Overused / irritating words,phrases
Jun 20th 2017, 6:12 am
#106
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
"Hate-crime"
Jun 20th 2017, 6:52 am
#107
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
Agreed. You can find offence anywhere if you look hard enough. The UK language is a mishmash of influences and often doesn't make sense or is contradictory / technically incorrect. It says a lot that its generally only folk in the UK who take offence about things like this, whereas the rest of the world just smiles and gets on with their day. I blame the whole PC brigade.
Jun 20th 2017, 7:13 am
#108
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
"PC Brigade"
Jun 20th 2017, 7:31 am
#109
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
SJW 
Jun 20th 2017, 7:46 am
#110
Concierge
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Location: Western Australia
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
Well, the thread title is, or is about, "words". And you did say you that you'd probably offend... I'm not trying to pick a fight (nor was I offended), but you did enter the fray to talk about words.
However, I apologise if I offended you. Obviously there's a balance to be struck between concise phraseology and the feelings of those affected: I hadn't realised that "disabled" was uncomfortable/unpleasant/demeaning. Sincere question -- what is the preferred term? Sorry, that sounds patronising, but isn't intended to be - clearly there must be times when clarity is required. Just "S/he requires accessible facilities"? (That may work in the west, but certainly wouldn't in much of the world...)
I parked in a bay marked "disabled" last weekend, and I didn't perceive it being unusual (the wording in the bay, not my parking) -- which it isn't out here, but I wasn't aware that bays marked in, say, Tesco back home are different. (I'm on crutches, so I wasn't just being an arse.)
However, I apologise if I offended you. Obviously there's a balance to be struck between concise phraseology and the feelings of those affected: I hadn't realised that "disabled" was uncomfortable/unpleasant/demeaning. Sincere question -- what is the preferred term? Sorry, that sounds patronising, but isn't intended to be - clearly there must be times when clarity is required. Just "S/he requires accessible facilities"? (That may work in the west, but certainly wouldn't in much of the world...)
I parked in a bay marked "disabled" last weekend, and I didn't perceive it being unusual (the wording in the bay, not my parking) -- which it isn't out here, but I wasn't aware that bays marked in, say, Tesco back home are different. (I'm on crutches, so I wasn't just being an arse.)
I was on my hobby horse and it took off at a gallop. My dislike of using the word disabled as a preface for nouns really stems from my irritation of the term 'disabled person'. People are people, with all their weird and wonderful differences, the fact that they have a disability is secondary to that.
It's not about being offended, or being the language police. It's about the struggle people with disability have to be perceived as a person, instead of being defined by their disability. I can explain a lot better than that but I'm only on my first coffee of the day.
For signs on doors/over parking spaces etc, I think the wheelchair symbol is pretty universal and works well in most places but I don't know if that applies to the Middle East.
Use of language is a controversial subject at the best of times, and some people quite understandably get a bit het up when it's suggested that a word/term they've used all their lives is perpetuating negative stereotypes. I would never be so up myself as to tell people what they should and shouldn't be saying, they'd quite rightly tell me to get stuffed. But if someone keen to understand asks, like you have (bless ya!), I just suggest keeping it simple and factual. I like 'accessible loo/toilet', but I wouldn't knock back a 'disabled' loo and would probably be in way too much of a hurry to get there to stay and argue the point
One example that may help clarify the positive aspects of a simple shift in terminology is the move from 'she's a spastic' to 'she has cerebral palsy'. The former was in common use for decades, the difference it makes by using the simple, factual 'she has cerebral palsy' is marked.
Just one other thing, I realized that my previous post gave the impression that I have a disability. I don't (unless rabbiting on on internet forums counts), my daughter does and she's in a wheelchair. She's had a lot of funny/infuriating/rude and downright weird things said to her over the years, but our favourite and the one we still laugh at happened when we were shopping in the city. An old gentleman studied her for some time in the lift, while she eyeballed him back (as she does). He finally delivered his verdict ' dropped on her head as a baby'.
Jun 20th 2017, 9:28 am
#111
Knee deep and rising
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3,007
Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
Whoa... we're talking about the term, not the need for the thing. To extrapolate from my having a different opinion about the term to my not appreciating the need for disabled/accessible toilets and the like is just ... stupid. Do you honestly think that I don't know that those with a disability need them? Or, for that matter, d'you think that they'd be stumped by seeing a sign reading "Disabled Toilet"?
Accessible sounds better than disabled to me, but of course leads to the question aren't all toilets accessible.
Jun 20th 2017, 10:37 am
#112
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
Shouldn't these amenities be properly labelled?
Bathroom facilities with enhancements to specifically suit and aid those who would genuinely benefit from said enhancements (but which may be used by others not necessarily requiring such enhancements as and when they are not otherwise required).
Not sure what you could use as a graphical symbol to denote this description in order for it to be universally understood though.
Bathroom facilities with enhancements to specifically suit and aid those who would genuinely benefit from said enhancements (but which may be used by others not necessarily requiring such enhancements as and when they are not otherwise required).
Not sure what you could use as a graphical symbol to denote this description in order for it to be universally understood though.
Jun 20th 2017, 10:45 am
#113
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
Shouldn't these amenities be properly labelled?
Bathroom facilities with enhancements to specifically suit and aid those who would genuinely benefit from said enhancements (but which may be used by others not necessarily requiring such enhancements as and when they are not otherwise required).
Not sure what you could use as a graphical symbol to denote this description in order for it to be universally understood though.
Bathroom facilities with enhancements to specifically suit and aid those who would genuinely benefit from said enhancements (but which may be used by others not necessarily requiring such enhancements as and when they are not otherwise required).
Not sure what you could use as a graphical symbol to denote this description in order for it to be universally understood though.
Jun 20th 2017, 11:18 am
#116
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Jun 20th 2017, 11:35 am
#118
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
Jun 20th 2017, 12:02 pm
#119
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Re: Overused / irritating words,phrases
If someone is offended by the word disable, even when not meant in a negative manner, it's probably best they don't go to the US where the term most used is handicapped. Handicapped parking etc.