4/25/25 - Friday Video Share: "GEMS CAR CHATS: Katie Hopkins Mocked Disabled People & I’m Not Staying Quiet"
In which we meet one Katie Hopkins ...
GEMS CAR CHATS: Katie Hopkins Mocked Disabled People & I’m Not Staying Quiet
Wheelsnoheels - Gem Hubbard
I'm getting to be a big fan of Gem Hubbard's "Car Chats" format. It's a great way for a disability content creator who usually does practical, lifestyle content to get into some advocacy now and then without completely changing their brand.
This video suggests some interesting questions about what we should do when public figures do and say offensively ableist things.
- Should remarks and acts like the Katie Hopkins video Gem is talking about be penalized or even censored? Or, are public shaming and strong rebuttals enough?
- Is there still a very strong strain of not just discrimination, but revulsion at visibly disabled people, maybe more than we thought? Was it maybe just driven underground for awhile due to changing standards of polite discourse, but now being let loose again?
- How serious is Katie Hopkins and others like her who make deliberately offensive online content targeting disabled people? How much of what she's doing comes from real feelings and beliefs, and how much is just another offensive "bit" she brainstormed to earn attention and maybe a few laughs? Does it matter how much she does or doesn't "mean it?"
One thing missing from Gem's otherwise excellent breakdown is that Katie Hopkins' offensive opinions schtick is political. My understanding is that most or all of her outrageous remarks are either explicitly or implicitly in service of populist conservatism – the brand of conservatism that gave us Donald Trump in the U.S. and Boris Johnson in the U.K. I can understand if Gem wants to avoid being explicitly partisan. And there's plenty to talk about without getting into deeper politics or ideology. Or, maybe Hopkins' political leanings are more effectively hidden than I realize. But Hopkins' broader "anti-woke" message is probably at least as important as any ableism she might be aiming specifically at disabled people.
Another possible explanation is that former reality TV star Katie Hopkins feels her media career hasn't been all that it should be, and she resents seeing other women of her generation doing better than she is – and a visibly disabled woman to boot! Maybe she thinks that it's terribly unfair that she doesn't have a show of her own on BBC, (probably at least partly because she is such an offensive troll), while someone who looks like that does. She may even resent the fact that her own epilepsy hasn't been more of a "representation" asset to her. Ableism between people with different disabilities is most definitely a thing.
What do you think about this sort of thing? Comment below!
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