When President Obama signs Rosa’s Law, it is going to change some of the language and cultural issues about using the words, “retarded” and “mental retardation.”
Marc’s definition created a major shift from individuals who have deficits, to the professionals having the deficits. This completely turned special education on its head. Now we had to look at what teaching strategies would be respectful and work.
When I typed “retarded” in the Google Search box (22,700,000 results) I was distressed to find most of the search results were for sites that made fun of people with the label of mental retardation. There were a couple sites which gave “definitions.” For instance, Wikipedia was ranked first and (click here) gave some traditional definitions.
But take a deep breath, grab some Tums and if you have the stomach, check out the definitions from the Urban Dictionary and Encyclopedia Dramatica.
term=retarded
retarded 2 sounds stupid dumb gay retard idiot lame annoying slow crazy dumbass moron idiotic tard ugly funny shit loser drunk fag ignorant ridiculous fat asshole fuck mental smart cool silly awesome bitch special fucktard ass crap emo moronic fool fucked up homo weird insane sex fail high boring bad fucking shitty douche homosexual.
1. retarded: 2072 up, 651 down (in the vote of readers, 2072 people thought this was a thumbs up definition)
An “unofficial” (not recognized by dictionaries) slang descriptor for a person/thing/action/object, etc., or a combination of, which is one or more of the following:
a waste of time, abandoned, abject, abominable, abortive, absurd, afraid, aimless, anxious, apprehenaive, arid, arrested, assailable, atomic, awful, baby, babyish, backward, bad, banal, barmy, barren, base, baseless, bastard, beastly, beggarly, behind, beside the question, blah, bland, bogus, bomb, bootless, boyish, brainless, bromidic, bummer, caitiffcapricious, careless, catchpenny, characterless, cheap, checked, cheesy, childish, childlike, clichéd, cloying, coarse, colorless, common, commonplace, confusing, contemptible, cotemptible, controvertible, conventional, cool, corn, cornball, corny, corrupt, counterproductive, cowering, cracked, crap, crappy, craven, crazy, crud, cruddy, daffy, daft, dastardly, dazed, dead, deadpan, deficient, degraded, degrading, dejected, delayed, delusive, dense, dense, deplorable, depraved, despicable, destitute, detestable, devoid, diffident, dim, diminutive, dippy, directionless, dirty, disgraceful, dishonest, dishonorable, dismayed, disposable, disreputable, dizzy, dodo, doltish, dopy, dotterel, down, downtrodden, drab, drifting, drudging, dull, dumb, empty, empty-headed, erratic, evanescent, everyday, evildoer, excessive, exhausted, expendable, expressionless, facetious, failed, failing, faint-hearted, fallacious, false, fanciful, fatuous, fawning, featherbrained, feeble, feebleminded, fickle, flaky, flashy, flat, flighty, flimsy, flip, flippant, fool, fool around, foolish, for grins, forlorn, fortuitous, foul, freaked out, freaky, frightened, frivolous, frothy, fruitless, futile, gagged up, garbage, garish, gay, giddy, girlish, glitzy, goalless, good-for-nothing, goofy, green, gross, groundless, groveling, grungy, gullible, gutless, hackneyed, half-baked, half-witted, hang dog, harebrained, heedless, ho hum, hokey, hokum, hollow, hopeless, humble, humbling, humdrum, humiliating, idiotic, idle, ignoble, ignominious, ignorant, ill-advised, ill-considered, illogical, imbecile, immaterial, immature, immobile, immoral, impassive, implausible, impracticable, impractical, improbable, inadequate, inane, inapplicable, inappreciable, incidental, inconceivable, incongruous, inconsequential, inconsiderable, incredible, indelicate, indiscreet, indiscriminate, ineffective, ineffectual, inept, inessential, inexpressive, infamous, infantile, inferior, inglorious, inscrutable, insensate, insignificant, insincere, insipid, insufficient, interminable, inutile, irksome, irrational nonsensical, irrelevant, irresolute, irresponsible, jejune, jittery, joking, joshing, junky, juvenile, kid stuff, kooky, lacking courage, lame, late, laughable, lemon, lifeless, light, light-minded, lily-livered, little, loathsome, loony, loser, lousy, low, low-born, lowly, lowly, low-ranking, ludicrous, mangy, meager, mean, meaningless, measly, mediocre, menial, mentally incompetent, meretricious, microscopic, mindless, minor, minute, indecisive, miscarried, miscreant, miserable, modest, momentary, monkey, monotonous, moronic, moth-eaten, naive, needless, negligible, nervous, niggling, nihil ad rem, no bargain, no dice, no good, no guts, no place, no-account, nonessential, nonsensical, not at issue, not serious, not to the purpose, nothing, nowhere, nugatory, hopeless, nuts, nutty, objectless, obscure, obtuse, odd, off offensive, old hat, old-fashioned, ordinary, otiose, outcast, paltry, panicky, pathetic, pedestrian, peripheral, petty, piddling, pitiable, pitiful, platitudinous, playful, plebeian, pointless, poker-faced, poor, potty, pre-kindergarten, preposterous, primitive, profitless, proletarian, prosaic, puerile, puny, purposeless, pusillanimous, random, rash, ratty, raunchy, recreant, removable, repetitious, result less, retiring, rinky-dink, rotten, rough, routine, rubbishy, run scared, sappy, scandalous, scanty, scared, scatterbrained, screwy, scrubby, scurvy, second-rate, seemly, senseless, sentimental, servile, severe, shabby, shallow, shameful, shiftless, shoddy, shopworn, shrinking, shtick, shy, silly, simple, simple-minded, skin-deep, sleazy, slight, slimy, slow, sluggish, small, small time, soft, sordid, sorry, sorry lot, spineless, sportive, squalid, square, stale, stale, stark, stereotyped, sterile, stiff, stock, stodgy, stolid, stray, stuffy, stupefied, stupid, submissive, subnormal, superficial, superfluous, tame, tatty, tawdry, tedious, terrible, the subject, the willies, thick, thickheaded, thin, thoughtless, threadbare, timid, timorous, tired, tiresome, tiring, tomfool, tongue-in-cheek, transparent, trashy, trifling, tripe, trite, trivial, trumpery, ugly, unassuming, unavailing, unbelievable, uncommunicative, unconvincing, uncouth, underdeveloped, underfoot, underprivileged, undevelopedundirected, undistinguished, unessential, unexciting, unexpressive, unfit, ungrounded, unguided, unimaginative, unimportant, unintelligent, unmanly, unnecessary, unneeded, unoriginal, unpersuasive, unplanned, unpredictable, unpretentious, unproductive, unprofitable, unreal, unreasonable, unrefined, unrelated, unsatisfactory, unsophisticated, noncommital, unsubstantial, unsuccessful, unthinking, unusable, unvaried, unworthy, uselessvacant, vacuous, vagrant, vaguevain, valueless, vanishing, vapid, vile, plebeian, volatile, vulgar, wackywandering, wanton, waste, watery, wayward, weak, wearisome, well-worn, whimsical, white elephant, wide of the mark, wide of the point, wishful, wishy-washy, witless, worthless, wretched, or yucky.
There are literally a thousand different uses for the slang version of “retarded” – (Quick note:) Usage-wise, it came before and set the precedence of the way we use “gay” in slang today – used correctly, they’re practically interchangable.
“That test was really gay!”
“Oh yeah, our chemistry teacher is being retarded.”
“Mary, stop being retarded! You’re so gay, grow up!”
“I thought it was a simple babysitting job, but I was wrong. Besides all the other stuff, I had to clean up after the retard, which was pretty retarded. To top it off, he set the carpet on fire, which I had to put out with the flame-retardent extinguisher. And after all of that, the parents only paid me $15. Babysitting is gay.”
There were 12 other definitions between these two. Here is number 14 which was different.
14. retarded: 174 up, 191 down (so the majority of voters don’t like the definition given in #14)
The most hateful and hurtful word in the English language.
Originally meaning having an intellectual disability, also known as mental retardation. For some reason people started using it to mean stupid or dumb. Mentally retarded people are anything but dumb. People with disabilities are for sure the most discriminated group of people. How many of you are against racism or sexism? But do you even think twice before you call someone “retarded”?
“Thats soooo retarded”.
Honestly? You have no idea.”
Another interesting thing about Urban Dictionary (hey I’m trying to show restraint here) is that each of the 45 definitions had an ad at the beginning: “Buy retarded mugs, tshirts and magnets.”
Summary: If you want to go to either of these sites and raise hell–go for it. When I was young I might have taken them on. Now that I’m 60, I try to choose battles I can win.
There are many definitions of “retarded” on Google. Marc Gold isn’t here to redefine it again but he would tell us to “Try Another Way.” I choose to believe these people really don’t know any better. Tomorrow I will show you a letter I wrote to a major blogger who is read by 1000s every day. He changed. He said he would no longer use the word “retarded” and in the last year he has kept his word. I’ve been checking.
That was a small victory I can live with. That is an advocacy success story that helps me sleep nights. That gives me hope the same way Rosa’s Law gives me hope.
Comment below if you would. It is safe to rant here. And, toast me and Aaron in your virtual drink.
