Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words CAN ALSO hurt you
This is a BBC survey on the worst disability-related words. The words were chosen by a panel of disabled people then put to a public vote. It featured words that could be considered very deliberately offensive, as well as everyday words that upset just as badly.
THE FINAL RESULT
2053 votes were cast in total. Of these, 73.9% were from non-disabled people. 18.3% were from disabled people
and 7.6% said they would 'rather not say'. Interestingly, these percentages seem to reflect the population fairly well - we're often told that approximately 18% of
the UK is disabled.
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Total votes cast: 2053 |
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1. |
Retard |
19.6% |
(404 votes) |
|
2. |
Spastic |
18% |
(373 votes) |
|
3. |
Window-licker |
17% |
(350 votes) |
|
4. |
Mong |
13.4% |
(276 votes) |
|
5. |
Special |
10.2% |
(210 votes) |
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6. |
Brave |
7.9% |
(163 votes) |
|
7. |
Cripple |
5.5% |
(113 votes) |
|
8. |
Psycho |
2.9% |
(60 votes) |
|
9. |
Handicapped |
2.5% |
(52 votes) |
|
10. |
Wheelchair-bound |
2% |
(42 votes) |
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Of particular importance to Diverse magazine is the result based on how the disabled and non-disabled people voted:
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DISABLED |
NON-DISABLED |
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|
|
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1 |
Spastic |
Retard |
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|
15.1% (57 votes) |
21.5% (328 votes) |
|
2 |
Retard |
Window-licker |
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|
14.3% (54 votes) |
19.6% (298 votes) |
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3 |
Brave |
Spastic |
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|
14% (53 votes) |
19.2% (292 votes) |
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4 |
Special |
Mong |
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13.5% (51 votes) |
15.7% (240 votes) |
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5 |
Cripple |
Special |
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10.8% (41 votes) |
8.8% (135 votes) |
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6 |
Handicapped |
Brave |
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7.9% (30 votes) |
6.2% (95 votes) |
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7 |
Wheelchair-bound |
Cripple |
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6.3% (24 votes) |
4.3% (65 votes) |
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8 |
Mong |
Psycho |
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|
5.8% (22 votes) |
2% (31 votes) |
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9 |
Psycho |
Handicapped |
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5.5% (21 votes) |
1.1% (17 votes) |
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10 |
Window-licker |
Wheelchair-bound |
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5.3% (20 votes) |
0.9% (14 votes) |
Here is a selection of the voters' comments in the order that reflect the views of the disabled voters.
1. SPASTIC
"Because it's the sort of word that people of very little intelligence and even less vocabulary shout out of cars as they speed past. Oscar Wilde's got nothing on them."
(Disabled)
"Spastic seems a far more derogatory term to use to people with cerebral palsy , as it seems to imply brain impairment which is not necessarily true." (Disabled)
"If I could choose two words, it would be 'spastic' very closely followed by 'handicapped'. In an ideal world I would be referred to as paraplegic." (Disabled)
"It was the worst insult in school. The word itself sounds horrible. It seems to encompass everything derogatory that a non-disabled person might think about a disabled person. But for some reason,
I don't imagine that a disabled person would think it was the worst term in the list." (Non-disabled)
"It's a word that's been used out of context for so long it's become extremely offensive. Well-used in my local area with intent to offend." (Non-disabled)
2. RETARD
"I had an emotional reaction to all the words mentioned and found it really hard to choose just one. I chose Retard as I have heard it used so often as a description of everyone who is disabled or different. It makes me shudder. Words do hurt - they can annihilate your self-confidence and self-image, and they generally show the way the wider community feels by their acceptance. If I don't want to be called something, then that should be respected. Why are people so threatened by being asked to change their language?" (Disabled)
3. BRAVE
"I get called this regularly. I'm not brave, I'm just me!" (Disabled)
"I chose 'brave' because I can reclaim all the others ... reclaiming brave is tricky." (Disabled)
"I have always failed to understand how one can be brave for existing - living, etc. My husband once had a fellow tell him how 'proud' he was of him because he went up steps on his butt. I told him
I was a bit more impressed by the fact he was a freaking astro-physisist." (Non-disabled)
"My son is disabled and I hate it when teachers send home certificates saying he is 'brave'. No one else gets them." (Non-disabled)
"Brave implies someone had a choice." (Non-disabled)
"For God's sake! I'm deaf, not brave! It's not like O defied death every time I sat an exam or wrote an essay. Go ahead and call me stupid or spastic, because at least then it's a clear insult and
you can shout an answer back - or just thump them." (Disabled)
"All the other words are bad but 'brave' is worst, because not only does the user presume what it is like to be the other person - i.e. it's very bad, but the people in that condition must be very
brave to cope - but they are also saying they wouldn't want to be in that condition. It's insulting without meaning to be." (Non-disabled)
"Brave reinforces the idea that every day is hellish for all disabled people, though so many people lead full lives regardless. It's what you say if you want to sound unbiased and
caring in company." (Disabled)
"Brave? It's just annoyingly sentimental in an Esther Rantzen/Hearts of Gold way. Very patronising. Strange that I should find a compliment more irritating than a taunt?!"
(Non-disabled)
"The words that are supposed to be insulting actually sound cool and somewhat tough. 'Brave' implies that disability must be such a horrific experience that a person needs courage to ... I don't
know ... order french fries." (Disabled)
4. SPECIAL
"Every special service I ever came across was worse than the normal one. Except Special Brew, which is ok ... hic!" (Disabled)
"Being called 'special' is so patronising. It was difficult to pick one word from the list, but I hate being patronised." (Disabled)
"This is so patronising. Much worse than 'spastic' or 'cripple' or whatever. It's such a safe word, just a way of making those without disabilities feel like they are treating us as extra special
instead of just like them. It's too clean, too unreal. I'm not special because I have a disability; I'm special because I'm bloody talented and extremely cute!" (Disabled)
"Special access arrangements = entrance through the kitchens/basement. Very inconvenient. Special educational needs = child who can't access existing education system because the education system
is under funded or unwilling to make reasonable adjustments. Special means not special. Special means second class. At least an insult is an insult, but people who use 'special' do so thinking that
they are being kind or empowering, when they are really just covering up a multitude of inequalities with it. I'd rather be a window-licker than special any day." (Disabled)
"I am sick to death of being told how 'special' and 'inspiring' I am, when all I want is to have a life for myself and not be part of a movement or alliance or network." (Rather not
say)
"It gives a false sense, lower expectations, and the bigotted baggage that comes with it. I wouldn't be special if things around me were sorted out." (Disabled)
"It is like saying I've got special needs ... my only 'special need' is chocolate, on the hour every hour!! I am a wheelchair user. That's it!" (Disabled)
5. CRIPPLE
"I hate the word cripple; it makes me feel dirty somehow. It's too hard to explain. Myself, my husband and my friends call me 'spaz'. I instigated this name as it was my way of 'coping' after my
accident. Probably silly, but the name makes me feel normal." (Disabled)
"It's not as bad as 'invalid', but in this day and age using it means you're trying to piss somebody off." (Disabled)
"Cripple conjures up an image of Dickens' Tiny Tim." (Disabled)
"Hmmm ... a hard choice. 'Special' and 'brave' are right up there and probably more common than 'cripple', but there is something about the image it gives of an ugly, useless body that really gets
to me." (Disabled)
"I voted for 'cripple' as being the closest to 'crip', which I'd regard as completely beyond the pale. To be perfectly honest, I didn't understand some of the choices: 'window-licker' doesn't make
any sense to me, while 'wheelchair-bound' seems rather to be a statement of fact than an insult." (Non-disabled)
"It implies the person isn't capable of anything at all." (Non-disabled)
6. HANDICAPPED
"I run my own card-making business because no one wants to employ me!! I raise my 11-year-old daughter just fine. I do more than most other mums. Why would I be considered handicapped? Many of my
'able-bodied' friends do less than me. Maybe they have a 'handicap' too?" (Disabled)
"In America this is used a lot - i.e. handicapped parking or toilet, for instance - and I hate it! All of us have some kind of a handicap whether able-bodied or disabled. I do not consider myself
to be brave either, which is another common word used particularly by the press in this country." (Disabled)
"You don't have to be disabled to have some handicap. I am also handicapped because I do not know French or Italian, and so I cannot enjoy listening to a lot of operas in their original language."
(Non-disabled)
"I work with adults with disabilities in a training environment. I have to deal with the underlying prejudice that some of the trainees face, and terms such as 'handicapped' do not help. It's not a
positive term and it's quite insulting. It grinds on me more when the families use that term to describe their loved one." (Non-disabled)
"I would put 'handicapped' in the same category as 'coloured', in the sense that it tends to be used by people who think they're being 'sensitive' but are actually far wide of the mark. Generally
those that use the other words (with the exception of 'wheelchair-bound', which I find equally offensive) know they're being offensive, which is at least half the battle!"
(Non-disabled)
"Handicapped comes from 'cap in hand', as disabled people had to beg in the old days for money to enable them to live. Using the word nowadays implies that disabled people are freeloaders and do
not contribute to society. This is not true. I have been disabled since birth and have worked continually since leaving school, with only a couple of days off sick. I am now 45."
(Disabled)
7. WHEELCHAIR-BOUND
"This is the worst tabloid-speak phrase. Are pedestrians classed as shoe-bound? Are lorry drivers HGV-bound?" (Disabled)
"Wheelchair-bound is used in the press all the time - usually when a wheelchair user has been swindled in their own home by a phoney gas man. The gutter press don't do compassion well."
(Non-disabled)
"My wheelchair does not 'bind me'; it frees me." (Disabled)
"I'm not bound by my wheelchair. The only time when I'm bound is when the wheelchair is taken away! It implies not being competent or being in some way limited by the fact that I have a wheelchair,
which really isn't the case!" (Disabled)
"I 'use' a wheelchair. I am not 'bound' by it. I see no ropes or strings tying me to it!" (Disabled)
"As far as I know there is nowhere called Wheelchair - so how can you be wheelchair-bound?" (Disabled)
"Wheelchair-bound is beaten only by 'confined' ... (to a wheelchair). It sums up people's fears that disability is indeed a confinement, and this in itself gets in the way of acceptance."
(Disabled)
"I'm only bound to my wheelchair when I ask to be tied up on a Saturday night, so long as my partner has the feather duster handy!" (Disabled)
8. MONG
"Because it is based on a Victorian eugenicist's view that people with Down's Syndrome were racial 'throw-backs' - not quite human at all." (Disabled)
"Sometimes this word makes me feel uncomfortable, because the times I heard it used in the past it was with vitriol and when I was younger I used to hear people say it quite a bit ..."
(Non-disabled)
"This word, along with 'spaz', is commonly used as an insult by non-disabled people to other non-disabled people. It's been in use since I was a child (I'm now 41). It deeply offends me."
(Non-disabled)
"I believe (I hope I'm right) that most people using the word 'mong' fail to make the connection with Down's Syndrome that is obvious to the majority of people over 30 years old. Trouble is, people
who hear it do understand it and find it hugely offensive. Is it OK to inadvertently offend people though? I don't think so!" (Non-disabled)
9. PSYCHO
"Psycho says that we are dangerous, unpredictable and liable to knife you in your bed ... It's not just an insult, it's used to incite fear as well as loathing." (Disabled)
"I think mental health is the most poorly understood disability. 'Psycho' reinforces the inaccurate link to violence." (Non-disabled)
"The press and society demonise mental health service users/survivors hugely. The use of this word perpetuates the myth that they/we are dangerous and to be feared by society. Of all the words you
have listed, this is the only one that is often (mis)used to imply danger and that a person so labelled should be feared - which we all (should) know is not an appropriate assumption to make about
this group of people." (Disabled)
"It seems that mental health prejudice is still acceptable, and I would love to see the use of words like 'psycho', 'nutter' and 'maniac' as unacceptable as 'spastic'." (Disabled)
10. WINDOW-LICKER
"My boyfriend uses this phrase - it seems to be the 'new thing' to say where he works! It really offends me and I have to keep moaning at him. I have a lot of disabled friends, and this phrase just implies that all disabled people are put into 'special buses' to be taken to places - and that all disabled people are only capable of 'window-licking' because they do not have the mental capacity to act any differently. Arrrgghh! It makes me so angry ..." (Non-disabled)
"Window-licker? That has to be the first time I have heard that!" (Non-disabled)
"Found them all appalling - the patronising aspects of brave, special and wheelchair-bound struck me, but my vote had more personal resonance." (Non-disabled)
"This is a term that has been created - not a previously accepted word or abbreviation. This is a direct and intentional insult." (Non-disabled)
"I just love the window-licker one! I'll be using that with a couple of disabled friends next week. Thanks for a great insult. Hopefully it'll make them cry - fingers crossed!"
(Disabled)
"This one was born out of ridicule and insult - the others were developed out of medical terms or misplaced pity." (Non-disabled)
Reaction
The researchers asked a few famous disability names to tell us what they thought of the result:
Peter White, BBC Disability Affairs Correspondent - "It's interesting the extent to which some of the big differences are shown in the words lower down the vote - the fact that 'Window-licker', which was third in the poll, was actually the least offensive amongst disabled people. Looking at the results, it seems that disabled people are more forgiving if there's an element of humour to the word - whereas non-disabled people aren't. I'm always very sceptical when I get letters from people who aren't disabled telling me that they've been offended by a particular word - because where does the offence come from if they haven't been told what to be offended by? It must be a learned response."
Sir Bert Massie, Commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission - "I've been called a few words in my time, some of them on the list. Sometimes they come from ignorance, other times they're prompted by pure prejudice. Sometimes they hurt, sometimes they make me laugh. Words can help the way we view the human race. Maybe there should be a poll on the best way we should describe ourselves as disabled people. But whatever words we as disabled people choose to use, we need to be careful that we don't use words or phrases so neutral that we hide the reality of living in a disabling society. Our words must convey a strong message."
Julie Fernandez, disabled actress - "When I think of 'retard', I think of Blazing Saddles! Some words I find offensive, others I use myself in an ironic way amongst friends; I feel I can because I am disabled. We just don't need to be using the word 'cripple' any more, like we don't use words like 'negro' or 'kaffer' against Black people - these words are only ever used in an offensive way. When I do interviews with the press I do so with the proviso that they do not use words like 'brave' or 'heroic' because they undermine me and I'm simply not either of those things. I'm just getting on and trying to work."
Mat Fraser, disabled actor - "The differences in reactions between disabled and non-disabled are less than I would have thought, and it's good to see that non-disabled people are
taking on board how offensive the words 'special' and 'brave' are, as well as the others ... we must be becoming more aware as a society generally. But I did find it interesting that non-disabled
people find 'retard' the most offensive, as it's not really much used as a word in this country. For the record, my top three would be 'spastic', 'mong' and 'brave'."
Dr Tom Shakespeare - "When I was growing up, my mum used to say that 'sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you'. Well, I think she was wrong. However
confident we are as disabled people, when other people insult us or patronise us it can hurt like hell. 'spastic' and 'retard' are obvious insults, no debate about it. But I'm glad to see that
non-disabled people are beginning to understand why less offensive words such as 'special', 'brave' and 'wheelchair-bound' are so irritating to many disabled people. Personally, I don't get called
many of the words on this list, but every day I get called 'midget', 'shortarse', 'Mekon', and lots of similar terms. I think we should have disability equality classes as part of the National
Curriculum."
