‘Bachelor’ Star Kelsey Anderson Mocking Disabled Or Ignorant?

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Bachelor star Kelsey Anderson is under fire for her ableist comments. Was she mocking the disabled or just ignorant? Keep reading to find out what’s going on and make up your own mind.

Bachelor Star Kelsey Anderson Under Fire For Ableism

Kelsey Anderson played a fun game of 20 questions with bachelornation.com last month. She revealed that her guilty pleasure is eating in bed and an unexpected crush on Michael Strahan. However, another of her answers resurfaced on social media and some fans aren’t happy with her.

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Kelsey Anderson/Credit: ABC YouTube

One of her Bachelor housemates, Daisy Kent, is deaf and wears a cochlear implant. Rightly or wrongly, some fans expect Kelsey and the other women to champion the disabled. But was the caught mocking the vulnerable instead?

Kelsey has recently come under fire for her answer to a question about a taboo topic she loves to talk about. “Helen Keller… Do we really think she flew that plane and wrote a book?” she answered and included the side-eye emoji.

Mocking Disabled Or Ignorant?

A screenshot of Kelsey’s answer was posted on Reddit this week. The post was titled, “Kelsey A’s comments denying Helen Keller (who was blind & deaf)’s accomplishments and deleting her TikTok and comments doubling down after criticism.”

Credit: Reddit

Several Bachelor Nation fans took to the comments to defend Kelsey’s stance on Helen Keller.

  • This is a common joke in TikTok
  • omg this is a very common joke that people make I didn’t realize people were mad about this?
  • My little sister (who is also Gen Z) said this and I was confused why something like that would exit her mouth. Apparently this is a repeated statement.
  • This is such a common opinion, especially on tiktok. There are even people who think she was full on faking it.
  • I feel like this is a known “conspiracy” and isn’t that deep and also who cares

However, another Redditor spoke out against the mocking of the disabled historical figure. They wrote, “Just because it’s a common joke, doesn’t mean it’s okay. Why on EARTH are Helen Keller jokes a thing? It’s disgusting.”

Apparently, there really is a theory on TikTok that Helen Keller didn’t really fly a plane. But according to history books, she flew a plane for 20 minutes across the Mediterranean Sea in 1946. The deaf-blind woman used hand signals pressed into her palm to communicate with interpreter Polly Thomson. The communication method was also used to relay messages from the co-pilot to Helen Keller.

Kelsey Anderson Explains Herself

The Reddit post included a screenshot of an interaction on TikTok between Kelsey and a fan. The fan called her out for a “garbage ableist take.”

The Bachelor front-runner defended her controversial opinion that Helen Keller never flew a plane. “I am sure she was able to do many things but when she flew the plane it was 1946.. planes were [extremely] less advanced and she had no previous training,” Kelsey explained.

Credit: Reddit

Are you familiar with the TikTok “joke” that Helen Keller didn’t really fly a plane? Share your reactions to it in the comments.

Jennifer Havener
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