Since the r-slur is making a comeback (you know, the word that starts with R, has six letters, and ends in D), I'm gonna make a little PSA:
Yes, it's an ableist slur.
Terms like "asshat," "head-up-ass," "up their own ass," and "high on their own farts" exist. There's also words like crap, dogshit, half-assed, assclown, and chucklefuck. And on the less vulgar side, there are terms like ridiculous, nonsense, train wreck, pointless, insipid, self-absorbed, pretentious, annoying, boring, contemptible, vile, and disgusting.
Substituting words like restarted, poptarted, brain damaged, smoothbrain, etc. is still ableist, because either 1. you obviously still mean the r-word, or 2. you're still using disability as an insult.
Hi! Tangentially related to the circus/jestercore discussion you posted about, it reminded me of something that’s been unsettling me for a while. I’ve noticed the term 'freak' being used very casually on Tumblr lately. I do understand when people are using it in a reclaimed sense for themselves, but I’ve also seen people refer to characters, and sometimes even real actors, as their "pet freak" and other such things.
Given the history of freak shows and how that word was used to dehumanize and justify exploitation, that language really makes me pause, and honestly leaves me feeling pretty horrified. I was curious if you had thoughts on this, and whether others in the dwarfism / disability / history communities have raised similar concerns.
Hello! Yes, I've certainly noticed how loosely "freak" is thrown about these days. There is a spectrum when it comes to reclaiming slurs, depending on who says them, where it came from, how much of the community embrace it, etc.
Many people use the word freak to express enthusiasm, ("I'm a "health freak" or "anime freak") but it has history in defining people as abnormal, deformed, or unusual. "Freaks" were physically disabled, often poc, social outcasts, and criminalized by the Ugly Laws (1867 to 1974). In Freak Shows (peaking in the 1840s-1940s, but continuing after), they were human trafficked, abused, kept as pets and made a public spectacle.
The reason I personally am deeply hurt by "freak" being used so loosely, is that for people like me (little people), freak show culture is not so far behind us. It lingers in today's society in a million different microaggressions, in the way my people respond to my body, in how they see it on stage, in how I am sexualized. And I usually hear it thrown around by people who would not have been classified as a "freak" in that time. From white, thin, beautiful, able bodied people. The same people who want to "reclaim" circuscore and defend it to me without knowing my people's history.
hi happy disability pride month friendly reminder that the r slur is specifically targeted towards those with INTELLECTUAL disabilities so if you're out here "reclaiming" it by virtue of being autistic or otherwise developmentally disabled in a way other than actively having a intellectual disability, you're being real shitty to some of the most vulnerable members of the disability community. words mean something!
some sources:
special olympics article on how "the r-word is an r-slur" and why it should not be used
an article by the arc titled "the r-word: why language matters and how we can do better"
i'm so mad about this ban on cis women with ""male"" levels of testosterone. you do a little search about it and it's immediately obviously intersexism
"women with conditions" "disorders that make it unfair"
i've been saying for a while that the gender divide in sports is pointless, but this really goes to prove that "women's sports are lame" by design
they won't let women compete if they don't fit the perisex misogynistic ideal of weakness
uhg!
and the solution they propose! to these women! is to lower their testosterone! instead of like, idk? reframing sports competition groups by actual physical capability, instead of perisex cisgender ideals. just a thought.
the blatant hypocrisy in "oh heavens we can't have trans folks ruining things. just medically transition your body to be more peri-cis for our comfort!"
not to mention the fact that doing sports has been shown to increase your testosterone iirc? so like, cis women who want to participate in sports should be careful or they will participate too hard and have to quit, or something
also, i;m sorry if any of my wording or language here is phobic in some way, i'm worked up. i'm trying to phrase things right but idk if i'm suceeding. please take my intent!/gen
This is intersexism and transgynemisia.
Beginning note: I will say that "lame" is a ableist slur, it is best to keep that in mind when talking about these things (if you mean boring, or unnecessary, or needlessly strict, you can say that!/gen) and to try and not use it, but I do appreciate that you are trying to not use such language! Keep it up!
Not only do these bans affect intersex women with hyperandrogenism or chromosomal variations that are too different for pericis women to comprehend and trans women, this also, like you said, affects pericis women who have naturally high testosterone due to doing sports.
You can't necessarily raise your testosterone levels incredibly high just from sports but the 100% contribute and women have and will use enhancers to participate in certain sports (such as boxing, wrestling, football and, most obviously, body building/Ms. Olympia) and this will substantially affect WOC who don't fit pericis eurocentric beauty standards that will cause them to be labeled as having high testosterone.
These bans do nothing but harm the MAJORITY of women who do sports. Instead of making sports more inclusive by segregating it based on skill level and weight class, they're completely banning women who aren't weak, which fucking ruins the point of sports !!! It's so so wild and perplexing to me.
You are not an ally if you slut-shame aromantic allosexuals.
You are not an ally if you think that the A in the acronym stands for ally.
You are not an ally if you hurl slurs, which, nine times out of ten, are ableist slurs used to demonise those with cluster B disorders, at aromantics for not wanting to be in romantic relationships.
You are not an ally if you assume that bi/pan women who are dating men (Or bi/pan men who are dating women) have 'turned straight'.
You are not an ally if you think that all committed relationships must be romantic and/or sexual in nature.
You are not an ally if you think that a committed relationship can only consist of two people, and no more.
You are not an ally if you exclude intersex people in any way.
You are not an ally if your support of the LGBTQIA+ community ends the second that you encounter queer people you don’t like or understand.
I find it frustrating that nobody I know of is talking about how loaded the nomenclature of psychiatry always has been, even without taking into account when laymen distort it.
It's completely valid to say "Don't call it '{insert demonized disorder here] abuse' because it's wrong to assume that everyone who has that disorder is just as abusive" but I feel like such statements are incomplete. I think we also need to understand that the word "narcissist' (And many other diagnoses, some still used!) was an insult long before it was used as a diagnosis, and that you can complain about laymen "armchair diagnosing" the people around them all you want, but that's not the only problem related to people's tendency to use insults as diagnoses and vice versa. Sometimes, the diagnosis itself is was an insult all along. It was meant to be the "bad person disease" or any other insult all along because psych professionals aren't immune to this type of ableism, and in fact many rely on it as a business strategy.
PSA: Please for the love of God stop using the word "cretin". It's a slur for people born with congenital hypothyroidism (CHT, that used to be called cretinism) that causes physical and intellectual disability.
I think it's unrealistic to expect a blanket moratorium on insults about intelligence, but words like "mong/mongoloid" (anti-Asian slur later applied to people with Down Syndrome), "spaz", "downie", "midget" and "cretin" refer to people born with specific developmental disorders. If you care enough not to use the "r–word", please steer clear of these as well.
In case you don't know what sticky keys are, they're (plaintext: this kind of text) ThIS kInD oF tExT. I don't know if screenreaders will pronounce the individual letters when I do that or not because I think sometimes that can happen so I included a trigger warning.
TLDR: "acoustic" is annoying and WAY too similar to how the r-word was used in the 1900s for my liking and i hate this word and i hope it leaves everyones mouths forever
Hi. I'm Spades. I'm queer as hell, plus autism/adhd, hyperlexia, apd, partial blindness and glasses.
I'm gen Z. I don't mind most gen alpha stuff - six seven is a nice thing to partake in when its not annoying - but this (plaintext: "are you acoustic?") "aRe YoU aCoUsTiC?" bullshit has got to stop.
Now listen. I'm not new to slurs. When used in a reclaiming way (ex: dyke, queer) I don't really mind them. I grew up constantly around a grandmother who said the r-word every six seconds, usually directed at me, and I didn't figure out it was a slur until I was twelve years old when I got reprimanded for saying it in school. I'm also called the f-slur in the hallways a lot. wow, surprise surprise, I know (/sarc).
What does bother me though, is that I hear this "are you acoustic" stuff everywhere. Directed at me, sometimes my friends or partner or siblings, said by anyone from the age of six to twenty-two. It's getting old really, REALLY fast.
Not to mention, the word "acoustic" is basically the pussified version of the r-word. We all know that what they meant was the r-word, but they say "acoustic" because it's not the r-word, which apparently makes it socially acceptable. While acoustic isn't even close to the origin or total shit people have gone through with the r-word, acoustic is used in the same way and manner when referring to people who are actually neurodivergent.
I've had an actual eighteen year old girl look me in the face and. completely seriously, ask me if I'm acoustic. You can't make this shit up, guys.
Apart from being generally annoying and a literal alternative to a slur, "acoustic" is just another way for neurotypicals to try and ignore our existence. NTs are told early on that words like "autistic," "disabled," "neurodivergent," and "disorder" are bad, offensive words that should never be used in conversation ever. To the people who aren't aware the way its being used, "acoustic" is simply a way to avoid those words in the conversation in a manner they deem humorous, but honestly, I'd rather they just ask me if I have autism then go (plaintext: "haha, are you acoustic?) "hyUk HyuK aRe yOu acOusTiC" at me.
Also, I do have somewhat more personal gripes with it. I'm a guitar player, and I don't like that its being used this way because I now cannot rant about this to people without someone going "haha acoustic" whenever i bring up that building callouses hurts and thats generally frustrating but nowhere near as bad as the rest of the stuff in this essay that i wrote on a sleep deprived brain, in the car, on a road trip, at two in the morning.
I'd like to end this by saying that everything in this post is just my opinion, based on my own experience. Not everyone's gonna agree with me, and that's okay, because maybe they have a different relationship with this word than I do. I'm just kinda pissed that my little siblings keep saying it, and figured I'd rant.
