More exact parallels would be to say something like "Wow, I'm totally blind without my glasses" (if you're not, you know, legally blind without them), in the company of an actual blind person, or "Man, I'm so sore I can't walk" (when actually able to walk, just painfully, in a way that's going to get better, bonus points for walking while saying this), around a person in a wheelchair.
The slang "heavy" like "Man, that is some heavy stuff" referring to something serious/intellectual, from the 60s or whenever -- that does not generally rile me, as a box can be heavy; it's not, as leora mentioned downthread, derived from abusive roots.
"Phat" bothers me in my prescriptivist grammarian viewpoint. JUST WHAT.
I'm not really aware of how "fat" is used as a slang form, except as, like, a fat wallet, a fat pipe. Those are both positive references.
I'm not bothered so long as it's played straight, mind. There is a certain kind of jerk who should have had it beat out of them in elementary school who will use supposedly unexceptional terms with double meanings along with sly looks and pointed emphasis when they say them, and use that to be insulting while also being able to claim they were talking about something else entirely.
I think the root of the problem really is that there's a lot of offensively ablist/etc. language that's part of common speech, but it passes a lot of the time with people who aren't in any of the groups being insulted. If it wasn't part of common speech, there'd be no need to go out of the way avoid it with parties who are affected.
Lettuce and potatoes are not demeaning to people. People who are allergic to them might be inconvenienced and have the special food allergy hell, but there are not specific words/phrases that mean "oh that poor bastard's allergic to potatoes", and they're not used out of context to demean or say something negative about something else.
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Date: 2009-09-26 09:12 am (UTC)The slang "heavy" like "Man, that is some heavy stuff" referring to something serious/intellectual, from the 60s or whenever -- that does not generally rile me, as a box can be heavy; it's not, as
"Phat" bothers me in my prescriptivist grammarian viewpoint. JUST WHAT.
I'm not really aware of how "fat" is used as a slang form, except as, like, a fat wallet, a fat pipe. Those are both positive references.
I'm not bothered so long as it's played straight, mind. There is a certain kind of jerk who should have had it beat out of them in elementary school who will use supposedly unexceptional terms with double meanings along with sly looks and pointed emphasis when they say them, and use that to be insulting while also being able to claim they were talking about something else entirely.
I think the root of the problem really is that there's a lot of offensively ablist/etc. language that's part of common speech, but it passes a lot of the time with people who aren't in any of the groups being insulted. If it wasn't part of common speech, there'd be no need to go out of the way avoid it with parties who are affected.
Lettuce and potatoes are not demeaning to people. People who are allergic to them might be inconvenienced and have the special food allergy hell, but there are not specific words/phrases that mean "oh that poor bastard's allergic to potatoes", and they're not used out of context to demean or say something negative about something else.