The Bachelor star Bella Varelis has come under fire for using an ableist slur on Instagram to describe her pet dog.
Varelis, who came runner-up on Locky Gilbert‘s season of The Bachelor, shared a story today of her dog and captioned the pic, “in slow motion because I just can’t even keep up with this sp*stic. She’s truly living her best life.” The reality star has since deleted the story, as per So Dramatic!.
Sp*stic is considered an ableist slur because it is offensive to the disabled community, no matter what context it is used in.
Followers have taken to social media to call Bella out on the slur. “How is this word still being used in this manner?” One person wrote. Another added, “How is it even in someone’s vocabulary to use?”
Earlier this year, Big Brother Australia was labelled ableist after social media users claimed that the show’s challenges weren’t fair for Reggie, who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic condition that gradually causes blindness.
In one of the challenges, housemates Taras, Estelle, and Reggie were required to build a bridge using the pieces provided. Except, the construction required comparing the size, shape, and order of the pieces, which – people pointed out – would be tougher for Reggie with her condition.
“What a BS challenge! The bridge was redundant and only made to slow the vision-impaired housemate down. Not cool. #BBAU,” said a Twitter user.
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“#BBAU you created a challenge that required an almost blind person to build a bridge. You seriously set it up for #Regi to lose because she had NO chance of winning the challenge. She is too slow and needs to constantly balance herself to stop from falling.” another user added.
Reggie, who fortunately wound up winning the show, addressed ableist comments that people made toward her while she was in the house.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘Oh, she’s faking,’” she said. “But who would ever want to fake being blind? They don’t know me, or the challenges I deal with every day. I’m a strong person and I think people who leave comments like that have issues.” she addressed her trolls in a TV Week interview earlier this year.
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