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Is "mental" offensive?

flocker spotter

By flocker spotter
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Blah Blah

Posted
Posted
Depends on the use. Mental illness is something tangeable and cleary defined. Use of he word 'mental' as a adjective for being out of control, is a common form of slang. To be offensive, it has to be an inappropriate use that directly compares to a person or group in a derogatory way. You could just as easily use 'deranged' instead of 'mental' in this context. That would be a more correct description of what the user is trying to describe. I think there are other words that people use (around the lanugage of mental illness) when people are trying to be deliberately offensive though.
JohnL

JohnL

Posted
Posted

So there's a pathology and a pejorative term for these words - should we stop using the pejorative ?


cretin (plural cretins)

(pathology) A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism. [from 1779]

(by extension, pejorative) An idiot.


Rees Mogg called Theresa Mays custom plan Cretinous - but I assume he didn't mean it failed to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism.

robbin

robbin

Posted
Posted

flocker spotter Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5

> ,1931142

>

> Mental

>

> is this just off the cuff throwaway term based on

> generations of hand me down tropes or worse?


Slow news day?


Nothing any good on daytime tv and Sky Plus is busted?

malumbu

malumbu

Posted
Posted

I use crazy, mental, mad, and no doubt other terms that others may object to in common parlance. They have long since become harmless in my opinion. I have others words if I want to be offensive. There are words that we threw around in my school days that I wouldn't ever resort to nowadays. I once chatted to a couple of teenagers in a school group who said that someone looked like a mong. They didn't know what it meant so worth telling them that if a teacher overheard they would get grief. It was on a ski lift, I wasn't hanging around outside school.


I work with people with mental illness, my mother suffered from it, so I have a fair idea of right and wrong. Of course language evolves and I shudder that we used to use the word 'gay' as a term for say an idea or act that was a bit 'lame'. Was not intended to be homophobic. Yabadabado, gay would be a good word to reclaim as a happy or nice time.

SpringTime

SpringTime

Posted
Posted

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The term 'brainstorm' was used widely before the

> year 2000 and then teachers in my school were told

> not to use it as it offends people with mental

> health problems...so we stopped using it.



That's mental.


As someone who probably shouldn't be considered 100% the full ticket I use the M word every day and in a variety of contexts, and I think it's very rarely offensive. Only if used against those who are vulnerable to the negative effects of mental illness (of which I understand little - perhaps that's important) or intimately associated with them by their family, social, treatment, work or other institutional networks should it be considered offensive.


I do like using the word "gay" in reference to lame acts, which isn't very PC but I don't really care. Perhaps that's because I'm not a big fan of homosexuality. The loose use of the word "lame" which I just repeated is probably more offensive to me when I think about it!

rendelharris

rendelharris

Posted
Posted

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The term 'brainstorm' was used widely before the

> year 2000 and then teachers in my school were told

> not to use it as it offends people with mental

> health problems...so we stopped using it.


And yet I taught to 2005 and am married to a current teacher and have many friends who are still teachers and not one has ever been told not to use that term - sounds like one of those typical urban myth "Oh do you know in the 80s you weren't allowed to ask for a black coffee in County Hall" nonsenses.


ETA and if you ask am I calling you a liar, then yes.

rendelharris

rendelharris

Posted
Posted

SpringTime Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps that's because I'm not a big fan of

> homosexuality.


I'm struggling to think why it's necessary for you to be a "fan" of homosexuality or otherwise? Presumably you mean you don't like homosexuals, which makes you rather a [redacted].

uncleglen

uncleglen

Posted
Posted

rendelharris Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> uncleglen Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > The term 'brainstorm' was used widely before

> the

> > year 2000 and then teachers in my school were

> told

> > not to use it as it offends people with mental

> > health problems...so we stopped using it.

>

> And yet I taught to 2005 and am married to a

> current teacher and have many friends who are

> still teachers and not one has ever been told not

> to use that term - sounds like one of those

> typical urban myth "Oh do you know in the 80s you

> weren't allowed to ask for a black coffee in

> County Hall" nonsenses.

>

> ETA and if you ask am I calling you a liar, then

> yes.


OMG https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/jun/26/uk.politicalnews ....and its from your fave libtard rag rh!!!

malumbu

malumbu

Posted
Posted

Hope I can bring some light relief. In the 80s I was studying in Glasgow and looking for some house mates. In my earlier school days we'd use the term 'straight' for someone a bit dull/conformist. In my youth you could be a punk or a straight. The term also meant something else, and certainly so in Scotland.


So when I put a note up in the accommodation office of one of the less prestigious universities I was the butt (ho ho) of the jokes among my fellow students. But bless the students of the day (mainly local Glaswegians) as the responses that I got on my ad (those interested wrote their contact details) were full of good humour, and not offended or offensive.


Now that has got me started. In 6th form we had a parents' evening where were showing some of our special projects. I was doing one on divining where we placed bits of metal, water and stuff under lifted turf. I knew the word for a piece of turf was 'sod' which of course could also be used as an insult or a sexual practice. So I am thinking in a Peter Griffin sort of way "don't say sods, don't say sods"), and in my confusion I spoke about lifting the turds of grass.

JohnL

JohnL

Posted
Posted

SpringTime Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> uncleglen Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > The term 'brainstorm' was used widely before

> the

> > year 2000 and then teachers in my school were

> told

> > not to use it as it offends people with mental

> > health problems...so we stopped using it.

>

>

> That's mental.

>

> As someone who probably shouldn't be considered

> 100% the full ticket I use the M word every day

> and in a variety of contexts, and I think it's

> very rarely offensive. Only if used against those

> who are vulnerable to the negative effects of

> mental illness (of which I understand little -

> perhaps that's important) or intimately associated

> with them by their family, social, treatment, work

> or other institutional networks should it be

> considered offensive.

>

> I do like using the word "gay" in reference to

> lame acts, which isn't very PC but I don't really

> care. Perhaps that's because I'm not a big fan of

> homosexuality. The loose use of the word "lame"

> which I just repeated is probably more offensive

> to me when I think about it!


South London is the most gay friendly place around but each to his own :)

Blah Blah

Blah Blah

Posted
Posted

What if SpringTime had written he or she liked to use the word (insert any word used to describe black people which is derogatory in its use), but that he or she didn't care because he or she was not a big fan of black people?


It's one thing to use language without an awareness of how it it might be offensive to do so. It is another to use it irregardless of a full awareness of that.


So no, not each to his own. SpringTime clearly thinks it is ok to to see gay people as inferior or 'lame' and then draw comparisons when describing what he thinks is a 'lame' act (that is where the use of gay in that context stems from). There are words used to describe people with mental and physical disabilities in the past that have also been used in this way. No-one would let that pass now. So let's not excuse use of any language in any context that deliberately shows disregard for a group of people.

uncleglen

uncleglen

Posted
Posted

rendelharris Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Exactly, one silly instance immediately dismissed

> and people like you, a walking Daily Mail, start

> saying "oh yes it happened to me." Didn't.


Google 'brainstorm insensitive' and you will find umpteen examples- I picked the one I linked because it was from that odious of rags that you love so much....we WERE instructed not to use the word- I don't care what you say or think rh (feeling of deja vu now) and i'm sure there is an adjective that describes YOUR kind - I've probably used it myself

rendelharris

rendelharris

Posted
Posted

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> rendelharris Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Exactly, one silly instance immediately

> dismissed

> > and people like you, a walking Daily Mail,

> start

> > saying "oh yes it happened to me." Didn't.

>

> Google 'brainstorm insensitive' and you will find

> umpteen examples- I picked the one I linked

> because it was from that odious of rags that you

> love so much....we WERE instructed not to use the

> word- I don't care what you say or think rh

> (feeling of deja vu now) and i'm sure there is an

> adjective that describes YOUR kind - I've probably

> used it myself


If you Google "brainstorm insensitive" it comes up with four results relating to whether or not it's wrong to use the term. Four. Is that umpteen? I know you tell an awful lot of lies in your frothing rants ("I met this east European immigrant in the pub and he told me...") but it's foolish to tell lies that are so easily checked and dismissed.

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