16 August 2011

Retarded

Several awkward moments at dinner: 
I ask a kid who has been staring at me for 10 minutes straight to please stop staring. 
Kid's guardian tells me 'she can't, she's *retarded* too". 
Kid's guardian proceeds to ask me about my ichthyosis. 
Awkward all round. 
Especially at the use of the word retarded. It's wrong.
A friend said, "You know things are wrong in the world when people are calling their own kids retarded...."

18 comments:

  1. *sigh* some people are truly unbelievable. i'm sorry Carly that this woman not only had the audacity to suggest that you are "retarded" but that she called her own child "retarded" too.

    retarded is a horrible word and neither of you are, even not knowing this child, i know retarded would not be the word to describe her.

    ReplyDelete
  2. God her poor child, that's awful.

    People don't understand the power
    and etymology of the vocabulary they casually sling around.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Retarded is another one of those words that has been co opted by lazy speakers to mean bad or any other negative experience. Nothing to do with it's real meaning. Grrr at this world!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for posting this Carly. I did a blog post last week denouncing the use of the r-word and the term "downsy" in the movie The Change Up and it got a huge response. There is a group called Spread the Word to End the Word that are trying to promote this very cause (they are on Twitter and Facebook and I would recommend following). I have an older sister with Down's Syndrome so this cause is very close to my heart.I'm so glad to see others talking about this and spreading the word too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I hope it's ok that I am sharing this on the STWTETW facebook page and the page for End Disability Slurs!

    ReplyDelete
  6. oh dear, what a horrible woman! Time to stop thinking about her, yuk!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's awful ... it's like something off the Simpsons and would be funny if it wasn't so offensive.

    ReplyDelete
  8. And that's why some parents, shouldn't be.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Eurgh that's terrible. I seriously hate it when people don't think twice about the language they use..

    ReplyDelete
  10. I almost forgot to mention...I almost never tune in to Tripple J, but recently I did. And guess who was on?
    It was a case of tuning into Radio Carly!

    ReplyDelete
  11. OMG, i can't believe one's own parent would speak this way. How appalling and extremely sad!!! What hope do her children have. The R and SP word are banned in our circles. I remember as a kid, my brother pushing me around in my wheelchair, and kids shouting across the road, "SP". My brother used to go off his tree.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I can't believe a parent of a special child would use that word - it's such an ugly word for such beautiful kids..

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Carly,

    Sorry if I sound rude -but could you enlighten me on the offensiveness of the R word? I've always thought that it was one of those words whose meaning has been misconstrued over time, so would be horrified if I've got the meaning incorrect!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I know that this shouldn't have made me laugh, but it's just so AWFUL that I hope -- one day -- you can have a chuckle about it.

    I put on a lot of weight last year due to some medication I was taking. I swear, people commented on or asked about my "pregnancy" more than 20 times in a six-month period. The worst time was when I went to do a cartwheel in front of a group of students, and a girl in grade 6 said to me: "But don't hurt your baby, miss!"

    People make all sorts of wild assumptions based on looks, but they don't stop to think about how much their comments can hurt.

    Thank you for sharing this awkward story. Just remember that people are prone to saying stupid things...

    x A

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading my blog. I love receiving comments :)
I really appreciate the time you've taken to write to me, and to share something about yourself.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails