Tiger Woods is being pilloried in the British press for saying that, but I don't think American media have paid any attention to it.
The BBC uses the occasion to take a vote on the worst words referring to disability, some of which I've never seen before. I guess there's a real danger with slang when an American goes to Britain. Some casual slang is heard as very offensive. Is this a one way thing? I don't know of anything the British say that upsets the hell out of us.
UPDATE: Apology and recognition that "spaz" isn't considered offensive in the United States.
April 12, 2006
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33 comments:
Brendan - My all-time favorite episode of Conan O'Brien was when he had Mr. T as a guest, and they did the skit "In the Year 2000." Money quote (by Conan): 'In the year 2000, British cigarettes will march on Parliament . . . demanding to be re-named "butt pirates."'
From what I can tell, "cunt" isn't considered nearly the epithet there as it is in the US.
Bloody hell. Tell them to bugger off. And, in solidarity, you should "disable" the comments.
We just laugh when they say "fags" for "cigarettes," don't we?
They need to leave our Tiger alone. Losers!
That article is dripping with self importance. "Is the fact that a nation has lost sight of the origins of the word a good or bad thing? Is it harmful or is it genuinely meaningless now?" Yeah, I know you English think you own the language, but language changes, you know? People here have already pointed out a few words that mean different things in the two different countries. So the hell what? They're mad because a guy who grew up in California doesn't speak like a Brit? < This is me rolling my eyes>
Moving on to more important topics, Tiger was a spaz on the green. If he'd putted even competently, he'd have won or at least given Phil a serious run. Weird, because his putting is normally lights out.
Window-licker? Mong? What the heck?
If I heard someone say 'mong', I'd just assume they had mispronounced hmong and I'd be puzzled. Spaz as an insult? News to me.
According to this list, "spastic" is the 15th most offensive word in Brit English. This has put parts of Little Britain in a whole new light for me.
Cunt is No. 1 there, BTW.
Towleybomb: Interesting! Wanker was said, unbleeped, on "The Apprentice" this week. And "slag"? Worse than "shit"? How funny.
Whoops, the list is now here.
Also, 'pants' refers to 'underpants' in both UK English and Japanese. The Japanese giggle harder when you say that.
So "Jew" is the 23rd most offensive word in Britain...
My partner grew up a few miles from the Louisiana Spastic School. This was identified by a big roadside sign.
A few blocks from our house, the hospice used to be called The New Orleans Home for the Incurable, also prominently signed.
We used to be so much more blunt.
'Cunt' is definitely one example as tiggeril said, but depends on the context.
Also 'Jap' is considered offensive only in the US. It's the equivalent of 'Aussie' everywhere else.
I don't think 'spaz' is that offensive in the UK unless you are ultra-PC.
IME the ratio of American words and expressions that have embarassing meanings in British English is far higher than the reverse.
I was surprised that wanker is really offensive, it just sounds silly (kind of childish) to me, but can and does provoke real anger and offense in the UK.
Then there are of course those delicious faggots (a kind of meatball). One of the most hilarious sites in all of the internets was the apparently serious one for Mr Brain's Faggots (which seems to have fallen down some spider hole), which used to feature the Mr Brains Faggot Family (real name Doody, they beat off stiff competition for the title). At one point, they even talk aobut the different ways they like to eat faggots.
There's also spotted dick, some kind of desert.
I bet a nice dish of faggots followed by some spotted dick would taste almost as good as it sounds.
Personally I thought of Elastik Band's song Spazz (I prefer the double-Z spelling of the word) when hearing about the article.
Couldn't find the lyrics posted anywhere, so I was inspired to transcribe them my own damnself.
(gosh durnit)
Anyone cares to, can see them here.
(The song was originally recorded in 1967, so it's one year off of being great I guess)
Yeah, spotted dick pudding - ewww! a leper's penis
$CAV3NG3R
I've always understood 'wanker' to mean 'masturbator', but for some reason it just never sounded as offensive as lots of other words for the same concept.
I seem to sort of recall hearing wanker first from Mike Myers, who made it sound funny and cute rather than the potential fist-fight-starter that it is for Brits.
On the other hand, I've heard British men call each other cunts in a good natured way. I can't imagine American men doing that.
The Brits are so cute when they get incensed over un-PC words. The faux-solidarity WeAreTheWorldness it pretends to espouse is both treacly and dishonest. It's far more comfy to get indignant at a golfer using slang than at terrorists in your midst.
Tiger is an easier target than Yusef, and won't bite back.
Interesting that in that linked article about sensitivity of language, the author has no qualms with writting the N-Word That Shall Not Be Written. That would certainly not fly in America, even in an article about foul language.
The only rule is: Caucasians cannot use the n-word. Ever. That's hate speech. But from anyone else, it's just a word, and its use is OK.
This rule applies to all PC subjects (add "male" where appropriate).
George Carlin could make a routine out of that.
"Political Correctness cripples discourse, creates ugly language and is generally stupid"
My understanding was that words like "idiot" "imbecile" and "retarded" started out as technical/medical terms and worked their way into the popular lexicon as insults, used that way because they were the accepted technical term. Anyone here over 70 and a doctor and can give me some corroboration on that?
Pogo,
I'm white and somehow don't feel oppressed by blacks not wanting me to use the n-word. I don't like that word myself and I'm very happy to not use it.
On the other hand, I do have some understanding of in-group/out-group dynamics. Lesbians can call themselves dykes, blacks can use the n-word about themselves, the disabled can call themselves crips etc. I don't belong to those groups so I don't use those names.
That is (crossing as many t's as possible) when blacks use the n-word they might mean all sorts of things by it, most of them not very bad. Historically, when whites use it, 99.999 % of the time they're degrading someone, or trying to.
Is not being able to use it really such a burden to you?
Visualize a bunch of American high school students on a choir trip to Victoria BC.
See them staying overnight in the gymnasium of a Canadian private high school.
See the headmaster of the school get up and give the American students a lecture on the necessity of "Smoking their fags outside."
We held it in while he was still in the room, but the giggles hit as soon as he left.
Re: Is not being able to use it really such a burden to you?
Michael, the burden inheres in the unintended consequences of forbidding speech, whether by goverment or PC fiat
1. The favored groups are infantilized, and forever on need a federal or school Mommy to protect them from the Bad Men Who Say Bad Words. They are not fit for survival in the real world.
2. Such prohibitions often become forbidden fruit, prompting an escalation in their use. Bland words are rarely so used.
3. The essence of a moral option is that it is freely chosen. Coercion of speech is not moral but mere compliance. You have not created better humans, just well-behaved pets. Best learn to stay away from the teeth, my friend.
My daughter gives me a scandalized look when I use the term “Indians” to describe people she’s been taught to call “Native Americans.”
Last year, our son's preschool teacher informed us that the use of "Indian-style," with reference to a specific sitting position, was inappropriate. The term we are to use is "criss-cross apple sauce."
(Native American-style won't do, either. I asked. What, you thought I could resist?)
I have to say that I don't like the word spaz and never use it (same goes for "retard" or "retarded," though I think those seem worse because they're more explicit). However, I truly think that nowadays, when most people here use "spaz," they really aren't relating it to disability anymore.
That didn't used to be true, by the way, at least in my experience. Back in the '70s, when I was in middle school and high school, kids using it often made "spastic" gestures in conjunction with using the term. (Just as they would sometimes use funny speech to go with 'tard.) That's probably where my aversion to the term "spaz" comes from.
But I haven't seen anyone do that in a couple of decades.
Re: the transition of usage
Scavenger,I agree with you. My inital post (the one that garnered the pious chastening from Michael) was a response to Abraham's concern that "I can't see any legitimate justification why a cartoon can say it for entertainment purposes, but one can't say it for academic or argumentative purposes." I invoked the hypocricy rule: Whites Must Not Speak About Anything At All For Fear Of Offending.
I agree that there are "fightin' words" that deserve societal condemnation. But I have a hard time taking seriously the idea that the n-word is so egregiously harmful, yet black speech, songs, and movies are peppered with it. Bollocks.
Pogo,
You misunderstood me. I grew up when segregation was still a fresh memory (school desegregation hit when I was in elementary school), around people (not in my family, thankfully) who used the word with casual malice. I didn't like anything about that, and decided not to use it.
Perhaps you would be brave enough to tell me where your sensitive spots are so I can take some verbal potshots at them (I'm very good at it when I want to be) as a purely academic exercise in breaking with PC nicey-nice doctrine.
I'm game if you are.
Michael,
Re: "Perhaps you would be brave enough to tell me where your sensitive spots are so..."
Sure! I absolutely HATE it when people send me large checks in the mail. Nothing infuriates me more. E-mail me for the address (it's in an account in Nigeria, where bank officer Massoud Banofo has apparently died, and your check will help settle his million dollar account).
2. I have a soft warm fuzzy spot on my tummy ....wait, that's my cat.
"I voted for retard - I hate it when people mistake my CP for some kind of mental deficiency. I'm sure most of 'us' experience this."
Interesting that this guy is not upset about the word "retard" so much as he's upset about being called one because he has a non-mental disability and people can't tell the difference.
Would he be less upset if people called him "stupid" instead? The insult is not in the word, but in calling him anything ill-meant, no?
(And then there's the other guy upset about handicapped because he prefers a term specific to being a paraplegic.
To which I reply only "suck it up, Nancy". Christ, I've often thought that if I end up in a wheelchair somehow, I'll call myself a cripple. To see people get upset about "disabled" is... mindboggling.)
(Codeword: zlbema, which sounds like it ought to be a word in Croatian or something, for something very interesting or very embarrassing.)
Last year, our son's preschool teacher informed us that the use of "Indian-style," with reference to a specific sitting position, was inappropriate. The term we are to use is "criss-cross apple sauce."
That is truly awful. Even if they find the term offensive, couldn't they come up with a less nauseating alternative?
PS: Freudian slip, when I typed in my user name, I accidently put in "goatwhancker". I think I'm subconsciously offensive to myself.
Apparently not. My son still uses that phrase.
For my part, it makes me think of a silly game from childhood which gave one the excuse to pinch, blow on (oops! watch out for that spittle!), and semi-headlock (or hug, depending) another kid:
Criss-cross, applesauce,
Spiders crawling up your back!
Spider bite here, Spider bite here.
Cool breeze, cool breeze,
Tight squeeze.
Who says life was better before kids started watching TV or playing video games all the live-long day?
Heh.
vh: mebdo
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't" seriously think life is better for kids now.
Double-heh.
I've lived and traveled throughout the United States my whole life, and SPAZ has ALWAYS been an insult. It's one of the first hate words we learn, on the playground.
I'm so sick of the constant refusal of people without disabilities to recognize their own bigotry and the imposition that bigotry has on those of us with disabilities, and with society as a whole. (When we exclude or ostracize anyone, we all lose the benefit of their full participation.)
The term "spaz" gets a stronger reaction in the UK than the US, not because it is less offensive to people with disabilities, but because there is generally greater indifference to the rights and dignity of people with disabilities in the US.
FYI:
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
spaz
Offensive Slang One who is considered clumsy or inept.
-Emma Rosenthal
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