The movie "Tropic Thunder" opens tomorrow. There is a fair amount of controversy surrounding the film. One of the storylines is that an actor, played by Ben Stiller, is known primarily for his portrayal of Simple Jack, a man with developmental disabilities that has a "soup bowl" haircut, large front teeth and is referred to as "Retard". The disability advocacy community, of which I am part, plans to boycott the film in an effort to educate the general public about the appropriate words used to refer to people with disabilities. (Hint to Hollywood: "Retard" isn't one of those words).
It would be a stretch to say that I am offended by the movie. However, the portrayal of people with disabilities makes me uncomfortable. I think it was somewhat foolish for the producers of the movie to think that nobody would be offended by their portrayal of people with disabilities. Maybe that is their hope as part of an effort to generate publicity. However, rather than trying to offend people that are oppressed by society, I would hope that Hollywood would put forth more effort to offend people that oppress others.
I have often heard young people use the phrase "that's so retarded" to describe what they consider to be an unusual/unacceptable behavior or event. Part of the problem is that we fail to recognize that words are not offensive - they way we use the words are. Not too many years ago, retarded was simply a medical term used to describe a low IQ. Our society has taken the term and used it to describe much more. The term "mental retardation" has been replaced by "developmental disability" and/or "intellectual disability". My guess is that, ten years from now, young people that now use the term "that's so retarded" will be using the terms "that's so DD" or "that's so ID".
It might be true that sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt us. However, the way in which we use words certainly can be hurtful to others.
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