AIBU To think that channel four are well out of order for calling their new programme Spazticus

[loopylou6]

Apparently its about disabled people playing tricks on people.

I dunno how they are getting away with that title, its disgusting.

Thoughts?

If I sat down to watch something called "Niggercity" written, produced & performed by black people, I would assume that they were using that word to challenge perceptions or promote discussion & debate. I certainly wouldn't beat my breast in fury in advance of watching it.

Agree bojangles I think even when used by someone it applies too it is still negatively used. DH is Asian can't see him "reclaiming" paki. Mainly because those who use it aren't bright enough to get the irony as pp said.

Why why why can't a programme written, directed, acted blah blah by "x" minority just be a programme? Funny and valuable just because it is? Why does it have to be point making and divisive?

Sometimes all this positive discrimination just propagates the difference. Can't people just be people?

"Mainly because those who use it aren't bright enough to get the irony as pp said."

That is undoubtedly true, admittedly.

and this is the same channel that lets frankie boyle get away with his ''jokes'' about disabilites too. as for showing the paralympics....??????

Hazeyjane "complexnumber - but everyone used the term 'spaz' in the 80s, I don't think anyone even thought it was offensive"

That's not true, I'm not sure if you were around in those days, but the song was released by Ian Dury to shock and educate.

limitedperiod "As it happens the anger of Dury's Spartacus Autisticus made me think."

That really made me laugh: "No! I am Spartacus Autisticus!"
(I think you meant Spasticus Autisticus )

Yes, I was at school in the 80s where everyone threw around the term 'spaz' and 'joey' and I don't think any of us particularly thought about what we were saying. I remember helping out at a local special needs school in the Summer holidays and a group of kids shouting 'spaz' at the bus as we went on a day trip, and being ashamed and shocked, I was 14 and stupid. I suppose what i worry about is that the same sort of 14 year olds will see the name, 'spazticus' on a mainstream show and think it becomes an ok thing to say, subtlety is lost n a lot of people.

People comparing it to the reclaiming of the term 'nigger', i don't think it really compares. Disability covers a huge different range of issues, surely if you have learning disabilities, may not 'get' the nuances of a previously offensive word being reclaimed.

I hate to think of my son, when he is old enough to go to school having 'oi spazticus' shouted at him, because it is something that suddenly seems ok.

My DD calls herself spackylegs and spaz. However, if anyone else uses it, she puts them right.
Me, I sit and watch, it's great!

You're right complex sorry for the typo. Glad I made you laugh.

Of course it was Spasticus. It still made me think, which I gather was the point.

The idea that Ian Dury shuffled towards pop stardom in his late 30s with his withered leg and voracious sexual appetite opened a lot of eyes in the late '70s.

As an able-bodied person who fancied him like crazy who was I to say he wasn't allowed to sing it?

I think people need to take a step back and think about the motives of this before jumping to the politically correct offended viewpoint.

I remember Ian Dury and Spasticus Autisticus just as Limited does. It's a shame that we are 30 years on and the same preconceptions are still having to be challenged.

Dawndonna Your DD sounds ace!

Sorry for being snotty complex I thought you were against.

As a teenager when Ian Dury became famous i was certainly interested for the first time in a 'raspberry ripple' as he called himself.

I wouldn't use that term in any context except this one but I hope this programme is in the same vein.

yanbu that is disgusting

oh and before soemone sjumps on me, if someone used that word near my dd, my ds would deck them

the likelihood is though, threesocks that the title has been thought up by the people that wrote the show.

couldn't care less who thought it up, they obviously didn't give a shit about people like my dd who don't have a voice, but have to put up with being called a spaz.

My friend is actually spastic, as in with cerebral palsy, and she seems fine with the label spaz. We call each other spaz in a jokey way, my right calf is spastic too, and we are able to reclaim the term and turn it around on anyone who tries to laugh at us.

Perhaps it is cultural differences as she is American?

Haven't seen the programme. Won't judge till I do. Context is all. There are plenty of disability activists who use the word 'crip'. I wouldn't feel comfortable using the term myself, but isn't it a bit like the attitude behind the Slut Walk, reclaiming terms of abuse and shaking them in the faces of the abusers?

xh uses a wheelchair and attitudes still need to be challenged. He's a grown man and doesn't tend to get direct abuse any more, (apart from being called 'the wheelchair' ) but after chairing a work meeting with new clients, someone came up to him and said, 'you know, I don't even see the wheelchair. I just see you.' Not offensive, but someone climbing all over themselves to be pc and actually just not seeing the irony of their comment. If this tv show is part of challenging either the 'tragic but brave' narrative or the in-your-face offensive abuse, that's got to be good.

Threesocks, I'm really sorry that your dd has to put up with such abuse. That's so horrible. Is it possible that the programme makers have had to put up with a huge amount of similar abuse themselves in their own childhoods and are trying to find a way to do something with it?

The sad truth is that the Blue Peter attempt to 'educate' my generation about cerebral palsy just led to my generation adopting 'Joey' as an insult. That sort of well-intentioned movement led by non-disabled people didn't work. Change is slow, but maybe it will have more of a chance if it's led by people who have direct experience?

oh great now we have the "reclaim" comments
ok tell me how you fee when your child is called names cos they are in a wheelchair
when your sone is bullied , because the bullies know his week spot, so call his sister a spaz.
ffs why are people always defending stuff like this, but bet they wouldn't if it was a racist term.

Threesocks I'm sorry your dd has so much hassle. Mine does too, but mine is articulate and clever and really will put people in their place, most of the time.
As I said, she does use the term about herself.

I don't give a flying fuck about all this 'reclaiming' shit.
It's fucking offensive.

Glitterknickaz thanks you, very well put

mine is clever, thanks but can't talk.
so what should she do??

@Threesocks I would feel like total shit, like you do. I would be as furious as you are.

But stop these little shits using that word, and they will simply find another. The word itself does not matter - it's the thought process behind it that does.

I haven't seen this show, to be fair, but from what others are saying it seems that people who have been through what your child has, have taken the word that caused them such distress in the past and thrown it straight back in the faces of the ignorant turds that used it abusively in a "Yeah. And?" kind of fashion.

Can you arm her with a sharp stick, three?
That and a couple of those beers she was eyeing up would do her nicely, I feel.

Do you know you don't actually have to have a DX of cerebral palsy or any spasticity to be called a spaz?

My autistic kids get called it alllll the time.

It shouldn't be encouraged in any way, shape or form by anyone.

Anyone else fancy a programme being made about their kids being named 'little shits'???

ffs MY DD CAN'T TALK, SO HOW CAN SHE THROW IT BACK
would be better if no one used it , so please stop with the reclaiming crap, that is a descicion made by a few that affect a lot.
no worries though as her big brother will always deal with it.

They are reclaiming the term, just like Ian Dury did in the 1980s. It will be a refreshing change to see disabled people on TV actually having a good laugh.

I hope though that this doesn't reinforce the 'us' and 'them' aspect of disability politics. 'They laugh at us so we laugh at them' might actually backfire?