Category: Let's talk
I was inspired by the topic on terms for blindness. Lets hear some more. African american or black, mentally challenged or slow, fat or heavy set? Gimmie your best shot.
i'm not politically correct. i call 'em as i see 'em. therefore i am a blind fat old white lady. no, i am not a visually impaired diet challenged senior citizen.
Exactly! I'm a short, fat, white wap, and a blink.
Diet challenged! Lmao! Holly, that's very amusing. I've never heard that one before.
Vertically challenged? Again, what a load of crap. When I was at the Oregon School for the Blind during a Creative Enrichment Summer camp about twelve years ago we wrote and performed a play that parodies just this situation. It was basically a modern retelling of two fairytales (Snow White and Cinderella), but with a Politically Correct theme. So Snow White became Snow Caucasian and the Seven Dwarfs became the five Vertically Challenged Individuals. Of course the five part was only because we didn't have enough folks to play the two others.
hahaha! That's horrible! 3 visually impared mice. See how they run. It doesn't quite work. What about, rub adub dub, 3 men living alternative lifestyles in a tub. Gosh.
Actually I think we used visually challenged. But that doesn't make political correctness any less of a load of crap.
once my dad and i got introuble by one of my very over sensitive relatives, because i refered to myself as blind, not visually impaird, and my dad called the disabled parking, handicapt parking. lol
Disabled parking? Um ... wow! Handicapped parking sounds so much better.
Disabled parking? That's when the guy next to your spot takes up 1.5 spaces ... then again, he's probably got the mud flaps to prove it. Handicapa#his The first time I heard that, I ironically thought they were being politically correct in another way: instead of saying "handyman" you know, so as not to say "man" they said "handicapa#was I was just working on our pool when we lived in Florida and I heard that. Sillyness. So what would be the politically correct word for general dumbassery anyway?
Once on a server team I was part of, back when it was Netscape Enterprise and related stuff, a woman complained bitterly about having to use the man command on UNIX systems. Some Unix systems now alias it twice: once with the alias "wonan" and the second is "womyn" Thy the y, I don't know. The'd probably say something else if they'd had to type "manual" instead of "man" ... dumbassery
I don't know if all of these I'm going to mention are meant to be politically correct terms, but it just annoys me when words are made up just to mean a certain little thing. Maybe it's so that people can just use that word instead of having to describe something, but still. Anyway, here are some examples:
* Shero. On Oprah, when she would have a woman that would do something great/heroic, she would refer to them as sheroes, instead of heroines. That term just really annoyed me because the word "heroe" probably has nothing to do with offending women and there is already a word for a female hero.
* Sexting. There are other bad things people can do with using text messages, so are they next going to think of a term for specific kinds of non-sexual harrassment?
* Bromance. I guess that's for a male to male relationship or when males show affection toward each other.
* Manuary. Just because it's the type of word that generally gets to me.
Luckily, there are not many more that I've heard and no more that I can think of at this moment. *smile* There are other terms that have the characteristic of combining words such as "brunch", or when they make up terms to advertise a food product at individual restaurants, and I don't mind those as much. It's just words like the ones above that I don't like.
The one that really makes me mad is when they say the word Harrass or harrassment on TV and they have to pronounce it like the name Harris. All because somebody thought it sounded too much like "her ass."
and i thought the harrass thing was because they had a british fixation. you learn every day.
Nope. They've been doing that for years.
I absolutely despise political correctness. It makes me sick. Just say what it/the person is and move on. Okay, there are some, like firefighter and Native American, that actually make more sense than their older versions, but that's a rarity. Visually-impaired I can see working if the person actually has vision to impair, but with totals like myself, it's just plain stupid. I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who gets ticked off by this bullshit.
oh here is one that really ticks me off. people who catch fish for a living are fishermen or singlularly fisherman right? oh no dear gentle readers. they are now fishers. I used to believe that a fisher was a crack in a rock or a nasty little rodent that constantly and ravenously eats other things. Since an overwhelming majority of the persons who perform this job are males, for the love of mike and clarity can't they please be gender sensitive?
oh yes, when I was last on an airplane, i showed my age by calling my flight attendant a stewardess. after turning bright red and wishing for that invisibility cloak, the lady said "i far prefer stewardess. I'm not a homeless woman handing out towels in a ladies' room."
Their are some fun politically correct terms. People who are tall are now called gravitationally challenged. Women with large chests are known as horizontally endowed. People who speak to much are known as silence impaired.
Is it guide dogs, or dog guides? That might not fit, but I thought they were called guide dogs until someone told me that they were actually called dog guides.
Is it mentally challenged, mentally impaired, or mentally retarded?
Haha. This one's funny. I also did one of those politically correct fairy tales. I did Sleeping Beauty, which, according to whomever wrote the politically correct version, is called "Sleeping person with above average attractiveness".
lol Why turn red? She is what she is. Stewardess, flight attendant, whatever. I prefer the former in any case. I can't understand what's offensive about that. Same with waiter/waitress. Hello, you're waiting on someone! Server does actually make sense, but still.
I thought we were trying to move away from the distinctive terms between male and female workers. Waiter, waitress. Actor, actress. I know they're still used, but I personally like the gender neutral terms better.
You may dislike this so-called politically correct language, but let me ask you this. Do you know any people who would call a tall person vertically challenged and they were totally serious and sincere? I think some of these terms were made up by critics of PC language to lampoon it and unfortunately people are confusing it with the real thing. Problem is everybody seems to know what this language is but nobody seems to be able to come up with one universal source where you can find out the latest terms and their proper useage. So maybe it's hard to even find out what the real thing actually is.
All I know is what we think of as political correctness is complete and total bullshit. Just tell it like it is, people. Most of us don't have the time to listen to you get tongue tied while you try to avoid saying Blind. And I won't even go into how we can't even use certain ordinary, everyday words anymore without being called racist or homophobic or just plain perverted.
my daughter in law has been a server in many fine and not so fnine eating establishments. i asked her about the waitress vs. server controcversy. she said "server sounds too much like servant. i'm not a servant thank you very much. young people who use that term treat me wilth much less respect then the senior citizen who calls me a waitress"
my daughter in law has been a server in many fine and not so fnine eating establishments. i asked her about the waitress vs. server controcversy. she said "server sounds too much like servant. i'm not a servant thank you very much. young people who use that term treat me wilth much less respect then the senior citizen who calls me a waitress"
To be fair, do you guys appreciate some of the changes in terms? Like would it bother you terribly if you or someone you knew was referred to as colored? Would you care if someone who could not speak was called dumb or mute?
I think politically correct terms is just another lame form of censorship for the most part. However, I'd much prefer some of them over some of their alternatives, although these are only a few.
Exactly.
Really what it comes down to is the 'tude. You know, if someone says "African-American" but they still view black people as all needing sympathy and living in projects ... that's no good.
Whoever said political correctness is for the speaker and not the hearers, they were right.
I totally agree.
I think Godzilla has a point.
Personally, I don't care whether I am referred to as blind, visually impaired, or severely sight impaired. I'm blind because it's quicker to sayand type.
I think organisations have wasted too much time trying to find words to describe visually impaired people. Where on Earth did the Sight Impaired/severely sight impaired terms come from? How much money was spent on the meetings at which the terms were debated and decisions to use those terms were made?
Organisations that waste money on pointless meetings ought to be shut down. All of them are a waste of time and money, and don't represent all visually impaired people. They just represent those in the "blind community".
There are of course, some terms that are used to abuse people. The use of those terms should be prohibited. In the US, I believe some Republicans are unhappy about being told they shouldn't use the term retard. If that is the biggest problem in their lives, I'd rather have their lives than mine.
I also don't know why in the US, black people are referred to as being African Americans, but white people aren't referred to as European Americans. When black and white American citizens are just Americans, Americans will know that they no longer live in a racist country.
In this country, I have to ask all the people I teach how to use a computer about their race, so the council can see how many black and minority ethnic people are being trained. BME is another term that ought to be banned. I've never heard somebody say when asked about their race, I'm black minority ethnic. What a gobful! I shouldn't have to ask people about their race. It isn't relevant to the service we provide to them.
I think the problem is that the people who decide what terms are appropriate are detached from society. They may be good at spotting words that are used to insult people, but they seem to think it is necessary to invent new alternatives when it isn't. Some disabled advocates encourage this and they are part of the problem.
What about terms such as chick, nigger, bitch cripple or midget? I know you're probably going to say that those are derogatory, but alot of them once upon a time were ok to a degree.
Well hell, you can't even use bitch anymore these days for its original meaning, a female dog. Because if you use it these days people automatically assume you're trying to degrade women. Same goes for words like Gay and Fag, whose original meanings had nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuality. Gay of course originally meant happy and if I'm not mistaken Faggot originally referred to a piece of kindling wood. Of course now it's also a slang term for cigarette.
Chippy, you mentioned the term "chick". Well, the other terms you mentioned, I personally wouldn't use, but a lot of my friends call each other "chick", just for a cute nickname. I think it really depends in which context the terms in question are used.
Sometimes people are raised in an environment where those words are what would first come to mind. My grandmother calls people who are below a certain hight dwarves. She doesn't mean to insult anyone because she says it with sincerity. Would an unmarried woman after she reaches a certain age call herself a spinster or old made? Do you think a person who has trouble walking or has a limp has a problem being called an invalid or gimp? I'd love if I could get these answers from people who actually are in these catagories. Because its all well and good to say I don't care if people say I'm blind, but that's just me. As rediculous as I think some of the terms are, I don't like bitch, broad, nigger or negro, unless of course we're kidding around lol.
I have mild cerebral palsy which mainly affects the way I walk...and although I don't let it stop me in most cases...I must say I find being called crippled or gimp very offensive.
Well, again, someone calling you "crippled" would be in a dorogatory context.
and again, maybe not. Sometimes calling it as they see it for some people means saying crippled.
I agree that it would be a good idea to do some kind of survey both to see how many people actually use these so-called politically correct terms and how many, who are actually in certain categories, are offended at being referred to as different things that have fallen out of favour. I think the results would be very interesting.
I just wanted to point out that I heard the term sight impaired used for the first time yesterday. I was kind of surprised by this because I've not heard any other terms for blind besides blind and visually impaired. I mean, it's been brought up on the boards here, but I've never heard it used in a conversation with someone.
I am proud to admit that I am a god damn blindy.
Not visually impaired
Not visually challenged
Fucking blind. just say it. lol
Well, I think blind is optional if a person still has some kind of vision left.
yeah. Usually, when I'm applying for something through an organization for people who have a disability, I'm almost always asked if I'm blind, or visually impaired?
Of course, some people say it should be "challenged", not impaired. Still others think it should be handicapped, because it's not really a challenge to be blind for most people, and still others think all of those terms are just dorogatory. Of course, those are the extremists.
Personally, I'm perfectly fine with telling people that I'm totally blind, not just legally blind. There's nothing wrong with those terms.
I think part of the use of these terms is formality as well. For example, it's okay to use these terms to your friends when everybody knows it's all used in a joking context, but it would be weird for someone I don't know to address me in a formal setting as "the blind girl", and if they did, I might actually be slightly offended. They don't refer to the girl who can see as "the sighted girl", do they? So why should I be "the blind girl"? People used to do that a lot in school.
Okay. I'm just rambling on, so I'll stop now. Lol.
in most cases I don't like being refered to as the blind girl, but here's an exception: a kid once said, "hi blind person", as we were in a big crowd and he/she wanted to make sure I knew they were addressing me. I must admit, that was pretty clever.
Lol cute. I went to this concert once and my mom invited some students of hers. The next time he called the house he couldn't remember my name and finally came out and said, "you're the blind one, right?" not the one who sings, not the youngest the blind one lol I found it funny more than anything hearing people get flustered like that.