Postby Alja-Markir » 10 Feb 2012, 05:27
The barking mad pony was absolutely hilarious, though.
The whole chase scene, I'm thinking "Is that barking? Like a "dog" dog? There aren't dogs in Equestria (discounting the Diamond Dogs which were disappointingly neither very canid nor Bowie-esque). Is that just like a sound effect that they threw in to play the trope of being chased by the authorities and waking up the town wi- OMFG A MADPONY BARKING?! GENIUS!"
As for Derpy and her eyes...
Even if we assume that Derpy is, in fact, meant to portray the medical condition known as Strabismus, how is her portrayal of people (or ponies) who are wall-eyed negative? Does Derpy at all suffer as a direct consequence of her eyes? Do other ponies mock her for her condition, or treat her differently because of it? It would only be ableist if being wall-eyed itself was portrayed as a negative thing.
What's really going on is people are noticing something unusual about a character and internally associating it with that character's other somewhat "negative" qualities - and then they are projecting that association onto others, id est, the show's creators. If Derpy was clumsy, but not wall-eyed, no one would complain. If Derpy was wall-eyed but not clumsy, there likewise would be no uproar. But because the two traits exist in the same character, people lazily assume they are logically connected.
Plenty of other characters in the show suffer from mishaps and clumsiness. Rainbow Dash crashes spectacularly while flying, the Crusaders are constantly making messes and screwing up magnificently, Twilight's library is forever being upended and disordered, and there are countless instances of slapstick ranging from pratfalls and anvil drops to spit takes and outlandish facial expressions. When all the "normal" ponies make mistakes or act clumsily, it's fine and dandy. But suddenly when the pony involved has eyes that don't line up it's offensive? I'm sorry, that's just not the way it works.
A good friend of mine is a young woman who has been blind since birth. Her biggest complaint is that other people treat her like she's made of glass. They're afraid to talk about her blindness for fear of being offensive. She has personally taken it upon herself to make fun of her own condition to break the ice and get people to loosen up. It's a very simple, very powerful way for her to say "I'm blind and that's okay. Don't worry about it, it's cool to talk about it and laugh about it in good fun."
She's always been blind. Life is harder for her than for others in many ways, and getting to know her helped me realize how much I take for granted about my own life. But it's not ableist to treat her like I would treat anyone else just because she has a so-called disability.
What IS ableist is directly mocking others for their disabilities. What IS ableist is discriminating against those who are not as capable in body or mind as the rest of us. What IS ableist is refusing to accept the differences of others as they are and as you find them.
And, according to one young woman at least, what IS ableist is treating someone differently in the name of being outraged over how others are supposedly treating them differently - wrapping them in a layer of white-knight oversensitivity and turning their differences into an uncomfortable and unspoken elephant in the room.
Accomodate the needs of others - but don't make a big deal out of it. Just accept it, and them.
~Alja~
