Stuttering in the Media

I’m writing this post to change some common misconceptions about stuttering in the media. Since stuttering doesn’t get a lot of media exposure, the limited amount it does get can create some misconstrued facts. Emily Blunt, a famous actress who stuttered as a child, recently gave an NPR interview about her new movie and discussed her experiences with stuttering. She said a few things in this interview that I felt needed to be addressed. You can listen to the interview here, or read a general summary of the stuttering portion here. I recommend you listen to it because there’s so much good stuff that’s left out in the summary. Pop in your headphones, sip a beverage, and get ready to overanalyze the sh*t out of her words!

Emily starts off by mentioning that her stutter peaked when she was a preteen. Same here, dude! I’m not sure what her version of “peaked” was, but for me, mine was using tons of tricks to get out of a stutter and jerking up my head from blocking tension. Her next statement was:

“It is and it was — and still is for many people who suffer with it — it is a condition that people tease [about]”

Suffer. This represents an old take on speech therapy and stuttering – that it’s a burden, or that it detracts from one’s ability to accomplish things. This term, as well as the phrase “I have a speech impediment” doesn’t sit well with me because having a stutter doesn’t impede you to do anything. I will always remember the head clinician telling me that on my first day of Avoidance Reduction Speech Therapy. Emily also said that stuttering can be a misrepresentation of who you are, even though it’s simply your inability to speak. I have to disagree with both parts of this statement because I don’t feel that speaking with a stutter is misrepresenting yourself; it’s actually quite the opposite – it’s representing your whole self, which includes your quirks. Also, stuttering shouldn’t be considered an inability to speak just because your words come out a little differently than others. Even if you stutter, you absolutely have the power to say what you want to say, when you want to say it.

“If you get the right treatment it’s very temporary.”

Right treatment. Temporary. These words are a dream that is never meant to be reality for people who stutter. I have been through tons of different speech therapies, and none of them were the “right treatment” for me (until ARTS came along, but I wouldn’t consider it a treatment program, it’s more of an acceptance program). I understand the message she’s trying to deliver, that stuttering doesn’t have to take over your whole life, however phrasing it like it’s a bad ankle sprain that’s treated with a few months of physical therapy is just inaccurate.

“You don’t stutter when you do a silly voice.”

Actually, this is true. It is a fact that when you sing or change your voice, you don’t stutter. No one really knows why (unless there is some more research out there, and if so, please fill me in), it just happens. Emily’s message here is that she believed she stopped stuttering because she started speaking in voices while acting. A lot of people I’ve talked to about stuttering say things like “just change your voice a little and your stutter will be gone”. But, the reason that this isn’t the cure for stuttering is because it’s only a temporary fix; changing your voice is a trick, and tricks always wear off. Once you use a trick over and over again, you treat it as the norm, and your stutter creeps back in, leaving you with nothing except stuttering in a British accent (…which wouldn’t be terrible, I do love me a good accent!).

All in all, stuttering is something that is often misunderstood in the media and won’t be corrected unless we speak up ourselves. If you read this through to the end, I hope it was an interesting read for ya! Feel free to leave a comment below on your thoughts about this post, the interview, or any other thoughts about stuttering.

Happy New Year! xoxo