shut up spaz
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4902432.stm
apparently the PC police just got a raise, because they are out in full force. On Sunday at the masters Tiger Woods said he was "putting like a spaz." Who knew the uproar that this would cause. First of all, I am just as sensitive and empathetic as the next guy, but when the derogatory meaning of a word has to be explained in detail to the public before you raise a stink about it, it most likely wasn't meant to be offensive in the first place. I, and everyone else I know, have been using the word "spaz" since the glory days of bed wetting. We used the term to describe ourselves or others who were acting erratically or irrationally. In America, we meant it as an abbreviated version of being spastic. However, in the U.K, an apparently here, it carries the meaning of disabled, or having cerabal palsy (spelling?). I doubt there is any kid or young adult in the US who, when saying the word, is aiming to offend people with that disease. That's ridiculous. Kids don't even know what that means. An old show in Britain apparently is what spawned this term and it is still in use today. Now this is either an example of a language breakdown, or people in the US have no idea who they have been making fun of for all these years. In any case, I renew my original objection that if a terms derogatory meaning has to be explained to almost everyone before it is thought of as offending, it probably wasn't ever meant to be offensive. Of course, I have been wrong before...Once. But I was being a total spaz.
apparently the PC police just got a raise, because they are out in full force. On Sunday at the masters Tiger Woods said he was "putting like a spaz." Who knew the uproar that this would cause. First of all, I am just as sensitive and empathetic as the next guy, but when the derogatory meaning of a word has to be explained in detail to the public before you raise a stink about it, it most likely wasn't meant to be offensive in the first place. I, and everyone else I know, have been using the word "spaz" since the glory days of bed wetting. We used the term to describe ourselves or others who were acting erratically or irrationally. In America, we meant it as an abbreviated version of being spastic. However, in the U.K, an apparently here, it carries the meaning of disabled, or having cerabal palsy (spelling?). I doubt there is any kid or young adult in the US who, when saying the word, is aiming to offend people with that disease. That's ridiculous. Kids don't even know what that means. An old show in Britain apparently is what spawned this term and it is still in use today. Now this is either an example of a language breakdown, or people in the US have no idea who they have been making fun of for all these years. In any case, I renew my original objection that if a terms derogatory meaning has to be explained to almost everyone before it is thought of as offending, it probably wasn't ever meant to be offensive. Of course, I have been wrong before...Once. But I was being a total spaz.
posted by gobbie at 1:30 PM
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