Yes, different subsets of the disabled community have emancipated their language to different degrees.
Have you ever heard “special olympics” being used as an insult? What about “acoustic” or “neurodivergent”? “Special needs” or “the ‘tism”? Sadly, I have. That’s why, when I see these terms being abused in day to day life, I tend to call it out. I want those words to belong to the people they represent, not people who just want to verbally abuse.
But yeah, asking “what’s special” is sort of the wrong way to thinking about it. The fight for disability rights has barely started in the grand scheme of things, and it’s only natural that some disabled identities have obtained more broad acceptance than others. Good question though.
Special Olympics when I was in middle school or below, I think predominantly from south park fans. It’s always a bit cringe to watch shows from the 90s or early 2000s cause sometimes this stuff will randomly appear.
The rest no, most people seem to call themselves neurodivergent or autistic lately. I’ve never heard of acoustic, had to look it up. I assumed it was something to do with issues handling noise and I was very wrong but right about which group it was mocking.
I think where I’m trying to get to is that for a lot of groups having a label (or if not a label, just knowledge that a concept exists) and find this positive. I know I’ve heard from several people in the various LGBTQ categories who felt that way, xyz event or discussion was the point they realized the way they feel or are is actually an option and that it’s ok. Big deal for them. More precise descriptions of physical disabilities were the first to be broadly understood and accepted. When I was a kid I didn’t know anything about autism except some nutjobs wanted to bring back polio, and then we got the concept of Asperger’s and a spectrum and neurodivergent and now things are clearly much much better. In contrast to LGBTQ it’s more “this is a thing I know about myself and must manage” but still, helpful. But from my PoV I know literally nothing about this situation. I know a bunch of people got upset and tried to phase out retarded. There’s some pushback from people who don’t get or care why. But in my head that word has no other meaning than calling someone stupid. It’s not derogatory to a group, only to an individual. Then one day someone said it was derogatory to some group I’d never met and I should stop using it. And I did, but I still don’t really get it. I don’t think my experience on this has been out of the ordinary.
So my point here at the end is that it feels like the labeling/marketing is wrong. LGBTQ folks and neurodivergent folks have both found ways to feel superior to straight/“normal”(I don’t have a label for this, but it feels weird to say normal when they are in the minority) and to generally reclaim the derogatory terms used against them. So what is that alternative marketing for this group?
Yes, different subsets of the disabled community have emancipated their language to different degrees.
Have you ever heard “special olympics” being used as an insult? What about “acoustic” or “neurodivergent”? “Special needs” or “the ‘tism”? Sadly, I have. That’s why, when I see these terms being abused in day to day life, I tend to call it out. I want those words to belong to the people they represent, not people who just want to verbally abuse.
But yeah, asking “what’s special” is sort of the wrong way to thinking about it. The fight for disability rights has barely started in the grand scheme of things, and it’s only natural that some disabled identities have obtained more broad acceptance than others. Good question though.
Special Olympics when I was in middle school or below, I think predominantly from south park fans. It’s always a bit cringe to watch shows from the 90s or early 2000s cause sometimes this stuff will randomly appear.
The rest no, most people seem to call themselves neurodivergent or autistic lately. I’ve never heard of acoustic, had to look it up. I assumed it was something to do with issues handling noise and I was very wrong but right about which group it was mocking.
I think where I’m trying to get to is that for a lot of groups having a label (or if not a label, just knowledge that a concept exists) and find this positive. I know I’ve heard from several people in the various LGBTQ categories who felt that way, xyz event or discussion was the point they realized the way they feel or are is actually an option and that it’s ok. Big deal for them. More precise descriptions of physical disabilities were the first to be broadly understood and accepted. When I was a kid I didn’t know anything about autism except some nutjobs wanted to bring back polio, and then we got the concept of Asperger’s and a spectrum and neurodivergent and now things are clearly much much better. In contrast to LGBTQ it’s more “this is a thing I know about myself and must manage” but still, helpful. But from my PoV I know literally nothing about this situation. I know a bunch of people got upset and tried to phase out retarded. There’s some pushback from people who don’t get or care why. But in my head that word has no other meaning than calling someone stupid. It’s not derogatory to a group, only to an individual. Then one day someone said it was derogatory to some group I’d never met and I should stop using it. And I did, but I still don’t really get it. I don’t think my experience on this has been out of the ordinary.
So my point here at the end is that it feels like the labeling/marketing is wrong. LGBTQ folks and neurodivergent folks have both found ways to feel superior to straight/“normal”(I don’t have a label for this, but it feels weird to say normal when they are in the minority) and to generally reclaim the derogatory terms used against them. So what is that alternative marketing for this group?