I'm going to try to be nice, but I've been seeing this all day so I apologize if I seem needlessly angry... And I hope you were serious, or...
I’ve thought about the whole “Derpy is offensive” thing ever since they were threatening to remove her completely. There are plenty of other characters across the board of age demographics who are: portrayed with “derp” eyes, voiced to imply they have a mental problem, accident-centric, and on the whole *just* as offensive as Derpy is supposed to be.
They are all male. Without a doubt. Dog of CatDog, the titular two stupid dogs and hundreds upon hundreds of others [I haven’t checked. This is very likely hyperbole]. I can name only one other female character in the “stupid” role and that’s Dee Dee(?) of Dexter’s Lab. And even then, she’s not the slightest bit as deeply derpy as Derpy is.
At least Derpy acknowledged that she’d caused an accident and offered to help. That’s a big leap forward in the portrayal of possibly-mentally-challenged cartoon characters. As opposed to the typical attitude in kids’ media of, “let’s laugh at the retard”.
Now they want to take away her name and make pretend that there was nothing ever “wrong” with her? How is this supposed to spread the message of love and tolerance? How is this supposed to teach our kids that it’s okay to be “different”[and yes, my kids and I watch and love Derpy. Yes, they have a “mental disability”. No, we were not even slightly offended. Until they censored Derpy]?
It doesn’t.
Saying that there’s something “wrong” with a possibly-mentally-challenged character and “fixing” them or erasing them is wrong. It’s way more offensive than just having the character in the first place.
It’s telling everyone with a mental problem that they should be “fixed” [even though there’s nothing wrong with them] or if they can’t be “fixed”, that they should hide so that the whole world isn’t offended by them. That’s wrong, too.
Sorry for the wall of text, there, but I feel strongly about this. It’s as if we’re about to turn a corner with the general portrayal of the possibly-mentally-challenged in the media and I can’t help feeling that Derpy is the balance point. I also can’t help feeling that Hasbro is tipping precisely the wrong way.
I have no objection to the re-voicing. That’s fine. The voice actress made a mistake and it’s okay to correct that[Plus there’s plenty of the actually-mentally-challenged in the real world who sound “normal”]. I do object to editing out Rainbow Dash saying “Derpy” [It’s not a slur. Look it up FFS!] and I object to “fixing” Derpy’s trademark eyes. That is rank cowardice.
FYI - for the left frame of that picture, I purposely picked cartoon characters that I’m familiar with, and that I have to leave the room for when they’re on screen. Patrick Star is the only exception, because I find him barely tolerable on a good day. I, personally, find them offensive. Instead of making the animators “fix” those characters - I just don’t watch them.
As for Homer. I remember that episode. They purposely “fixed” him and then had him decide to go back to the status quo. As in - there was nothing “wrong” with him in the first place.
I say that there’s nothing about Derpy that needs to be “fixed” either.
