Mentally Disabled
Mentally Disadvantaged
or just Disadvantaged
None are particullary insulting, because they are polite ways of stating the status of the person in question. Some may argue that disadvantaged is insulting, but if you think about it; not having an advantage is not a fault in a person, but a fault of the situation they’re in. With mentally disadvantaged people, it it not a situation they have got into.
Still, the best thing to do, is only talk about the matter on hand with people you know well, and for which you know their prefered method of reference. It’s a shame when generally innocent people have to worry about insulting, just because of the vocabulary they use. Still, it has come to this, and it’s better to stay on the safe side and avoid the topic unless you really have to.
Well, “blind” sometimes is used as an insult (“What’s the matter with you, are you blind?”), but I think most people who prefer the term “visually impaired” do so simply because it is more accurate. The word “blind” suggests that the person is completely without the sense of sight. But many blind people can at least sense light and movement, and some can make out shapes and colors as well.
I don’t care what others say in this matter… I will continue using the word “retarded”. I’m still miffed that we lost the word “faggot” from legitimate use…
Another reason “blind” is losing ground for being insufficiently specific is that it doesn’t cover another category that is often combined with it for practical reasons: the severely dyslexic. When I used to record books on tape for the organization Recording for the Blind, I learned that (despite the name) a large proportion of the users of the service have perfectly good vision but are simply too severely dyslexic to be able to read. They’ve now changed the name to Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, but many people use the more informative term “print-disabled”.
'Smatter of fact, I have a friend who is legally blind—needs a White Cane, not allowed to drive, etc.—but who with powerful glasses and a strong light can read written or printed characters (if they’re close enough to his eyes) just fine. So he’s “visually impaired” but not “print disabled”, whereas many dyslexic people are “print disabled” but not “visually impaired”. These aren’t just PC euphemisms, they’re actually more accurate and informative designations.
Current abbreviation and term in use at the health service company where my wife works in Auckland is ID for Intellectual Disability.
The IHC (Intellectually Handicapped Children) still exists as an onganisation, but their name doesn’t seem to get expanded anymore (like KFC if you’ll pardon the irreverent comparison) and they too use the term Intellectual Disability on their website.
And that assumption would be correct, because that is what the word means.
It doesn’t matter; they are still technically blind if they have a maximum visual acuity in the better eye, after correction by lenses, of one tenth normal vision or less (20/200 or less on the Snellen Test). If somebody is not totally blind, then they are partially blind.
The word blind is important. It speaks to the disorder, not just a symptom. I am visually impared after swimming because the chlorinated water makes my vision a little blurry. I’m visually impared in teh middle of the night when I get up in search of the bathroom. Of course I can not just turn on the lights, because then I’d be blinded. (I can say that, can’t I? :rolleyes: )
The problem with those phrases is that they are vague enough to be essentially meaningless. My upstairs neighbor is disadvantaged. Is that sufficient explanation for you to be able to understand what his condition is? Absolutely not- you have to ask for more detail.
Furthermore, the word “disadvantaged” must mean that there exist people who can properly be called “advantaged”, but there are no such people. Everybody in the world is disadvantaged at something.
The problem with mentally disabled is that -technically- it applies to anybody who is unconscious or merely sleeping.
The problem with mentally disadvantaged includes everything I mentioned above for “disadvantaged”, but it’s just a little more specific. It could mean that somebody has a mental advantage over you. Most of us would be mentally disadvantaged in a battle of wits with Cecil. Somebody with poor concentration skills could be said to be mentally disadvantaged when debating with a more organized thinker.
How about somebody who is drunk or stoned? They’re mentally disadvantaged too. If drunk & stoned ever become unacceptable terms, we can use “temporarily mentally disadvantaged”. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
The only problem with “retarded” is that it isn’t specific enough. People can suffer from several kinds of retardation. Put the adjective mentally, emotionally or physically (for height) in front of the word, and nobody should be insulted.
Flashbacks of The Simpsons. Homer: “And I am pretty pissed off that you guys took queer too. That’s our word for making fun of you guys!!!”
That is such a great show.
I would like to point out that I’ve observed teens using “challenged” as a common insult or jibe now. As in (teen does something stupid) “Dude, you are so challenged”. So I guess that one’s out also eh?
I actually was in a meeting at work once (former job) where I was reprimanded for saying, when showing a customer where the accessability areas were, “The handicapped access area is down the hall and to the right” because handicapped was an offensive term. I pointed out to my boss that the current University maps were clearly labeled “Handicapped Access” in the legends. I got reprimanded again for being disrespectful to management LOL!
Hey Sailor!
I picked that handle because I have a “pegleg”. I had an above knee amputation due to a motorcycle crash.(I dont use accident because it was ALL my fault.)
Maybe I’m thick-skinned, but that old term doesnt offend me.
I think this is all awfully funny. What ever happen to the old adage that “Names will never hurt you?” Has society become so pansy invested that Names do hurt people? Really, when you have to come up with silly phrases like “Intellectual Disability” and “Mentally Disadvantaged” to shelter the feeling of ‘Tards and the crybaby ninnies that nurse them, I think it is time to laugh.
Perhaps I’m an endangered species, but I have to chuckle at someone with weak, wishy-washy emotions who get offended by something someone says in some certain way. They don’t have to be offended, they let themselves be offended. In some strange pop-psychological self-abasement way, there is probably cause to believe that some people want to be offended.
If someone want to call an car ignition “retarded,” let them, there is no offense given to the drooling morons with intellectually disabilities.
Slightly off subject, but another case of PC language is the term B.C.E. (Before Common Era). It is now used in place of B.C. (Before Christ) because non-Christians may feel excluded or some other non-sense. I wonder if someone ever asked the non-Christians if they cared. As a non-Theist, non-Christian I safely assert that I don’t give a wet fig that the Western Calendar is dated from the supposed birth of Christ. What is truly funny is that B.C.E. isn’t even a new dating system, it is only a new label on the old one. Only retards would fall for it.
I know you are out trolling but just to clear this up.
BCE was created by Christian historians because the calendar they were using, and indeed the one we still use, got the birth year of Jesus wrong by 4 years. Therefore this ridiculous sentence kept cropping up in serious research papers. “Jesus was born in the year 4 BC (Before Christ).” So in order for Biblical scholars to stop sounding like ninnies they adopted BCE in their papers to more accurately describe the situation.
[hijack]
Do you have a site for that? The people I’ve talked to, including one Reverend, said the term is commonly used for inclusiveness. I don’t doubt that Christian historians could have invented the term, but I’d be more interested in know how B.C.E. became the standard.
[/hijack]
>> The problem with mentally disabled is that -technically- it applies to anybody who is unconscious or merely sleeping
I can imagine calling Ted Kennedy on the phone and being told “He is mentally disabled at the moment; could you please call again tomorrow?” meaning, of course, that he is plastered .
I believe Pyrrhonist is right in the origin of BCE
Pegleg, you have the right attitude. Good for you. Not only will you farther in life but it will be more pleasant.
I have know two people in my life, one a man, the other a woman, who were very fat and very comfortable with it and it was impossible to offend them with references to their size. They would look at you like you were some retard playing games with words.
The guy was a friend of my youth. At a time in life when you are most insecure, his nickname was “Fatso”, he liked it, his friends loved him, and the word lost all offensive meaning. Now try to insult him when you know he likes the word. It’s impossible. People like that have my admiration.
any word can be used as an insult, it all depends on the intention of the speaker and how the listener takes it.
Now “trailer parks” are also unPC. I forget the new term, maybe someone will chime in. I don’t care what you call it, it is still a trailer park.
I had no idea this had become such a tempest in a tea pot lately. I did a brief search for info and the first 200 matches or so were basically Christians complaining about the use of BCE and CE.
Years ago when I had several classes in world history, at a Catholic college no less, the change was explained the way I have stated it above. Finding real information on the change is not easy due to the noise to signal ratio that apparently surrounds this entire issue.
I was able to find one cite that
1)wasn’t vitriolic
2)had some kind of historical slant to it
3)supported either view
I LOVE seeing people get hysterical when the subject of un-PC speech comes up.
Not the PC people. The other 99%, who rush blindingly towards the other extreme, shouting “I’m not PC!” while lamenting our culture’s decay towards ineffectual wussiness because they can’t use the word “retard” as an insult any longer.
Let’s review a few things about PC speech, shall we? One of its aims was to foster some kind of respect towards marginalized groups in our society. Example: when a term such as “retard” is hijacked by teenagers as an insult, then its meaning has been shifted from its scientific/medical origins.
If that’s the case, can said group be faulted for seeking a different term to describe itself?
And what is wrong with the impulse to treat these marginalized groups with some respect?
Finally, Pyrrhonist, I hope you are an endangered species. You seem to want to reduce everything to some kind of level appropriate to six-year olds. You must vote Republican quite often. I hope you don’t marry someone whose sister was born with Down Syndrome, like I did. If you did, and you were at all a thoughtful person, you might wonder at what kind of life it would be like to not be able to tie your own shoes, to live in a group home where the other residents steal everything your family gives you, and to have a life expectancy of thirty-five. If you did, you wouldn’t use the term “retard” any more.
There is a difference between using a precise term to avoid confusion or carry more meaning and changing a term to another that means exactly the same because of PC.
Intellectual Disability carries more meaning than Retarded. ID tells you that the problem is relating to the intellect or its use, and that the problem is long-term. (The common use of Disability suggest a long-term rather than short-term problem. You don’t go on “disability” if you have the 'flu, but you might if you have a continuing injury… for example).
Disadvantaged vs. Handicapped is a bit different. Merriam-Webster’s defines a handicap as: “a disadvantage that makes achievement unusually difficult”, and the definition of disadvantage references handicap. There is no need to change to convey more information.
One thing. The preferred word for “deaf” is “Deaf”. “Hearing Impaired” is in considered insulting, since it emphasizes what you can’t do. Of course, deafness is something of a special case, since Deaf people are often linguistically isolated from the mainstream. It doesn’t matter how little you have in common with other deaf people if you can talk easily with them instead of struggling with hearing people.
playing games with words.