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Mainstream Media and OT

Being an OT student is stressful, time consuming and allows very little time for activities outside of studying. During a rare moment of free time, I was scrolling through Twitter and happened upon an article posted by AOTA about the movie Downsizing. It is titled: AOTA Responds to Portrayal of Occupational Therapy in the Movie Downsizing

With the demands of OT school, I had not seen the movie but was intrigued. I had never heard of a movie that featured occupational therapy! Downsizing is a comedy, drama, science fiction movie about the life of a man who thinks he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself. Since the movie is science-fiction, one would expect for there to be some futuristic/unrealistic elements. I was expecting to read that while that one aspect of the film was not realistic, the aspect of OT would be accurate, but I was sadly disappointed. The article states "The fact that he is an OT is a crucial part of the film in that it does move the plot  of the story forward, but it is a minor part of the movie considering all the other aspects of the plot." What a let down! I was excited with the idea that OT was going to get some media attention through this movie, because OT is a mystery to most people. Personally, I did not know what OT was and didn't switch my major to get the prerequisites for OT school till I was a junior in college. It is crazy to think of where I would be in life had I not heard of and fell in love with OT. There is so much work to be done in the area of promoting/advocating for OT!

AOTA says that they contacted Paramount Pictures to see how and why occupational therapy was chosen as the main character's profession, but Paramount Pictures refused to comment. Bummer! Maybe if Paramount Pictures had listened to what AOTA had to say about OT, the role of OT in the movie would have been altered to portray a more accurate representation of OT. The article goes on to describe the scene where the main character, Paul, describes what he does for a living (his elevator speech). After stating he is an OT, someone says "Oh, like career counseling?" to which Paul replies "More like physical therapy... my focus is preventing and treating work-related injuries..." If I had a nickel for every time someone thought I was going to PT school or that OT's do physical therapy, I would not have to worry about paying for tuition! Even though OT is similar to PT, the two are very different and it would have been nice to see that acknowledged in the movie. 

Even though I was disappointed to hear that OT was not a major focus in Downsizing, it was encouraging to hear that Hollywood had even acknowledge that OT even existed, considering OT is unknown to many. It shows that there is room for improvement in advocating for the profession. Who knows, maybe AOTA could make a parody of Downsizing to give a more accurate portrayal of OT!!!

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