Cat Deeley making fun of epilepsy

[Weemammy21]

AIBU in thinking that any tv presenter who ridicules people with serious health conditions should not be in post? This is what I think about Cat Deeley ridiculing people with epilepsy during This morning yesterday. People like this should not be tv presenters because of their intolerance and making fun of children and adults with epilepsy. AIBU?

Remember when people were forgiven because "people make mistakes" that seems to have gone completely out of the window these days. Now if you misspoke one time it's the crime of the century.

Yes, I thought it was the wrong thing to say too. She shouldn’t be cancelled for it but the casual implication that seizures are ‘a bit of a laugh’ was insensitive. All these people saying she was only making a joke about herself are missing the point. She’s trivialising a serious medical condition.

Would it be ok if she made jokes about having had chemo? “Oh, she’s only making a joke about herself blah blah” 🙄

While some people with epilepsy might be ok with it, many won’t. People die from seizures. They can be violent and cause nasty injuries. They cause unpleasant after effects. They’re not something to joke about on national TV.

Her apology was weak and not what I expected. It would be nice if she invited Epilepsy Action on, along with a few people with epilepsy or who have children with epilepsy. That way she’d understand a bit more and she’d also help educate people rather than encourage them to make fun of seizures.

My husband had pretty bad epilepsy

She was making fun of herself

Honestly...ridiculous work today with such a lack of grace

She clearly meant no harm and apologised

Agree with this, it wasn't so long ago that words like spastic were in common parlance. Thankfully they're not anymore. But nothing changes if nothing changes. And it's fair seizures aren't only affiliated with epilepsy, but that's their commonest association.

If she said ‘I was going a bit crazy’ would you still think she should lose her job? Your punishment is far too harsh and is far nastier than her mildly careless comment.

The 'I'm so offended' brigade out in force again and CD sadly walked right into their trap. Yes, it's a horrible condition to live with. Did she MEAN any offence? No. Are those people actually hurt to the core by her comment? Most probably not. They are just jumping on an excuse to find an outlay for their bitterness and baying for someone's blood. It is blatantly obvious it was a clumsy ill-timed comment, which she apologised for.
I would silence the great offended and tell them to grow up tbh.

This!!!!
I bet your husband is a normal, professional man, who ok has this condition but just gets on with it, has a job, takes his precautions and lives and lets live.
I can imagine the 'types' getting offended.

I don't think she should lose her job, nor will she. She said it accidentally because epilepsy is so misunderstood. But I don't think trivialising a serious illness is something to be dismissed. I think it's a learning opportunity. People die and are left critically ill because of seizure disorders. I wouldn't laugh at cancer sufferers and rightly so. It's not being "oh so offended", it's treating people with respect. The fact that so many people with epilepsy are angry should tell you something. And honestly, if people suffering from mental health conditions started voicing their concern, I would listen, not just dismiss them.

I have epilepsy and I'm not offended.

What I am offended by is the attitude these days of absolutely crucifying people for the smallest of misdemeanors. Goes something like this;

Person A: makes small non world ending error

Person B: I'm offended!

Person A: Apologises

Person B: That apology was crap, I don't think it's good enough. They need to educate themselves. So they should go and see the people so clearly affected by their nasty words, and prostrate themselves properly until I'm satisfied.

Then they should give those people a big chunk of money to say sorry.

Then this should follow them around for the rest of their career. They need to bring up in every interview how incredibly sorry they are, and highlight this cause for good now, every time they open their gob.

And if they don't, they should lose their job. And if they're a woman it goes double, because women are meant to be KIND* so it should haunt her forever.

It's like that sketch of the police chief who keeps unintentionally offending and has to bring up a representative of that community to apologise to only to do it to another group and then has continually bring up people to apologise to. Where does it fucking end??

*But if you're a man who behaves horribly especially towards women (sexual assault, domestic violence) and you happen to sell lots of records, have good acting chops, or kick a ball really good then you can mumble an apology, keep your head down and people eventually forget all about it!

But that's not what I'm saying

In the same way that people use "going crazy/mad/nuts" to mean that they acted as though they didn't have mental control over themselves, Cat Deeley used "having a seizure" to mean that she didn't have control over her motor functions (and that was why her dancing was so bad).

I don't think she meant to mock people with epilepsy or other seizure/convulsion disorders. It wasn't one of those overtly ableist Frankie Boyle diatribes (that he has been allowed to move on from, of course).

The status quo as to what is or isn't alright to say is changing rapidly. I think we ought to give people the benefit of the doubt - they get told "hey you can't say that", they apologise, and we all move on.

That's really reasonable.

It wasn’t malicious. She apologised for any unintended hurt. I don’t think there’s any need to demonise her for it.

Absolutely everybody says something thoughtless on occasion. Everyone! Even the ones baying for blood on this thread, none of you have a ruddy halo. It does not deserve having strips of skin torn off, to grovel at the feet of the offended for as long as you deem fit and have it ruin their lives. It doesn't.

Only desperately unhappy people imo get stuck right into the cancelling thing. That needs looking at more tbh.

But, I don't think people are baying for blood, just calling for more awareness.

Could you explain why you think she was taking the mickey out of people with epilepsy?

She made a mistake. Was meant as a joke she’s apologised that should be the end of it. Rarely see threads about some of the absolutely horrific things some male comedians for example ‘joke’ about. I have a dc with epilepsy and tbh she made a stupid and ill judged joke and said sorry as far as I’m concerned it’s over or are people going to try and cancel her over this

Absolutely this ^^ No-one’s suggesting Cat acted maliciously. I certainly don’t think she should be cancelled. However, she did show a lack of thought. Epilepsy is a forgotten condition and doesn’t receive that much funding. In the past, people with epilepsy used to be ostracised and either left in hospitals or put in special homes. Nowadays that’s bad but it’s ok to joke about seizures? Of course not - and especially not when you’re in front of millions of people. Whatever her intentions (and, again, I don’t think she was purposely doing it), her casual, thoughtless joke about seizures wasn’t right. Seizures aren’t funny and people with epilepsy need more understanding not casual, indirect mockery.

Really? Ahe was maling fun of her dancing. Why is everyone so sensitive ?

I feel this has been explained and people are choosing not to listen, so it's quite tricky to keep reiterating the same points. People with epilepsy - many people - have asked for support and understanding and this has been dismissed. It's not an attack on Cat, but more a plea for greater understanding of a condition which can - in some circumstances - be horrific and is deeply misunderstood. I don't know what to say from here. I hope you have nice days. Take care.

She made a silly comment and apologised.
She didn't say 'I'm dancing like an epileptic'- that association seems to have been made by those who choose to be offended.

DS has epilepsy and there are kids at school who think it's OK to call him a freak and wave their limbs about as if it is hilarious. People joking about seizures feeds into the narrative that this behaviour is OK.
But that said, he makes fun of his own disabilities and says he doesn't care what a daft TV presenter says.

How weird since this thread on the internet is full of people saying she doesn't need to be punished.

Forgiveness from the offended is not on offer. The people in this thread failed to be outraged originally.

Unless she said "I'm like an epileptic person!" then no problem in my book. Seizures are not exclusive to epilepsy, there are lots of even benign reasons why people might spasm and shake. It's a turn of phrase. If you said you had "been blind to something" you hadn't noticed you wouldn't have RNIB up in arms now would you