There is, what is referred to as, a furore surrounding the TV show ‘Rosie Jones: am I a retard’, in which the comedian ‘explores the abuse disabled people receive online in the UK’. The furore concerns the title of the show. I read that Ms Jones has a condition called ‘ataxic cerebral palsy’ and in her show, it says here, ‘she incorporates her slow speech pattern into her comedy, constructing jokes to subvert the punchline that audiences expect.’ Until I learned about the TV show, I had never heard of Rosie Jones, nor indeed the condition from which she suffers (is ‘suffers’ the right word? Probably not) but the fuss around the title of the show I do understand.
Anyway, her condition is not, apparently, a learning disability – don’t ask me why is isn’t: ask an expert – but some folk with learning disabilities do not think she should be using the term. Her supporters argue that she is taking ownership of the word retard, but her detractors say she is throwing people with learning disabilities under the bus. I’m afraid I’m not the best person to say which it is, but I find the use of the ‘R word, as it will inevitably now become known, every bit as offensive as the N word, whoever uses it.
There are generally speaking three pejorative terms for disability: Mong, Spastic and Retard. When I was a mere lad, Mong and Spastic were commonly used, not always at disabled people. Retard, I never heard and have tended to regard it as an Americanism. It could be the cosseted world in which I now live, but I never hear these terms anymore and I am glad I don’t. Times and attitudes change, they evolve and what was once normal now isn’t.
Given that Jones’s TV show is all about how she is trolled online on a daily basis and receives rape and death treats, I don’t want to add to that, even on this little read blog, but I don’t think she helps the matter by using the R word, retard.
In the 1980s, there was an American TV show called ‘Highway To Heaven’ in which a retired police officer toured the country with an angel writing wrongs and generally doing nice things. In one episode, a disabled person was having a hard time and even the good guys were defending the person concerned by saying things like, “Don’t treat him like that: he’s a retard!” It was the norm. It isn’t now.
I suppose it’s matter for Jones what she calls her programme and maybe she has chosen the title to make a much bigger point about the way we regard disability? In which case, good luck to her, even if I find it cringy. But then, having read about the story, I checked out her live show and quickly came to the conclusion this was no laughing matter. The live show, I mean. It seemed to me that she was laughing at herself, but so was everyone else. I felt sorry for her, not for the condition that she has, but for the material she uses on stage.
I wish her well, though. It must take some doing to get out there on your own when you have something that has a negative effect on your speech. I can see why she used the title for her show, but I don’t like it, sad old woke snowflake that I am. No one would use the term ‘Mong’, Ms Jones herself says she hates the term ‘Spastic’, so why is ‘Retard’ okay? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. Not for her, not for Highway To Heaven, not for anyone.
