4:27pm May 31, 2014

Since I saw someone posting from the FWD ableist word profiles on here…

se-smith:

youneedacat:

A reminder of some things that FWD always wrote about the ableist word profiles, that practically nobody on tumblr writes or thinks when it comes to discussions of whether a word is ableist:

Ableist Word Profile is an ongoing FWD/Forward series in which we explore ableism and the way it manifests in language usage.

Here’s what this series is about: Examining word origins, the way in which ableism is unconsciously reinforced, the power that language has.

Here’s what this series is not about: Telling people which words they can use to define their own experiences, rejecting reclamatory word usage, telling people which words they can and cannot use.

You don’t necessarily have to agree that a particular profiled word or phrase is ableist; we ask you to think about the way in which the language that we use is influenced, both historically and currently, by ableist thought.

Please note that this post contains ableist language used for the purpose of discussion and criticism; you can get an idea from the title of the kind of ableist language which is going to be included in the discussion, and if that type of language is upsetting or triggering for you, you may want to skip this post

That’s all a direct quote from the FWD website.

This is the difference between the FWD Ableist Word Profiles, and ableist language as discussed on tumblr most of the time. FWD talked about words that may be ableist, or may merely have an ableist history, or a history connected to disability in some way that could make some usages of the words ableist. But they never told people not to use those words. They never told people when and how and whether to use those words. They explicitly left it up to individual people to work out how they felt about those words, and then work out whether or not they felt like they needed to cut those words out of their vocabulary.

This, by the way, left the discussions accessible to people like me who have language impairments, in a way that most tumblr discussions of “ableist language” are not accessible to people like me.

I also wanted to bring this to your attention because a lot of the ideas people have about which words are ableist and should be (they think) avoided at all costs, come directly from which words were profiled by FWD in their Ableist Word Profiles. Except that FWD never demanded that everyone stop using those words. And FWD never insisted that everyone consider those words ableist. They were trying to open a discussion of these words, not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that nobody should ever use these words.

So if you ever see someone pointing back to FWD to prove which words are ableist and which aren’t, then remember to quote the above part of FWD’s website at them, because FWD was very serious about not insisting on what language other people should or shouldn’t use.

This, this, this, THIS. As one of the cofounders of FWD, I endorse this message — not least because I was one of the people involved in crafting this language for the head of the posts in this series, and it’s been INFURIATING for me to see my work, and that of my colleagues, used to berate, abuse, and play ‘gotcha.’ This series was not designed to be prescriptivist, but rather the start of a conversation about how institutional oppressions can be built into language — and how language can shape the way we think.

FWD was about so much more than this series of posts, and yet, tragically, this is what we are remembered for. If you’re truly concerned about disability, ableism, and oppression, I invite you to peruse FWD’s archives, which contain a wealth of amazing writing on the subject.

Thank.

As one of the cofounders of FWD, I also endorse this. Language prescriptivism is not and was not ever a goal of this series. Like s.e. says above, it was meant as a conversation starter, a way to examine how Words Mean Things, and that those meanings have institutional history. There is a reason the language we use today is shaped the way that it is, and often times those reasons are rooted in problematic thinking by a privileged and elite group of gatekeepers.

Thank you.