As I've gotten older more words became more offensive and more hurtful. I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all, because really it's not. The word I'm thinking of in particular as an example is the word retarded. I have a sister who is quite intelligent but has severe, severe learning and personality disorders, so I feel like I should be more sensitive to it because I've met some of her friends who are legally defined as retarded and they are wonderful people.
Lately, my friend Will, has been particularly on top of pointing out when me (and other friends) are saying the word because a lot of people say it so often that they don't even realize. It's never been a word I've used a ton, but I have friends who do use it more than me.
But Will reminding has helped me think about other words I use: stupid, insane, crazy. And generally, I use these words to describe myself, which is a problem in and of itself. As my music director pointed out to the kids the other day: those words mean something. I don't consider myself stupid and I'm not crazy or insane. So why do I use those words?
I do consider myself silly, ridiculous, a spaz, or mistaken sometimes though. And those are the words I've really started to use more and more often. I had a friend (who I should also ask for a pseudonym) who was mentioning how the girls in her psychology class were always insulting themselves because they were "too stupid" to get it and it drove her crazy. And it is something I've noticed more with my female friends and acquaintances, and I do believe it's because women are still not expected to be intelligent and worse show that they're intelligent (that would just be awful </sarcasm>).
In short, I really need to think about what words I'm using, because it's easy to use words without even realizing I'm really doing it.
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