words....

[smibbo]

Recently, a friend pointed me to a blog by someone she really likes. Unfortunately, the entry I started reading was about using a word that the author does not like.
I liked her writing. I did not agree with her plea at all. Being as I am unfamiliar with that writer, I didn't feel "right" about leaving a comment disagreeing. So I'll talk about it here.

The word she is opposed to is "crazy"

From the bulk of the entry, I surmise she is someone who is psychiatric care. Like me. And my husband. And my son. And most likely eventually my daughter. Then there's all my friends and some family.
As we all know, its not that our society has gotten more crazy, its that our understanding of brain disorders has widened and deepened and many disorders are treatable now that weren't even seen as brain dysfunctions before. When I was a teen, depression was something you talked about with a counsellor. THere were anti-depressants but they were based on amphetamine and they were being phased out for myriad reasons. Brain science was very much in its infancy. Sociology was barely talked about. Cultural anthropology and evolutionary biology weren't really on the radar. Certain conditions were considered "crazy" if you had to be medicated. Because generally, back then being medicated meant you were probably incarcerated. (except for the upper-middle class who had drug dealers called doctors and everything was all about anxiety)
So when I was younger, "Crazy" when used to describe a person wasn't so much perjurative as it was damnedably descriptive: a crazy person was someone out of control and probably locked up, or SHOULD be locked up.

Now we're in an age of science that's just dazzling. The things we understand (and the things we know we don't understand and are looking for) are just astounding to me. They've proven that depression can be chemical. They've proven that Tourettes is a brain dysfunction, not a rebellious nature. They know the difference between someone with epilepsy and someone with dissociative disorder. It is amazing to me the things we've "discovered" in the last thirty years.
So to me, "crazy" has never really meant "someone who needs meds". When using it to describe a person, "crazy" means psychotic, chaotic, uncontrollable, dangerous, incomprehensible... etc you get the picture. But a person who takes zoloft? or Paxil? Or anxiety meds? that's not "crazy" that's just someone with a brain dysfunction.

So reading her essay about how hearing the word "crazy" makes her cringe and she finds it "ablist" rather bothers me. Not in an annoyed way but in a sad way. As I see it, the problem is in her point of view. SHE identifies as "crazy" but feels that "crazy" is a perjurative. But from what I read, she's not in need of incarceration or sedation or restraints. She's not "crazy" she's just got some brain disorder.
As many people pointed out, the word "crazy" is a very contextual word. Its useful to describe all sorts of chaotic situations and incomprehensible objects. I do agree that our society has gotten a tad lazy at times and "crazy" is overused. It's not a light word or it shouldn't be. "silly" isn't "crazy" "amusing" isn't "crazy" "mixed up" isn't "crazy"
But that's just English and slang for you; some words get favored for a while and come to mean all sorts of shades that it never covered before. So it was with "dynamite" and so it is with "crazy" (and the next word I'll talk about) I could go on for years about words that fell into favor and got completely overblown until the next word (I had a particular loathing for the all-purpose word "tight") came along. But "crazy" isn't really one of them. It's always been used in many contexts. It's a very all-purpose descriptive. Chaotic, stressful, untenable, degenerative, destructive, insane, disordered, uncontrollable, not to mention it can replace good ole "very"
That's how our language works sometimes. "crazy" was never a medical term or a technical term. It has always covered many shades of meaning. So to pull out one aspect of it and say "because it has this meaning to me I don't like people using it in ANY context.
I just don't agree. You can't dictate that to all of society. Not when its a word that has always had a wide basis.
If you think one word is perjurative, I can get behind that. Calling someone "crazy" directly can be a serious insult. It can also be a term of affection. It can also be a flippant comment. It can also be a strengthener of a more important notion. But to think that every time someone uses it it somehow belittles you because it CAN be a perjurative... I have a hard time with that.
I'd feel the same way if the term discussed was "Dark"
There is a difference between the word "dark" and "darkie"
If someone tried to tell me I can't say "its a dark night" because they are too reminded of the term "darkie" I'd have to respectfully say "sorry, no can do"
So I'll say things like "I had a crazy day" and if that makes some odd person somehow cringe, then I am sorry their self-image is so skewered.

Then there's the "R" word.
Let me be frank: I use the "R" word when referring to objects or situations. I am totally okay with that.

I do not use that word about people unless I am being flippant and assuredly private. It is not acceptable to use that word as a descriptive term and I agree.

No, The "R" word used to be a technical/medical term and thus has many more applications than just people, but of course it evolved in slang and came to mean one thing: "irrevocably stupid"

Mentally disabled people are not irrevocably stupid. The new meaning of the "R" word is incorrect historically and technically but it is too late. Furthermore, our ability to diagnose and label the forms of intellectual impairment have widened dramatically since the "R" word was first used and in some sense, it no longer applies anyway. Thus it can no longer be used in its original form to describe a medical condition any more than "crazy" can be used to describe someone with a brain dysfunction. It simply isn't accurate. The difference is that the definition of "crazy" has not changed in either general use or slang use. Because it has MANY definitions. The "R" word has only ever had one definition. Originally it meant "slow growth" It doesn't mean that anymore and everyone knows it. So we cannot justify using that term on people anymore. Perhaps in private conversation when referring to someone everyone agrees is in fact "irrevocably stupid" it will get used, I'm sure, but I think/hope its use is dying off. I like to think society is coming around to the understanding that just about no one is irrevocably stupid. I like to be naive like that sometimes.

The last word is "gey"
I don't think I really have to get too into it here to outline why I just won't use that word and I hate it and I will call out anyone who uses it. IN light of everything I've said about "crazy" and the "R" word, I should think everyone can grasp why "ghey" (I don't give a shit how you spell it, we KNOW what you mean) is just wrong.

Comments

[goodjoan]

Sorry but crazy means a lot of things and none of them have to do with seeing a therapist or taking medication!

The R word I try not to use because I know it offends some folks and I fuss at the kids if they use it for that reason, but like crazy, no one is saying it to mean a mental problem, more a stupid moron problem :)

Now, I don't like the kids to say gay as an insult and I remind them that they know and love a lot of gay people. At one point, one of the kids argued that they know a lot of homosexual people, but that has nothing to do with being gay! As much as I am glad they don't see homosexuality as a problem, I don't think the rest of the world has quite reached their level of acceptance, so in that case, pick another vocabulary word!

All that being said, for a blogger to have issues with so many words is a little...high maintenance!

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

oh no her only issue was with the word "Crazy"

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the word "crazy" but when I was working in the psych field I did know a lot of people that took issue with it. However, it was more like your issue with the "R word". They didn't necessarily have a problem with using the word "crazy" to describe a situation but they didn't want it applied to a person.

I agree with you on the "R word" and "gay" or any of its various misspellings.

[mummygeorgie.livejournal.com]

I find words like this difficult because so many of the words we use as insults or even descriptions (like you said, crazy day), are based on ableism. Cretin, moron and idiot were once specific diagnoses applied to intellectually disabled people with certain IQ spans.

Spastic is another one. I have a spastic colon! That is part of my irritable bowel syndrome ... it's an actual term used to describe the way parts of the body function, but it too became used negatively. Retarded is a similar term and can be used physically: "this drug may retard growth".

Bastard. Motherfucker. And so on.

I try to avoid using any of those terms, particularly when applied to people rather than situations. But I'm sure I slip up sometimes.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

there is one issue I didn't address that you touch upon; the problem isn't really the words per se, because honestly we are a language-based species and we NEED labels. There will always be labels for all manner of disabled people and unfortunately because of negative attitudes, the labels we use may end up becoming insults. Generally this is what happens when immature people use a perfectly acceptable term against someone who probably doesn't deserve it which immediately indicates that those who DO deserve the term are somehow inferior. Because, lets' face it, when a bully is calling you a name you infer their intent regardless of whether you even know what the name means.

I've been super-short all my life and I'm not overly sensitive about it. But I am sensitive towards people who would treat me as an inferior person on the basis of my height. And the quickest way to find out who's going to do that is by hearing who decides to yell some slang-version of "hey you're really short" at me. Only an asshole would waste everyone's time pointing out the incredibly obvious fact that I am terribly short. Its all in the tone.

The problem is, there will ALWAYS be terms we use to indicate people of difference. It is likely that one of those terms will occasionally fall into slang-use as a perjurative. Not because the term is perjurative, but because the perception of the public is negative towards the people who embody that term. Then what? We find another term, one without negative connotations. Fine except how long before THAT term is perjurative too? Its a cat-and-mouse game of hoping we won't run out of terms before society finally stops attaching negative intention to the condition. Because labels that become perjurative are simply an indication that society still regards whatever condition the label describes in a poor light.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

TBH I am pretty sure "spastic" in the US is not even connected to the label of epilepsy. Generally "spastic" means someone who is bumbling and goofy who can never get anything correct; someone who is helpless "ditz" is usually the term used on females whereas "spaz" is used on males. Its hard to explain actually because while not a nice term, its not terribly perjurative. More like a mild exclamation. "he's such a spazz" is often said with mild affection much like "my husband is so stupid"

[mummygeorgie.livejournal.com]

Ah, that may be a localised thing. Here in Australia, it was always used to refer to someone with cerebral palsy, because they have varying degrees of spasticity in their muscles. So we had the Spastic Society etc, and so using it as an insult is pretty rude here. (Especially since ignorant people use it as a synonym for stupid/idiot, even though most ppl with cerebral palsy don't have an intellectual impairment, or if they do it's separate from their CP.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

*nods*

I'm betting most American's don't even know that "spazz" comes from the words "spasm" and "spastic" at all. That's how far it got from the origin. I don't think its ever been used to refer to people with CP. I think it just didn't hit our culture.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

although I dimly recall a brief period where the term 'spazzing out" was used which sort of indicated someone being incoherently upset and flailing their limbs about. Once again, though, I don't think we connected that to the actual source of the term.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

which haha brings to mind another example: I hear "freak" all the time as an adjective. I consider myself a freak (and proud of it) but it does not ever make me feel anythign personal to hear the term used in a way that has nothign to do with people. "that was freaky" or "my mom's gonna freak" have almost nothing to do with the fact that I'm a freak, so it doesn't bother me. But on the other hand, I've been called a "freak" in a way that was meant to upset me. It bothered me someone would TRY but the term itself is a source of pride to me. My brother, however, hates it and won't call us that. *shrug*

[wolven.livejournal.com]

The living process of language means that we are always caught between intent, individual understanding, and historical/etymological definition.

It takes lots of thoughtful considered conversation to even start to suss it out...

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

I'm not one to want to tell people what label they can use for themselves and I'm not one to tell someone when their hurt feelings are misplaced. BUT there has to be defining lines,there has to be labels. We need them. You can't keep moving the definition just because society deems the condition "bad" Changing the definition won't really change society's attitude towards disability.

In the case of the "R" word, its just too late, though. It will never mean what it originally did. We cannot "define it back" to its roots. THe link between delayed growth and inherent stupidity is too strong in that one word. By allowing it to remain "stupid" and redefining "delayed growth" we begin to mirror society's advance in understanding that happened at the same time the word was becoming permanently perjurative. Itd be different if the "R" word had nuanced or multiple meanings, it didn't and it still doesn't.