VH1's Stance On "Retarded" Is Inconsistent

On tonight’s episode of Charm School, Ashley insults another girl by calling her a “retarded child.” The word “retarded” has long been used colloquially in ways that aren’t as closely connected with mental disability, but, in recent years, has been considered so politically incorrect that some networks will bleep it.

VH1 does not bleep out the word when it is first uttered, or when Ricki Lake talks about the incident, but bizarrely, when Ashley is rehashing the conversation in an interview segment, it is bleeped. Ashley was clearly using “retarded” in a very literal, and offensive, sense, but no matter where you stand on the issue in general, you can’t deny the irony of the typo within the subtitle of that screen shot.