Is it a slur to use the word 'spastic'?

[quaoar]

Tiger Woods used the term "spaz" to describe his terrible putting at the Masters. Most American newspapers either edited the word out of the quote or changed it altogether.

The question is whether the word is harmless or insulting.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3635021a1823,00.html

Woods taken to task for 'spastic' comment

British media have taken their American counterparts to task for not reporting golfer Tiger Woods' controversial "spaz" comment after Monday's US Masters.

The world No 1, after finishing tied for third at Augusta, three shots behind winner Phil Mickelson, told a television interviewer: "As good as I hit it, that's as bad as I putted and it's frustrating, because I felt so in control of my ball from tee to green, and once I got on the green I was a spaz (spastic)."

The Telegraph in London took a dim view of the comment and its subsequent reporting in the United States.

"America's leading newspapers yesterday helped Tiger Woods evade controversy by ignoring his use of the word `spaz' to describe his poor putting in the final round of the Masters at Augusta," Lewine Mair wrote in the Telegraph.

"The LA Times, changed the word to 'wreck' while The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe all expunged the word completely. Only two US sports news services ran his words in an unedited form."

[NorCalDem]

1. sheez, chill out people

there are bigger fish to fry :D

[Gman]

2. It's a kid thing

Tiger's still a kid. Cut 'im some slack. Tiger's putting was spastic (meaning inconsistent and jerky).

[quaoar]

4. I've actually never thought of it as pejorative

But maybe I'm missing something. Which is why I asked the question.

[AngryAmish]

41. 29 is not a kid

[madeline_con]

3. Apparently some people think so!

I had no idea. :shrug:

[pitohui]

5. supposedly it is

altho i suspect i'm in the class of people supposedly being protected by the removal of "spazz" and "spastic" from polite discourse

it's like i said on another thread, you know what, don't fuckin humor me, don't patronize me

i know i'm short, i know i'm an FLK, i know i'm a spazz

don't dance around it, "vertically challenged" is still short, it's just insulting me because on top of calling me short you're calling me a wuss who can't face reality

just one spazz's opinion, i'll prob. get flamed

me, i'd rather be called a spazz to my face and move on, because the added insult of insulting my intelligence, which is all we spazzes have, i don't need

[Glorfindel]

6. It's no worse than "retard"

A better expression would be something I remember Bing Crosby saying in a commercial, years ago: "I play like a cow with a musket." Now that's expressive! :dem:

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. Probably not quite as bad as "retard", which is quite bad.

If my fairy godmother would grant me one wish, it would be to remove it from DU discourse.

http://www.thearc.org/ga/limbaugh_letter.htm

[Bunny]

42. Thanks. I hate seeing that word thrown around here.

It's really an awful word. Spaz isn't much better.

But now I'll be accused of being the "PC Police" - for asking people to just be respectful. :eyes:

[lumberjack_jeff]

45. Being the police is not the same as pointing out that the epiphet hurts.

People can say whatever they want, imho. But it's not my role to pretend it's not hurtful.

[napi21]

7. Boy, at my age I thought I'd heard most "controversial" comments,

but what in the world did they THINK he meant? The only context I've ever heard or USED the word spaz was relative to panicked, spazin', falling apart, etc.

What does it mean in London?????

[pitohui]

8. spastics are clumsy

and no matter how much time and care and practice and attention we take, we are still clumsy

you can be a spazz even if you are not panicked because you cannot control fine motor control for genetic reasons

[napi21]

10. So what's wrong with printing that? Are you sure they're not

thinking it means something else? Why would you get upset is someone referrs to himself as clumsy?

[pitohui]

11. i'm not upset, see post 5

see my post upstream # 5

i am a spazz and i am NOT ashamed

[magellan]

9. It ain't PC

Which is another way of saying some people are too sensitive and have too much time on their hands.

[Bluebear]

12. "Spasticity is most commonly associated ...w/ cerebral palsy"

"A term of abuse, e.g. you're such a spastic (also colloquially abbreviated to "spazz", "spack", "spacko", "spanner" and "spacker"), derived from a popular misconception that those with any physical disability resulting in spasticity would necessarily also have a mental or developmental disability."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic

I did not know that.

[pitohui]

17. well i still don't know that

i can assure you that cerebral palsy victims are not the only people accused of being spastics

high functioning autistic who has been called (and who is) spastic here

[Bluebear]

32. No offense intended.

I said I didn't know it either!

[Kutjara]

13. OK, here's the deal.

The term 'spastic' was, until very recently, the official term for someone who suffered from cerebral palsy. The Spastics Society was the leading charity for this condition (and only changed its name to the less pejorative SCOPE three years ago).

In UK youth parlance, calling someone a 'spastic' is equivalent to calling them a retard or a 'thlid (after the appearance of some sufferers of the afteraffects of Thalidomide). It is strongly insulting, and the word is usually accompanies by attempts to mimic the stereotypical image of someone with advanced palsy.

I would have hoped we were past mocking people for diseases over which they have no control. Seemingly not.

[Bluebear]

15. I posted at the same time.

Yet people think that "not PC" is a good thing.

[Kutjara]

20. Yes, I saw your posting after I hit the button on mine:)

While I'm not in favor of PC for it's own sake, I think matters like this are simple ones of politeness and respect.

Physical and mental disabilities are not suitable matters for ridicule. Just as people cannot choose whether they are white, black, Asian, American, man or woman, they cannot choose the body they are handed. While some efforts have been made to teach children about the corrosive effects of such ridicule, it seems that not enough has been done to teach adults.

[quaoar]

23. I agree

I am particularly upset whenever I hear someone on TV use the term Tourette's to describe someone, as in "Do you have Tourette's or something?"

[pitohui]

21. well here's my deal

this has been an issue with the term "spastic" for a few years now actually

i will NOT call another person a spazz since it has been brought to my attention this could be hurtful but i will call myself a spazz when i am frustrated because well i lived this long and i get used to talking to myself maybe

sounds like tiger did the same -- he didn't call someone else a spazz, he called himself a spazz

it might not be totally PC because tiger does not have any genetic reason or illness to blame for screwing up, it just happened, but he is calling himself a name, he is not calling someone else a name

my thought is i'd just let it go

[Kutjara]

28. I understand your point but...

...what if he had called himself a "stupid n---er". Would that have been alright? It's not the target of the epithet that is the problem (well, it is, but not exclusively), it is the implication that being 'spastic' (or African American in my example) is itself pejorative. Cerebral palsy, while a debilitating physical illness, does not affect the cognative abilities of the sufferer. They are of normal intelligence. The implication that they are not so is the real insult.

[Karenina]

50. Spaz and spaz attack

were just doofus teenie slang in my day UNTIL Mark Sharp entered our 8th grade class. Mark was super intelligent, a sharp wit and just a LOVE who had a severe disability. We ALL worried about him so when he was absent from class with his various challenges. If he was away too long we went to his home to reassure ourselves that he'd be back in class soon. Those phrases were IMMEDIATELY DROPPED from our collective vernacular as the very idea of using language that might in ANY WAY cause him more pain than he was in was simply unthinkable.

Bleeding heart liberals? Self-censorship? Overly PC??? NO, just a bunch of 13 year olds who immediately found less potentially hurtful words to express the same idea. Mark could use the word as he pleased. The rest of us DID NOT. His favorite expression was, "WHIP IT ON ME!!!" :rofl:

[napi21]

19. Well, I'm 62 years old, and I've NEVER heard that!!!!

I've used the term spazin, or "I was spastic" after hearing some very surprising news.

I don't want to make explainations for Tiger, but I'd bet he never heard of the association either!

[Kutjara]

26. Maybe it's limited to the UK

Like the man said "Britain and America are two lands divided by a common language."

Terms like wanker, fag (for cigarette), shag etc have entered US English through TV and movies, but it seems that spastic hasn't.

I'm sure Tiger meant nothing derogatory by his comment. He just said it in range of the wrong audience. He won't make the same mistake again.

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. I think it may be, to some degree, a colloquialism.

I've never thought of the term in such a perjorative sense, I've always considered it a synonym of "clumsy".

[Kutjara]

29. It certainly is, but..

...so is "Indian giver," and that isn't one I'd choose to use either.

[TahitiNut]

14. Dictionaries cite it as "Offensive slang"

"Offensive slang" is the same citation given racist and sexist terms. "Spastic" refers to a variety of neurological disorders, one of which is Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia which often afflicts children.

[valerief]

16. I think only spastic colons get offended. But then, they're just

colons, and who cares about a colon's feelings?

[Kutjara]

30. And people with cerebral palsy...

...should we care a bit more about them?

[U4ikLefty]

33. I would really care if they had spastic colons & cerebal palsy.

talk about a double whammy!!!

OK, now I am being cruel...sorry, too much tequila. :evilfrown:

[valerief]

46. I guess my attempt at levity failed. Sorry. n/t

[LittleClarkie]

18. I dunno. He was using it on himself. I've been known to do that.

It's not like he was calling someone names.

Now if he would have said Fatty Bumballati or something, that would have been different.

[tularetom]

22. The mistake is thinking that anything Woods says

has any relevance. I'd be far more interested in what he (or any otgher mega multi gazillionaire athlete) had to say about immigration, health care, Iraq, outsourcing or other topics that actually affect real people in the US. Not that his corporate sponsors/buddies would ever let him open his mouth about any controversial matter. To tell you the truth I'm more put of by his childish tantrums on the golf course (swearing audibly, slamming his clubs to the ground) than by any dumbass remarks he makes to an interviewer.

[ProfessorGAC]

44. So Donating Millions To Charity Isn't Good Enough?

Methinks you expect too much. The guy is giving back hugely to those in need.
The Professor

[blitzen]

25. All I can think of is Ian Dury's classic song, ""I'm Spaticus Autisticus"

My own 9 year old son is Autistic and, I must say, a bit of a spaz. I would cut Tiger a break here. Although he's right--he did spaz out and should have won by several strokes.

[DefenseLawyer]

31. I think it is possible

for a word like "spaz", although derived from making fun of someone's disability, to move into the parlance of the playground and just become another interchangeable word that kids use to make fun of each other. So a kid says "way to go, spaz", he could just as easily say "way to go nerd, doofus, numbnuts (insert your own infantile slang here). Now none of those are nice things to say, but my point is that the original specific meaning is probably lost. I am relatively certain it is in that way that Woods described himself as a "spaz". Now my take is, if someone takes offense, and you can just as easily say something else, say something else. But I don't label Woods intolerant for his choice of self deprecation.

[cigsandcoffee]

34. It creeps me out...

...that the LA times changed the word to "wreck." I wonder if they left it in quotes.

[bobbieinok]

35. it definitely was when I was in grade school/jr high in 40s + 50s

[Pastiche423]

36. From someone that deals w/spasms every day

it is not only not offensive to me, it's the word I use whenever my f'ing spasticity (due to paralysis) drives me to the edge.

But then, I don't live in the U.K.

[Kutjara]

37. Its true that...

...the word spastic was originally coined to describe medical conditions typified by the kind of spasticity you describe. After all, for the best part of 100 years, people in the UK who had cerebral palsy were called 'spastic' merely to indicate the illness from which they suffered.

The term is still in use, as mentioned by another poster, for conditions like 'spastic colon'. Unfortunately, the pejorative meaning has long since overtaken the medical one, so its tricky to use the word in a non-judgemental way. Again, this is in the UK. I accept that the pejorative meaning doesn't apply here.

Perhaps like 'queer', the cerebral palsy community may want to reappropriate the pejorative to their advantage: "I'm a spaz and I'm proud!" But they show no signs of doing this. I would imagine they have other things to think about.

[Fountain79]

38. Offended by the word spaz...

man that's gay....

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. It seems to be internationally regarded as a slur

Why would the LA Times change the word, if they didn't think it was rude? And why else would an Australian get fined for using it in France?

The last top sportsman to use the word publicly was Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt who was fined during the 2001 French Open for calling a linesman a "spastic".

[hexola]

40. The word's suppression gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness.

...to quote lenny bruce...

[mongo]

47. Yeah!

But our politically correct faction here will disagree...

[patcox2]

43. Its nothing to spazz out about.

Some people are such tards.

[Beelzebud]

48. PC run amok is what that is.

[VelmaD]

49. I care about only one aspect of this brouhaha...

has anyone brought how this word is often percieved to Woods' attention and if so what did he have to say?

One of the ways I judge a person is by how they react when told they have hurt someone's feelings.