4 ms·
the UK's niche insult community It's a horrible term that was used for years to denigrate disabled people and that it is used now in cloistered and privileged
by mellosouls 4y ago
the UK's niche insult community
It's a horrible term that was used for years to denigrate disabled people and that it is used now in cloistered and privileged academic settings is no excuse for an ignorant dismissal like that of the hurt, bigotry and exclusion it conveys.
- timthorn 4y agoI'm UK native and had never heard of the word as an insult. I wonder if it's a regional thing?
- mellosouls 4y agoPerhaps a generational (and maybe class?) thing as well; it and related terms were vicious and influential enough to have motivated The Spastics Society to change their name to Scope in the mid-nineties [1]; I guess growing awareness of disability discrimination and bigotry also contributed to it being recognized as beyond the pale and disappearance from casual conversation with the corollary effect of some people outside those demographics being ignorant of how awful those terms were. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-ouch-26788607 https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-ouch-26788607
- bowsamic 4y agoWell the UK has done an amazing job at getting rid of almost all uses of the word "spastic" due to the campaign against it, so it could be for that reason