Lessons from bronies: Removing ableist stereotypes is intolerant!
Remember the backlash when an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic portrayed fan-favorite Ditzy/"Derpy" as "humorously" mentally challenged? Well, the concerns were heard, and the voice changed!

Aaaaand now some bronies are crying "ruined FOREVER!". To the tune of "not liking our insensitivity is intolerant!"

So, everyone who can now watch the clip without cringeing, you're harshing someone's squee, and that's terrible.

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	agent_hyatt 2012-02-26 11:45 pm UTC (link)
	That's assuming the pony was even meant to actually be disabled. There's been no indication that that is the case. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	anarchicq 2012-02-27 12:03 am UTC (link)
	Inferring from the content of the scene isn't enough? It's better to have characters say something like "This is (Character name, which incidentally was striped from her too.), and she's a little bit disabled but that's ok! She's just like us anyway!"? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

agent_hyatt
2012-02-27 12:14 am UTC (link)

When that's pretty much all the content we have for her, and all the disability markers are also markers of a joke? No, it's not enough.

You're not a fan of the show, so maybe you don't get the issue. The character isn't really a character; she started as an art error that gained memetic status in the fandom. The characterization the fandom came up with was stereotypically mentally challenged, except without any real disability awareness. A lot of more disability-conscious fans have objected to that characterization, and to her name being an ableist slur. When the episode first aired, those people assumed that the writers had only seen the internet popularity and not the real issues people had with how she was treated as a joke.

Now, which do you think is more likely, that the writers intended to have a nuanced, disabled pony character and her first real scene just happened to be comedic, or that the writers decided to make a scene with a fandom-favorite character and characterization without realizing how problematic it was?

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