sorry for any misunderstanding last time. this one is better because it portrays the actor/object relationship between ableists and the language they steal directly rather than implicitly. it’s hard to get a gauge on how everyone reads the memetic text. hoping this works better with the local audience. :)
Idk im Autistic and I use “regarded”, neurotypicals can fuck off if they feel offended
OP, at a certain point there has to be a word to describe what is happening. Just because someone uses it in a derogatory manner doesn’t mean that you have to abandon the word or that every usage of it is derogatory.
See: gay
Alternatively, make a third meme about it on a niche Internet forum.
We understand that. Tell society that. We’re not exactly the march in the street crowd so when we get yelled at we go back to the corner and think of a new name.
It’s the Euphemism Treadmill
Funny thing is the neurodivergent aren’t the ones running on that treadmill.
It literally doesn’t matter what you change the word to, that’s the new word I’m calling my friend when he does something incredibly stupid.
Is it no longer alright for me to be retarded anymore?
More than half of those are outdated jargon words from when standard procedure to “cure” ND people (and other undesirables) was lobotomies. They were not claimed.
Yeah, but it holds true for the later ones.
“Neurodivergent” is a bit different though. The r-word says something normative about people’s mental development. It’s saying that the person has been prevented from being normal; that something is wrong with them. “Special needs” indicates that someone requires different resources than what is typical. Much like IQ when it was developed, it’s a way to sort people’s needs on an economic basis, which isn’t poorly intentioned. However, it still labels people by how we need certain things within our socioeconomic system.
Disorder classification systems like the DSM or ICD seek to normalize people, making sure we “function” in society. It measures us by a set of standards to ensure that we can live independently with our environment. It is very much defined by how society is structured; the environment of industrial capitalism. It doesn’t matter how fulfilling your life is, only that you are a functional cog.
“Neurodivergence” seeks to avoid the pathology based approach. It says nothing about us having disorders. It instead focuses on us as different and divergent from the norm, but not inherently ill because of who we are. It’s invariant to economic systems or cultural norms, only saying that we are different.
Absolutely. All of the terms in the post are a bit different from one another. All came from varying origins and backgrounds and have different histories of how they came to be in my post.
What they share is a pattern of similarities. They all are originally polite descriptive words that became demeaning.
Acoustic?
IDK, but I saw that being used within autistic communities first. At least for a while, which would explain this meme.
Maybe you dont hear this in your circles but in my (younger) cohort it is ALL OVER THE PLACE and has been used against me in a derogatory manner
I feel like the same people who use “acoustic” also use “regarded”
definitely a generational thing
They just can’t catch a break trying to make this meme work, huh
One of these things is not like the others.
I can see the argument how there could have been an attempt to reclaim it, much like the n-slur, f-slur, or queer. Not sure if there was actually an attempt or not to reclaim, just to be clear.
The difference is that Something like Retarded is used by someone else, someone who isn’t like that person. It was a clinical term used by clinical people who would never know and could never know the feeling. That is to say it wasn’t great to begin with. People who were “retarded” weren’t embracing that for what they were, it was imposed upon them by medical professionals who don’t really understand them as people (many were studying them like specimens). It was primed for derogatory use.
Neurodivergent on the other hand is a term embraced by the community, it’s used as a self-identifier. It doesn’t have the same oppressive connotations the others did. To turn it into a slur would be like turning transgender into a slur. It won’t work because the group identifies as that, and will keep using it.
