lol @ disabled people

[-gem-]

Always confused me this....on the one hand british people are caring compasionate and defensive towards many disabled people. For example, if someone said 'yeah, your grandad, the old Parkinson's ridden fool', you'd rightly get pretty annoyed.
But some disabilities get taken the mickey out of, and no one cares?
Like blindness....it made David Blunkett's eyes go funny. But comedians could impersonate that and make jokes about his blindness with impunity.
If someone has a mental illness it seems roughly the same. My ex-boyfriend had Bi-Polar Depression, and his mates made fun of it quite a bit, which upset me.
What disabilities are ok to make fun of in the public eye, and why?

[Panic Button]

I don't actually think that impressionists doing a skit on David Blunkett were taking the mickey out of his 'disability'.

They were simply doing a caricature of the man. It's no different to a spitting image puppet of Denis Healey having unfeasibly huge eyebrows, or Prince Charles having big ears.

[sitonmyface]

4GS was mocking my dissability yesterday!!!

[4getmenot]

not many. But I can say I have laughed at the dvd Johns not mad. Couldnt help it.

[jjjohnny]

heather mills was born to be mocked

[Octavius]

Anyone seen The Crippendales?

[4getmenot]

Oh dont my mate who's a hairdresser was cutting tghis ladies hair and was laughing at it in a magazine and it turned out it was her clients cousin and she had no idea!!

[Octavius]

eh? ^^^

It's a comedy, its meant to be funny. Its a pee-take of the Full Monty but with disabled men.

[Bbbananas]

what's there to be depressed about, having two polar bears? Sell em on e-bay if he doesn't like them....

[-gem-]

Oh I forgot, Heather Mills! Perfect example. If it was a poor random orphan>no joke. But because Mills was vilified (most hated woman in the country), her disability is fair game.
Why is this ok? Is it exposing something dishonest about our normal compassion to those in need? If we care for a handicapped person because they are handicapped, why does this evaporate when the person is disliked, like Mills. Some people would wish it on her...... (shrugs)

[-gem-]

Good day, Henry!
Your wife, for example, the one with no head....:)

[Octavius]

You mean HMMcC stops being horrid and vile because she lost a leg in an accident?

People should be treated like everyone else, are you saying they should be treated differently if they are disabled? Isn't that kinda patronising or discriminatory?

[4getmenot]

yer her cousin is a crippendale oct

[4getmenot]

mental disabilities yes

[annie0000]

On they other hand, why should we like someone just because they have aa disability - disabled people are part of society the same as everyone else, some are nice people, some are not - just the same as everyone else. People don't dislike Heather Mills because she has a missing leg, they dislike her in spite of the fact she has a missing leg. People will always get slagged off or have fun poked at them for something - e.g. ginger, lanky, fat etc why should a disability be ignored? Bullying is bullying regardless so i guess it depends on whether it is intended to be malicious or is a humorous observation.

[-gem-]

Wow, how did you manage to cross those wires right round. Read what I said please.

If we manage to show compassion to the disabled BECAUSE THEY ARE DISABLED then why do we cease to show this compassion to Heather Mills. She is still disabled. Even though she is vile.

I did not say what you just said I said.

Furthermore> The disability of most disabled becomes the instigator of our compassion towards them. The disability of Heather Mills becomes, on the contrary, a weapon in our arsenal of hate towards her.
I'm not particularly bothered about this happening. But I think it is strange and it exposes something about the real depth of our compassion in regular circumstances.

[-gem-]

That post was directed at Octavius.

[-gem-]

Thanks, annie, for the concise post.

The bullying bit is kind of my point>we grow out of the playground. Lots of kids said 'haha darkie' or 'haha you po0f' or 'haha you spastic' in the playground, but we grow out of this and mostly shun bullying of this kind because it is childlike. A man who happens to be black may disgust or annoy me in some way but I will never ever ever say 'You stupid n.....'. Nor would most. But people who would also not do this, do decide that it's ok to regress to the bullying over disability eg Heather Mills, Blunkett when he became unpopular....

[Octavius]

I think you are creating a circular argument that has been well and truly addressed.