Just wanted to say that Moron was originally a character in a French play. The current term in use at the time was idiot, as anyone who works with old census schedules will know. Anyway idiot had become a common insult and the American Association for the Study of the Feeble Minded wanted a less insultive term and voted for one, Moron one. Of course that didn’t last too long.
Part of the problem is that people who aren’t up to specs physically, mentally and emotionally do not want to be pidgeon holed. My best friend in college was handicapped from polio he caught as a baby. His legs were deformed but everythying else was normal about him, but he refused to ever park in the handicapped space. Because to him it meant he wasn’t normal and he had to be treated specially. So that’s part of the impetus for word changes. People like him want a word they can identify with themselves, but it’s a vicious circle. Perhaps numbers would be appropriate. Like this person is a 9581. Let’s try it out “Hey you 9581!” Works for me.
I would have liked to get in on this thread earlier, but unfortunately, I was retarded…
Ahhhhh! Finally, someone gets it! (Are the rest of you RETARDS?) Censorship is risky business because people don’t always understand what is meant when they censor. Goethe tells us: (quote may not be exact) “If we knew how often we misunderstand others, we would never speak.”
…Except for Oprah Winfrey[sup]TM[/sup], she once said on her show that blacks can use “nigger” but whites can’t, because it doesn’t mean the same thing when whites use it. Next thing you know we’re using separate bathrooms.
I can understand why some terms are changed, I guess, but the whole array of PC language is really getting on my nerves. My sister posted on a site for parents of children with reflux once. She said that trying to make people who knew nothing of reflux disease understand how difficult it was to deal with was like trying to explain the color blue to a blind person (one who had NEVER seen anything at all, that is). Well you would not BELIEVE the number of people who took this as an insult to blind people, rather than realizing that she was speaking in terms of impossibilities. After all, one who has never seen any color cannot grasp what color is, but it has nothing to do with their value as people. But apparently this was not PC. I got into trouble for using the terms white and Oriental in a chat room once (the words are Caucasian and Asian). My question there is, why does Asian refer to Orientals now–aren’t Russians Asian too? But they are not necessarily Oriental. Hmmmm…
The strangest PC term I ever heard–one I am glad to see did not take root–was replacing the word “fat” with “horizontally challenged.” As a FAT person myself, I found the latter term to be way more insulting than just plain fat. Now I don’t enjoy being fat and the word can be slung around as an insult, but really, people, changing the word does not alter the reality, at least in this case! Only I can do that!!
Mayflower, welcome to the board. Regarding the term “oriental” there was recently a spirited (or boring, depending on your point of view) thread you might want to check.
I work at an agency in Illinois (in a suburb of Chicago) that serves people with Developmental Disabilities (our current preferred term). We refer to the people we serve as “consumers.” It has been this way for at least four years (IOW at least since I’ve worked there). The following terms were once used and/or considered, but were deemed inappropriate:
Patient: Too clinical, not accurate, sounds like we’re a hospital Client: Again, too clinical, and “sounds awkward” (Yeah, as opposed to “consumer” :rolleyes: ) Resident: Not accurate, since we have vocational programs as well as group homes and other residential sites.
As to the word “retarded,” I am not in the least bit offended by it. Most of my consumers use the term “mentally retarded” to describe themselves. This may be because they got their diagnoses before it became such a dirty word. From my experience, most of their parents and family members are not offended by the term.
My feeling is that it only becomes a dirty word if we let it. I once got bitched out by a co-worker for using the word “retarded” in a training session. I was using it to refer to various diagnoses, and this guy was furious. I asked him if he thought I would ever use a deroggatory term to insult or ridicule the people we work with. He said no. I asked him then why my use of the word was so offensive. He said he just didn’t like it. I reminded him to look through a case file, and check out what the diagnosis said. We agreed to disagree.
Consumer? Of what? Of mental retardation? I can now see the word “consumer” becoming an insult. Like in: don’t be such a “consumer”! Or: “That guy must consume mental retardation in industrial strength quantities”
The reason we use that word (consumer) is that they are receiving our services. Sort of like a customer. It’s amazing the things that well-meaning, PC-crazed beaurocrats can come up with.
My husband says it sounds like they eat and eat all day long.
I have taken to referring to them as “clients” outside of work, since people either get confused or crack up laughing at the term we use professionally.
Nice, Pyrronist, you can’t even insult me without the mods coming down on you.
I still have no idea what your point is. You want the freedom to use ‘retarded’ as an insult? Fine. I never said you couldn’t.
Like Arnold Winkelreid and Triskadecamus, I think this argument should be confined to what might be called “the Social Contract”.
Please reread my original post, specifically:
Now instead of parsing whether the word’s meaning is now insulting (I think we all agree it is), or whether VH1 doesn’t have a right to bleep out anything it broadcasts (it does, which you seem to lament), it’s the reactions of people like you and Acco40 that I wanted to examine.
In fact, let’s start with Acco40, smart dude that he is.
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You know, Acco40, if you post on this board you have too much time on your hands. I don’t have too much pride about the word ‘retard’–I’m not a member of said group. But I cringe when I hear that word and think of my in-laws. And I don’t have real problems, compared to the life my sister-in-law has led.
No, what strikes me about the PC ‘movement’ is the hysterical and asinine reaction it gets. Look at some of these quotes:
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You can? I sure can’t, realistically.
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Every day comes with slights to one’s dignity, it’s my reaction to them that matters. There’s nothing wrong with asserting yourself with a little pride, I think we would all agree. Which is a positive aspect of the PC movement, I say.
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Can you please come up with a term for what VH1 did? “Censor” implies a governmental sanctioning, VH1 has every right not to let a word it deems offensive pass over its airwaves. (I can’t believe I’m defending VH1, in any context . . .)
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Sure, branches of the government constantly come up with twisted acronyms–the military is particularly gifted in this regard. But how pronounced is the political element in this phenomena? I assert that the “PC-crazed bureaucrat” is, by and large, a myth. Yes, we can all come up with examples of governmental actions that seem completely silly, but the burden of proof is on anyone who asserts that this is the result of a leftist PC movement, rather than good ol’ bureaucratic obfuscation.
For a good examination of this, I recommend the book “Made in America”, by Bill Bryson. The last chapter examines the PC “phenomena” in depth. Among other assertions, it says that many of the terms called “PC”, and ridiculed thusly, amazingly enough actually came from a book called (I think) “The Official Politically Correct Handbook” that was a parody of the movement (I think this is where the term “horizontally challenged” came from, but I’m not sure). I’m at work right now but I will endeavor to provide cites when I can.
That was one of the coolest things I’ve read in a while. I wish I were in the audience when she said that so I could have yelled out what you just said. What really gets to me is that political correctness towards minorities (particularly blacks) is a huge deal, but whites don’t get any of it back. I’m watching the news a few days ago and it’s talking about a black man in the projects who was shot, but he SUPPOSEDLY didn’t have any weapon on him and posed no threat (even though first reports said he had no shirt on so he couldn’t have been reaching for a weapon-which is why the cop shot him- but that turned out to be false) and I’m seeing a woman complain about the “white man” always causing her problems. What the hell did I do to her that I get blamed for he being poor and ignorant? Does she even know whether the cop that shot her son is white, because there are a LOT of black cops in New Orleans. And I’m willing to bet that a lot of her welfare money comes from white people, along with the mid-upper class blacks in the area.
Anyway, I’m sure a lot of you have read 1984. I think that’s a perfect example of what PCness can lead to, the elimination of meaningful words. A bit extreme, yes, but how close to the image portrayed in that book do we have to get to before political correctness is going to far?
Bill Maher was talking yesterday on his show how Jerry Lewis has taken flak lately for using the terms “cripple” and “pity” from the MS foundation. I mean he has raised millions and millions for them and they complain about this. I’m with Bill Maher on this one. I think it is stupid.
For the life of me I cannot see anything wrong with feeling pity for someone who is crippled. In fact I can see a lot wrong with not feeling pity for those who have not been as fortunate as I have.
But, on top of that, why would people give money if not out of pity? If the MS foundation are so serious they should tell Jerry Lewis they do not want his money.
BTW, Airblairxxx, I do not think you should complain about insults when you are calling other people’s posts “asinine”. Especially when you are taking seriously things which are obviously meant as jokes. Even a “consumer” can see that.
Ok Airblairxxx, let me clear up a couple things for you.
First of all, I don’t like to speak for others, but the point sailor made about the misuse of the word ‘consumer’ as a description of the mentally handicapped is justified.
I wish I had a dictionary in front of me, but I’m almost positive that the word ‘consumer’ in the dictionary has absolutely NO connotation with the mentally handicapped.
Therefore (by definition) ‘consumers’ would be those who consume. sailor asked “what do they consume?”, naturally.
You somehow took offense to this.
IMVHO, the term consumer sounds a little creepy to me as a diagnosis/medical term… if I didn’t know any better, I’d think it was some sort of disease that causes consumption.
Ok, that was a little off-track.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Airblairxxx, if you cringe when you hear the word retard, obviously that word holds some sort of horrible connotation for you. That’s fine. I’m not arguing that. However, I’ll be damned if you are gonna tell me what words I can and can’t use at my will. If I want to call my buddy a retard, who are you to stop me?
There are things I hear everyday which rub me the wrong way. Like a baby crying in a movie theater. But there is a level of maturity and self-control involved. You bite your lip and move along… like water off a duck’s back. Or, you could go complain to the theater manager and outlaw babies from the theater. Action is good. But in your case, you have two options when you hear the word retard: you can:
bite your lip and forget it (least annoying option)
just bitch and moan (like you are now)
take action and try to get the word retard outlawed
Airblairxxx, if you want to try to strike out the consecutive letters r-e-t-a-r-d from the lexicon, more power to you. (Good luck BTW). But at least you’d be doing something about it, instead of lamenting that the world is full of insensitives.
Now I’m not just running around calling anyone a retard. I wouldn’t walk up to your sister-in-law and call her a retard. I wouldn’t do it. I personally believe it is impolite. But that is my opinion. However, if someone asked me about her condition, I’d say she was retarded. I don’t mean it negatively though.
Something to keep in mind: I may not call her a retard, but I’m certainly not calling her a consumer anytime soon.
The fact is the only time I’ve used retarded as slang as been within debate and probably have little use for the word other than as a description of Mrs. Pyrrhonist’s uncle who is clinically retarded.
Anyway, my points:
[list]
[li]Thou shall not take offense at misuse of words by others[/li][li]Thou shall not bleep words just to mollify those who do take offense[/li][li]Thou shall not expect others to follow your example when you do take offense[/li][li]Thou shall not believe your respect towards marginalized groups is the only correct treatment[/li]
What’s wrong here is that you’ve formed an opinion on a group, the retarded, and have concluded that there is a proper way to respect them which includes calling them something other than retarded and believing that your way is the right way. Your opinions, as far as I can tell, were formed by your relationship with your sister-in-law. Well, with my wife’s uncle I deal with retarded family members too and have not come to the same conclusion as you. I’m going to used the term retarded to describe him because it is a good fit and see nothing disrespectful or insulting. Different words can have different uses at different times. I hope the rest of your morning is a gay and don’t be too niggeredly when buying gifts for your sister-in-law.
