Hi folks
I hope your question doesn't become trivialised Claire - anyway my 2 cents
worth is to agree with Art mostly. The only expressions that make me gag
are those that objectify people "the disabled" or "schizophrenic" or "the
handicapped". I therefore cannot agree with Art's forgiveness of
"immigrants" and "natives". I do have to wonder, and maybe this could be
something for discussion itself, WHY people use descriptors as nouns when
they want to evoke pity or evoke more unpleasant feelings. For example,
newspapers and news broadcasts tend to use lines like "a schizophrenic was
shot in a siege with police" or "Sharon Smith has raised much needed money
for the handicapped" or the ever-popular "Known prostitute and mother of
three, Sylvia Jones was giving evidence in court". It seems like these
nouns and many others carry particular messages with them and are used for
effect. Is it about removing the humanness from the person referred to or
is it more than that?
At 07:43 AM 6/02/2002 +1100, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Claire Wickham"
>
>
>
> >
> > I use the term "disabled people" and actively encourage others to use
>this,
> > noting that here in the UK this is the term selected by the Disabled
> > People's Movement. In fact I campaign for it. But why does everywhere else
> > in the world appear to have adopted "people with disabilities"?
> >
>A stab at this one, none of it original:
>
>I've observed people getting irritated with either choice, and I change from
>week to week. This week I prefer "disabled people."
>
>I know that I'm a person, and find it condescending for people to tell me
>that I'm one. I don't presume that I need to tell other people that they're
>people, thus I prefer "middle-aged people" to "people who are middle aged,"
>"natives" or "immigrants" to "people who are..." (it gets cumbersome)
>
>The "person first" vocabulary is really "disability last", as though we're
>apologizing for disability, and this is, after all, a person.
>
>The "person first" vocabulary is advocated by folks who'd suggest that
>disability will mean that we'll stop recognizing that we're talking about
>people: the hemis, the patients, the clients, even reducing a person to a
>vertebra (medical approaches are good at doing this).
>
>Finally, PWD is a nice acronym; DP I've seen used mainly at refugee camps,
>as "displaced people."
>
>Art
>
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Best Regards
Laurence Bathurst
University of Sydney
School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences
PO Box 170
Lidcombe NSW 1825
Australia
Ph: 61 2 9351 9509
Fax: 61 2 9351 9166
Email: [log in to unmask]
Work for a living - Leisure for a life
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