moments of wtf (old), with links that have fascinating discussion.

[azurelunatic]

Once upon a time I got into a screaming argument with a crazy lady at a bus stop, who was screaming over her shoulder about some "fucking faggot". I took umbrage at this and proceeded to tell her about her inappropriate word choice (the words "homophobic bitch" may have been involved). She didn't take kindly to this; I didn't take kindly to that. Fortunately someone's bus came before the incident escalated further.

When she was hired on at my workplace a week later, we did have a chance to talk about that incident. After we cleared up our differences, we got along pretty well.


This moment of bizarre reminiscence was brought to you courtesy of a discussion about when and how to voluntarily purge ableist language from one's own vocabulary (after one has come to the reasoned conclusion that a certain word must go) by replacing it with words that more clearly convey the intent without the skeevy ableist overtones. (Link via boojum)

Comments

[watersword]

Thanks for the link!

[azurelunatic]

You're welcome!

[piranha]

it's really interesting how many, many words there are to use instead of "lame". words that are much more descriptive. i'm having a good time since i decided to cut ableist derogation from my daily vocabulary.

i'm noodling around whether slang is inherently data-lossy.

[azurelunatic]

I had a high school English teacher who mounted a campaign against "sucks". There were posters with alternative words.