Can’t we just let kids play?
Spotted in Sainsbury’s today. This is a character from a Lego playset called Friends. Her name is Autumn. There are three pictures of her on the box so I can confirm she is an amputee. Not, like, a half-built figure in progress.
She’s pictured on the front with a playmate, Leo, who is a brown person with pink shorts and a pink floral shirt.
Eh. The Danes. They could at least have given the poor girl a hook so she could feed the rabbits.
Story related. When I was about six, my parents were about to throw a party. My mother explained to my brother and me beforehand that one of the guests had lost both her legs (car accident, I think) and would be coming in on crutches and we were on no account to stare or make a big deal of it.
Comes the evening, an attractive young woman sweeps in without her prosthetics, a man on either side holding carrying her by the elbows. My mother took one look and shouted “OH MY GOD, WHERE ARE YOUR LEGS?”
Her legs were in the shop. I’m told our faces, staring at Mother, were beyond horrified.
One more. Some years later, my mother’s best friend had a prosthetic leg. She had an old wooden one (her swimming leg; she could float all day) and she kept it propped up against the wall in her bathroom.
Every time I went into her bathroom and spotted the leg, I blurted out, “oh, I’m sorry!” You know, like I’d walked in on her. Every time.
Posted: May 20th, 2024 under personal.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: May 20, 2024, 10:51 pm
I worked with a couple of guys who were quadriplegics; both of them had had motorcycle accidents in their teens. They were both good guys and good to work with. They accepted their situation and never moaned about it. They even had a little set party-piece teasing each other about their accidents – one had hit a school bus and the other had smacked into a big oak tree, at speed.
Tom would say, “A school bus! How the heck do you hit a school bus? It’s big and yellow and has these giant flashing red lights!”
Bill would reply, “At least what I hit was moving.”
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: May 21, 2024, 12:56 am
When my sister was in high school she had a classmate who had lost a leg when he was pushed off a commuter train by a madman. It didn’t bother him too much, though. He competed for and won by merit the position of pitcher on the HS baseball team. His signature move was reserved for the first time their team played a particular opposing team: He would sit on the bench and calmly use a hammer and tacks to hold his socks up. One of them, anyway. Talk about your great psych job!
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: May 21, 2024, 1:31 am
A girl with a hook for a hand named Smith…..
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: May 21, 2024, 4:50 pm
Another one compelled to call her female parental unit “Mother”.
My own mother refused to allow the use of “Mom” even though she called her own mother “Mama”.
Life and socialization is confusing and fraught with contradictions.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: May 21, 2024, 5:59 pm
You forgot to mention part of advertising story…
“Autumn makes you feel brave”.
Oh well, at least they don’t have “her” treating “her gender” like a costume accessory. You know, the new rage… add some non functional bits here, take some functioning bits off there..
But honestly kids, dressing up as Napoleon won’t make you Napoleon
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 22, 2024, 7:36 pm
Oh, yes – it was a strict “Mother” household. No moms or mums. My brother married a hillbilly and reverted to “maw” and she nearly died.
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