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The intention is to emphasize that the state of being unhoused is not some internal/inherent characteristic of the person, within the wider effort of adopting p
by ahelwer 6y ago
The intention is to emphasize that the state of being unhoused is not some internal/inherent characteristic of the person, within the wider effort of adopting people-first language. The phrase "people experiencing houselessness" is sometimes used but it's fairly clunky so unhoused is often used instead.
Plus, you know, they do have homes usually. Their tent on the side of the street. Not housed, though.
- carmen_sandiego 6y agoTrust me, unhoused is also clunky. This is not how English works. Who thinks it does? If I'm shirtless, is that an innate property of me as an individual? Should I refer to myself as person without shirt just so people don't get confused?
- ahelwer 6y agoThere is a distinction between home and house. Nomadland is a good film, if you're interested in seeing a form of houselessness one step above a tent on the side of the street. You'd be surprised how many of the "regular looking" people you interact with day-to-day are unhoused and live in their cars. Regarding your point about shirtlessness if there were an entire media cottage industry dedicated to depicting shirtless people as barely-sentient zombies spreading their infection to all you hold dear, then yeah maybe you'd want to reinforce that people should still view you as a full person. I think English is quite versatile and escapes your desire to circumscribe it.
- carmen_sandiego 6y ago'Shirtless' people are often described in the context of being some drunken yob or party goer. Or in some sexual direction. The connotation is typically negative. And yet it somehow doesn't destroy my ability to reason about how transitive the state is. The distinction isn't relevant to the discussion we're having, and that makes it feel inelegant and forced. Though I appreciate the patronizing recommendation of a multi-mainstream-award winning niche movie to help me understand it all.
- ahelwer 6y agoI had assumed I wouldn't have to enumerate the many differences between not having a shirt and not being housed. I'm sure you're a capable person and can think about it yourself instead of continuing to carry this nonsensical comparison.
- carmen_sandiego 6y agoYes, the parallel is a rhetorical device. I don't think being shirtless is equivalent to being homeless. But I do think it's a difference of degree rather than type, and hence similar reasoning can be applied.
- shalmanese 6y agoWe use the words "jobless" and "unemployed" in roughly the same grammatical formulation and to the same effect. Jobless focuses on the individual, unemployment focuses on structural factors.
- carmen_sandiego 6y agoThe target of both 'jobless' and 'unemployed' is the individual, so I'm not sure how you arrive at your assertion that one doesn't focus on the individual.
- meepmorp 6y agoJoblessness is used as a synonym for unemployment in lots of news sources, as are adjectival forms like jobless claims, jobless rate, jobless benefits, etc. I understand the point you want to make, but you're not making it.
- umanwizard 6y ago> Jobless focuses on the individual, unemployment focuses on structural factors. Why?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- NamTaf 6y agoI'd suggest that anyone who understands the stigma associated with certain terms understands that there's more nuance to this than you're suggesting. See also: the UK's use of 'sleeping rough'.
- carmen_sandiego 6y agoSleeping rough is a term used by people straining to find the right PC phrase, not by the average person in conversation.
- kgwgk 6y agoOr person experiencing shirtlessness, maybe. But the all-encompassing, non-derogatory term would be "differently-clothed".
- umanwizard 6y agoWhy does “unhoused” connote a temporary state and “homeless” an intrinsic one? Why is it any more people-first? Both are combinations of two roots that are respectively synonyms - “house” and “home” have essentially the same meaning in this context, as do “un-” and “-less”. I think the far more likely explanation is the typical euphemism treadmill: “homeless”, a neutral description, is perceived as a slur precisely because the people it describes are social outcasts, and so people wanted to stop saying it. Then stretched justifications for why “unhoused” is inherently less offensive were come up with after the fact.