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‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

irishtimes.com

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Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#21

Post by tempnow987 »

jeherr wrote: post #6
Freak_NL wrote: post #2

Did someone ever work out the relevant academic theory that describes this linguistic process? A word starts out as neutral, but gradually transitions to becoming a slur (a process that seemingly takes decades), and is replaced by a new politically correct word which is seen as too avant-garde at first, but gets established in part due to a lack of push-back (because any criticism will make the person levelling it se…

I definitely recognize this process (and have heard the term euphemism treadmill from McWhorter the other commenter pointed out) but since when has "disabled" been used as a slur? I'm sure it's happened, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone using disabled in a derogatory manner like you would hear "retarded" commonly used now.

Where I am disabled is not in common use.

Differently abled is OK. Learning differences or special needs also works. Disabilities I think is still OK.

I'm kind of on board with getting away from retarded and disabled.

Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#22

Post by Natsu »

bananarchist wrote: post #3
Freak_NL wrote: post #2

Did someone ever work out the relevant academic theory that describes this linguistic process? A word starts out as neutral, but gradually transitions to becoming a slur (a process that seemingly takes decades), and is replaced by a new politically correct word which is seen as too avant-garde at first, but gets established in part due to a lack of push-back (because any criticism will make the person levelling it se…

John McWhorter refers to it as the Euphemism Treadmill but I can't say if it's a widely accepted term in the field

The euphemism treadmill is what I've heard most often, as well.

Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#24

Post by lawkwok »

Freak_NL wrote: post #2

Did someone ever work out the relevant academic theory that describes this linguistic process? A word starts out as neutral, but gradually transitions to becoming a slur (a process that seemingly takes decades), and is replaced by a new politically correct word which is seen as too avant-garde at first, but gets established in part due to a lack of push-back (because any criticism will make the person levelling it se…

Language is so fluid and used by different people with different connotations of words that I don’t think it’s “preventable” if it is something to be prevented.

I see this tug of war of new word as part of the process for finding the best word… for this particular zeitgeist.

I remember in the 2000s, “a person with autism” was preferred because they are first and foremost a person who happens to have autism. But this year I learned some people prefer the term “autistic” as they claim it as part of who they are.

Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#25

Post by matt-attack »

Freak_NL wrote: post #2

Did someone ever work out the relevant academic theory that describes this linguistic process? A word starts out as neutral, but gradually transitions to becoming a slur (a process that seemingly takes decades), and is replaced by a new politically correct word which is seen as too avant-garde at first, but gets established in part due to a lack of push-back (because any criticism will make the person levelling it se…

Yep I've observed and described this process myself over the years. look at:

> "negro" => "colored" => "black" => "African American" => "person of color"

It's pretty inane when you think about it. At some point wouldn't people start noting that, hey, you're trying to solve something clearly, but what you're attempting to do is clearly not the right approach.

Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#26

Post by matt-attack »

tempnow987 wrote: post #21
jeherr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely recognize this process (and have heard the term euphemism treadmill from McWhorter the other commenter pointed out) but since when has "disabled" been used as a slur? I'm sure it's happened, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone using disabled in a derogatory manner like you would hear "retarded" commonly used now.

Where I am disabled is not in common use. Differently abled is OK. Learning differences or special needs also works. Disabilities I think is still OK. I'm kind of on board with getting away from retarded and disabled.

I literally recall "differently abled" as being the punch line to a joke (Simpsons perhaps?). A character put his foot in his mouth, and tried to back-pedal and sort of ad-hoc formulated the phrase "differently abled" as a way to sound more PC and sensitive. It was quite literally supposed a joke at the time.

Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#27

Post by remram »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #9

At the risk of getting downvoted for sarcasm... "Stop"? That's harsh "Tellling?" That excludes people who are unable to talk "People?" Whoa, aren't we constantly going on about animals and even plants being sentient creatues? So "differently continue communicating to sentient creatures"... Oh wait, creationism? ...

Why did you post this? What is the substance of your comment, were I to look past the sarcasm?

Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#28

Post by MarkusWandel »

remram wrote: post #27
MarkusWandel wrote: post #9

At the risk of getting downvoted for sarcasm... "Stop"? That's harsh "Tellling?" That excludes people who are unable to talk "People?" Whoa, aren't we constantly going on about animals and even plants being sentient creatues? So "differently continue communicating to sentient creatures"... Oh wait, creationism? ...

Why did you post this? What is the substance of your comment, were I to look past the sarcasm?

That there is simply no practical limit to removing everything from public discourse/language that it is possible to take offense to.

Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#29

Post by cheschire »

Freak_NL wrote: post #2

Did someone ever work out the relevant academic theory that describes this linguistic process? A word starts out as neutral, but gradually transitions to becoming a slur (a process that seemingly takes decades), and is replaced by a new politically correct word which is seen as too avant-garde at first, but gets established in part due to a lack of push-back (because any criticism will make the person levelling it se…

Does George Carlin’s stage analysis of soft language count as academic?

Re: ‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

#30

Post by wahern »

KSPAtlas wrote: post #14

Meanwhile, in Polish, the official word for a black person (Murzyń) sounds like a slur

Oh, the irony: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Haitians#:~:text=White%... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution#:~:text=Whi...) (Also apropos Russian-Ukraine war, given Russian claims to be the historical defender of Slavs against European anti-Slavic racism.)
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