Fuming

[lilacclaire]

I use another website forum regularly which is based in the US but used by people all around the world for help and advice on things that I am interested in that are not covered on this site.

One of the girls on their used the word spastic to describe herself at exercising (she is not disabled in anyway)

I posted that it was a very offensive term and basically got slated by the moderators for it, telling me to lighten up.

AIBU to stop using this site, I am so pissed off right now about their attitude to words that are potentially very offensive (I was very offended).

"maybe because disabled people don't feel that they have an 'extra burden to carry' or that they find things 'extra difficult'."

eh? surely that is the point of having a disability? It makes life harder. Otherwise that difference would be described as a talent, gift, advantage...

I remember some time ago a poster using the word "mong" on a thread and when she was pulled up on it (including the post being reported) those doing so were told to chill out.

I started a thread about offensive terms and sadly a large proportion of posters were of the opinion that people had no right to be offended at terms such as mong.

For "coloured", in South Africa it refers to people who are mixed race, and there is a specific community in Cape town who refer to themselves that way.
But, as said above, it's considered hugely offensive and outdated in the US

My friend is disabled after having a massive stroke and wheelchair bound for life. He often refers to himself as handicapped - i had no idea it was offensive and i certainly don't think he does.

To the OP - the way that you were treated by the moderators of the site was unreasonable and YANBU if you wish to leave the site because of it.

I thought oriental just meant eastern- i wouldn't say it was offensive just out dated?

while I would never use terms handicapped/coloured i do struggle with understanding why they are more offensive than disabled/black which are seen as acceptable- other than the historical connotation

I think in the UK the word spastic may be much more loaded than in the US, just like the word coloured is much more loaded than in the UK (loaded, as in: much more history behind the derogatory use).
Oriental is now a loaded term, partly due to Edward Said's book "Orientalism", which is about the superior way the West has treated "orientals" and so on.

Oriental is not used now to describe people, is it, just art and objects?
And as for Asian, I don't see the problem with calling someone asian if they are in fact from asia? It's not very specific, but its hardly offensive, its like calling someone European.

I have a question about terminology in the US? If its "African-American" instead of black, what about the millions of people who are black but not of African descent? What about Carribean, West-Indian, etc etc?

Jaypickle I was just similarly wondering what non-American black people are called in the US?

HELP NEEDED - Sorry to change the thread but new to this site and didnt know where to post !!!

I have lost my sons JELLY CAT PICKLES PIG MEDIUM SIZE!!! This is now discontinued, does anyone know where I might find one. I have tried ebay. ??? thanks for any help...

upwind - google 'social model of disability'

some argue that it is society (inc infrastructure etc) that makes life more difficult for people with a disability, rather than the disability itself, per se.

hth.

I would find it offensive

But I have a american friend and we always have this conversation about what certin words mean to the americans and to the british
when she says she pissed she means fed up
to me it means drunk
The Americans may speak english BUT it is not always as we do

Of course I (and most Brits) find "spastic" offensive. But don't forget once upon a time it was mainstream enough for Scope (wasn't it?) to be called the Spastic Society. You can see how, with language mutating in slightly different ways in different countries, how it could become offensive in one English-speaking country but less so in another.

I've almost given up (but not quite) asking my parents not to say "coloured". They always counter by telling me it was offensive to call someone black in the 60s. And as I wasn't around then, it's hard to say much more than, well it's different now.

Oh, I didn't realise the term coloured was offensive, im off to crawl under a stone now!

Jaypickle, my XH always had that problem in the U.S. He calls himself 'Black British' or 'Black Carribean' depending on what options are available. He was born in the UK, parents from Jamaica.

FOREVER having to explain to people in the U.S. that he is NOT 'African-American'. Not African, not American either. A friend of mine was genuinely confused about the 'not African' part--weren't all black people originally from Africa if you went back far enough? Well yes, but so is everyone.

But that's the kind of crap that happens when you confuse ethnicity, race, and nationality.

Along the lines of Scope, I could NOT get my head around the fact that Mencap kept its name despite it being an abbreviated version of 'mentally handicapped'. That seemed incredibly backward to me when I first arrived here!

Yes, on different meanings, don't EVER ask Americans for a cigarette by saying "can I bum a fag?"

a jumper is adress in some parts of the u.s.a
pants are trousers
chips are crisps
DS went to stay at his mates his mum shouts put clean pants on
DS shouts "I always do" got v.embarrassed
He went downstairs and she says you had those pants on yesterday he said how can you see them
well it went for about 5 mins before she clicked

DS thinks she is obsessed with his underwear

bleh - .

I find it odd every time I hear American people say "fanny" instead of bum. And fannypack.

Americans and fannies ... snigger

Also "smoke a fag" is not interpreted in the same way.

"By madwomanintheattic on Fri 01-May-09 11:00:27
upwind - google 'social model of disability'

some argue that it is society (inc infrastructure etc) that makes life more difficult for people with a disability, rather than the disability itself, per se.

hth. "

So what? In this world, with the infrastructure and society we have, disabilities make life a bit harder. In effect creating a handicap.

You can pontificate and theorise about alternative universes, but that has little practical relevance.

lol. i've been thinking about this today... there wasn't really any pontificating, i was just signposting something that you might find interesting.

or might encourage you to look at it from the perspective of, say, a wheelchair user. 'it's not the fact i can't walk that's the problem - it's the fact that there's only stairs to where i need to go'.

or the fact that i might be socially capable of crawling up the stairs, but in 'public' it isn't the done thing.

i don't necessarily agree with it, just providing a different pov.

Tom Shakespeare is very convincing lol.

madwomanintheattic sorry I was so rude! Multitasking...

The concept is interesting. As sci-fi fiction is.

But not acknowledging that disabilities make life harder for those affected by them can make it harder to provide support. All the disabled people I know do feel that they have an 'extra burden to carry' or that they find things 'extra difficult'." Without self pity.

Different cultures, different (almost!) languages. DIFFERENT.

If it was an American site and the usage of the word is not considered offensive by the majority there, there isn't much you can do except leave.

I was astounded at the weight the word "Wog" carries here. In Oz it can be used two ways to refer to Aussies of Italian/Greek/Mediterranean descent. The way I use it among friends is ribbing (much like I am a Skip [English Aussie]) and the English are the Bloody Pommies, but it can be used in an unpleasant way. Here I understand it is a derogatory reference to Golliwog?

People are not all the same.