Vaimse tervise representatsioon eestikeelses internetihuumoris.
Mental health problems are actively depicted and discussed not only by psychiatrists and psychologists, but they are also featured in pop culture and folklore. Thanks to social media, their representation has changed recently - people with mental health problems are no longer always portrayed as sca...
| Publicado en: | Mäetagused no. 94; pp. 103 - 119 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Estonian Literary Museum, Department of Folkloristics
2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Mental health problems are actively depicted and discussed not only by psychiatrists and psychologists, but they are also featured in pop culture and folklore. Thanks to social media, their representation has changed recently - people with mental health problems are no longer always portrayed as scary monsters as they were in the past, but are instead romanticized and trivialized. However, such romanticization and trivialization are also controversial and can cause problems for them as they might overshadow the problems these people face in their everyday lives and make their lifestyle seem attractive for pop culture consumers. The aim of this article is to examine how mental health problems are represented in contemporary Estonian jokes and humorous memes - which representation strategies are most frequently used and how the representation strategies are distributed across different mental health problems. A pilot study of fifty Estonian-language online jokes and memes shows that mental health problems are often shown as trivial and sometimes stigmatized, especially when a person with a mental health problem is the target of the joke. The strategy of trivialization plays a dual role. On the one hand, it normalizes mental health problems and shows that people with mental health problems also belong to society and are not so different from other people. On the other hand, such a representation minimizes the problem and when looking at these memes, one gets the impression that people with mental health problems do not need medical care. Since the strategy of trivialization is especially actively used when specific mental health problems are mentioned in memes, it can be said that this strategy is used to compress the difficult reality of mental health problems into the meme format. The use of the strategy of stigmatization means that sometimes people with mental health problems are the targets of jokes with a stupid script. In these jokes, people with mental health problems are similar to the targets of other jokes with a stupid script. Unlike the depiction of mental health in serious genres of pop culture, humour does not portray mental health as a romantic phenomenon. The reason is that romanticizing and ridiculing the same object is difficult, and therefore, the lack of a romanticization strategy is not unique to mental health memes, but rather a common feature of all humour genres. The representation of mental health in memes is becoming an increasingly important topic, and compared to the readership of mental health literature, the audience of mental health memes is much wider. In this way, many people's perceptions of mental health are shaped by memes. This is especially important because this shaping process is often invisible and imperceptible: when viewing memes for entertainment, people usually do not consider the impact that memes have on their perception of reality. The current study provides an opportunity to see how Estonian-language meme creators and sharers shape the image of people with mental health problems. Vaimse tervise probleeme näidatakse ja nende üle arutatakse aktiivselt mitte ainult arstikabinettides, vaid ka popkultuuris, seahulgas sotsiaalmeedias. Tänu sotsiaalmeediale on viimasel ajal vaimse tervisega seotud probleemide representatsioon muutunud - vaimse tervise probleemidega isikuid ei kujutata enam alati agressiivsete ja hirmutavatena, vaid hoopis romantiseeritakse (Shrestha 2018) ja trivialiseeritakse. Romantiseerimine ja trivialiseerimine on aga ka vastuolulised ja võivad vaimse tervise probleemidega inimestele probleeme tekitada (Issaka & Aidoo et al. 2024). Selle artikli eesmärk on uurida, kuidas vaimse tervise probleeme representeeritakse Eesti kaasaegsetes naljades ja humoorikates meemides - milliseid representatsiooni strateegiaid kasutatakse kõige tihedamini ja kuidas jagunevad representatsiooni strateegiad erinevate vaimse tervise probleemide lõikes. Viiekümne eestikeelse internetinalja ja meemi pilootuuring näitab, et vaimse tervise probleemide romantiseerimine pole selles materjalis kuigi sagedane. Nendes naljades ja meemides näidatakse vaimse tervise probleeme tihti triviaalsena ja mõnikord stigmatiseeritakse, eriti kui vaimse tervise probleemiga isik on nalja sihtmärk. Üksikutes naljades mängib vaimse tervise probleemiga tegelane hoopis triksteri rolli, aga niisugused näited on harvad ja nende põhjal ei saa rääkida romantiseerimise tendentsist. Kuigi näidete valik on liiga piiratud, et teha suuri üldistusi, näitab analüüs, et eestikeelses huumoris kujutatakse vaimse tervise probleeme igapäevaelu osana, mitte romantilise nähtusena. |
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