Help Us End the R-Word

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

I would call Kevy a retard if he deserved. it.

If?







Oh wait; that was about me...

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

True. So what?

I thought I pretty much explained the "so what" as I see it. Why, even if successful, it likely isn't going to solve the underlying issue. That just as words can gain new definitions they can shed them as well (in usage if not in the OED), and that in this case it may be more productive in the long term to shed a definition than to try and salt this linguistic ground and hope you can avoid a repeat on the new homestead.

[€uroMeinke]

Retard seems to be in resurgence - a staple of my childhood, I don't think I heard the word uttered for many years until quite recently. Now it's everywhere. My African-American Boss uses it all the time, even though her Asian admin assistant has an autistic child. My Lesbian colleague called her on that, but she herself keeps calling things gay.

[Morrigoon]

I have to agree with NA on this. I wouldn't call a mentally challenged person retarded, but I probably would call a stupid person (or person behaving stupidly) that.

IMHO, "retard" only marginally applies to the developmentally disabled any more, and I think continued use of it only in regards to non-disabled people will further separate the slur from its original victims and convert the meaning.

You can't win a game of moving goal posts if you continually aim at the current endzone.

[flippyshark]

I think there is some reason to avoid the usage under discussion. People with mental disabilities mostly know very well what the word "retarded" means, and know that it applies to them. To some extent, they must own it as part of their identity, (in a way that they don't have to own idiot or moron)- so it's galling or hurtful to hear society use it as a casual substitute for those other epithets. Friends and family may be saying, "No, you're not stupid, you're different" (or whatever), but elsewhere they are hearing that word (which they can't help but identify themselves with) and it seems to mean stupid, worthless and incompetent to the larger social sphere. Moreover, people saying it to one another are often expressing impatience, contempt and disregard for their target. ("You lost the keys? What are you, retarded?") The disabled person overhears and thinks, well, that includes me too. I suspect this is what the effort is trying to raise consciousness about.

By rough comparison, it's a bit like hearing someone denigrate somebody else by saying, "What are you, a woman?"

So, I'm in sympathy, but then, I'm an oversensitive doofus.

[Not Afraid]

Along those same lines, I probably wouldn't ever use the preferred phrase "differently-abled" as opposed to disabled but I don't use "Handicapped" any longer (interesting etymology) but i do say "USE a wheel chair" as opposed to "Confined" to a wheel chair. Wheel chairs are anything BUT confining when you have mobility issues.

[flippyshark]

I remember when a lot of us out at the theme parks used to say "wheelchair guests." as in "Wheelchair guests, please use the front and back rows of the theater." (yikes - and I was guilty of this one myself)

We were wisely counseled to say "Guests using wheelchairs."

I've only rarely heard cast members use disabled or handicapped. (I do recall an older cast member used to point and say "Handicap access is that way.")

[Alex]

3894 posted this here and on MousePad.

Interesting experiment in how the same starting point can go in different directions.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Alex

3894 posted this here and on MousePad.

Interesting experiment in how the same starting point can go in different directions.

Uhoh. I think I've just added "gay-tard" to my vocabulary.

[3894]

Originally Posted by Alex

Interesting experiment in how the same starting point can go in different directions.

I wanted to do x-post with the Breastaurant thread but since: 1) no one could possibly handle that thread better than the LoT crew and 2) it would make some extra work for stan4d_steph and Drince88 and -most importantly -possibly for moi, why bother?

You LoTers never disappoint.

Originally Posted by iSm

In fact, just as eskimos have 24 words for snow

This isn't true. The story was started by the anthropologist Franz Boaz who noted that the Central Esquimaux have different words for different kinds of snow. Somehow, this whole thing grew many years later - in the early 1970's. The number kept spiraling up, sort of like the Chief Seattle story that was invented by a newspaper editor in Texas. Anyway, it's [strike]gay[/strike], [strike]retarded[/strike] campy to repeat this thing about snow. Euro-Americans have only one word for snow but Esquimos have many different words for different kinds of snow perpetuates a stereotype about Native Americans being more in tune with their surroundings than the rest of us.