I want to take back ‘Retard’. Because I want it to apply to things that are infuriatingly stupid, instead of it being used as a derogatory term towards special needs people.
I want to take back ‘Retard’. Because I want it to apply to things that are infuriatingly stupid, instead of it being used as a derogatory term towards special needs people.
Look if you’re not disabled or special needs you really don’t have any right to reclaim this word in any sense. This is the equivalent of trying to reclaim the n word as a white person. It’s just incredibly inappropriate and insensitive. Also, can I just say, your definition of repurposing this word is incredibly problematic because you’re actually still just using it to mean the same thing it was originally intended to mean. And it’s incredibly offensive, just so you know. So please don’t use this word.
And frankly as a person with a cognitive disability, our community really isn’t keen on repurposing the r word in any way so please don’t think you can just jump in and do this without consulting the people it impacts. Even if we had repurposed this word, it’s still offensive for non-disabled people to use it in the same way it’s offensive for white people to use the n word.
Ya I would never be able to reclaim it for myself. For my whole life it was used only as a strong negative.
It’s the same for my wife and queer. It’s a word she can’t use to describe herself without thinking of old mystery books. “Well that’s quite queer”
I don’t use this as an adjective to describe a person, but I generally park my bread dough in the refrigerator to retard it. So my dough is retarded when I chill it.
As a perjorative for a human being though? No, have not used that as an adult, though I don’t think “delayed” is any different, it has the same meaning. But it costs me nothing not to use it, so I don’t.
What I would like to reclaim is the word “literally”. Why the fuck does it now seem to mean literally the opposite of literally.