yes, this here is ramble through the bronx, the continuing musings of a graduate student* who should be writing her dissertation, but honestly, living in new york city there's really so much else to do...
Another YouTube video! This is almost ten minutes long -- but well worth watching. I was googling retardation today because of an obnoxious thread on LiveJournal about whether it's OK to use "retarded" as an insult meaning stupid. Grr. I don't think it's excessive PC-ness, but just simple courtesy and respect for humanity, not to use disabilities as insults.
But it's all very well and good for me to talk about this... but better to hear directly what it's like. The video's creator writes:
I made this video after seeing a number of things: Other disabled people rushing to prove that they were not some thing called "retarded," being referred to here as a "mong" and other such words myself (on and off YouTube) as well as seeing lots of pointless ridicule directed at people with developmental disabilities, and being asked questions about what it's like to be considered "retarded" in casual contacts with people, or to "look retarded", whatever that means. I explore these questions, and the prejudice and dehumanization that surrounds cognitive disability of all sorts, in my video. (Yes, this is a serious video, not poking fun at people.) Apologies for the splicing, the construction noises in the background, etc, that's to do with the equipment I have to work with here at the moment. This video is captioned.
Watch it.
Here's another: "On Being an Unperson"
Excerpt: "Being an unperson means that your life is not a real life. ... It means that your existence seems to fill people with disgust and fear. People see you and describe you as a hollow shell, a body without a soul, a changeling child, or a vegetable. Or they romanticize your life, calling you a special angel on earth. Whatever they call you, people refuse to see that you exist at all. [...] It means that if you do something real, important, and meaningful to you, people will think it's cute. They have a special laugh reserved for that. [...] Being an unperson means being hated. Not always in an overt emotional way. It means people want you to be a real person. Which sounds good, until you realize they don't believe you are a person already."