The even bigger problem with the word we shall not use

[nightengalesknd]

There’s a push to get people to stop using the word. The “R” word. The word that is used in a derogatory way to describe people diagnosed as having intellectual disabilities, which we used to call mental retardation, and that is also used to put-down people, things, ideas and all other manner of nouns. The push comes from Special Olympics, a

Comments

[q10]

are you familiar with Steven Pinker's ‘euphemism treadmill’ concept? i am not interested in endorsing Pinker's broader perspective here, but he seems to be thinking about a similar cluster of phenomena in a wider context.

also you're familiar with Lydia Brown's extensive writings on terms to avoid on these grounds, right?

[nightengalesknd]

Lydia Brown, yes. And she does approach the topic well beyond the "list of words" approach.

Steven Pinker, not previously but the "euphemism treadmill" is an apt term here. I particularly liked the comment that we will know if headway is being made on reducing prejudice when the terms stop changing. I hadn't thought of it that way before, but I find myself agreeing.

[q10]

Pinker also situates this at a level of abstraction were we can see the same effect playing out in a lot of different domains, which is nice.

Pinker is by no means the only person to discuss this kind of issue - this was just the example that came to mind for me.

[nightengalesknd]

Yeah, it's definitely a bigger problem than this one word, or disability-related words.

[mantic_angel]

Thanks for writing this.

[nightengalesknd]

I don't know as I've heard "blind" assumed to be a pejorative before, but I've definitely heard "disability" and "handicapped" assumed that way and used at me that way. That's where the whole "I don't think of you as disabled!" line is assumed to be a compliment. It's not. It's only a compliment because of the underlying assumption that non-disabled is a better way to be.

That's where the whole politically correct group came up with terms like "differently abled" and "handicapable." I have yet to meet the adult with a disability who can say the word "handicapable" with a straight face.

[kittenmommy]

This post also touches a bit on why I don't really like politically correct language. The underlying issue is attitudes, and shuffling around words isn't going to change that.

Yes, exactly!

[plasticsturgeon]

The problem is that disabled means "bad," in its sense of not functioning as expected. If we had a society where people were not expected to be living assembly line products, we probably wouldn't even have a concept of disability.

[nightengalesknd]

Yes, that's the biggest problem, isn't it.

We would probably still have words to describe the inability or difficulty to do things that most people are able to do, just for convenience sake. We might have a word for blind, to describe an eye, just as we have words like green and brown to describe eyes. But we wouldn't need to have an overall collection of those words under "disability." I think that in some of my medical anthropology books they talk about how some cultures that are less product oriented, they tend to have individual impairment words but no overall disability concept.