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Post by mtshastawriter on Jan 18, 2011 14:42:09 GMT -5
While I actually agree with the sentiment that if you are a little person today that you have a decent chance of a show on TLC, can we please refrain from using the word "midget" as we do other derogatory words...
I have a child who is a dwarf, or little person, and the common thought is that they prefer to be called LP, little person or dwarf much to the derogatory midget, which carries connotations to being in the circus or being dumb, as in mental midget.
I try to avoid using the word "retard" for much the same reason that people should refrain from using the word midget; it's simply rude.
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wodehouse
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Post by wodehouse on Jan 18, 2011 14:48:19 GMT -5
Okay, I have to get this out. I saw this movie "The Station Agent", about a dwarf who somehow inherits an old train station and decides to live there. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340377/)
I love that movie!
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 18, 2011 15:11:45 GMT -5
Midget was also a really cool car back in the 70's. I didn't know it was a derogatory word until one of the TLC shows went off about it. That is the problem with words - the only mean what we say they mean. Like my Grandma saying "Negro" - after all the advertisements for the United Negro College Fund - she didn't know she was pissing people off.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jan 18, 2011 15:15:20 GMT -5
I was in high school in the early 70s and on the track team for four years. In addition to the open races, they also had weight class events that were based on the runners weight and not whether or not they were freshemen or upper classmen. One of the weight divisions was call midget. Another was called sub-midget.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jan 18, 2011 15:17:44 GMT -5
One of the divisions in Youth Minor Hockey is also called Midget. I'm not sure why they continue with that name.........
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jan 18, 2011 15:19:47 GMT -5
That's allright. I was 22 before someone told me that the correct word for a nut called "Brazil" nut was NOT the name I was told it was. I was taught they were called "N****R toes." You don't know unless someone teaches you and people don't mean to be offensive, just ignorant.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2011 15:20:00 GMT -5
Mtshastawriter, you have a legitimate complaint. So IS the preferred term "little person" or dwarf? I thought midget was a separate classification. I thought midget was a correctly proportioned person who is less that 4'8" or something like that. I have never heard it used pejoratively, but that doesn't mean you haven't either. I believe that "little people" was the comprehensive term for both dwarves and midgets.
I am surprised, though, that you merely "try to avoid using the word 'retard.'" That became politically incorrect two or three decades ago. It's like the word "queer." It's just not done.
By the way, who expressed the sentiment that if you are vertically challenged, you can get a show on TLC? It certainly isn't unique to height. If you are horizontally challenged, there is Big Loser. If you are pregant and a teen, you have choices. If you are trying to conceive or are an overachiever in that category, there is a show for you.
These shows can be good if they educate society that people come in all shapes and sizes but in the end are just people. They can be bad if they merely offer the opportunity to gawk.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jan 18, 2011 15:20:48 GMT -5
BTW, I had never met or even seen a black person so was clueless that they had even been referred to as the N word.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jan 18, 2011 15:21:04 GMT -5
Relevance to "Your Money"... ?
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jan 18, 2011 15:22:42 GMT -5
Good thought, perhaps should be moved to EE.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 18, 2011 15:23:51 GMT -5
I wonder if the Brazilians will want to soon be called "Brazilites" to get away from the "waxing" issue.
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Post by BeenThere...DoneThat... on Jan 18, 2011 15:28:33 GMT -5
<<< Relevance to "Your Money"... ? >>> ...we can spend a lot of money and still not know every word that could offend any body? ...case in point, a former classmate of mine, black guy, found "African-American" extremely offensive... and requested to be referred to as black... no problem... didn't even ask him why... but our teacher did... "Why? because I'm American. Never been to Africa. Probably will never go to Africa. I'm just a black guy from the USA. Thank you."
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Post by soon2bmomof3 on Jan 18, 2011 15:28:44 GMT -5
Why should they change their names? They've been around longer than the waxing...
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whoisjohngalt
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Post by whoisjohngalt on Jan 18, 2011 15:30:58 GMT -5
Oh, let me just add a bit more to my un-popularity around here, but OMG, I just can't keep up anymore, any time you look around someone doesn't like to be called something.
Yes, I understand and agree that words are important and yes, I understand and agree that words can hurt, what I don't understand and agree with is that every five minutes there is a word that was used for years, now all of a sudden is derogatory or hurtful and dictionaries and numerous other documents and other things have to be changed.
Lena
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2011 15:31:07 GMT -5
Did you read her opening line? Vertically challenged people automatically get a show on TLC these days.
Lighten up, SF. You aren't a moderator here. I was hoping that this board could be a little more open to just discussing stuff. EE is a little silly sometimes (ok, most of the times).
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jan 18, 2011 15:32:18 GMT -5
I was taught they were called "N****R toes." You don't know unless someone teaches you and people don't mean to be offensive, just ignorant.
My husband thought the same thing! That is what his grandmother always called them. He asked me once in the grocery store what they were really called because he was pretty sure that the above was not PC.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 18, 2011 15:33:27 GMT -5
I thought "queer" was making a come-back. I mean, the whole television show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 18, 2011 15:34:12 GMT -5
I still think homosexual is offensive - unless of course, you are smoking a cigarette in London.
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doxieluvr
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Post by doxieluvr on Jan 18, 2011 15:37:59 GMT -5
Oh, let me just add a bit more to my un-popularity around here, but OMG, I just can't keep up anymore, any time you look around someone doesn't like to be called something. Yes, I understand and agree that words are important and yes, I understand and agree that words can hurt, what I don't understand and agree with is that every five minutes there is a word that was used for years, now all of a sudden is derogatory or hurtful and dictionaries and numerous other documents and other things have to be changed. Lena For once I kinda agree with Lena. I would like to assume that the majority of people that may use a questionable word, is not doing so with the intention of hurting someone.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jan 18, 2011 15:39:21 GMT -5
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 18, 2011 15:39:42 GMT -5
The name Dick has been around for a centuries, but I know a lot of 50-year old guys who have recently opted to begin to utiltize their full name of Richard. Things change.
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whoisjohngalt
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Post by whoisjohngalt on Jan 18, 2011 15:44:41 GMT -5
I learn something new every day. I always thought that "Dick" was a recent invention, since I've never seen Richard III, for example, be referred as Dick in any literature that I've ever read Lena
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wodehouse
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Post by wodehouse on Jan 18, 2011 15:49:42 GMT -5
Lena, what about Dick Whittington (of cat and Mayor of London fame)? From ~around~ the same era as Richard III.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jan 18, 2011 15:51:32 GMT -5
That's who told me to call them that, my Grandmother. She was of the era of "colored people" which my cousins and I found incredibly funny but that was what nice women called black people. My mom is of the era of Negro, I am of the era of African-American but now use black so unless I am told otherwise by someone who is black, that is the term I will use. If it offends, well, so be it. It DOES get old. BTW, I have a cousin who is in his 60's named DICK and although his wife would LOVE for him to not go by that name anymore, he isn't about to change it because it now means something else.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jan 18, 2011 16:02:22 GMT -5
My mother called them the same thing, that's what her parents called them. She got in trouble when she yelled it out when she saw a display of them in the grocery store at the age of 5. How was she supposed to know that wasn't PC?
I agree it's getting old to keep up on what currently offends someone.
Personally I don't understand how Little People is any better than midget.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jan 18, 2011 16:06:11 GMT -5
Me neither! I always thought it sounded worse. But, whatever - I'm "average height" so I don't get a vote.
I really wanted to name our all-white cat the racial slur that the Indian kids on the reservation (by the way, all of the native americans I know prefer to be called Indian) use to call my (white) husband. He thought it would be tasteless, but now wishes we had.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Jan 18, 2011 16:09:00 GMT -5
I learn something new every day. I always thought that "Dick" was a recent invention, since I've never seen Richard III, for example, be referred as Dick in any literature that I've ever read Playing the "innocent" card doesn't work with most of us...
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Jan 18, 2011 16:12:05 GMT -5
I agree with whoisjongalt, the whole issue of PC is retarded and ghey.
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Post by BeenThere...DoneThat... on Jan 18, 2011 16:23:34 GMT -5
<<< I agree with whoisjongalt, the whole issue of PC is retarded and ghey. >>> ...or dangerous, because: <<< every five minutes there is a word that was used for years, now all of a sudden is derogatory or hurtful and dictionaries and numerous other documents and other things have to be changed. >>> ...and people get charged/convicted for hate speech crimes...
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whoisjohngalt
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Post by whoisjohngalt on Jan 18, 2011 16:32:26 GMT -5
You don't have to use any "derogatory" words to create hate speech.
To keep changing definitions and meanings of existing words to protect people from "hate speech" is useless and absurd. Lena
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