in light of people still calling this guy 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 "spaz"
i wanted to make a post discussing that and why you shouldn't. my friend @chrisginny made a post at some point, but i can't find it! if you can, please link it in the replies.
during this, i will refer to him as johnny, the name my friends and i came up with for him.
okay, so in the movie we see this character a few times. we first see him when everyone is getting settled into their dorms, when his parent is explaining to the faculty what he needs because he clearly is prone to illness.
next, we see him in keating's class, and this happens.
his classmate calls him spaz, here, and throws a balled up paper at his head. stick laughs, cameron leans forward and grabs johnny harshly, and meeks opts out of the situation by looking away. as mr. keating walks in, we hear, presumably the same guy who threw the paper at johnny, mock him for having "brain damage."
later on, we see meeks giving johnny a judging look as johnny coughs into his handkerchief. near the end of the movie, before he stands up on his desk, johnny wipes his nose with his handkerchief again.
these are the only points in the movie that i can distinctly recall, and now i want to explain why we shouldn't be calling johnny spaz.
for one, spaz is a slur. it's a slur aimed at people who stim or experience tics but it also targets many other kinds if people, primarily disabled people. it has broadened definitions that target all kinda of neurodivergent people. i am one of those people, by the way, in case anybody has a problem with me saying this word. sources: snopes wiktionary nbc
another thing is, it's obviously not his real name, but instead a "nickname" of sorts given to him by his classmates ... and clearly the reason for it is that he is prone to illness with less immunity than other people, and possibly that he is neurodivergent or otherwise disabled.
please, just don't call him spaz? it can't be a cute nickname when its coming from the mouths of bullies or people who don't understand what it's like to be a spaz.
