word neutering

It's amazing how douchebag the general population is. This particular aspect is an everlasting tradition that has been passed down from generation. Take the number of medical terms used to mean "intellectual disability" in the past. Then consider how they have been turned into "you're stupid" slurs. Then consider how overused those slurs were that it became "uncool" to use that word.

Btw all smart-sounding historical facts I quote are from Wiki unless linked otherwise.

This is has a much lower potential to be upsetting as the last one. If you were fine with the last post, you'll be great with this post, and I welcome you. If you were not, you're entering at your own risk.

Don't pretend that this post exists in full somewhere other than after you click "Read More". It doesn't exist in my blog homepage, it doesn't exist in Google Reader, it doesn't exist on your Dashboard cos I changed the feed settings.
In the case of technological fuck-up, you can still turn away because I've waffled on for 2 paragraphs (and 1 to come) that you have the opportunity to leave. (And then tell me how you found the whole post so I can fix that.)

So a break here where you can rethink your life choices and decide if you want to quit while you're ahead (and go somewhere else), or continue and agree not to complain (complain =/= discuss btw. Discuss is fine.) later if you regret your choice.

Life Cycle of Slurs

The model for all ableist based slurs goes as such:
1) Medical term, hence it is quite politically incorrect to use it (jargon stage)
2) People use it to be "cool" (active stage)
3) Medical community abandons it due to its derogatory nature (desensitised stage)
4) People start using it so much until it gets boring and "uncool" (obsolete stage)

The model for all discriminatory (eg race, gender, class) slurs goes as such:
1) Slur with a meaning. Still unPC to use openly (slut, whore, faggot)
2) Target group adopts term to refer to own group ("yo nigger", "we'll play curries vs the rest", "hey bitches!", apparently even "cunts" (see link on "douchebag" below...). For example, racial slurs such as nigger and curry do not pass onto stage 3. Neither does "cunt".
3) Still used against predominantly one target, but is a weak slur, and often does not have the original meaning attached (douchebag (if you look at the last reply you can see a massively hypocritical post), wanker, dickhead, a good deal of male-slanted slurs)
4) Spreads to all targets (bitch, asshole, dick, gay <- it passed step 2 dodgily and kinda skipped step 3, but it is here). Becomes a unique way of referring to someone that strangely reflects your close friendship. Or used during road rage. (Imagine a line break here)Now to the good part that took precious Ag time to research :L. Lol jokes wasn't going to do Ag anyway.(imagine another line break) First of all, cretin
Chances are, the only person you'll have heard use this word is a certain Mr Shaw. The first recorded use was in 1700. It comes from the French dialectal word for "Christian". From this we infer their views: that people who are intellectually disabled are "still Christian" and hence "still human". It also alludes to the fact that they were considered incapable of sin, and hence very Christian. They're showing an acceptance for disabled people even back then!
Oh wait...

By the 20th century, the medical community was abandoning this word to describe an actual medical condition, since it had acquired such a pejorative connotation, although the word can sometimes be seen in some medical texts.

-DisabledFeminists.com
Status: Obsolete

Probably the most popular "you're stupid" slurs, idiot
I bet you say "idiot" thinking you're so PC because you're not saying "retarded". Well it's only relatively PC seeing as people from a few gens back thought it cool to use medical terms to diss each other. But when you read the definition, it's not really PC at all:
It was a medical term in mid 19th to early 20th century to mean that the person had a mental age of less than 2 years old. This is an IQ of 0-25. This means the person has trouble guarding themselves from everyday dangers. Such as everything that a 2-year-old can't defend themselves agains. It has a similar meaning to what "profound mental retardation" means today.
Status: Desensitised

Another one that probably only Mr Shaw uses: imbecile
Imbeciles are slightly less severe than idiots. Where idiots have less than a 2 year old's mental capacity, an imbecile has a mental age of 3 to 7 years old. This is an IQ of 26-50.
Imbecile seems like a slur reserved for special occasions because it has 3 longwinded syllables (unlike the relative quickness of "idiot"), so it seems reserved for higher class dissing. I can only imagine a British woman saying it to someone in a British accent in Britain.
Just kidding it doesn't have to be in Britain.

The term imbecile quickly passed into vernacular usage as a derogatory term, and fell out of professional use in the 20th century.

-Wiki
Status: Obsolete

Moron
This is an IQ of 51-70. It's the mildest in the "moron, imbecile, idiot" era of psychology. It equates to "mild mental retardation" today.

Once the term became popularized, it fell out of use by the psychological community, as it was used more commonly as an insult than as a psychological term.

-Wiki
Status: Desensitised

Spastic
Despite it's active status, it's a word that we don't come along too often. Maybe because we're too educated and we know that spastic means "of or pertaining to spasms", or it's just too much trouble to say, I don't know.

This medical term "spastic" became used to describe cerebral palsy. The Spastics Society, a UK charity for people with cerebral palsy, was founded in 1951.
However, the word began to be used as an insult and became a term of abuse used to imply stupidity or physical ineptness: one who is uncoordinated or incompetent, or a fool. The mental connotation derived from a common misconception that those with any physical disability resulting in spasticity would necessarily also have a mental or developmental disability. It was often colloquially abbreviated to shorter forms such as "spaz".
Its derogatory use grew considerably in the 1980s.

-Wiki
Yeahp, facts sum it up nicely. Interestingly, in US it has no such attachment to cerebral palsy (in US it just means "twitchy"), leading to much controversy about products with "spaz" in its name when it gets exported to the UK.
This is a unique one that in the UK, it has been shucked as an official term for cerebral palsy, but a "BBC survey in 2003 found that "spastic" was the second most offensive term in the UK relating to disability (retard was deemed most offensive)" (Wiki).
Status: Inactive but not yet Desensitised

And of course, retarded
Despite it's obvious unPC status, it closely competes with "idiot" for top spot in everyday usage.
It still is a medical term, contrary to what the heavy mainstream usage suggests, and despite the desperate attempts at "morality" of our PC world.

Mental retardation (MR) is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors. It has historically been defined as an Intelligence Quotient score under 70.

Abusive terms for intellectual deficits are common insults, and are most commonly applied to non-disabled people... Mental health professionals discourage use of these terms. The abbreviation retard or tard is still used as a generic insult.

-Wiki
Status: Active

And lastly, intellectually disabled
Currently, this is the most politically correct term to describe people who are... well... intellectually disabled. It's much too long as a word to be adopted into mainstream vernacular (after long last, they think of using two words that don't mean anything by themselves, unless people start adopting 'disabled' as a slur).
There's not much history, but here's what I can dig up:

Although the clinical term mental retardation is a subtype of intellectual disability, the latter is now preferred by most advocates in most English-speaking countries as a euphemism for mental retardation and is replacing it in United States official documents following the passing of Rosa's Law on October 6, 2010.

-Wiki
Status: Jargon


And the reason why people care about slurs in this order:
1) Racial
2) A close second, gender (mainly female-slanted slurs)
3) LGBT
4) Somewhere far behind, intellectual disability (if you disagree, how many of you have said "retard" and thought "that was not an okay word to use, fuck")

is because 100% of people belong to a race.
is because ~50% of people belong to the female gender. The other, less important (neo-feminists agree) 50% of people are that bunch of useless bastards called males.
is because (in Australia, 2003), 2.35% of people are LGBT. They are also as a whole, more chill with their status than targeted races and genders. Mardi Gras is an excellent display of that
is because while 3% of Australians are intellectually disabled, 60% of them have severe communication limitations, the rest probably don't have enough awareness to, or just have better things to think about, than to give a shit about nearby people slurring each other with words like "retard" and "idiot".
Empathy only stretches so far - how much can you be bothered to work for someone else when you have yourself to work for? And in the grand scale of working for intellectually disabled people, aren't there much bigger and better things to be helping with? Like, you know, treating them and giving them proper aid?

And hence I conclude that PC only ever stays political - there's a charm about swears that cannot be replaced by regular words. You can convey frustration, surprise, delight, sadness, with minimal eloquence and maximum efficiency. By using the proper, literately accurate adjectives you lose the essence of your exclamation.

Like when I say "stop bitching about your homework, everybody is in the same boat". Does it have the same feel as "stop incessantly complaining about your homework, everybody is in the same boat"? Same meaning, sure. But 2 syllables is so much punchier than 7.


As an extra note, concluding (for now) my series on slurs - Claudia linked me to a David's blog on the power of swears, in particular "fuck": I agree with it totally. Give it a read if you feel like it =).


P.S. I'm not playing angel - I'm guilty of using slurs far and wide. I do personally, out of the big ones, stay clear of "faggot", "gay" and "cunt". But I do find the nuance of each swear word a fascinating facet (lawl) of the English language. And I found this history on ableist words interesting, and hoped that you may find it too. But especially if you're preaching against slurs against race, gender, LGBT, I urge you to not neglect the intellectually disabled. Remember the origin of "cretin"
Which doesn't leave you with many words when you're experiencing any emotion other than "Botox" but it's not a choice that anyone else made for you, so wear it proudly (Y)

P.P.S. Wow that was a long read. Congratulations if you got through this far (Y). Microsoft Word says it's 1897 words long =O