Rosie Jones has defended the decision to use a derogatory term in an upcoming documentary.
This week it was revealed that the comedian, who has cerebral palsy, was working on a programme with the broadcaster exploring society’s attitudes towards disabled people.
However the title sparked a significant amount of backlash after it was controversially called Am I A R*****?
Despite the frustrations expressed by people that using the term in the title was a backwards step, she has now doubled down.
‘I understand that there are some people who are unhappy with the title. The production company and the channel had many, many discussions about it,’ shesaid.
‘I’m not attempting to speak for the entire disabled community in any way. This film is about my experience as a person with a physical disability [and a] word that’s still used extremely frequently, and thrown towards me in the street or on social media,’ she continued when speaking to The Guardian.
‘This title is not used to shock. It’s about education and starting the conversation about how damaging the casual use of ableist language is.’
She added: ‘I’m taking back control of a word that’s been thrown at me as a weapon all of my life.’
On Monday Channel 4, who will be airing the documentary, confirmed that some contributors had withdrawn from the project.
However, it did stress that the use of the word was ‘within context of the subject matter being explored and specific to the abuse Rosie receives on social media’.
‘The film makes very clear it is an unacceptable and offensive ableist term and its inclusion was carefully considered in conversations with the editorial team, Rosie and a disability consultant,’ it said in a statement.
In a video posted on Instagram, Rosie, 33, explained her reasoning behind the decision, stating: ‘I’ve made a documentary for Channel 4 about online abuse and the ableism that I and all other disabled people receive. The title of the film has a very shocking word in it, the “R” word, and I get it – a lot of people will find this word very shocking and upsetting.
‘But, in my opinion, society doesn’t take this word and other ableist forms of language as seriously as any other form of abuse from any other minorities.’
She added that using the slur would help ‘tackle the problem head on’ and using it would then make people ‘hopefully think twice about using the word and other ableist slurs ever again’.
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