Apparently "window lickers" doesn't mean what I thought it meant ...

[verygreenlawn]

... according to Derek Draper it isn't an incredibly offensive term used to describe people with disabilities, it refers to "someone looking in a window like a kid in a candyshop wishing they were inside".

Sorry doesn't fool me - I was at school in the 80s and I know exactly what that expression meant then and what it means now.

Derek Draper apology for using term

actually the replies to that apology on the blog are hilarious. I especially like

'hows the blog thing going for you'...

You learn something new each day. I have NEVER heard it used like that. I thought it was from the French!

You do learn something new don't you?

I always loved the phrase from the French (aller leche' vitrines) - it seemed to perfectly sum up covetous window shopping at places you can't afford, like Parisien boutiques.

I'd never heard about it being used offensively before!

verygreenlawn: have you actually read DD's explanation? he doesn't say it isn't an offensive term, just that he wasn't aware of it and that he was using it in another sense. and he apologises. so your OP is a misrepresentation.

I don't have any particular opinion about Derek Draper but I think that his explanation and apology seem very plausible tbh. even based on the evidence of this thread, there are plenty of people who had never heard of the term being used in this way.

I think his alternative suggestions sounds perfctly possible, as do many other people on the thread.

I suppose the argument is that ignorance is no defence . I am not sure about that, because not everyone can know everything, surely, and sometimes words and phrases have different meanings.

A misrepresentation? [sceptical] If by that you mean I should have said outright that I don't believe his explanation then here it is - I don't believe him.

I could accept his explantion from a French exchange student. Not from a grown man in his 40s who has spent his entire life in the heady world of politics.

i was aware of both uses of the word, but only through this site. it isn't a well known derogatory term where i'm from. and before i only knew of it in the "window shopper" sense.
surely we should give him the benefit of the doubt if he used it in the context and with the intent that he knew it. to describe outsiders looking in, was told it was offensive and said he'd look into it, looked into and realised it was offensive to many and then apologised.

even.

I had no idea it meant window shopping. I have never heard it used in that context.

Actually I have never heard it used apart from by my brothers when they were about 8. That and "Joey".

Fortunately they have grown up. A bit.

oh i TOTALLY believe him, why would he invite a shitstorm like this? doesn't make sense.

they've been banging on about that guido fawkes for a while on labourlist, i think they just banned him. so in a sense the 'people looking in' thing does follow.

i do find DD pretty repulsive, though.

I only know it as a French phrase and never heard it used in any other way but if DD meant it as many of you understand the term then it is highly offensive

I have to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't think I've led a particularly sheltered life but as I say I had never heard it used like that until now. I am currently emailing all the French people I know in the UK to let them know.

I have been using that term recently outside a posh chocolate shop when I said to dd that I wanted to lick the window for a while.

Now that I've heard it is meant to be a term of offense to someone with diabilities I won't use it again.

And I grew up in Scotland in the 70's and 80's and I had thought I had heard every nasty anti-disability term going

and i'd agree with you, but there's nothing to suggest he did use it in an offensive term. (oh and by the way i'd never heard of the guy before today or even know what party he is in so i'm not defending him due to any motivations political or personal, just that this seems to be a case of people looking for malicious intent where there is none)

someone mentioned the other derogatory term "joey", now once again that is not a phrase i've ever heard used in a derogatory manner in Ireland and only know about it through on here.
what if i said something like "he's bouncing around like a joey (baby kangaroo)" about someones child. and if they took offence, told me why it was offensive (some famous presenter or something wasn't it?), then i explained what i meant and apologised for the mix up.
surely it would be completely unfair to still attribute the malicious sentiment to me rather than give me the benefit of the doubt when the harmless motivation is just as plausible and makes sense?

i thought it meant curtain twitchers ie nosey neighbours

have certainly never heard of it in any other context

am appalled at what it actually means

Your prerogative to give the benefit of the doubt, mine to be more suspicious. And yes I have heard someone who clearly didn't know the full implication of "Joey" use that word - she was horrified to know what it could mean and I believed her given her age and background.

Still wondering how I misrepresented DD given I've quoted what he actually said he meant.

Well, I am a grown woman who spent a large part of her life in the 'heady world of politics' and I have never heard the term. I, like so many here, immediately thought of window shopping. Having read this thread, I now know better.

I'd never heard of the term being used for either

Never heard of it.

I find it quite difficult to believe that someone with his background in mental health would never have heard this term used in such a way.

I also don't think that using the term in the way that he claims he used it makes any sense whatsoever.

Someone criticises you, you respond by saying that they are like children in a sweetshop?

hmm.... very hurtful, yeah

"according to Derek Draper it isn't an incredibly offensive term used to describe people with disabilities"

that's how you misrepresented him. he said he wasn't aware of it being a derogatory term, not that it isn't one. just that he was aware of only one meaning to it and when informed of its other offensive use accepted that it was one and apologised.he didn't refute the claim that it was one.

"Someone criticises you, you respond by saying that they are like children in a sweetshop?"

i think the implication was that they were on the outside looking in with jealousy and that this was the motivation for their criticisms rather than holding any real basis.

do we have the original quote, and what it was in response to?

Find it a bit odd that he uses the term "mentally handicapped" too. Thought he'd be more au fait with current acceptable terminology.

Well mayorquimby we will have to agree to disagree. I think in the context of my OP it was clear that I meant he had offered an alternative meaning of the expression. The fact that he now accepts it to be a potentially offensive term is a separate issue.

And no, I don't go around looking for malicious intent in everything I see, thanks. I do happen to believe, given the context in which he used the expression, that he was not referring literally to people shopping or looking in or whatever.