BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative

Subject: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 07:13 PM

(This is something I've recently posted to my personal online journals, in a slightly different form. I figure that many of my fellow Mudcatters like a bit of blather about words and what we do with them, so I thought I'd post it here, too)

Over recent years, I've become more politically aware and vocal about Disability Rights and History, and I've begun to pay attention to disability in our metaphors.

And it occurred to me recently that the whole use of "Crutch" as a derogatory term belies how many people assume we're all faking our disabilities: "I bet they could walk if they really tried; they're just too lazy to carry their own weight."

Compare that with Ladders as a metaphor: climbing the ladder of business success.

And really, crutches are more like ladders than they are not: both are tools to help us get higher than we're capable of, under own own power: ladders help us surmount a steep barrier, and crutches help us get our noses out of the mud. They even kind of look the same, if you think of the hand grip as a rung.

So:
I'm going start referring to them as "hand ladders" (like handsaw, or hand drill):

"Excuse me, could you help? My hand ladder fell over, and I can't reach it."

"Your what?"

"My crutch -- you know -- my hand ladder." And roll my eyes as if it were obvious.

It could be quite fun spreading a little linguistic chaos that way.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 07:36 PM

"And I, I never took much, I never asked for your crutch, so don't ask for mine"?

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 07:40 PM

i've never heard that used pejoratively, except by those using them [as in 'this @%$^!! crutch!"].

what do you do about canes, walkers, braces, etc.?

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 08:54 PM

Rap --

It's something that has been fairly common idiom in my part of the world (I came of age on the East Coast North America, in the mid-to-late 20th century) to say, as a put down (something like): "Well, Bob could have given a much better speech, but he insists on using cue cards as a crutch," as if using a crutch were a bad thing, and to imply that "Bob" is being deliberately lazy.

Walkers and canes don't show up in idiom, as much (unless it's to make a joke about someone being elderly, which is it's own can of bigoted worms).

Here's another article written about the use of "crutch" as a negative metaphor, that someone I know wrote a couple years ago: Ableist word profile: "Crutch"

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 09:40 PM

i'd take it that bob needed the cards to make sure he stayed 'on track', not take it as a bad thing. after all, a crutch is an assistive device and not, at least in my background, something negative. but regional usages vary, i guess. right now i'd like a program like dragon so i wouldn't have to type lefthanded!

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: wysiwyg
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 09:41 PM

I'm with ya's! It brings to mind a conversation I had lately with a 75 year old lady still recovering from a nasty recurrent leg-break of several years ago. SHE NEEDS A SCOOTER, but her "friends" insist it's a "crutch," telling her that once she gives into using it she will "never be independent." As if she might never progress... as if she is not independent using a scooter... and if she doesn't ever leave it behind, well OK! Then (DUH) she needs the scooter! So I tried to de-goof THAT one!

(I get pretty tired of "religion as crutch" thinking too, because lemme tell ya's, surprise surprise-- religion does NOT make life any easier!)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 10:02 PM

her "friends" insist it's a "crutch," telling her that once she gives into using it she will "never be independent."

Yes. This is precisely the type of pejorative use I'm talking about. And, yes, it makes me angry.

As if hobbling around her house in pain is making her any more independent, or giving her a fuller life.

That's why I want to get the idea that crutches are a kind of ladder-- they can raise us up, both figuratively and metaphorically.

Anyone "up" for a chorus of "I am climbing Jacob's Ladder"?

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 10:04 PM

Not a perjorative use, but interesting. These from the OED.
Crutch- a mallet-shaped instrument used to push sheep into the dip. Australian, 1916.
But "crutch" also the name of the hot water tank with the three successive dips-, insuring that the sheep are "well-crutched." 1886, Australian.

I will search some more tomorrow, but I seem to recall that crutch in a perjorative sense is old.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 10:11 PM

sheesh... the only point of using 'crutch' about NON-medical issues is to point out that someone is employing some extra 'aid' which they shouldn't need. There is no shame if the aid IS needed.

Crutch is simply a handy metaphor to avoid 14 word... or more.. explanations.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 10:13 PM

Interesting, Q.

Seems like "crutch" might've originally meant "stick with a thing on top to push against" (the earliest designs for crutches were an underarm type, with no hand grips, that supported a person's underarms), and the negative meaning came about from the negative attitudes people had (and have) about the people who need them.

And yes, it's old. But that also means it's about damned time for a change.

Meanwhile, not three minutes after I posted my last note here, I turned on the TV, and heard this opening line from a car commercial:

"I could go for the 'Holiday Angle,' but that's just a crutch. And I'm a better salesman than that."

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 10:19 PM

Yes, but Bill, when "crutch" is continually referred to as a bad thing, an unnecessary and lazy thing, those attitudes get transferred on to the real crutches, and the real people who really need them when there is a medical need.

Q.V. the anecdote Wysiwig shared.

The author of the article that I linked to above suggested using the term "training wheels" if you want to imply someone is using something that they should have outgrown the need for, instead of "crutch."

Okay, it's more than one word. But it's a heck of a lot less than 14.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 10:49 PM

A crutch is nothing more or less than a support. Perjorative doesn't necessarily apply.
Appeared as far back as 900 in old English. Many uses. A few quotes from the OED-
Crutch- c. a prop, a support.
1602 Your favour will give crutches to our faults.
1772 The hunters fix their crutches in the ground
17th c. A forked rest for the foot in a side saddle.
1861 Old crippled buildings, propped up with posts and logs.
1682 (Dryden) Two fools that crutch their feeble sense on verse.
1890 This feeble government, crutched.....


crutch as a verb in print in 1681.

What is a "real" crutch"? Modern equivalents of the staff are the "walker," the stick with four terminations, the frame with four terminations, etc.

I will admit that the image first to mind is a forked stick.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 05:32 AM

I throw this into the mix

"The term crotch (or crutch) may be used to describe the region of an object (a trunk) where it splits into two or more limbs. This can include trees, animals, buildings, in wiring diagrams, etc.

In humans, the crotch is loosely defined as the bottom of the pelvis, the region of the body where the legs join the torso, and is sometimes considered to include the groin and genitals.

In clothing, the crotch is the area of a pair of trousers (pants) or shorts where the legs join together. The bottom of the crotch defines one end of the inseam."

*********************************************************************

"The Crutched Friars or Crossed Friars were a Roman Catholic religious order of Augustinian canons who went to England in the 13th century from Italy, where they existed for some time, and where they were called Fratres Cruciferi."

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 06:21 AM

I honestly think that most people see crutches as something very useful when needed, but to be dispensed with if possible. "Hand ladder" just sounds confusing , because that's not how ladders are used. You might as well call a seat a bum ladder, because that provides support as well.

An aid that does tend to get used in a somewhat insulting way is "zimmer frame".

Of course the word crutch is cognate with the word cross - another kind of support entirely.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 07:20 AM

I would suggest that the use of the word crutch in the OP's use of the item, is being erroneously defined as a word solely for that application.
In that it is a support, it is correctly named, however,there it is designed not as a support, but as a walking aid. Surely it would be better to call it just that, a walking aid.
Then the word crutch could return to it's original use, i.e. a support.
I know the physioterrorists (sic) at my local hospital, always refer to them as walking aids.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 07:33 AM

It's a fucking crutch for christ's sake.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 10:45 AM

i think kat's lady should do what she needs to do and run over the toes of them other folks...the busy-bodies!

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Charmion
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 10:58 AM

This thread recalls an old Ottawa Valley expression, long out of fashion: Such and such really un-funny thing is "about as funny as a crutch."

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 12:04 PM

*Sigh* Okay, taking this from the top, with a little more context as to my intent of playing with the language:

I am not saying that the word "crutch" itself, is pejorative -- far from it. But, as I wrote in the title of this thread, I intended to talk about the use of the word "crutch" in a pejorative context, as part of a metaphor or an idiom.

The fact is that "crutch" comes up more often in metaphors, idioms, and expressions than it does in actual conversations about the literal use and of real crutches. It's a word that's used, over and over, for something vaguely bad and morally weak (as it was in the example that popped up by serendipity on my TV, last night: "I could go for the 'Holiday Angle,' but that's just a crutch. And I'm a better salesman than that.).

Over time, that negative association leaks over into the real world and shapes people's attitudes toward real people. That's a big part of how bigotry works -- as with the woman Wysiwig was talking to, and her attitude toward needing a scooter, and how the lady thought it was bad, and that she would be morally questionable for using one, because her friends told her it was a 'crutch.'

Meanwhile, "ladders" are also used as metaphors and idioms, but with that word, the association is nearly always positive (when we speak of someone climbing the "corporate ladder," for example, we often admire their ambition, cleverness, and energy -- whereas, when we talk about someone using a crutch, it's most often to imply that they are lazy. And ladders also appear in religious symbolism as a way for mere Man to get closer to God.

Now, a bit of how jokes work (which is something I learned a long time ago, when I took a college course on the literature of humor): The human mind can only think along one line of logic at a time (we can look up a book in the library either by author's name or by subject, but not simultaneously). The body of a joke leads the audience's mind down one line of logic, and then, just when their on the edge of their metaphorical seats, the "punch"line comes in from a completely different direction, and forces us to look at the situation with a completely different logical framework. The resulting release of emotional tension comes out (one hopes) as a burst of laughter.

My suggestion to refer to crutches as "hand ladders" is meant, in this way, to be a joke: to cause people to stop and blink, and to reassess their assumptions about the value of crutches, and the people who use them, and to maybe, I hope, start to think of crutches in the same symbolic light as ladders.

(oh, and by the way: I have cerebral palsy and have used crutches all my life, and yes, I have had people ask me "But have you even tried to walk without them?")

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:26 PM

CapriUni, I agree with you. 'Crutch' is now firmly ensconced as psychobabble.

I can't remember the title, but I recently read the autobiography of an autistic boy about 18 or 19. His mother sounded like a cold and demanding person. It seemed that every time his teachers suggested something that would help him, that she rejected it as a 'crutch.'

I translated that as "not good enough for me. I want him to be perfect."

For example, he didn't say his first word till age 7 (IIRC), yet she refused to let him learn Sign, because that was 'a crutch.' When I think of that poor kid being kept from communicating, it makes me so mad. Later I saw a video of him, and his speech was still so unclear at 18 that he could have benefited from Sign.
======
So how do we deal with "crutch"? Call it by its real name -- ("Please spare me the psychobabble. We have a problem here that needs solving.") -- and it will shrivel up and disappear.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 02:00 PM

Hmmm...I decided to look up synonyms for "Crutch" and found the following. I rather like "swagger stick!"

        
Malacca cane, V, advocate, alpenstock, arm, athletic supporter, back, backbone, backing, bandeau, baton, bearer, bra, brace, bracer, bracket, branch, brassiere, buttress, cane, carrier, cervix, corset, crook, crosier, cross-staff, cross, crotch, crutch-stick, delta, fan, fork, foundation garment, fulcrum, furcula, furculum, girdle, groin, guy, guywire, handstaff, inguen, jock, jockstrap, lituus, mainstay, maintainer, mast, neck, offshoot, pastoral staff, paterissa, prong, prop, quarterstaff, ramification, reinforce, reinforcement, reinforcer, rest, resting place, rigging, shillelagh, shoulder, shroud, spine, sprit, staff, standing rigging, stave, stay, stem, stick, stiffener, strengthener, support, supporter, sustainer, swagger stick, swanking stick, trident, upholder, walking stick, wishbone

As we watched an Australian tv series called McCleod's Daughters, which takes place on a farm with lots of sheep, they often spoke of crutching them, but we thought it was their version of "crotch" as it only ever showed them shearing around that area on their bodies whenever it was mentioned.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 02:25 PM

i like 'jockstrap' and the next time i need to i use my walking stick as a cane [due to knee surgery oct. 5] i'm going to call it that. we need don firth to weigh in on this, and art thieme as well.

as for those boorish enough to ask that, capriuno, i have a friend of many years who suffers from post-polio. she was asked the same thing and replied, 'why yes, i have! and you know, i fell down.' the boor was nonplussed, to say the least, and departed rather quickly for elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 04:40 PM

Rap -- re: responding to boors --

I have an online store, where I share my disability and writing-related swag: Chimer(i)gons, and I'm thinking of adding this slogan:

"I have a shin-whacking Clue Stick. ...Don't make me use it!"

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 05:13 PM

Wait a minute-- methinks the clue as to pejoration is in the tone of VOICE the people use. Not the word-- the other 75% of the communication.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 05:37 PM

Seems to me that the use of the word which is described as pejorative can be replaced by the one word "laziness", so maybe whenever somebody uses "crutch" in that way, we should respond "If you mean laziness, say so".

Like other buzz words much beloved of ad men and office idiots, if enough of us ridicule its use, it will stop.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 06:00 PM

Crutch is an expressive term for an aid and an old one. Your suggestion is nonsense.

My favorite crutch in posting to these threads is the OED.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Bert
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 06:28 PM

I've never thought of it as a pejorative, more like a synonym of 'support'.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 07:38 PM

I've never thought of it as a pejorative

Good for you. And if you've never been on the receiving end of it being used pejoratively, I'm happy for you.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Gurney
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 12:36 AM

I'm with Bert. Never once in a fairly long life.
Are you, CapriUni, perhaps seeking to be offended where no offence is offered nor intended?
That's common enough, nowadays.

So many over-sensitive people about!

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 12:45 AM

"Good for you. And if you've never been on the receiving end of it being used pejoratively, I'm happy for you."

It was once, when I'd had my hip replaced.

It is not the same. For me, it was a way to stand up and stay balanced. For you it seems different. So, please talk about it.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 04:57 AM

I'm sorry but while I sympathise with how you feel about this CU. A crutch is etymologically speaking, a support, and in all examples quoted here. it is being used properly. The difference is in the perception of those who have to use such a walking aid.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Megan L
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 06:02 AM

I grew up in a background of cruthces walking sticks zimmer frames and wheelchairs. I myself have been a walking stick user for a long time each of these items is no more than a tool to make our life easier or safer to get on with. I have never been left feeling demeaned by the use of the word on the whole i have found that if I belive good of a person they will live up to my expectation. I have also noticed that people who are ready to think the worst of people will find offence because that is what they are looking for.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: artbrooks
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 09:47 AM

I'm not sure that I'd go so far as to call it a pejorative, but the usage that CapriUni describes is very common in the US...and I taught a program in making presentations to junior Army officers and used it that way often. I think Giok's comment is apropos.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 09:48 AM

after i had the meniscus in my right knee repaired the hospital provided me with crutches -- i never used them and eventually gave them to my nephew for use after his back surgery [he was hit by a car -- long, ugly story]. i used a walking stick. i could shake it at people and do all sorts of things with it -- even threaten [in jest] the director of a very large metropolitan library.

i like the 'clue stick'. it can help some folks immensely.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 03:33 PM

Let me try out a few analogies:

A capo "is just a crutch" for people who are too lazy to learn to play barre chords.

Sheet music "is just a crutch" for people who are too lazy to learn to play by ear.

Playing by ear "is just a crutch" for people who are too lazy to learn to read music!

An electronic tuner "is just a crutch" for people who can't tell by ear that an instrument is out of tune.

What is insulting to musicians is not so much the use of the word crutch, as the attitude that "my way is the only right way."

But it is also insulting to anyone who uses a real crutch.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 03:43 PM

Something it pays to remember, imo, if an aid is not just a temporary thing, it means the person using it cannot live without it or would have a very diminished life without it. Many of the comparisons made above are really not comparable to something which is vital to life. I've been on and off oxygen for years. I don't see it as a crutch and, at the moment, I could not live without it.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 07:31 PM

kat, in my all-to-recent hospital stay i was asked if i used oxygen at home. i replied that i most certainly did and had been doing so all of my life. the anesthesiologist laughed and rephrased his question.

i see no reason to put jup with ill-phrased questions like that. ranks up there with 'well, do we have any pain?' and 'did you know that tire you're looking at is flat?'

i'm waiting for someone to ask my friend tim, the guy i ripped my bicep trying to help [he DOES NOT KNOW!!!] if he needs his walker. tim has been a railroader, ww2 bushmaster, prospector, and grew up as a cowboy in montana.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 07:53 PM

Well, Rapparee, I know what you mean, BUT, ironically, to have "extra" oxygen, one needs a medical prescription, so I understand why they ask that.:-) Makes sense to me now that I know, personally, how dangerous it can be if delivery of it is not regulated.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 08:52 PM

they gave me a bong to smoke, too. sure, THAY said 'nebulizer', but i knew....

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Don Firth
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 10:01 PM

Using "crutch" as a pejorative word? Somehow, the way the word is often used (capo="cowboy's crutch," et al.) has never bothered me. And I would think that I'd be on the forefront of those slated to be offended, but I can't say that I actually ever have.

I contracted polio when I was two years and three months old. It rendered both of my legs pretty much non-functional, so it's a condition I grew up with. As a youngster I could not walk, and was either carried or was pushed about in a stroller, which, at the age of five can feel pretty undignified. But when I was six, it was deemed by orthopedic physicians that I was old enough to learn to use leg braces and crutches.

Braces and crutches did not stop me from playing with the neighborhood kids, yet it was decided by the Pasadena School Board (living in Pasadena, CA at the time) that, rather than having me come to public school, they would send a home teacher to our house several times a week. This was not special treatment; it was a service they provided so that "crippled children" would not be deprived of an education. So with private tutoring, I got a pretty darn good education, and I tended to develop a fairly studious nature. I first started going to public school in my high school junior year. Then I went on to college, tromping all over the University of Washington campus wearing a leg brace and using aluminum forearm crutches. I was not the only one. On a campus of some 15,000 students at the time, there were several dozen who used aids of one sort or another, including a number of older students, disabled veterans going to school on the G.I. Bill. We had elevator privileges in all the campus buildings.

So, basically, I've had a normal life. I had acclimated fairly quickly to to the physical disability and rarely thought about it. I was far more interested in other things, and it rarely interfered with anything I wanted to do.

I also had a rich, full, social life all this time. Lots of activities of various kinds, I dated, and had girlfriends. In fact, it was one of these girlfriends who taught me my first chords on the guitar and started the chain of events that led me to want to do something with the singing lessons I was taking just for fun, and actually sing for people, like Burl Ives or Susan Reed or Richard Dyer-Bennet, (well-known singers of folk songs at the time), or locally, Walt Robertson.

Over the years, I worked at a number of different jobs, including draftsman and production illustrator at Boeing, radio announcer, telephone operator, and technical writer. These were day jobs. I also taught classic and folk guitar, both privately and in classes, and I have had a most enjoyable career singing folk songs and ballads and playing classical guitar in clubs, coffeehouses, in concerts and recitals, and on television.

When I walked on stage, it is, of course, using my crutches. I performed sitting on a straight-back chair, raising my left foot about six inches with a foot stool, and placing the guitar on my left leg—standard classic guitar position (CLICKY), which, as long as one doesn't slump over the guitar, is also a good position for singing (keeping my breath control under me). I either had my guitar set onstage beforehand sitting on a guitar stand beside the chair, or someone followed me on stage carrying my guitar and handed it too me once I was seated.

World renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman, who contracted polio when he was six, makes his way on and off stage much as I do. Audiences seem to absorb this very quickly and turn their attention to what they are there for:   the music.

During the time I was in high school, I learned to fence, first at the local YMCA, then I had some lessons from a man who was an Olympic coach at the time (too long a story to go into now), competed in regular tournaments with fully ambulatory fencers (not wheelchair fencing or Special Olympics, and with no special provisions made for me) and won a satisfying number of medals and trophies.

I have never climbed Mt. Everest, nor have I scaled the sheer face of El Capitan, but I can't say that these feats were ever high on my list of things I felt I needed to accomplish. On the other hand, on several occasions a friend and I swam in depths of both Lake Washington and Puget Sound, using scuba gear. I am an excellent swimmer.

Twenty-two years ago I fell and broke my "good" leg, and had to take to a wheelchair. But even with my advanced years, the voice is holding up well and I still sing here and there from time to time. And because a full-size guitar is difficult to hold while sitting in a wheelchair (the lower bout of the guitar and the right wheel of the chair want to occupy the same space), I use a small, but well-made and surprisingly full-sounding travel guitar which I play using a shoulder strap.

Has anybody much made any kind of big deal of my physical disability? Not in any important way. There have been a couple of times when my wife and I have been somewhere (me in my wheelchair), and someone who doesn't know us will talk to Barbara as if I'm not there ("Would your husband care for something to drink?"), apparently assuming that if the legs don't work, the ears and brain don't either, to which Barbara responds, "I suggest that you ask him." I then smile sweetly and say in my most resonant radio-announcer voice, "Yes, please. That would be very nice." They generally blink a couple of times, get the idea that I am not an inanimate object, and from then on include me in the conversation.

Does this sort of thing bother me? Not particularly. The problem is theirs, not mine. Oftentimes a fine mind is locked into a body that doesn't work very well, and those who can't see past the obvious could miss out on a lot. If you see a fellow tooling along in an electric wheelchair, with a wasted looking body, barely able to move his head, and unable to speak clearly, except through a computer he has mounted to his chair—well—think about Steven Hawking.

There are terms and expressions that some folks use, or used to use, that may be considered offensive, such as "crippled" or "handicapped" or "disabled." Frankly, I tend to be offended by the overly solicitous "politically correct" efforts at non-offensive circumlocutions such as "differently abled." What the hell! If I can't walk, then I can't walk. That's not a "different ability." That's a lack of ability. A non-ability. A DISability.

Let's look at it this way:   The word "handicap" started sometime in the 1600s and consisted of a sort of lottery, in which the money was held in the referee's cap. Later, it became associated with horse racing, where, to make the outcome of a race less certain, the faster horses were required to carry extra weight, giving the slower horses, if not an edge, at least a better chance. If a bettor wanted to know how much extra weight a particular horse was carrying, that information was kept in the cap of an official, and you could learn it by asking the official, who would then put his hand in his cap and pull out the information you wanted. So "What is 'Greased Lightning's' hand-i'-cap?" morphed into "What's the horse's handicap?" In short, how much extra weight is the horse carrying? It was not until around 1915 that the word "handicapped" was applied to those with physical disabilities.

Therefore—If the Powers That Be deemed it necessary that I should be "handicapped" so that that all those normal people out there can have a fair chance in the Race of Life, then—

Get it? Got it? Good!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Crowhugger
Date: 24 Dec 11 - 08:38 PM

My Mudcat includes both experiences of the word!
:-)
Really, I don't see any absolute either/or about it, but I do see that different people have had different experiences of the implied meanings of the word "crutch."

While I see a crutch real or metaphorical to be a tool and use it that way (the word I mean, not the thing, for in real life I use a walker or cane, not crutch(es)), I certainly have heard it used with a pejorative implication, such as Capri's example about cue cards. Using cue cards as a crutch I've definitely heard spoken with the implication that said user is lazy or a less than adequate speechifier for having need of them. While I've heard it said that way, it doesn't mean everyone intends that every time an expression of cue cards as crutch arises, and it doesn't mean that everyone hears the implication even when it is intended. (I, for one, will sometimes miss all manner of subtlety in a conversation, I'm embarrassed to say, naively unaware of the speaker's layered meanings.)

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: John P
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 01:40 PM

I don't get it. Someone using some sort of support is using a crutch, whether they need it or not. So what? What does that have to do with someone who needs a crutch to walk using a crutch? It's really not hard to sort out what people mean when they use the word. Saying that someone used cue cards as a crutch says nothing whatsoever about someone using a crutch to walk. I use the word crutch regularly, and would never dream of insulting someone who uses a crutch to get around. Perhaps you should simply respond appropriately to people who actually mean to insult you and not blame others if you can't figure out what people mean when they talk.

It reminds of of another forum I visit sometimes, where there was a round of breast jokes (started any mostly continued by women). One woman got very offended because she recently lost a breast to cancer, and, in her view, jokes about breasts should be off limits.

I'm offended by perfectly normal words and conversations being called offensive because someone decided to be offended. Please take care of your own sensitivities and don't try to force them on everyone else.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 04:24 PM

Maybe "Pejorative" is the wrong word... maybe I should have used "derogatory," instead? In any case, I started this thread with the intention (and expectation) of provoking laughter, not anger or argument. Apparently, I misjudged my audience.

Of course calling crutches "hand ladders" is silly, and over-the-top, and nonsense. But nonsense has its place.
---

Jim Dixon hit the point I was trying to make with great accuracy:

A capo "is just a crutch" for people who are too lazy to learn to play barre chords. [snip] An electronic tuner "is just a crutch" for people who can't tell by ear that an instrument is out of tune.

This is a very common turn of phrase. It's an idiom that pops up in nearly in every field and profession:

"____ is just a crutch for people who are too lazy to ____".

And after a while, a idea starts to take hold (far from universal, it's true, but held by a significant minority) that Crutches are for lazy people. And if you use a wheelchair, or scooter, well then, you must be even lazier than that (scooters, especially, for some reason). I have been out in public, more than once, and been the object of stares so clearly full of anger and vitriol, provoked simply my presence, that, had I been alone, I would have feared for my safety.

And look at the debates in Britain, now, with the austerity measures, and the "crackdown" on people who are cheating and lying for their DLA (I think that's the right acronym?). So yes, the words we use, and the way we use them, do matter.

And the thing is: It makes no sense, even if it is "just a saying." For all the reasons that people use crutches, I've never actually encountered a single instance of laziness being the reason.

So why not counter that bit of nonsense with another bit of nonsense?

Now, I'm going to go away and work on designing my own teddy bear.

Have fun, folkies!

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Don Firth
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 04:28 PM

Comedian Penn Gillette, one half of the comedy team of Penn and Teller, used to write a humor column on the back page of a well-known computer magazine.

He once recounted that there was much offense taken by someone who had hacked his way into a group of symbols that one can insert into a document written with Microsoft Word, and found that a Star of David was sitting right next to a Skull and Crossbones.

The person who discovered this random juxtaposition had a wall-eye hissy fit and got a lot of other people agitated by announcing that this was evidence that the Microsoft Corporation was—anti-Semitic! He had concluded that what Microsoft was saying was "Kill all Jews!"

Nu!??

Penn Gillette's comment on this asinine brouhaha was that there are certain people in this world, hypersensitive, highly imaginative, and bellicose, who are predisposed to take offense at anything and everything. "These folks," he says, "could walk through the debris following an explosion in a Scrabble tile factory and find something to be offended by!"

Speaking of "wall-eyed" (before someone whose eyes don't quite track gets on my case), there are people who use their "disabilities" or little oddities to good advantage. Monty Python mainstay Marty Feldman made a comedy schtick out of the fact that his eyes didn't quite track. He just looked at you wide-eyed and it was funny. And the name he bore in the movie "Young Frankenstein"—Eyegore.

One of the funniest comediennes afloat is a woman named Gery Jewell. She was born with cerebral palsy. She has been on television comedy shows, but she started out as a stand-up comic, playing the comedy clubs. And she uses her disability to get laughs.

"I just had my ears pierced. I hadn't really intended to. I was trying to pluck my eyebrows!"

She also leads a busy but less well known life as a motivational speaker to groups of disabled people. People listen to her because she knows what she's talking about. Not only has she been there, she IS there.

Gery Jewell.   Note the title of her book (upper left-hand corner of her web-page).

What was that old adage about "When life hands you a lemon……?"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Don Firth
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 04:36 PM

'Scuse me. That should be "Geri," not "Gery."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: gnu
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 04:46 PM

Don... thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: CapriUni
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 06:00 PM

Don --

I remember when Geri Jewell started performing some twenty -- twenty-five years ago, and how the public debate about her act centered around how "controversial" it was for her to make her cerebral palsy the subject of her humor.

I always thought it was rather unfair. After all, cerebral palsy was part of her life experience... And nearly all comics use their own life experiences as the source for their humor, so why should someone's life be off-limits just because C.P. is a part of it?

In recent years, another comic with C.P. named Josh Blue has started to gain national attention. Along with C.P., he also uses people's misconceptions of disability for his humor, which may represent a generational shift. Here's a clip from 2005.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 06:13 PM

Francesca Martinez, beautiful AND funny.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 10:12 PM

let's not forget john callahan

http://www.callahanonline.com/calarc2.htm


who has been bringing his own humor for a while.

Subject: RE: BS: The use of 'Crutch' as a pejorative
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Dec 11 - 10:43 PM

cu, i have known too many 'handicapped' people who put 'normal' folks to shame to feel 'biased' about they. don firth is an excellent example, josh blue [of whom i was previously unaware] is another.

right now [and for a bit more] i'm pretty much limited to using my left hand for everything [i've heard all of the jokes by now]. it's annoying, but things are what they are.   but i think that the so-called 'able bodied' should KNOW that they can become otherwise in a flash -- tbi from an accident, a stroke, a heart attack, so many things -- can change you in an instant. fall and break your neck and suddenly you're quadriplegic and will spend the rest of your life in a powered chair, able to do little for yourself. and then there are the things that can creep up on you, like alzheimer's disease.

we are ALL handicapped in one way or another. we all use some sort of crutch -- an address book, a to-do list, as appointment calendar -- they are all a crutch. if we were all perfect we wouldn't need them. people who think otherwise are whistling in the dark -- and using another crutch.