Re: See what "Day of the Doctor" with Ecclestone would have looked lik
can we not use the slur "lame"? just because someone has problems with their legs doesn't mean they a synonym for inferiority and weakness.
It wasn't really meant as a slur but as a synonym of weak - which is also ableist as a quick internet research has shown me. I've replaced it.
My ex-wife (who I am dating - looong story) is disabled - she has JRA and uses an electric wheelchair and I met her when she ran into me with her Amigo cart. And I have never heard her use the word "ableist" - in fact, I recently had to explain to *her* what it meant. And she uses the word "lame" all the time, especially when talking to our teenage kids, in fact, I'm snickering now because she told me that "ableist" is a "pretty lame thing to say".
Of course, she doesn't speak for or represent all disabled people - but she have a lot of disabled friends (and I have a mental disability myself - several, actually) - and the only people who I have ever heard use the word "ableist" then to be PC people with no disabilities...and just like men online who mansplain to women why the are so wrong when they say that they *don't* need feminism, I think treating disabled people like they are weak and need defending is a bit...patronizing.
Originally, I wasn't going to continue this line of discussion because it's off-topic but since it has already filled up a whole page I might as well.
The term ableist may not be as widely known as others but I don't think that really matters. The concept of associating disability with something negative or bad is certainly a familiar one. The thing is that language shapes our thoughts and the other way around. So if we use words like retarded we (involuntarily) perpetuate the notion that disability is something bad and shameful. I think it's a good thing to occasionally step back and look at how we use language.
As for men explaining to women that they're wrong when they claim that they don't need feminism - as a woman and a feminist I'd say those men are absolutely right. Their behaviour isn't necessarily patronising (though it can be, depending how they go about it). It also doesn't fit the original meaning of mansplaining.
I just get the feeling that we all walk on eggshells now days because society suffers from "offensensitivity" - and yeah, we should try not to use words like "lame", "gay", "pussy", "retarded", as pejoratives...but if we slip up and do, we're not "worse than Hitler" either. (For a long time I used "lame" as a substitute for "gay", I never made a connection between "lame" and "disabled"...ever. Until I read this post.)
I'm not walking on eggshells. And I didn't make the connection, either, until it was pointed out. English is my second language. But thinking about it it does make sense.
Four Doctor was very respectful in pointing it out so I have no idea where that part about being "worse than Hitler" comes from. If nobody ever raises the issue or points these things out nobody will learn a thing.
At least in English you have so many synonymous words it's fairly easy to find substitutes for what you want to say. In my native tongue it's a lot harder.
So, anyway. Day of the Doctor, huh?
I do agree with what was said upthread that the contrast between Nine and the other Doctors wouldn't have been as great as with the War Doctor. In a way, he embodied a part of the fan base of the old show with its criticism of the young Doctors and thus allowed Moffat to come up with an explanation of why they are that way. So, after that, Capaldi could be an older, grumpier Doctor.
