THE CRAP OUT OGF ME THINKING WHAT KIND OF WORLD MY DS IS BEING BROUGHT UP IN WITH PEOPLE HAVING NO CONSIDERATION FOR HIM AND OTHER SN

Mrs Fio

I know what you mean about Simon lol

Not my kind, but there is something.......

I thought the judges are generally kinder to people like the Olivia Newton John girl, and only rude to the really deluded cocky ones, Am I the only person who thinks most of the real horrors are set ups from Ugly Agency?
So agree with you about Simon Fio.

I've watched all of it so far and yes I agree that the judges are nicer to those who appear to be more vulnerable. And I'm with you re simon cowell Feo.

Also, how do you define someone as having learning difficulties? Unless a disability is such that there are visible trates, i.e. ds, cp or any other physical disability, can you honestly say that before you had a sn child you would have been 100% sure that someone had learning difficulties? Given that we live in a society where people are still very ignorant of disability, and where some people still think that autistic children are just naughty, (before they are informed that the child is autistic that is), I think it's fair to say that some people are just ignorant and genuinely don't always spot the signs. After all, people with a disability don't exactly walk around with a sign saying "hello I have x disability, please don't discriminate against me", in general people with disabilities want to be treated like everyone else, and in this instance that also includes being ripped apart by the x-factor judges if their performance is that bad. Unfortunately equal opportunities does have a price sometimes.

so their innocence should be taken advantage of??

I DONT THINK SO

Exactly red bull. That's the point I have been trying to make!

no rb, but I honestly don't think that the producers sit there and think "this person has learning difficulties, let's show them up on national television", I really don't. how ever ruthless and exploitive some of these television shows appear to be, to deliberately exploit someone who had learning difficulties would do the show more harm than good, after all, even if the families of these people weren't aware they had auditioned, it's likely they would see them on television, and imagine the headlines in the papers if that happened.

I've watched x-factor from the beginning, and tbh I haven't seen anyone on there who has appeared to have learning difficulties being exploited.

thankyou blossomhill

wannabe even before ds was diagnosed to me and others thats why society stares at SN it is so obvious when you see some one with SN, their characteristics dont fit the situation they are in as they dont know how to act socially, so yes i have thought a numerous amount of times on the xfactor that they are exploiting SN and thay get away with it as these people have to sign contracts.
its not just SN i have seen many old peolpe on their who are very extravagent and just dont seem to be acting right once again for the situation they are, it so obvious they have alsimers or demensia or any form of old age mental health problems.

just wanted to ask as well if you cared full time for a 16-?? person who has SN they think they can sing beautifully would you tell them well no you cant actually, you just wouldnt do that as most SN have this innocence about them they dont see the bad in our world they dont realise they will be laughed at they are proberbly thinking why are they laughing at me as they dont understand what is so funny. so the carer more than likely thinks well if i can make this 1 thing happen for them to give them a wish come true im sorry but its down to the tv producers not to show it .

And for people to say no they are not exploiting SN well i feel very sorry for you all as you have no compasion. It scares the f**g s*t out of me what the future holds for my ds with people around with this kind of view, yes treat them equally but dont take the fucking piss and with that im gone

I've just got back from holiday and picked up a letter from Ofcom that was waiting for me. I had complained about the X Factor showing the three individuals mentioned back at the beginning of this thread. As the brother of a woman with SN I was really angry at how the audience was being encouraged to laugh at - not with - these contestants.

An earlier thread said that the "Olivia Newton John Girl" was treated kindly. Re-view the programme and you will see that she is being ridiculed in that smug nudge-nudge-wink-wink way so beloved of the current trend of lets-laugh-at-the-plebs TV makers. If you're still not sure, look at the follow up programme, the Xtra Factor, which took the smug but subtle nastiness a step further.

Ofcom didn't uphold my complaint, but in their letter completely missed the point and didn't refer to people with SN/Learning disabilities/difficulties, just how people knew what they were getting into and had signed consent forms.

These programme makers must be of the same sort of calibre as the salesmen/ bank managers who, over the years have allowed my sister to agree to ridiculous payment schemes/loan rates when it is clear that she does not fully understand the situation.

Finally, to show what complete bs the programme makers are, I recently met someone who auditioned for X Factor. The reality of the situation is that there are TWO auditions. The first is to decide whether you will get an audition in front of Cowell etc. So clearly, this audition is to single out those whose later contribution will make "good TV". I'll leave you with that bad taste in your mouth.....

makes me even more angry

yes my sister auditioned for xfactor - and was seen by a panel of producers not the three idiots you see on tv.
She was disgusted as people who were crap were getting through and she can actually sing! (not just being bias but she does a mean anastacia!)

my cousin auditioned (twice!0 and both times only got as far as the first panel.

So clearly they filter through the very good and those that are worthy to make good TV, which unfortunatly seems to be a large percentage of people with learning diificulties.

I hadnt given it a second thought until I saw this thread, but watching on saturday, I failed to see the funny side of it all.