Hi Russell,
I don't like the words impairment or disabled any more than
you do. I would rather say I have a disability and, as a
result, experience disableism. However, to talk about
having a disability, to some people, is as bad as labeling
myself as handicapped.
The trouble with handicappe is not where the word comes
from. That to me seems to be irrelevant really. The real
problem is the meaning it has acquired in the popular
imagination. That meaning is surely bound up with negativve
ideas of dependence, poverty and helplesness, which is why I
don't use it.
Regards,
Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Russell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012 6:21 PM
Subject: Re: The word 'handicap'.
Hi Keith.
It's great that someone is saying this in public (other than
myself).
However, you are only halfway there!
The primary mistake is (as you point out) the confusion
between the terms "handicap" (i.e. "hand i' cap" or "hand in
cap") and "cap in hand".
"Handicapping" refers to attempting to equalise the chances
in horseracing; the horse deemed superior carries the
greatest handicap, i.e. carries the most weight.
However, the secondary mistake is that the term "cap in
hand" has nothing whatever to do with begging either.
To go to someone "cap in hand" is to show deference, to
acknowledge one's social inferiority to the other person
with no implication of asking for money or anything else.
The commoner doffs his cap to the noble. The noble doffs his
cap to the monarch.
I think there is confusion with the term "passing the hat"
although strictly speaking this refers not to
straightforward begging but to soliciting payment for an
impromptu performance (originally collecting money for
charitable purposes, similar to passing the collection plate
in church or having a "whip-round" in the office).
As an autistic person I find nothing offensive in the term
"handicapped". I have deliberately used the word on occasion
just to annoy the politically correct. I feel perfectly
justified in saying something like "I feel handicapped by my
social ineptness". This is accurate. I feel that I struggle
(as an animal burdened by weights will struggle) when others
experience no such struggle.
"Disabled", on the other hand, does not connote struggle,
quite the opposite.
If one disables a machine (most commonly one "disables an
alarm system") then the machine is entirely inoperative,
kaput. It has ceased to struggle.
I'm not too thrilled with the term "impairment" either.
On a related theme;
We are prohibited by political correctness from using the
word "cripple" as a noun but we continue to use it as a verb
or adjectivally (most commonly in "crippling pain").
Some disabled people are attempting to reclaim the word in
the way that American Negros have reclaimed the word
"nigger" and homosexuals have reclaimed the word "queer".
Misguided - not all disabled people are "cripples".
If I'm referred to me as a "crip" then I might be moved to
put a spoke in someone's wheel.
I couldn't give a flying one for political correctness.
Accuracy is all.
Imprecise language leads to lack of clarity of thought.
Russell.
-----Original Message-----
From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Keith Armstrong
Sent: 05 April 2012 22:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The word 'handicap'.
Returning to William Bromwichs' text 'The handcycle corpus'
in Discourse, Identities and Roles in Specialized
Communication, Bromwich wrote:
'... dating back to medieval times, we may speak of an
exclusionary response in which people with impaired
mobility were labelled as "cripples", to be kept outside
the city gates and relegated to marginal locations, such as
Cripplegate in London, or Bettlerkreuz in the
german-speaking states where, cap in hand, they relied on
charity.' p. 255 Bettlerkreuz translates as beggar cross.
One of the mistakes those new to Disability Studies often
make is that the word "Handicap" is derived from begging, as
in "cap in hand", (I have even heard this argument used by
so-called Disability Awareness trainers). This is not true.
Whilst the words "lame" and "cripple" have an Anglo-Saxon
origin, the word "handicap" comes to us from the Medieval
period and only in reference to games or sport. The 17th
Century diarist Samuel Pepys enjoyed a game of Handicap.
The word "Handicap" in connection to people with impairments
can only be traced back to the beginnings of the 20th
Century and then derived from a sense of disadvantage, in
the sense of inequalities of race or gender, in horse racing
and the game of golf. And even then it has no historical
association with begging.
Many beggars in the past did not have impairments. A simple
search in Wikipedia will reveal that the term mendicant
(from Latin: mendicans, "begging") refers to begging or
relying on charitable donations, and is most widely used for
religious followers or ascetics who rely exclusively on
charity to survive. In principle, mendicant orders or
followers do not own property, either individually or
collectively, and have taken a vow of poverty, in order that
all their time and energy could be expended on practising or
preaching their religion or way of life and serving the
poor. Many religious orders adhere to a mendicant way of
life, including the Catholic mendicant orders, Hindu
ascetics, some dervishes of Sufi Islam, and the monastic
orders of Jainism and Buddhism.
It is also stereotypical to make the assumption that even in
ancient times all people with physical impairments were
beggars. Many people with physical impairments were metal
workers highly praised in ancient times. In fact most of the
ancient gods who primarily worked in metal were also
depicted as having physical impairments including Ptah
(Egyptian), Hephaistos (Greek), Vulcan (Roman), Wayland
Smithy (Nordic) as well as the Celtic Gods in Ireland and
Wales are all described as having some sort of physical
impairment in their story.
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