eh, I don't know if I agree with the idea that Bryon was supposed to be read as gay or even bisexual.
Yes, Peterson reused the same themes from his movie in this ep but this is a theme that can apply to kids everywhere, just not gay kids. There's dozens of parents out there who want their kids to be one thing and be let down when their kids doesn't turn out how they wanted.
It can be anything. from wanting their kid to be super-christian like them and being upset when the kid showed signs of being agnostic instead; to wanting the kid to be a prodigy at ANYTHING... only it turns out that their kid is just plain average in everything.
there are parents who want their kids to fit into a certain mold, and will go to far lengths to do that. And those same parents can't seem to accept their own kids as they are. If anything, this epidose seems like a good allegory for Toxic parenting and how negatively it impacted Bryon's life.
As an deaf person, I can see this allegory working for parents of an child with disabilities. Being deaf actually doesn't adversely impact my life in any way at all... I can live my life like everyone else. I have a job, have a family, etc... the only thing I literally can't do is hear. That's it.
However, I've seen new parents with a deaf baby freak out over this as they though this would adversely impact the baby's life. There's just so many misunderstandings and myths about how deafness works. It gets to the point where they will panic and look for a "cure" right away, just so that their baby can be hearing like them. and they will end up doing things they regret down the road, once they realize that there's no actual cure for deafness and that being deaf isn't the end of the world.
I've seen those parents reflect back on that time and talk about how they regretted panicking and treating their own baby like it was a diseased freak. Especially when they learned that so many of the deaf myths out there was just plain false. It was just a good thing that their child was too young to remember any of this, otherwise I'm sure they would've been traumatized by the parents' behavior.
I've also had a friend (also deaf) whose parents were a little bit like Bryon's parents... not wanting to accept her for who she was, and kept on pushing her to get a CI against doctors' wishes. She wasn't fully deaf.. she still had some hearing in one ear even though she couldn't do much with it. and the doctors warned her family that getting a CI could end up destroying what little hearing she had left if the CI surgery didn't go well. but her family was insistent... they wanted their daughter to be "perfect", be hearing 100% like them and they ignored the doctors when told that the CI wasn't a cure for deafness. Guess what happened? yeah.
It kind of destroyed the relationship between my friend and her family, she was really bitter at losing what little hearing she had left just because her family couldn't leave it alone.
I see something similar going on with Bryon's parents. They freaked out when they thought their child might be mentally damaged in some way. Instead of doing proper research and realizing that kids could be misdiagnosed with this all the time, and in fact was more likely to grow out of it? They promptly jumped straight to looking for a "quick-fix" to their problem instead of accepting their kid for who he was. And like with my friend, he ended up hating his parents because their actions cost him more than he was willing to give.
The parents' desire for him to fit in with everyone else at all costs ended up making them abusive and toxic people.
I agree that it needs to be two parts too. too much went on in this ep that really needed to be addressed properly.
Yes, Peterson reused the same themes from his movie in this ep but this is a theme that can apply to kids everywhere, just not gay kids. There's dozens of parents out there who want their kids to be one thing and be let down when their kids doesn't turn out how they wanted.
It can be anything. from wanting their kid to be super-christian like them and being upset when the kid showed signs of being agnostic instead; to wanting the kid to be a prodigy at ANYTHING... only it turns out that their kid is just plain average in everything.
there are parents who want their kids to fit into a certain mold, and will go to far lengths to do that. And those same parents can't seem to accept their own kids as they are. If anything, this epidose seems like a good allegory for Toxic parenting and how negatively it impacted Bryon's life.
As an deaf person, I can see this allegory working for parents of an child with disabilities. Being deaf actually doesn't adversely impact my life in any way at all... I can live my life like everyone else. I have a job, have a family, etc... the only thing I literally can't do is hear. That's it.
However, I've seen new parents with a deaf baby freak out over this as they though this would adversely impact the baby's life. There's just so many misunderstandings and myths about how deafness works. It gets to the point where they will panic and look for a "cure" right away, just so that their baby can be hearing like them. and they will end up doing things they regret down the road, once they realize that there's no actual cure for deafness and that being deaf isn't the end of the world.
I've seen those parents reflect back on that time and talk about how they regretted panicking and treating their own baby like it was a diseased freak. Especially when they learned that so many of the deaf myths out there was just plain false. It was just a good thing that their child was too young to remember any of this, otherwise I'm sure they would've been traumatized by the parents' behavior.
I've also had a friend (also deaf) whose parents were a little bit like Bryon's parents... not wanting to accept her for who she was, and kept on pushing her to get a CI against doctors' wishes. She wasn't fully deaf.. she still had some hearing in one ear even though she couldn't do much with it. and the doctors warned her family that getting a CI could end up destroying what little hearing she had left if the CI surgery didn't go well. but her family was insistent... they wanted their daughter to be "perfect", be hearing 100% like them and they ignored the doctors when told that the CI wasn't a cure for deafness. Guess what happened? yeah.
It kind of destroyed the relationship between my friend and her family, she was really bitter at losing what little hearing she had left just because her family couldn't leave it alone.
I see something similar going on with Bryon's parents. They freaked out when they thought their child might be mentally damaged in some way. Instead of doing proper research and realizing that kids could be misdiagnosed with this all the time, and in fact was more likely to grow out of it? They promptly jumped straight to looking for a "quick-fix" to their problem instead of accepting their kid for who he was. And like with my friend, he ended up hating his parents because their actions cost him more than he was willing to give.
The parents' desire for him to fit in with everyone else at all costs ended up making them abusive and toxic people.
I agree that it needs to be two parts too. too much went on in this ep that really needed to be addressed properly.
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