Thursday, November 29, 2012
The Power of our Words
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The Power of our Words
I want to draw some attention to certain words we use
in everyday life, and I can’t think of a more appropriate audience than this
group of students that have spent the last three months studying and practicing
how to strengthen their writing, deliver effective speeches, and convey a sense
of good character to an audience. One thing that we didn’t have a chance to touch
on is the choice of words we sometimes use, words that imply a negative
connotation towards a specific group of people, which could be detrimental when
used in the wrong audience, or in my opinion, shouldn’t be used at all. These
are words and phrases that we most likely aren’t even aware of what we are
saying when we say them. They are considerably normalized by society that we
aren’t being active thinkers when we are saying them, we are not thinking about
the negative messages that these words convey, especially towards minority
stigmatized groups like the homosexual community, or those suffering from
mental disorders. I have had personal experiences with members of both
marginalized groups, and they have shared their thoughts and discomforts with
me about the language that people sometimes use. My goal today is to shed some
light on words that most of you use everyday, and hopefully have some of you
stop using these words and find replacements.
I think we all had a handful of words we
weren’t supposed to say when we were growing up, swear words such as the “f”
word or the “b” word. Growing up there was a vast amount of punishment from
parents, teachers, coaches, and relatives that those words were not appropriate
or not allowed to be said. Most people who received the punishment of having
their mouths washed out with soap were because someone was not impressed with
the language they were using. They were literally “cleaning away the dirty
words”. All levels of schools would implement punishments to their students if
they were caught using swear words in the classroom. On the other hand, I have
never heard anyone call words such as “gay”
or “retarded” the “g” word or the “r” word, even though these aren’t nice
things to be called either. There is rarely any punishment for using these
terms in a negative connotation and this reinforces society to use these words
as synonyms for stupid, dumb, or boring. This also allows a silent, most often
unconscious, reinforcement to how we as a society continue to oppress members
of these marginalized groups.
I was 15 when I met the first openly gay
person in my life, we were co-workers and in the middle of a regular
conversation when I said “that’s so gay” to describe my unhappiness with all
the extra work I had to do that night. He called me out on my language choice
right there. He told me to find a better word to describe how I was feeling
because the word I chose was not appropriate, and that hit me like a bus. I had
never once thought of the words I was using to describe negative emotions, and
I was truly disappointed in myself. I started being a lot more careful with
what I was saying and began examining other words I was using. This made me
realize how ignorant I was also being with the word “retarded”. I was not very
happy with myself because of the words I had been using to express myself over
the last couple years, and knew this needed to change. I did have some slip ups
at first, when I wasn’t really conscious of my language choice, and that gave
me additional insight of just how invisible the prejudice is on these words. I
am proud to say today that those words are one hundred percent out of my
vocabulary. This was the first time I had really thought about where certain
language came from, and resulted in me becoming an active thinker when it comes
to my speech, and the speech of those around me.
I was an active thinker in my psychology
courses when I began learning about the labels behind certain abnormal behavior,
and I realized just how prevalent many of the labels are in normal life. How
many of you used words such as “idiot”, “
imbecile”, or “moron”, especially when
you were younger? Did you know that these words were categories of the lowest
level of IQ tests when the method was first introduced only a few decades ago?
How many of us remember our favorite Saturday morning cartoon characters using
words such as these to describe their frustration? Many words have roots in
mental illness; that is where the word retarded comes from. The words
associated with the stigma of mental illness are relevant in day-to-day
terminology. The Diagnostic and Statistical handbook, or the DSM, which
categorizes and describes each illness, often has to change the names of their
classifications on a regular basis, because these names become so engrossed in
our daily vocabulary. This is one of the reasons why we no longer classify
people on the idiot-moron-imbecile scale because these words have now become normalized
in our spoken culture, most times as acceptable substitutes for the “swear”
words that we aren’t supposed to say. This provides a great deal of evidence on
just how powerful and how integrated words that should be used to categorize
different types of abnormal behavior in the mental health field find their way
in day-to-day language as a synonym for undesirable traits.
The misuses of words that are used to
describe mental illnesses do not stop there. There is such a high stigma
associated with mental disorders in a way we never see with physical disorders.
Society personifies the mental illness as a part of the person’s personality
and character trait, which isn’t appropriate. You would never say, “Bill is
cancer”, but why do we say, “Sharon is schizophrenic”? We don’t seem to
personify physical illness with the people diagnosed with them the same way we
do with the people diagnosed with mental disorders. That doesn’t seem fair to
me, no one wants to receive either of these diagnoses, but why do we reduce only
one party to see them as solely as their mental illness? The American
Psychological Association states, “one in five people will suffer from mental
illness at some point in their lives” (Barlow et al, 2009). Therefore, it seems
next to impossible that we won’t either be affected by mental illness from
someone we know, or some of us will suffer ourselves. This is even more of a
reason for us to be sensible with the language that we use. I currently live
with someone that suffers from an ongoing mental illness, and the thing that
bothers him the most is when he becomes reduced to his illness, because he
knows he is considerably more than that. As a society we should be saying
“Sharon has schizophrenia”, not that she is a schizophrenic. We also should be
reducing the way we use the words “bipolar” and “schizo” when speaking in
everyday life and be mindful the same way we should be mindful with the words
“gay” and “retarded”.
We need to think about the words we are
saying and what unconscious thoughts we are putting out into society about minority
groups that can feel the stigma of words. Many of you may have never thought of
the way your words could be impacting other people, and many of you may not
even care. I have been called a “language snob” many times in the past, but I
do not think I am asking too much from you to just be mindful of the language you
are using. We live in a society that thrives on education, speech, and about
describing how we feel. I would think that it is not the most difficult thing
in the world to find new words to pronounce our emotions. With all the
technology available to us in this day and age it’s as easy as a right-click on
the word to search in the thesaurus, or a Google search. So please, take some time
and reflect on what you are saying and how you are saying it, and if you are
unhappy with the language choices you are making, you should make the effort to
change them.
Further
information:
Alison Rowan (2012). Retrieved
November 28, 2012, from http://alisonrowan.bigcartel.com/
Barlow, H. D., Durand, V. M.,
& Stewart, S. H. (2009). Abnormal behavior in historical context. Abnormal psychology an integrative approach
(pp. 2-29). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson
Education Ltd.
Schizophrenia society of
Ontario (2012). The impact of everyday
language. Retrieved November 28, 2012 from, http://www.schizophrenia.on.ca/about-schizophrenia/5-stigma/11-the-impact-of-everyday-language.html
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