I have been lurking here and feel I should make myself known and available
now.
On Thu, 21 Jan 1999 23:35:01 +0100 "Susanne Berg" <[log in to unmask]>
gave her opinion on "the importance of language"
> I know there exist umpteens of persons out there who believe the choice of
> words to be of no importance. I however think that language is one of the
> most basic and fundamental carriers of societal values. Though I do not
> think it a good idea to just learn everybody a new word if the same old
> attitudes persist, this happens to be something I feel strongly about, and I
> will take the liberty to dwell on it.
I do not intend on dwelling on issues of grammar!
> Wheel chair bound is a label used to describe a person in a negative way;
I disagree. This, I believe is a statement of fact.
> and to all those listening or reading it sends a message of negatives
> connected to the person portrayed.
Again, I disagree. I have a fairly assertive attidute towards those
who question I have a T4-6 issue in my spinal cord.
> This message goes straight into the unconscious mind and triggers
> all the old images of the poor, tragic figures we are supposed to be.
This may be true if you let it be true. There is no such thing,
in my opinion, "tragic figures we are supposed to be."
> I'll give you an example of how this word functions in the mind of even
> children. A child I know, who otherwise have an healthy view (his aunt whom
> he loves more than anything and spends alot of time with uses a wheel chair)
> gave me a gift of two pictures. One of a person tied to a wheel chair with
> chains locked with a huge lock. The other pic was of Aladdin's lamp and out
> of it came a "cartoon-bubble" with the text "I wish I had a key". In the
> mind of this child the word wheel chair bound (which happens to translate
> exactly the same in swedish) had the inherent meaning of somebody chained to
> a wheel chair - obviously not a very positve image.
Children I deal with find it exceptional when I do a "wheelie" and get off
the side walk or vice-versa. They also find it incredibel that I can participate
in their bycicle activities and do a "bunny hop" in a wheelchair.
They find it fantastic when I dissasemble my w/c and drive off in my car.
> I am dead certain that, even though most grown-ups do not have the
> imagination enough to see the chains when the word is used, do see the
> victim, the negative, the less than averedge person. This is how attitudes
> are inherited, and up-hold through the use of language. When someone uses
> wheel chair bound this is an absolute signal to the reciever that he of she
> should percieve the use of a wheel chair as something negative.
Hey, ...when I get into my Terra-trek and get into the woods, that is truly
off-road, they look at me as a person that has an "impairment", ...not a
disability.
> Then to the part of using a label with absolute no importance in the
> context. The use of a label or the description of a characteristic which
> does not add to the story or have any bearing on it is, in my opinion, used
> when it comes to so called minorities or deviants from the norm i.e.the
> great white able-bodied middle-aged hetero-sexual male.
I am not, in my opinion a "great white able-bodied middle-aged hetero-sexual
male", yet my partner is quite satisfied with my performance.
> As a woman, I can deliver a speech or a lecture and then hear my
> performance described as delivered by a charming young woman.
> This might seem like flattery but in fact it takes away the
> seriousness of the achievment. It has nothing to do
> with how I performed my task. And it signals that I was less than serious
> (charming) and not really so wise (young) as one of the norm would have
> been. If you do not believe this try to describe individuals who coincide
> with the mentioned norm in the same way the next ten times you meet them.
>
> For example imagine this dialogue:
> - How was the lecture?
> - Oh Bill was so good and so handsome in those grey flanell trousers.
> Or to go to the negative:
> - Who made the installation speech?
> - Headmaster, hand-tied-to-pockets Greg.
>
> For me language and the use of words is one way of measuring the temperature
> of societies attitudes towards something or someone. And that is how we
> should use it, as a tool for education and a way to measure how successful
> we are as educators. When journalists, who use language as the basic
> instrument in perfoming their work use words like wheel chair bound it
> signals that we have a long way to go. I cannot help but feel that it is
> amazing that some professions do not take more pride in what they do so as
> to develop their working instruments or at least tune them into present
> time. The press is supposed to be the third power, the one who watches and
> investigates; the one who pushes things like equality and civil rights. At
> least that is what some of them over here claims to be doing. If I am wheel
> chair bound they sure are close to invalid.
>
> What a sermon !
You are not kidding, you totally lost me!
> Was it Simon and Garfunkle who sang "homeward bound" ?
Important things:
Is it Important?
Is it Appropriate?
Is it Modifiable?
Is it Worthwhile?
(in Canadian you finish a sentence with ....eeeeh?)
Cheers!
--
Han Tacoma
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ICQ: 16577439
~ Artificial Intelligence is better than none ~
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