Won't somebody think of the retarded children?

[alias_sqbr]

So, something I've been pondering for a while is the attitudes people have towards "stupid people" and how these relate to attitudes towards the mentally disabled.

Now, some people think it's ok to make fun of mentally disabled people.

Most people, I would say, think it's not. Which, you know, good. I've known a bunch of people with downs syndrome and other cognitive disabilities in my life and they were as deserving of respect and decency as anyone else.

But there's a long and established history of people making fun of others for being "stupid", and this consistently blurs the boundary and coopts medical words for the mentally disabled (ie "Moron", "idiot", "retard") Personally I think this is deliberate, in order to accentuate the insult. I was discussing this with Cam and he said "Yeah, but noone actually uses "retarded" to refer to actual disabled people any more, so it's ok to use it as an insult", but Google disagrees (as do a lot of examples of people using it as an insult) I wonder if it occurs to these people that the mentally disabled do actually use the internet...

And a question that has occurred to me from time to time: if it's not ok to make fun of people with well below average intelligence, why is it ok to make fun of people for having mildly below average intelligence? At the same time, if you can't make fun of that what can you make fun of?

Of course I have a somewhat unusual definition of "stupid" anyway, since on the one hand I'm smarter than most people (certainly most of the kids I knew growing up) but at the same time do a lot of really dumb things. (I guess that answers my second question: you can make fun of me :))

Also, googling found me this interesting youtube video, of a woman with autism talking about being considered "retarded", and why she doesn't deny it as vehemently as a lot of other people in her position.

So, as is usual for me, no point exactly just a bunch of vaguely connected thoughts. What do you guys think?

Comments

[meljane.livejournal.com]

Well being the sister of an intellectually handicapped sister I still find retarded just as insulting as I did back in the 80's and 90's .

It even annoys me when one of the guys in IT at work goes "Wow that's so retarded "( I usually squirm but don't say anything) and when I people found out about my sister in high school they called me retarded among one of many things they use to call me.

I know carers would never use the word retarded and other workers that have clients that intellectually handicapped .

Just my two cents .

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

I know carers would never use the word retarded and other workers that have clients that intellectually handicapped .

I don't think they'd say it while the client or his/her family could hear, but at least some definitely would and do.

[alias_sqbr]

Oh, yes, I think it's been a long time since anyone used it in a nice/value-neutral way.

Heh. That reminds me of me and a childhood friend with cerebral palsy confiding in each other that he was a "spastic" and I was a "bastard" and noone at our schools could EVER KNOW :)