MovieChat Forums > The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2010) Discussion > Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?

posted 14 years ago by NoTicket
16 replies | jump to latest

I watched this with some friends last night and we kept debating as to why so many members of the White family seemed to have the same facial features. They all have short noses, big foreheads & similar small eye openings making them look very much like a possum and/or the banjo boy from Deliverance. One of my friend's argued these were common features related to fetal alcohol syndrome and based on some Google-ing I may be partial to that answer. Does anyone else have another explanation (inbreeding)?

[–] Uneed2leave 14 years ago

They do look very much alike!! My first guess was inbreeding. Those facial features just don't look healthy. You make a good point, though. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome does make sense...or perhaps a combination of that and drug use during pregnancy. Is it possible that their has been so much drug & alcohol abuse through their family generations that those have simply become family features?

In addition to their faces, I would like to know why the women all have that raspy voice. Meth use is a good guess, but that may be genetic as well. Thoughts, anybody?

[–] Dragon000 14 years ago

FAS could be possible with the younger family members. However, I have trouble believing that Bertie Mae would drink during all of those pregnancies and while raising all of those children.
As far as the raspy voices, they all smoke like chimneys as well as being in a coal mining town all their lives.

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[–] scott-souther 14 years ago

Smoking cigarettes will do that to a woman's voice. Liquor and drugs contribute too. Usually it takes a woman until she's in her 50s to sound like that but when you start smoking when you're a child, it can happen in your 20s or 30s.

[–] Strongsad38001 14 years ago

I don't know if this would do it or not, but in a video on Youtube, Mamie said that they're part Cherokee Native American on Bertie Mae's side, and possibly D Ray's side as well, since he named Poney in order to celebrate their Native American heritage. I'm thinking that could maybe give them their unique looks.

And speaking of their looks, what the hell is wrong with Annie Mae? Did she have bad plastic surgery or something? They never explained it. They said her nickname is "Elizabeth Taylor" because they think she looks like her. Any guesses as to how she came to look that way?

[–] jhnyn 14 years ago

They don't have fetal alcohol syndrome and they look alike because they're related. I've seen people with FAS and they seem to have a very flat collapsed bridge of their noses.

I thought many of the Whites seemed like they'd be good looking people were it not for poverty. Lack of dental care, alcohol, smoking, drugs etc.

[–] TarheelNC 14 years ago

Its in the "genes".
These areas of WVA were remote and outsiders were not trusted/few and far between. Thus...not enough distance was put on the ole family tree.

I worked in Beckely for Mack Trucks one summer (college student) when they were putting the interstate in Beckley...around late 70's (?).

I was from Wash DC area, and even though not that far a drive, I thought I was in a third world country.
The people were nice and the surrounding country beautiful (I liked it) but poverty was everywhere. The Coal Culture was apparant with people walking in and out of stores with black dust on faces...I never had seen anything like it.

One of the guys I worked with was from there and he had same facial features.
Big ears too.

There was a casting agency few years back who put out a call for funny looking kids in WVA and caught alot of heat over it.

TarheelNC

[–] anvilheadsix 14 years ago

I think the faces of all of them display the characteristics of fetal alcohol syndrome. It shows up in the shape of their eyes and the under-developed philtrum.

http://www.primehealthchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Fetal-Alcohol-Syndrome.jpg

http://www.brocku.ca/vrbaby/parenting/faces/fasface.gif

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2005/0715/afp20050715p279-f2.jpg

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2005/0715/afp20050715p279-f2.jpg

[–] THE_Duke_Nukem 14 years ago

Poverty? POVERTY? Are you *beep* serious? They had brand new cars, and Jesco White was bringing in enough money to keep them all fed and in decent enough houses, and that uncle prick that got shot in the face had a damn fine ATV. These people were just severely mentally challenged, and the fact that you think they were "good looking" just says our society is a poltically correct mound of trash no better than these inbreds. Had they been Bush 04' supporters, you'd have a different chime, I bet. Instead, they were pot smoking liberal inbreds. Kerry/Edwards as denoted by their shirt in one of the photos at the beginning.

~Says the boss.

[–] Strongsad38001 14 years ago

Awww, you can't stereotype them off of that shirt. No one fits into those kinds of stereotypes, especially in these parts of the country. They may be "liberals," but they're also racist, pro-life, gun supporters as well. Pleeeeeaaaaaaaaassssseeeeeeeee don't bring politics into this!

And they were good-looking when they were younger. Mamie and Sue Bob were, at least.

[–] Winslowleach 14 years ago

SO you think they're all big Obama supporters? That's what occurred to me, that this was a "proud, angry, clan of free spirits" (or whatever *beep* you want to apply), but they have no sense of the extent to which the government keeps them afloat.
I wasn't sure how to react to this movie; was it meant to be funny (a la the scene at Taco Bell: "They took her baby!!", the friends nodding and waving behind the glass, or tragic? One has to have lost ones humanity to a great degree to laugh at these f-ed up messes.

[–] crooked_spoons 14 years ago

Good lord your off-topic diatribe makes you look like an idiot.

"You want me? Well f*king come on and break the door down. I'm ready..."

[–] Horse_Latitudes 14 years ago

I agree, it must be inbreeding or fetal alcohol syndrome.

[–] angigilchrist 14 years ago

Yes, totally fetal alcohol looking.
But first we must look further and deeper...there is DEFINITE mental illness.... BIPOLAR??? or ????????

That is usually what causes the alcoholism, etc.... Untreated mental illness is obviously rampant in this family.

Wow, they make me feel better!

[–] StarrySkyWaltz 13 years ago

A bunch of family members who look alike? Who'd have thunk it? They do not look like they have FAS at all, especially the older generation who were spawned from Bertie who appears to never have done drugs or drink alcohol. The younger generation do not appear to have FAS either.

[–] bittenhoney 13 years ago

Maybe they look alike because they're related. I didn't need Google for that answer.