Thursday, March 04, 2010

This is a great MetaFilter thread on name calling -- the hive mind was asked for a word to replace "retard" as an insult. If you're looking for some PG-rated insults for your TV spec, or you just want to diss your coworkers inventively, check it out.

10:27 AM

4 Comments:

Yikes! Some of the suggested alternatives are just as bad. Feminists With Disabilities has a series of posts on ableist language that you might find useful (as well as lots of good information on disability, including disability in film and television.

Their ableist word profile series is here:
http://disabledfeminists.com/category/ableist-word-profile/

I'm glad to see writers talking about this.

By  Anemone, at 2:14 PM  

I was particularly fond of the discussion of the word "douche." Some complained it was sexist, while others argued that it was perfect, since it describes something that pretends to be necessary to a woman, but is in fact useless and irritating.

By  Alex Epstein, at 2:19 PM  

Was it you that was in on that discussion of the matter on Q a few months back, or was it Denis?

By  Dwight Williams, at 8:42 PM  

Y'know, I can't tell us apart, either.

By  Alex Epstein, at 9:06 PM  

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