Mentally Handicapped Pony

Wow, it's been five days, and I don't have much to say.

I finished the book Fried Green Tomatoes. I don't want to write a whole review right now, but it was good. Somebody told me it had a feminist "Stigma" associated with it, which I can't tell whether or not is a good or bad thing, but I don't care. I'm guessing most of it's reputation came from the movie, which I haven't seen but I'm betting was more famous, since that's sort of a trend.

I think I told you guys that I used to play online Scrabble against someone who's probably bordering on professional levels. I just finished my first game since coming back, and surprisingly, I won. I thought that learning all that French and Bambara may have pushed my English skills back, but maybe doing so much studying into linguistics actually helped me. I did have the first turn advantage, though. She's got it this time, and is currently leading... though only by a single point.

Did some shopping for my brother's birthday today... This Monday he's hitting the big 20! Kind of weird knowing my little brother's a 20-year-old, but I guess it was weirder when I went through it. Now that I think about it, didn't I complain about leaving my teenage years on this blog, near to when I started? Guess that makes sense. I knew this blog was about a couple years old.

Do you remember me talking about that show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, that is all the rage among 20-something males nowadays? Didn't wear off when I was in CWY, and it looks like the show's marketing to this audience now.

In one episode, a pony with crossed eyes was seen inside a crowd of ponies. It was probably an art error, but the character took off, and online she became widely known with the fan-given name of Derpyhooves. She became so popular, in fact, that the show acknowledged her by giving her several more background spots and brief interaction scenes, eventually leading up to a full episode segment where she got to talk and was spoken to by name. Yes, they used the name that fans gave her.

In this episode segment, they gave her a voice typically associated with mentally challenged people, and played up her dumb antics in a slapstick way. See, this was aimed toward the 20-something male viewers, or "Bronies" (for "Bro" and "Pony"), and the show forgot it's other target audience... You know, little girls.

They got a lot of complaints by angry parents, and the creators redid the episode, giving Derpy a normal voice, and without referring to her by name. Now, the Bronies weren't cool with that. There were wide complaints on that end that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is about love and acceptance, and by sweeping a character under the rug, because a speculated intellectual disability made viewers uncomfortable, was going against the spirit of the show.

I saw a Save Derpy video. In it, Derpy is apologizing that she made people angry, and that she doesn't mean for her voice to sound the way it does, or for her eyes to look the way they do. She says she only wanted to make friends, but she'll still be there for us, in the background. And she cries. I really couldn't tell if the video was serious or satirical.

There were also a number of complaints that accusations of Derpy's name being offensive, for the reason that "Derp" is a derogative term for the mentally disabled, are false. The counterclaim is that "Derp" is just a term used for stupid or goofy people in general.

Well, it's kind of evolved into that meaning, but I remember when I was in middle school, people would push their upper lips out, bang on the chests and say "Herp, derp, derp" in an attempted mimicry of mentally disabled people. Every time I've heard the term "Derp" I've considered it as a derogative to mentally challenged people, used in a slightly different manner, eg saying "That's so gay" to something that has nothing to do with homosexuality. I was surprised that so many people seemed to not think of the term in the same context as me.

Still, even by new context, naming a mentally challenged pony "Stupidhooves" might not be the brightest move, even in a world where many characters are named affectionately after personal challenges, such as Fluttershy.

All in all, I'd have to say editing out the mentally handicapped pony is really offensive. It falls into the habit of segregating disabled people from "normal" society that breeds the insecurity that people have around them. Once you've introduced the disabled pony, she'd better be there to say.

But at the same time, if you're going to introduce her, give her a full episode. Don't just slip her in, have her cause a mess, and make her look stupid for cheap laughs as a first impression. Also, Derpyhooves isn't such a hot choice for a name. It arguably stems as a slur against disabled people, and at best it's still making fun of her for her disability.

I swear I only know about all this from news articles (yeah, it's making news), and watching the original and the edited scenes of Derpyhooves's introduction.