First off, that would be a really badly designed experiment. You'd need to test each term against the community to which it applies, which is not "the disabled community". You'd want to ask the people who are lame whether or not they are offended by the use of the word "lame". It really doesn't matter whether or not the majority of people who have chronic pain find the use of the term "lame" offensive or not. It doesn't apply to them unless they are also lame. You would want to test "crazy" and "insane" against those who have mental health problems.
On a side note, to the best of my knowledge the majority of lame people I know are offended by the use of the term "lame" in that context, however, that is a very small sample and it is obviously biased by me knowing them.
I didn't used to be, even though I am lame, but now I know it hurts a friend of mine who is lame, and I also realize it reinforces the mental associations that physical disabilities equate to unrelated other deficiencies, and I have no desire to strengthen that meme. The encounters one gets with the public are too annoying and too stupid already. Disabled people regularly have people ask the person they are with things like, "So, what does s/he want?" Or they talk loudly and slowly to them when there is no issue with hearing. In general, there is an assumption of a lack of sexuality, a lack of cognitive power, and a lack of general ability that tends to go with having a visible disability despite there being no connection to those issues from that disability. The term "lame" used to mean issues with functioning beyond the physical only helps to reinforce that unconscious faulty association. Invisible disabilities have other issues. And mental health has too large a host of issues associated with it for me to even get started.
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chiming
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Date: 2011-02-02 07:45 pm (UTC)From:On a side note, to the best of my knowledge the majority of lame people I know are offended by the use of the term "lame" in that context, however, that is a very small sample and it is obviously biased by me knowing them.
I didn't used to be, even though I am lame, but now I know it hurts a friend of mine who is lame, and I also realize it reinforces the mental associations that physical disabilities equate to unrelated other deficiencies, and I have no desire to strengthen that meme. The encounters one gets with the public are too annoying and too stupid already. Disabled people regularly have people ask the person they are with things like, "So, what does s/he want?" Or they talk loudly and slowly to them when there is no issue with hearing. In general, there is an assumption of a lack of sexuality, a lack of cognitive power, and a lack of general ability that tends to go with having a visible disability despite there being no connection to those issues from that disability. The term "lame" used to mean issues with functioning beyond the physical only helps to reinforce that unconscious faulty association. Invisible disabilities have other issues. And mental health has too large a host of issues associated with it for me to even get started.