Cameron Diaz offends the disabled

Of course it isn't offensive. It's just people with too much time on their hands, control freaks! The buggers are everywhere. Very well meaning fascists. More often than not the people who are supposed to be offended aren't and are more offended by these people getting offended on their behalf which is more offensive. Me? I'm numerically retarded, a total spaz when it comes numbers and it's a proper mental condition and all. Quite often I'm out there pointing and staring at things that don't move as well which makes me a bit of a retard too.

Reply

I never knew that the word was specifically for the disease. I figured that if you were spastic, you might subject to spasming whether or not you were as extreme as those with cerebral palsy. But here is the entry on dictionary.com:

spas·tic
adj.
1. Of, relating to, or characterized by spasms: a spastic colon; a spastic form of cerebral palsy.
2. Affected by spastic paralysis.
3. Offensive Slang. Clumsy or inept.

n.
A person affected with spastic paralysis.

Maybe she can reunite with the Farrelly Brothers. Those guys seem to be in with the handicapped organizations these days.

Reply

Not offended in the least. I am physically disabled and I use terms like cripple, freak, spaz, gimp, etc. No big deal. People need to lighten up.

Reply

The word "spastic" in England has a very definite implication of being handicapped... what I mean to say is that it's certainly not as neutral as the word "spastic" is in the US... the closest US thing I can think of is "retard" although even that is a little less strong than "spastic" in the UK...

Reply

I seem to remember SCOPE saying this to Lindsay Lohan. Maybe they're just in it for the free publicity of showing up bratty celebrities.

Reply

I think it's time for SCOPE to suck it.

Reply

I have cerebral palsy and get sick of the ignorant mis-use of the word spastic. Just because people used it to insult other school children years ago, it doesn't mean it is ok. What would happen if we called able bodied people a "stupid paraplegic" or a "silly amputee"? It is the same thing but I have never heard the word paraplegic being used to insult people instead of the word spastic. What would have been the reaction to Colin Firth in Love Actually if he had called somebody a "para" rather than a "spaz"? Would the British media have asked Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson for her reaction?

If its ok for me, its ok for paraplegics!
Sarah Jayne Davies MSc

Reply

You may not be offended bgdc, but guess as you are disabled you have re-appropriated the word. But it would be like white folk using the N word - I don't think you should go there, unless it affects you. And mh is right, spastic in the UK is very offensive - and if it offends some people (and Cameron is on world stage) who are we to tell people to shut up and not be offended?? I retain the right to free spech sure, but not at cost of alienating a group of people. Do you think it's acceptable to say 'I was like a dumb ni**er' as much as it is to say 'I was like a spastic'? Both words have roots with specific meaning, even if you have pretended otherwise...

Reply