Spastic

"Spaz" redirects here. For other uses, see Spaz (disambiguation).
Look up spastic or spaz in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Derived via Latin from the Greek spastikos ("drawing in" or "tugging"), the word spastic refers to an alteration in muscle tone affected by the medical condition spasticity, which is seen in spastic diplegia and many other forms of cerebral palsy and also in terms such as "spastic colon".

Colloquially, spastic can be pejorative; although the origin of the term is common, awareness of this differs between the United States and the United Kingdom. In the UK "spastic" is more widely acknowledged by the general population as an offensive way to directly refer to disabled people.[1][2]

United Kingdom

The medical term "spastic" came into use to describe cerebral palsy.[3] The Spastics Society, a UK charity for people with cerebral palsy, was founded in 1951.

However, the word began to be used as an insult and became a term of abuse used to imply stupidity or physical ineptness: one who is uncoordinated or incompetent, or a fool.[4] It was often colloquially abbreviated to shorter forms such as "spaz".

Although the word has a much longer history, its derogatory use grew considerably in the 1980s and this is sometimes attributed to the BBC children's TV show Blue Peter;[5] during the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981), several episodes of Blue Peter featured a man with cerebral palsy (described as a "spastic") named Joey Deacon. Phrases such as "joey", "deacon", and "spaz" became widely used insults amongst children at that time.[6]

In 1994, the same year that Conservative MP Terry Dicks referred to himself in a House of Commons debate as "a spastic with cerebral palsy",[7] the Spastics Society changed its name to Scope. The word "spastic" has been largely erased from popular English usage and is deemed unacceptable to use outside of specific medical contexts, thus reducing stigmatisation of the condition.[5] However, UK schoolchildren allegedly developed a derogatory adaptation of the Spastic Society's new name, "scoper".[8] The current understanding of the word is well-illustrated by a BBC survey in 2003, which found that "spastic" was the second most offensive term in the UK relating to disability (retard was deemed most offensive).[2] In 2007, Lynne Murphy, a linguist at the University of Sussex, described the term as being "one of the most taboo insults to a British ear".[1] Despite the meaning remaining unchanged, recognition of the offensive nature of the words "spaz" or "spastic" are less widely admitted in the United States and they are still used in mainstream media and conversation.

United States

In American slang, the term "spaz" has become largely disconnected from how inoffensive the term to people with disability, and is generally understood as a casual word for clumsiness, otherness, sometimes associated with overexcitability, excessive startle response ("jumpiness"), excessive energy, involuntary or random movement, or hyperactivity, each of which can be attributed back to the conditions the term originally mocked. Like the word Retard (pejorative), the term is used as a casual insult without regard for the deep offence it can cause, and is commonly used as an insult referring to someone being inadequate or a lesser human being.

Its usage has been documented as far back as the mid-1950s.[9] In 1965, film critic Pauline Kael, hypothesised that, "The term that American teenagers now use as the opposite of 'tough' is 'spaz' . A spaz is a person who is courteous to teachers, plans for a career, and believes in official values. A spaz is something like what adults still call a square."[9] The New York Times columnist similarly explained to readers that spaz meant "You're strictly from 23-skidoo".[9]

Benjamin Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Research in Cognitive Sciences, writes that by the mid-1960s the American usage of the term spaz shifted from "its original sense of 'spastic or physically uncoordinated person' to something more like 'nerdy, weird or uncool person.'"[10] In a June 2005 newsletter for "American Dialect Society", Zimmer reports that the "earliest [written] occurrence of uncoordinated "spaz" he could find " is found in The Elastik Band's 1967 "undeniably tasteless garage-rock single" "Spazz".[11]

Later in 1978, Steve Martin introduced a character Charles Knerlman, aka "Chaz the Spaz" on Saturday Night Live, in a skit with Bill Murray called "Nerds". Bill Murray later starred in the movie Meatballs which had a character named "Spaz."[12] Both shows portrayed a spaz as a nerd or somebody uncool in a comic setting reinforcing the more causal use of the term in the United States by using it in prime time comedy show.[9]

In his song 'Goodnight Saigon', Billy Joel tells the story of young American soldiers going to Vietnam, naive on arrival and some going back home in body bags in the end. He sings, "We came in spastic like tameless horses, we left in plastic as numbered corpses."

Although there are a few examples that reinforce this idea that the meaning of the term has changed, the majority of entries in Urban Dictionary as well as the extension of the term to common phases such as "spazzing-out" suggest that instead of the meaning changing, there can be in some cases a disconnect between the term's meaning and its use.

In the UK the realisation of the term became more widely recognised because Joey Deacon's appearance on Blue Peter presented a human face to Cerebral Palsy. This woke the nation up to the up to that point denial regarding the offence it had caused. Historically people with moderate to severe disability could not access mainstream education and employment, reinforcing their status as outsiders to mainstream society and media. Without having a person in the media such as Joey, whose appearance on the BBC opened-up the debate around how people were excluded by society because of their conditions, and the subsequent recognition of the language that reinforced this, the term still occasionally appears in North American movies or TV series such as Friends. As such it receives a different reaction from British and American audiences. In one episode, Rachel refers to herself as a "laundry spaz" due to her inability to competently do the laundry which directly relates to the original meaning about physical ability.

This comment was deemed offensive enough by the British Board of Film Classification to give the episode a 12 rating. Other episodes in the series are rated a step lower at PG.[13] Similarly, Rugrats: Tales From the Crib Snow White got a PG rating based on Angelica calling Kimi "Spazzy".[14]

The difference in appreciation of the term between British and American audiences was highlighted by an incident with the golfer Tiger Woods; after losing the US Masters Tournament in 2006, he said, "I was so in control from tee to green, the best I've played for years... But as soon as I got on the green I was a spaz." His remarks were broadcast and drew no attention in America. But they were widely reported in the United Kingdom, where they caused offence and were condemned by a representative of Scope and Tanni Grey-Thompson, a prominent paralympian. On learning of the furore over his comments, Woods' representative promptly apologized.[15][16]

Tiger Woods use of the term along with its use in shows like Friends still reference difficulty in completing physical tasks calling into question Pauline Kael and Benjamin Zimmer's hypothesis that the meaning of the term had changed. This is further reinforced through social media where the term is most often used in reference to involuntary or uncoordinated movement, or uncontrolled outbursts. The term is usually used in phrases such as, "spazzed" or "spazzing out", where as in its shortened form "spaz" it has extended to include learning or communication disabilities, which affect some people with cerebral palsy, or cognitive conditions such as autism as it can be used to describe some one appearing 'stupid' or behaving is an unusual way.

Australia

A historical Australian road sign encouraging drivers to watch out for "Spastic Pedestrians". The sign is no longer in official use.

In Australian English, for some time, terms such as "spastic" and "crippled" were considered the proper words to describe persons with various disabilities and even appeared on traffic signs warning drivers of such persons near the road. More recently these terms have fallen out of use and replaced with the more socially acceptable and generic "disabled".

"Spaz" products

Multiple products in America use the word Spaz as part of their name.

Controversy arises if products are sold in the UK under the same name. In particular the manufacturers and importers of the Spazz wheelchair were criticised by the British charity Scope when they put the wheelchair on sale in the UK. Scope expressed a fear that the usage of the word as an insult would increase again, after a steady decline since the 1980s.[17]

A caffeinated lipbalm created by a police officer is called "SpazzStick."[18] "Spaz-Stix" is a company that produces high end remote control car/plane paints.

An energy drink is called "Spaz Juice" and has a slogan, "all the energy you need to annoy everybody else."[19]

The Transformers Power Core Combiners line of robot toys was to include a character named "Spastic". Hasbro, the makers of Transformers, said that it would not release "Spastic" in the UK. This did not stop vocal British fans from alerting various news outlets, eventually resulting in the name being changed for all markets to the less-offensive "Over-Run." The online biography for another Transformer, Strafe, described him as "spastic" in early releases, but when the controversy erupted about the word, they changed the word to "twitchy."

On June 29, 2007, Ubisoft of France pulled one of their games called Mind Quiz: Your Brain Coach, for referring to players who did not perform well at the game as "Super Spastic". The company stated "As soon as we were made aware of the issue we stopped distribution of the product and are now working with retailers to pull the game off the market."[20] One of the playable characters, a brother of eponymous main character, in Jazz Jackrabbit game series (introduced in Jazz Jackrabbit 2) is named "Spaz". Similarly, Nintendo recalled Mario Party 8 in the UK after releasing a version containing the line "turn the train spastic" in its dialogue.[21]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Murphy, M Lynne (2007-02-28). "spastic, learning disability". Separated by a Common Language. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  2. 1 2 BBC (2003). "Worst Word Vote". Ouch. Archived from the original on 2007-03-20. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  3. ↑ "The Economist in the Twentieth Century". The Economist 173 (Economist Newspaper Limited). University of Michigan. 1954. p. 472. Retrieved 31 March 2016. CHRISTY BROWN is not strictly a spastic. But the word has now come to be used to cover all forms of cerebral palsy — the medical term for the effects produced by some types of brain maldevelopment or by brain injury at birth.
  4. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 1989.
  5. 1 2 Raymond A. Smith (28 October 2013). Global HIV/AIDS Politics, Policy, and Activism: Persistent Challenges and Emerging Issues 93. ABC-CLIO. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-313-39946-6.
  6. ↑ Rose, Damon (2006-04-13). "BBC News – The s-word". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
  7. ↑ Hansard. "House of Commons Hansard", Column 544, on the 11th of May,
  8. ↑ Tom Dalzell; Terry Victor (27 November 2014). The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Routledge. p. 672. ISBN 978-1-317-62512-4.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Zimmer, Benjamin (2007-02-05). "A brief history of "spaz"". Language Log. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  10. ↑ Zimmer, Benjamin (2006-04-13). "Parents will never be cool". Language Log. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  11. ↑ Zimmer, Benjamin (2005-06-23). "spaz(z), n.". Newsletter. American Dialect Society. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  12. ↑ "Meatballs (1979)". imdb. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  13. ↑ Hoyle, Ben (2009-06-24). "British Board of Film Classification tightens age rating guidelines". London: TimesOnline. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  14. ↑ "RUGRATS TALES FROM THE CRIB SNOW WHITE". BBFC. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  15. ↑ "SI.com – Golf – Agent: Tiger sorry for 'spaz' remark – Thursday April 13, 2006 4:02PM". CNN. 2006-04-13. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
  16. ↑ BBC (2006-04-12). "Tanni criticises "stupid" Tiger". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  17. ↑ "The Daily Record – NEWS – DISABLED OUTRAGE OVER WHEELCHAIR CALLED THE SPAZZ – DISABLED OUTRAGE OVER WHEELCHAIR CALLED THE SPAZZ". Retrieved 2007-06-07.
  18. ↑ "SPAZZSTICK dot com :: The World's ONLY Caffeinated Lip Balm!". Retrieved 2007-06-07.
  19. ↑ "Happy Bunny Spaz Juice – The BevNET.com Review". Retrieved 2007-06-07.
  20. ↑ "Brain game pulled over 'offence'". BBC News. 2007-06-29. Retrieved 2007-06-29.
  21. ↑ "Mario's Party ended for saying "spastic"". Retrieved 2007-07-16.
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