ableism – Retirement Home of Alex Heberling's Tumblr

“It’s ableist to say that people with different faces are disabled” — Um, no, no one ever said this was about ALL people with disabilities, or that people with different faces are somehow automatically disabled. What’s ableist is not acknowledging that some people with “derp faces” do exist.

“We should all just stop back off and stop fighting, give peace a chance, blah blah” — The majority of what I’ve seen has been people spouting off ableist shit. I’ve seen people who criticized Derpy threatened with rape and death, harassed multiple times, etc, but I have yet to see a person who thinks “derp” is okay call out their fellow Bronies on said behavior. I’ve gotten some shit myself but I haven’t posted it. So no. When someone is being a racist dick, and they refuse to acknowledge it, you don’t say, “hey let’s be friends!” This is not about moral relativism. It’s either ableist or it’s not.

“It’s just a cartoon! You’re taking this too seriously!” — Cartoon characters can send political and social messages to people as much as real people. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but MLP has a lesson about friendship in every episode. If it can do this, why couldn’t it also be ableist? And also, this is really funny given how some people have responded with threats, harassment, etc. I guess it’s only serious if the word is some pretty little meme that matters to you, right?

“The creators of the show didn’t mean for it to be ableist!” — Intent is not magic. The end. If a little kid says X expletive about People of Color, they are still being racist even if they didn’t mean to. It is very possible to say or do offensive things without meaning to.

“People will always find something to be offended by, blah blah” or “it’s just the internet, it won’t change!” — No. Actually, people get offended when they encounter something that demeans their existence or their identity. It is incredibly possible to be funny without hurting people through ableism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Go look up Mitch Hedberg, he’s a standup comedian who is incredibly funny without being offensive. This kind of response reeks of self-interested, self-convenient fatalism. Maybe if you actually took on some responsibility and acknowledged what’s going on, you could change something.

“Derp just means ‘awkward’ or ‘silly’” — Okay, then don’t use faces and images that make fun of people with disabilities. And there are plenty of other words that mean “awkward” or “silly”, without being ableist…such as…”awkward” or “silly”. Or potatoes. Or jujubes. It’s not hard.

“Someone who is disabled told me it doesn’t bother them” — Okay, and it bothers other people with disabilities. Your point? No one elected some grand representative of all of the disabled people to speak on our behalf. It’s not some popularity contest. It’s about actually figuring out if this is a problem or not.

“It’s not ableist, you’re wrong, you’re being too sensitive” — Cool story. I guess the people with disabilities who are telling you it’s a problem don’t matter as much, right? Oh wait, that’s ableist.

if anyone can refute these, I’d love to see it. I haven’t yet.

Read, y’all.

The latest MLP episode

January 22, 2012January 22, 2012 Alex Heberling

The latest MLP episode

kirailabs:

alexheberling:

yamino:

For those unaware, in the latest episode she was shown clumsily destroying the town, talking with slurred speech, and was officially referred to as “Derpy.” She’s officially the mentally handicapped joke character, just like fandom has always wanted her to be.

I’ve received countless asks about this, so I figure you’re all wanting a reaction. But really, if you’ve read any of my posts regarding the “Derpy Hooves” character, you know exactly how I feel about it.

Absolutely disgusted.

This is a low I had not expected. I really don’t even know what to say. I have lost so much respect for the creators after this.

Yeah, this pretty much sums it up. I got onto Facebook today and a friend of mine had posted the status: “Derpy is canon and is voiced.”

So I got on YouTube to find the episode… and yeah. That just happened.

“She’s officially the mentally handicapped joke character, just like fandom has always wanted her to be.”

I hope you guys are happy living in your disgusting, privileged worlds.

Yeah, I figured this would be Yamino’s reaction.

Personally, *as* a high-functioning autistic (Aspergers) I don’t see any problem with it. She means well, she’s just clumsy. We got less than a minute of her, and you’re calling that the extent of her personality? She’s just a “Mentally handicapped joke character”? Come on, you’re both writers and artists. Would *you* accept anybody saying your characters are *just* something? Would you not insist there’s other facets that just haven’t been seen yet?

There’s other interpretations of her too, you know. She’s deaf and/or has an inner ear thing (Explaining her way of speaking and her clumsiness), she’s just kinda dim and *really* unlucky, whatever. But nope, instantly to the most reactionary….reaction.

Stop being offended by things that have no relation to you, and stop being offended *for* people. You do not know better than others who these things actually relate to, and the constant ‘This offends me!’ reactions I see bug the ever-lovin’ crap out of me.

You know what? Not even most of the fanbase thinks Derpy is *just* a joke character! They consider her a loving, devoted parent, a hard worker, and a caring friend, who just HAPPENS to have something wrong in her head! And here you guys are, going ‘Oh, she’s just a retarded joke character now, this is so offensive’, based on LESS THAN A MINUTE AND A HALF between her name being spoken and the last frame she appeared on screen!

If you ask me? THAT is more offensive.

Come on, you’re both writers and artists. Would *you* accept anybody saying your characters are *just* something? Would you not insist there’s other facets that just haven’t been seen yet?

If someone is saying “Oh they’re just [whatever]” about some of my works, that means I haven’t done my job as a storyteller. If Derpy comes back in a future episode and somehow they don’t fuck up and actually portray her as a person, not a stereotype, then sure, I’ll eat my hat and take it back.

But when the character was created by the fandom, and the show is just pandering to them and making a mockery of mannerisms and behavior attributed to the mentally disabled, that’s disgusting, and I don’t think that there’s any way the creators of this show are going to be able to satisfactoril fix this one, short of cutting that cold open out completely.

Derpy’s appearance didn’t contain any hints whatsoever that the writers have any other plans for her character, other than a shoutout to the bronies. There was nothing subtle about it. And the only thing kids are going to take from it (and this show is WATCHED BY A LOT OF KIDS, let’s remember) is that it’s perfectly acceptable to laugh at, dismiss, and get frustrated with people (real, live, fleshy people) who resemble Derpy, since that’s what their hero Rainbow Dash did.

And one more thing?

Stop being offended by things that have no relation to you, and stop being offended *for* people. You do not know better than others who these things actually relate to, and the constant ‘This offends me!’ reactions I see bug the ever-lovin’ crap out of me.

I do not have any obligation to divulge the details of my mental health to strangers on the internet, but to assume I should not be compassionate or show basic empathy, even if I were completely able-bodied and able-minded, is deeply deeply problematic.