Eastenders portrayal of disabled pregnancy

Hayls20
Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering
in Coffee lounge

Hey all, just been watching Eastenders and their wheelchair using character Penny (Kitty Castledine) discovers she is pregnant and it got me thinking about how rare that is on TV!

After finding a test at a family dinner, her on screen dad went through every other family member thinking the test would be theirs, just highlighting that even those close to us sometimes forget that it's something that is actually possible.

Have you seen many other good/bad portrayals of wheelchair users becoming pregnant/mums on screen? How do you think they will play it and are you excited to see it played out?

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Comments

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,285 Championing
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/144214/eastenders-portrayal-of-disabled-pregnancy

    Lol I'm watching that episode tonight!

    It must be rare to include a wheelchair user in a soap at all and Kitty Castledine is disabled in real life so this will be an interesting storyline. Fingers crossed she carries her baby to term.

    The actors who play Kojo and Barnie have autism IRL and play autistic characters. EE is my favourite programme on the box 😍

  • Hayls20
    Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering

    @Santosha12 so she was - that's a blast from the past! Was that the storyline that Michelle Keegan ended up being a surrogate for?

    @WhatThe enjoy the ep! Yeah I really hope they don't make it a sad or tragic storyline if I'm really honest! Would love to see, yes the challenges, but not that it's impossible.

  • Hayls20
    Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering

    I knew it rang a bell @Santosha12! That sounds like an excellent Sunday! If you get back into it, definitely let me know what you think of the storyline 😁

  • Hayls20
    Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering

    Just a bit too old for me. maybe… 😜

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,285 Championing

    Hayls, my only criticism of the many pregnancies featured in EE storylines is the absence of information about 'safe sex'. Stacey's daughter became pregnant aged 12/13 and Avani an under 16 year old had a termination. Amy an under 16 year old had her drink spiked. I was silently screaming for those vital discussions around informed consent, risks and responsibility.

  • Hayls20
    Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering

    @WhatThe Yeah I agree, I know these things happen and they have to reflect society, but they do seem to neglect those types of conversations. Maybe not 'dramatic' enough?

    @Santosha12 Ha not sure my mum would be happy if I brought someone 35 years older than me home lol!

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,285 Championing
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1104330#Comment_1104330

    I imagine he'll be in one of Nigel's dreams. Nigel has dementia is further down the forum.

    (apologies to both - I didn't mean to butt in earlier and thought I'd saved my comment)

  • Amberpearl
    Amberpearl Community Member Posts: 4,202 Championing
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/144214/eastenders-portrayal-of-disabled-pregnancy

    Yes I watched it too

    And thought why didn't jack even consider penny

    It's shocking

    Izzy in coronation Street is a good example

    Disabled people can have kids too

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,700 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    Oooh this must be the baby that Jack was looking after in the flash forward episode from NYE. I really hope they don't kill off Penny, I really like her character and its nice to see her being utilised more😊

  • Hayls20
    Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering

    Agreed @Mary_Scope - I’m just concerned if he’s looking after them in the flash forward what’s happened to Penny and how that might come across tbh! 🫤

    @Amberpearl Yeah that was my thoughts, she was so low down on the list of people who thought could be pregnant, does just reemphasise that even the people closest to us can still have misconceptions about us!

  • Hayls20
    Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering

    Actually just caught up with today's episode and have some thoughts:

    That self doubt of 'when have you ever seen a mum like me?' sent me STRAIGHT back to when I was in the same position and just shows if you can't see it represented, how do you know it's achievable.

    The actual practicalities of feeds, pushing etc are conversations I've never seen on TV before and it turns out the ep was written by a wheelchair user (!) - so I'm hoping there's plenty more of this

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,700 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    I haven't watched todays episode yet @Hayls20 but this is really interesting! I am a big believer that there needs to be much more visibility in the media because it's really hard to be what you don't know exists!! I really hope they do this storyline justice.

    I've also just created the Eastenders Exchange discussion for all things Eastenders related if you are interested😊

  • Hayls20
    Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering

    What is the saying @Mary_Scope -“You can’t be what you can’t see” ♥️

    Oh cool, thanks for doing that!

  • Hayls20
    Hayls20 Community Member Posts: 54 Empowering

    Enjoying seeing this play out now: even something as simple as the lift being broken on her way to the scan, showing her transfer from the car to her chair - so many things I've never seen represented on screen!

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