Why Is Diabetes Often Poorly Represented In Movies?

21st June 2019

Why Is Diabetes Often Poorly Represented In Movies?

By Frankie Wallace.

Over 100 million adults (9.4% of the population) in the United States have prediabetes. For a condition that affects so many people, you’d think it would be accurately represented in our media — but it’s not. Instead, movies often represent diabetes in the form of sugar and fat jokes.

Often, this happens because script writers do not have first-hand experience with diabetes or they aren’t educated about the disease. However, their punchlines poke fun at a fair portion of their audience when you take into consideration the amount of diabetic moviegoers and their families and friends. Let’s take a look at what it’s like to live with diabetes and how movies portray this condition.

What Does Living With Diabetes Look Like?

There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is inherited. It’s an autoimmune disease often called juvenile diabetes. This type of diabetes prevents children and adults from producing insulin naturally. You can’t “catch” or acquire type 1, and while certain dietary conditions can help someone with type 1 diabetes, they have it for life.

About 90% of patients in the U.S. have type 2 diabetes. This develops with abnormally high glucose levels in the diet. Type 2 can be reversed, but only with changes in diet, weight, and stress levels — a tall order for any patient living on a budget and working a stressful job.

Another type of diabetes can affect those who are pregnant. Gestational diabetes is a commonly overlooked condition that requires expecting mothers to take insulin regularly. Further, dangerously low blood sugar can lead to many fetal health conditions and birth complications.

Presently, many patients take insulin shots using pens with prescription medications like Toujeo. Patients are also advised to make healthy lifestyle changes to avoid exacerbating their condition, including dietary and fitness improvements.

Harmful Misconceptions About Diabetes in the Media

Movies convey a lot of cultural information to audiences. Aside from perpetuating a lot of the “people with diabetes are fat and lazy” harmful stereotypes, movies often ignore the existence of type 1 altogether. While being overweight can bring on type 2 diabetes, not all people with type 2 diabetes are fat. Furthermore, people with type 1 have a condition unrelated to their shape or size — it’s all about how the body doesn’t produce insulin. Films often:

Confuse the two main types of diabetes
Present inaccurate symptoms
Unfairly or inaccurately portray the lives of characters with diabetes

Inaccuracies hurt real people. Seeing “miracle cures” and untrue stereotypes make daily life more difficult for people living with diabetes (and for their families).

Which Movies Got It Right?

Panic Room (2002) and Con Air (1997) both present situations in which diabetics would face serious conditions or die without immediate doses of insulin. This is accurate — and those characters might have been at risk for DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) and hyperglycemia. Steel Magnolias (1989) also presents a low blood sugar hyperglycemia situation with incredible accuracy.

Which Movies Failed With Representation of Diabetes?

That’s My Boy (2012) confuses diabetes types 1 and 2. The diabetic character attributes his childhood diabetes to eating a lot of sweets and gaining weight as in type 2, which is possible for children, but the movie also implies you can get type 1 diabetes from eating sweets — which isn’t true.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) makes a similar mistake, conflating types 1 and 2. Hansel, played by Jeremy Renner, receives an insulin injection after passing out. He’s instantly fine — but in real life, this requires a hospital trip, and fast-acting insulin takes at least 10 minutes to work. He also doesn’t do a blood sugar test to determine what’s going on before he takes the insulin.

Big Nothing (2006) depicts the takedown of a diabetic criminal. The main characters take him out by forcing him to eat a sugary treat. That’s just not how it works, and it’s also pretty insensitive to suggest someone can or should mess with a diabetic’s diet as a means of revenge.

Another main point that many movies miss when it comes to diabetes is that insulin needs to be refrigerated. In an apocalyptic situation, how do diabetics access the refrigeration technology necessary to store insulin safely? If the plot doesn’t address this point, it’s safe to assume that insulin, and those who depend on it, just wouldn’t make it in the real world.

How Can Filmmakers Better Represent in Movies?

Filmmakers should note the large portion of diabetics living with this condition today. There are several reputable organizations able to provide on-site and script guidance when it comes to accurately representing characters. Furthermore, producers could hire actors who already live with the condition. A diabetic would be most suited to play an individual with the disease.

Just a little research and fact-checking could improve the representation of people with diabetes in films dramatically. Additionally, it would help to see some normalcy regarding what it’s like to live with the condition. Filmmakers should portray both type 1 and type 2 as a typical part of life for many people — because in real life, it is.

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