One time in the kitchen at our SANS house I said, "Can we not use words like 'crazy' as a dismissive perjorative? My disability politics is showing."
Marla asked, since we're not supposed to use words like "crazy" and "insane" for people who are actually mentally ill, why we can't -- I forget how she phrased it, but basically "retain the negative connotation, but not retain the 'mentally ill' connotation, and just use them as insults for e.g. politicians who are way out of line." It sounded slightly less ridiculous the way she said it.
I didn't bring up the issue of actual mentally ill people using those terms for themselves (a la "nigger" and "queer" -- though of course "queer" has largely been reclaimed for mainstream usage). I did say that those words still have those connotations, and so we're still perpetuating negative stereotypes about mental illness. I definitely didn't feel like I'd done a very good job of making the argument, though.
And then I came home and read "The Madman In the Woods: Mental Illness As Boogeyman" (http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/08/30/the-madman-in-the-woods-mental-illness-as-boogeyman/)
And now I'm remembering faith-sharing visioning last night and how I kept saying that I'm really not that into social justice, and feeling a twinge like I was lying because hi fat pol and disability and mental illness and and and ... And how I feel like I'm pushing against the current with those -- that I get pushback rather than buy-in when I express discomfort with talk about weight-loss [as an inherent good] or about casual use of the term "crazy" or whatever. (And yes, I really wanted to find a less ableist term than "visioning," but I couldn't think of one and didn't feel it would be an optimal use of our time to get into that conversation.)
I've been wanting to do a brief writeup of SANS -- about what energized me, what I'm excited about moving forward -- and I think I very much want to do a post now being like, "Okay, here are the social justice issues that are important to *me.* I am telling you this so you know, and I am also using this as a commitment mechanism for myself, because I want to be more intentional about bringing about the kin-dom."
I don't really have any disability icons :/
One time in the kitchen at our SANS house I said, "Can we not use words like 'crazy' as a dismissive perjorative? My disability politics is showing."
Marla asked, since we're not supposed to use words like "crazy" and "insane" for people who are actually mentally ill, why we can't -- I forget how she phrased it, but basically "retain the negative connotation, but not retain the 'mentally ill' connotation, and just use them as insults for e.g. politicians who are way out of line." It sounded slightly less ridiculous the way she said it.
I didn't bring up the issue of actual mentally ill people using those terms for themselves (a la "nigger" and "queer" -- though of course "queer" has largely been reclaimed for mainstream usage). I did say that those words still have those connotations, and so we're still perpetuating negative stereotypes about mental illness. I definitely didn't feel like I'd done a very good job of making the argument, though.
And then I came home and read "The Madman In the Woods: Mental Illness As Boogeyman" (http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/08/30/the-madman-in-the-woods-mental-illness-as-boogeyman/)
And now I'm remembering faith-sharing visioning last night and how I kept saying that I'm really not that into social justice, and feeling a twinge like I was lying because hi fat pol and disability and mental illness and and and ... And how I feel like I'm pushing against the current with those -- that I get pushback rather than buy-in when I express discomfort with talk about weight-loss [as an inherent good] or about casual use of the term "crazy" or whatever. (And yes, I really wanted to find a less ableist term than "visioning," but I couldn't think of one and didn't feel it would be an optimal use of our time to get into that conversation.)
I've been wanting to do a brief writeup of SANS -- about what energized me, what I'm excited about moving forward -- and I think I very much want to do a post now being like, "Okay, here are the social justice issues that are important to *me.* I am telling you this so you know, and I am also using this as a commitment mechanism for myself, because I want to be more intentional about bringing about the kin-dom."