slurs are still very harmful when they are aimed at a situation/action/thing instead of a person
icon: "passionate (a red stylized gas mask: the Benjamin Gate symbol)"
What does it mean to use a slur?
a slur is a word with derogatory meaning which gets its negative connotation from the 'undesirability' of a group of people. It's a word used to mean 'bad' because it refers to a group of people who are labeled 'bad' by society. It doesn't ( Read more... )
I'm trying to think of the ways in which I do use them, and if there are less-victimizing descriptors to fill in the space for things I do want to say. Assuming they have a utility for me, I would like to replace them if possible.
The latter is easier to go over; it's not a necessary epithet by any stretch of the imagination... the Shakespearian Insult Generator supplies any number of other organs to belittle. Simple-mindedness isn't offensive to me, and I rarely have need to comment on it (I suppose I can see caring for someone and needing to explain to someone else so they can be accomodated appropriately). A more accurate description of the problem is stubborn and/or willful ignorance... and I can use that phrase (or related assery), so problem solved.
Insanity is much more difficult to pull away from, but the specific words should depend again on the specific uses. While I don't remember the last time I've said "crazy", I have a sense of myself and friends using it in place of impetuous, ill-considered, hard-to-understand, incomprehensible, irrational, dangerous, violent, vindictive, manic, overloaded, fugue... nothing else at the moment, I'm sure there are others. And again, it looks like while there's a much wider variety of responses needed (especially since such a nondescript shortcut for mental health problems runs the gamut of completely disparate conditions), it's still possible to use something else. I have to admit it's going to be difficult to reprogram three decades' worth of habit, but I'm ready to start.
Appendix: Also looking at a way of relating people with different abilities. I'm not sure if there's a good way to describe measurable qualities as "greater" or "lesser" that doesn't allow assumption about the underlying value of the person with those qualities.
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