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by Shale Sat Jan 14, 2012 8:50 pmIn Defense of Honest Dialogue
By Shale
January 14, 2012
I work for a company that takes care of people with Developmental Disability. Oh, since a year or so now it has been called Intellectual Disability. And when I first started working in this field it was called Mental Retardation. But words go out of vogue after they fall into misuse in the common vernacular.
That is what happened to 'idiot, moron & imbecile' once clinical words until the common man started bandying them about as pejoratives. Now 'retarded' has met that fate and I can understand the umbrage of people who work in this field and those who perhaps have intellectual disability.
"That is so gay!" Yep, retard is not the only insensitive invective that is hurled at others in jest, often without a clue as to how hurtful it could be to a class of people and I can understand the professional organizations abandoning the word that used to be the 'R' in ARC (But which is now an acronym without words).
However, the activists in these professional and support groups have relegated 'retarded' to the 'R' word, much like the offensive slang word 'nigger' has become the 'N' word. (Which to me, represents 'Non-word')
Using codes for words that people know (and if they didn't know, journalism requires you to offer a 'first citation' explanation) is to me both absurd and infantile. Yes, infantile as when some parents teach their children to use codes #1 and #2 for urinate and defecate.
These are the words that dare not speak their names. However, there comes a problem when writing literature or screenplays where you want your characters to be believable. You want your dialogue to be real, to reflect the way people actually speak. Anything less becomes stilted. So, sometimes some backwater semi-literate lowlife will talk about those 'fucking niggers.' You can't expect the same face-slap of outrage to hit your audience if he says those 'F-word N-words.' Besides it becomes even more cumbersome if that lowlife is ranting on those 'fucking faggots.' (F-word F-word?)
So now there are groups whose intent is to "Spread the Word to End the Word," which is a great idea if they confine it to educating people to not use it. But they have taken an activist role in trying to get people to boycott any entertainment that uses the word retarded or retard in their script, and that is where I get pissed.
I wish to defend the use of this now 'bad' word when used to convey how people actually talk. Some recent examples were movies that showed insensitive people in casual conversation with friends using these words.
In the movie The Change-Up, Ryan Reynolds character, who is the partying, irresponsible womanizer is at his married friends house being his usual obnoxious, crude self. He asks Jason Bateman’s character about his young twins. “Why can’t they talk yet? Are they retarded or something?” Then goes on to say, “the one on the left looks a little Downsy.” Did I say crude? Perhaps insensitive. But remember, we the audience are are not really supposed to be in the room eavesdropping on these private conversations between two buddies who have known each other all their lives and engage in this kind of childhood banter.
The other movie is The Descendants one that I did not see, but here is the reported greivance:
Clooney’s character Matt says, “You are so retarded.”
Nick Krause’s character Sid replies, “That’s not nice. I have a retarded brother.”
Matt looks shocked.
Sid goes on to say, “I’m just kidding. I don’t have a retarded brother. Sometimes when old people and retarded people are slow I just want to make them hurry up.”
This dialogue is very similar to what Kaui Hart Hemmings wrote in her novel of the same name. The story involves a family with some dysfunction, discord, affairs and basically dramatic stuff. The author thot this dialogue fit, as do I, and it apparently was acceptable by the 89% of the aggregate reviewers that gave the movie good marks and to the multiple award nominations.
It is not like the characters in either of these movies are yelling RETARD! at a bunch of people in a Special Olympics event. And yet, Special Olympics is one of the organizations that has taken a stance against this movie.
Which really irritates me as I have worked with that group for my clients and have been a member for the past two years. But, ya know what? In these troubling economic times, when I have taken a pay cut because the funding is being cut to our agency, I have found a way to save a few bucks this year. By not renewing that membership.
My Last Special Olympics Member Card
This is what I thot Special Olympics was about
Mission Statement
The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.
By Shale
January 14, 2012
I work for a company that takes care of people with Developmental Disability. Oh, since a year or so now it has been called Intellectual Disability. And when I first started working in this field it was called Mental Retardation. But words go out of vogue after they fall into misuse in the common vernacular.
That is what happened to 'idiot, moron & imbecile' once clinical words until the common man started bandying them about as pejoratives. Now 'retarded' has met that fate and I can understand the umbrage of people who work in this field and those who perhaps have intellectual disability.
"That is so gay!" Yep, retard is not the only insensitive invective that is hurled at others in jest, often without a clue as to how hurtful it could be to a class of people and I can understand the professional organizations abandoning the word that used to be the 'R' in ARC (But which is now an acronym without words).
However, the activists in these professional and support groups have relegated 'retarded' to the 'R' word, much like the offensive slang word 'nigger' has become the 'N' word. (Which to me, represents 'Non-word')
Using codes for words that people know (and if they didn't know, journalism requires you to offer a 'first citation' explanation) is to me both absurd and infantile. Yes, infantile as when some parents teach their children to use codes #1 and #2 for urinate and defecate.
These are the words that dare not speak their names. However, there comes a problem when writing literature or screenplays where you want your characters to be believable. You want your dialogue to be real, to reflect the way people actually speak. Anything less becomes stilted. So, sometimes some backwater semi-literate lowlife will talk about those 'fucking niggers.' You can't expect the same face-slap of outrage to hit your audience if he says those 'F-word N-words.' Besides it becomes even more cumbersome if that lowlife is ranting on those 'fucking faggots.' (F-word F-word?)
So now there are groups whose intent is to "Spread the Word to End the Word," which is a great idea if they confine it to educating people to not use it. But they have taken an activist role in trying to get people to boycott any entertainment that uses the word retarded or retard in their script, and that is where I get pissed.
I wish to defend the use of this now 'bad' word when used to convey how people actually talk. Some recent examples were movies that showed insensitive people in casual conversation with friends using these words.
In the movie The Change-Up, Ryan Reynolds character, who is the partying, irresponsible womanizer is at his married friends house being his usual obnoxious, crude self. He asks Jason Bateman’s character about his young twins. “Why can’t they talk yet? Are they retarded or something?” Then goes on to say, “the one on the left looks a little Downsy.” Did I say crude? Perhaps insensitive. But remember, we the audience are are not really supposed to be in the room eavesdropping on these private conversations between two buddies who have known each other all their lives and engage in this kind of childhood banter.
The other movie is The Descendants one that I did not see, but here is the reported greivance:
Clooney’s character Matt says, “You are so retarded.”
Nick Krause’s character Sid replies, “That’s not nice. I have a retarded brother.”
Matt looks shocked.
Sid goes on to say, “I’m just kidding. I don’t have a retarded brother. Sometimes when old people and retarded people are slow I just want to make them hurry up.”
This dialogue is very similar to what Kaui Hart Hemmings wrote in her novel of the same name. The story involves a family with some dysfunction, discord, affairs and basically dramatic stuff. The author thot this dialogue fit, as do I, and it apparently was acceptable by the 89% of the aggregate reviewers that gave the movie good marks and to the multiple award nominations.
It is not like the characters in either of these movies are yelling RETARD! at a bunch of people in a Special Olympics event. And yet, Special Olympics is one of the organizations that has taken a stance against this movie.
Which really irritates me as I have worked with that group for my clients and have been a member for the past two years. But, ya know what? In these troubling economic times, when I have taken a pay cut because the funding is being cut to our agency, I have found a way to save a few bucks this year. By not renewing that membership.
My Last Special Olympics Member Card
This is what I thot Special Olympics was about
Mission Statement
The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.
Last edited by Shale on Sun Jan 15, 2012 2:40 pm; edited 2 times in total (Reason for editing : Add Foto Title)
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