Eastenders star suspended for using unacceptable language

[springbabydays]

Just came across this news article. Seems a bit strange it happened in November but he's only now being suspended. Presume he's been working during that time? (I don't watch EE).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2qxd1e1pyo

He said he didn't know what that word meant. He does now.

I read about it last Christmas.
Remember they film 3 months in advance

I struggle to believe he didn't know what it meant. There is a DS actress in EastEnders, conversations would have been had before letting the bairn onset.

I don’t think it would get you suspended or fired. I think it is seen as worse than idiot. But not on the same level as the R or M words.

Cretinism was caused by being born without a working thyroid (congenital hypothyroidism).

It’s one of the conditions that nowadays they test all newborns for with a heel prick. It is treated with daily levothyroxine (usually lifelong although sometimes it resolves when the child is a toddler) and so long as the child is medicated within two weeks, they will grow typically. If they aren’t medicated they will grow up to have severe intellectual disability and stunted growth as their brain won’t work normally without the thyroid - the conductor to the body’s orchestra.

My daughter has it and I’m so grateful for modern medicine. I never realized before that cretin actually came from a real medical term.

Having said that I don’t know who else would know this, who isn’t a doctor - I certainly didn’t! I wouldn’t be offended by someone using it.

I am an educated person… I had no idea of the origins of the “M” word… I wouldn’t want to be a public figure for fear of being cancelled! It’s ignorance on his part but NOBODY is perfect. Maybe it’s more the fact that he was sneering at working class people/people that live in poverty? For this reason I can understand why he’s fallen out of favour… if this is the case he needs to educate himself and humble himself… as many of us probably have had to do at some point.
When I was at uni I was told off by my lecturer for using the term “brainstorm”, as it offends people with epilepsy and told to use “thought shower” instead. I honestly thought this was so ridiculous!!

I never knew that it goes to show people genuinely don't know what these words mean so aren't specifically trying to offend anyone in particular. I used the word cretin before but I certainly wasn't insulting people with congenital hypothyroidism. Not the same but I have hypothyroidism

When I was at uni I was told off by my lecturer for using the term “brainstorm”, as it offends people with epilepsy and told to use “thought shower” instead. I honestly thought this was so ridiculous!!

That's actually hilarious. Taking offence on behalf of others much too far!!

I think it’s probably come after the dossier of evidence Wynne said he was submitting quite recently to clear his name.

To be honest though a lot of what Jamie has done/said during Strictly doesn’t show him in a good light - alleged cheating, “jokes” in a video about a sex toy and now using a derogatory and offensive term about the town that Strictly idolises.

Yes, surely much better to deride the population of a town with a derogatory non disabled term. Was he referring to the homeless people, the migrants, the 3000 civil servants, the hospitality people or the entire population of the town in general? Perhaps he'd like to explain that.

Seriously? I am honestly amazed at the lack of
intellectual curiosity some highly educated people show!

Please elaborate, do you mean my old uni lecturer lacks curiosity or myself? If the latter, I actually would be curious and happy to have my views challenged 🧐

Sorry but I have to agree with @CurlewKate . I don't how you can present yourself as being an educated person and not know the origins of the word he used. To use that word to describe any individual person or group of people is offensive.

I have a bachelors and a masters degree so I can confidently say that I am an educated person (I also have enough self awareness that by saying this I sound like a knob).
I am aware that the use of that word would be a slur, but couldn’t have said what the origin of that word was and who it would be offending. I obviously do now. I’m also not excusing the actors behaviour. It would make a fun game though, thinking of as many slurs/offending words & phrases and seeing who knows the precise origin and history of said words and which group of people should feel offended… I’m obviously joking 🙄😂

But m-d is fairly obviously derived from “Mongol” ie the ethnic group from Mongolia and surrounding areas. It’s not some tenuous link that you have to know the history of. If you’re adding “oid” to the end of the word, it’s obvious you’re saying “like a Mongol” if you stop and think about the words you’re using.
I think cretin, for example, is a word where you’d never be able to just work out or reasonably guess the origin. So ignorance is a much more reasonable position.

I have a child with severe LD and autism. It is offensive, but I'm more annoyed that it has been used in a classist, snobby way.

I do think it is human nature to fuck up and sometimes not know what things mean or just talk without speaking. Some people are deliberately divisive and offensive, and I think that is worse. You get a lot of ableist comments on here where people wish children with SEN would just disappear from education or aren't worth the extra funding, like their life doesn't matter as much as their NT child. That is more offensive to me than a throwaway comment as it is an entrenched attitude.

After a bit of googling I’ve discovered it is also a slur against people with Downs Syndrome… this was what I wouldn’t have known. I don’t think he’d have used the word in the context of drawing similarities between the population of Blackpool to people from Mongolia? 🧐 he would have used it as a slur, meaning people from Blackpool are of lower intelligence.

I'm shocked there are people out there who don't know what the M word means, I've known since I was at primary school.

The character Jay has not been in Eastenders for ages, except for a quick appearance a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if they were keeping him out of the spotlight while the situation was unfolding.

Does anyone know how long his suspension is for and if it is paid or unpaid?

But the point is-you knew it was a slur. You may not have not known exactly why, but you would have known not to use it.

For this word maybe. But there are other words I’ve used which I now no longer use since discovering they are offensive. Example - I used to find the word “tinker” quite sweet and would use it in the context of “oh stop being a tinker” until I discovered it was an ethnic slur towards the travelling community.
Are you never offensive CurlewKate, even by accident? Gosh you must be whiter than white (oops was that a slur?! 🧐). In which case you best go polish your halo (oops was that another one? Maybe a slur towards the Christian community?). Again this is a joke… but then a lot of jokes now can’t be made as they are too offensive 🙄

It was only on another thread on here that I discovered that a phrase I learned from my mother and used all my life to mean throwing a tantrum is offensive to the Irish. Genuinely never heard it as the same word. Of course I stopped using it. Language changes so rapidly that it’s very hard to understand the original meaning and newly evolved meanings.

There was a part of the recent series Adolescence where teenagers had used emojis in ways the adults didn’t understand. I can easily imagine using one in the office and completely missing something offensive.

I think I know the word you mean and some words like that are tricky to sometimes know the origin because it’s not immediately obvious.

However, with Jamie whether he understood the word’s origin or not he is going to have meant it offensively. I don’t think you need to know the origin of the word he used to know he was throwing an insult, at the end of the day he meant to offend the population of Blackpool. It’s not a word that is used in a positive context, is it? Strictly and therefore the BBC) have a long history with Blackpool and coupled with the fact it’s a dated and very offensive word I can understand why he was suspended.