As an ageing Brit I’m curious as to why it seems acceptable to talk about ‘spazzing out’, nickname someone Spaz Dave etc (as a US Exchange student said in a piece of seminar group writing).
Am I mistaken in thinking it’s a derogatory of ‘spastic’ (it was when I was at school in the sixties)? Is it just a US thing? (i’ve only heard the usage from young Americans and American TV. Buffy, how could you?!) Or is it generational - I only hear teenagers using the term?
And why, in this politically correct age, is such a derogatory term, back in common usage? To my old Brit ears it’s every bit as bad as ‘nigger’.
This is a Brit thing as well, tagos. I admit I do say ‘spaz’ not because I use it as a derogatory comment, but because sometimes I am a spaz. It probably did originate with spastic, but I use the word to describe when someone does something really stupid, that was within their normal capability. To call someone who is spastic a spaz is derogatory. To call a friend who bangs his head on a low doorframe a spaz is just for lack of a better word.
Thanks for the info - don’t follow your reasoning though. If I called you or myself a ‘Nigger in the woodpile’ because you/I were being awkward (assuming you’re white) that would still be a racist remark IMO. If you were being a bit tight and I called you ‘jewish’ its the same thing.
Or is it different because the term spastic is not ethnic/racial in people’s eyes? I’m not getting at anyone, I accept that no offence is intended. But my old boss doesn’t mean to offend when he refers to colleagues as Niggers in the woodpile. But it is offensive.
And what’s wrong with the words ‘clumsy, awkward’ etc etc?
At the risk of derailing the topic at hand, let me just quickly add that I haven’t heard the expression ‘spaz’ since gradeschool (circa 1983!).
That’s still part of the current slang?
If you see ‘spaz’ as a derogatory comment then it will be one, regardless of its context. But what I am saying is although I know of its origins I do not relate the two together. To me spaz != spastic, spaz = stupid mistake maker.
Clumsy to me entails continued mistakes a la Mr. Bean
Awkward doesn’t entail anything to do with doing something stupid.
That is why I don’t use those words.
I don’t think most people in the US even know the background of the term ‘spastic.’ My daughter actually has Cerebral Palsy and, while I’ve heard ‘spastic’ used as a medical description of muscle tightness (such as in her official diagnosis of Spastic Diplegia), I have never heard the term ‘spastic’ used for a person with CP – not even among people who still use the term ‘mongoloid’ for a person with Down Syndrome. Most people in the US just don’t realize that ‘spaz’ as a derogatory term for a person with CP, but think of it as merely a slang term for a clumsy or awkward person.
Scope is a UK charity that specialises in helping those with CP. It was formerly known as, according to the money box at my workplace, the Spastics Society.
In Australia people with CP usually attended “The Spastic Centre” and may still do. Steady Eddie, a local successful stand up comedian, who has CP, used to joke in his act that the kids only looked like they do when “straights are around”. One of my all time favourite jokes is the one he used to start his routine with. He would awkwardly walk across the stage to the microphone and say “Why do I get funny looks whenever I board a plane. Is it the way I walk? Is it the way I talk? Or is it the pilot’s uniform that I am wearing.”
The Dutch translation “spasje” was in use (used by kids and teens) when I was an kid but was generally considered in very bad taste. It definetely was connected to CP and kids used to “mimick” a person with this condition just to get the point across. “Achterlijke mongool” , i.e. stupid Mongol (as in person with Down’s syndrom) was similarly in use as an insult, optionally accompanied by pulling of eyelids.
AFAIK, in the US the term “Spastic” was not in common use to describe a person with Celebral Palsy, at least not for a really long time. Certainly no organizations identifying themselves as “Spastics Society” or anything like that. Our national organization, United Cerebal Palsy, has used that name continuously since 1949 to the best of my knowledge.
I think you would be hard-pressed in the US to find someone that even knows that “Spastic” is a term commonly used as a noun meaning “someone with cerebal palsy” in other countries. Here it is mainly an adjective… “jerky movements.”
Well, I guess its a generational thing then. The US student in my creative writing class was utterly mortified when I pointed out how offensive the term is considered by some.
My question now is - is it acceptable for terms of abuse, through ignorance of their origins and impact on an older generation, to come back into common usage?
Would such ignorance justify the use of nigger, kike and homo sometime in the future?
It’s all very well to say spaz just means someone who is uncoordinated, well, kike could just mean someone who is parsimonious with money, but that would not alter the fact that kike has its origins in anti-semitism. Here’s my friend, Kike Dave, he’s a bit mean and Homo Harry, who likes interior decorating.
Why is ‘spaz’ acceptable and ‘kike’ not?
For what it’s worth - I think ‘spaz’, because of its origins and connotations, is intrinsically offensive and people should no more use it than they would, ‘kike’ or ‘nigger’.
I actually forgot to get to my point (can you believe it?). Since the primary usage of “spastic” is as an adjective (jerky or irregular, see also, spastic colon) for at least the last 50 years, Americans don’t have a strong conception of the word as an insult directed at a particular group. If you look in an American dictionary you’ll see the noun form “a person afflicted with spastic paralysis” as the tertiary use of the term, and doesn’t note it as deragotory.
It is in NO way comparable to “nigger” or other ethic group slurs such as “kraut,” “gook” etc. All fairly offensive or at least in bad taste and noted to be deragatory in U.S. dictionaries.
Yes - but the jerky movements meaning comes from cerebral palsy sufferers just as kike = meanness with money comes from stereotyping Jews. Ignorance is no defence.
Faggot is a term of abuse in the UK too. how can spastic not be associated with cerebral palsy, except out of ignorance? That is what the term means, even in the USA.
"how can spastic not be associated with cerebral palsy, except out of ignorance? That is what the term means, even in the USA. "
Words have many meanings. In some locations some uses become far more prominent than others. “Spastic” does not automatically = CP in all locations just because you are very familiar with that usage from your home. Here it primarily means “of or pertaining to spasm.”
Compare and contrast “spastic meaning person with CP” definitions between your notes on American dictionaries and a British dictionary (Cambridge Dictionary). In the American dictonaries it is a tertiary meaning, or a subhead of the tertiary meaning. In the British dictionary it is the primary meaning, in fact, the only meaning. To me this indicates a vast cultural gap in the way the word is used.