At first I thought what if they didn’t intentionally make fun of people with disabilities? Then I remembered being mimicked and laughed at when everyone had a copy of the yearbook from grade 7 to 12.
Guess who’s making a “derp face”, and guess who has an actual disability?
1. Derp face [source]
2. Zach Anner, who has Cerebral Palsy [source]
3. Girl with Down Syndrome [source]
4. Derp face [source]
5. Derp face [source]
6. Person with Cerebral Palsy [source]
7. Derp face [source]
8. Person with Down Syndrome [source]
9. Derp face [source]
10. Person with Down Syndrome [source]
Now can we at least admit that maybe, just maybe, “derp” is ableist and making fun of people with disabilities?
(“derp” images were found by searching the “derp” or “derp face” tag on Tumblr. Also, there were pictures of people just looking awkward/shy/whatever, but a large chunk of them were like this.)
I actually just tried a similar strategy on Google to prep a lecture about language. I searched “herp derp” on Google Images, and came up with a number of photos of people with disabilities, as well as meme images that explicitly used the R-word in tandem with the phrase “herp derp.”
The context of “herp derp” is clearly ableist, no matter what an individual speaker means by it. Yes, language changes, but other people speak it, and you have to take into account what they mean by it when you use the same words.
