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alias_sqbrSo, 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?
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?
no subject
Date: 2008-02-25 08:57 am (UTC)Though that said, beyond the stigma there's the simple fact that one does treat people with mental disabilities differently, and it would be annoying for everyone to treat you that way due to unrelated disabilities. The fact that there's a stigma attached would just make it more annoying. Also it indicates ignorance and unwarranted assumptions, which are a bad things all round.
I'm just remembering how the guy in "My Left Foot" was treated as mentally disabled for a large chunk of his life due to his paralysis, and how much easier things got for him once people realised he wasn't. Of course, this is possibly a sign that people treated the mentally disabled really badly back then...
I guess there's a line between "Stop misclassifying me!" and "OMG don't mix me up with THEM!!".
no subject
Date: 2008-02-28 11:38 am (UTC)Yeah, I can understand the "misclassifying me" thing- the people I'm thinking of had more pronounced scorn for other forms of disability, which I should have clarified.
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Date: 2008-02-29 03:49 am (UTC)