sticks & stones & words & bombs

This post discusses harmful language & trigger warnings apply accordingly.

Language evolves. That fact is undeniable. Language is a manifestation of social attitudes, & used to justify societal norms.

What I would like to point out is that language co-opts existing words & gives them new connotations, rather than inventing new words.

Let’s use a perfectly harmless example: singular they.

When we consider that ‘agnostic he’ as a universal marker of human beings erases women, we need to propose a new word that has the same denotation, but without the connotation. & as per my assertion, we find that language co-opts a plural pronoun ‘they’ rather than employ a gender neutral singular such as ‘ou’ or ‘ze’.

So it’s not such a stretch to understand that words that are used to harm & marginalise can be co-opted to have new connotations.

This is the important bit: their denotation does not change.

Let’s use this example: crazy.

How many times have you heard it? That’s crazy. I drove like crazy today! That’s a crazy scheme. I’m crazy for chocolate.

When you say ‘that’s so crazy/insane/lame/retarded’, & your connotation is negative, your enthymeme is: people with disabilities (visible or invisible) are undesirable. Unpleasant. Thoughtless. Reckless. Absurd. Terrifying. Silly. Preposterous. Irresponsible. Unthinkable. Unbalanced. Outrageous. Inappropriate. Scary.

Source.

∞Posted on February 16, 2011

Notes: 58 notes

Tags: language,social justice,

Notes

  1. auspiciousme reblogged this from thesadnessofpencils and added:
    I’ve been thinking about this most of today.
  2. nientedal reblogged this from wonderbecky and added:
    ^This person, right here. I think. I don’t know, and I think that’s the point, that I don’t know, so people please need...
  3. notemily reblogged this from kiriamaya and added:
    But don’t you know, anyone who kills people MUST have a mental illness, because NORMAL people don’t kill anyone!...
  4. rabbithugs reblogged this from lecorbeau and added:
    ; w ;
  5. lecorbeau reblogged this from makinguplife and added:
    I’m glad you’ve used this opportunity to learn, I really am. The only way things can change is if people are willing to...
  6. wonderbecky reblogged this from makinguplife and added:
    HOLY HOT SHIT THIS IS LIKE THE MOST CIVILIZED DISCUSSION ABOUT PRIVILEGE THAT I HAVE EVER WITNESSED ON TUMBLR OH MY GOD...
  7. makinguplife reblogged this from junkmanchoir and added:
    That we are 100% sure of, because we totally caught him and sat him down with modern psychiatrists and obtained a...
  8. thesadnessofpencils reblogged this from junkmanchoir and added:
    That we are 100% sure of, because we totally caught him and sat him down with modern psychiatrists and obtained a...
  9. kiriamaya reblogged this from junkmanchoir and added:
    That we are 100% sure of, because we totally caught him and sat him down with modern psychiatrists and obtained a...
  10. junkmanchoir reblogged this from makinguplife and added:
    K, so. Other people are responding to this in ways that are probably more eloquent than I can manage while still...
  11. thesadnessofpencils posted this
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