The Language : Offensive or Inoffensive

The author of this article is writing from personal experience to persuade the audience that using the word retard has consequences on people with disabilities that understood by the people that are saying the word.  The dictionary states that the word retard means a “mentally handicapped person but is often used as a general term of abuse.”  And the word retarded refers to someone who is less advanced in mental, physical, or social development than is usual for one's age. 

The word ‘retard’ is hurtful and has lost its meaning in culture.  We live in a world where people use the word as a joke and assume there are no consequences.  They judge others without understanding the person’s situation and what they have been through.  When people use the word inappropriately it doesn’t just affect the handicapped person, it affects the whole family.  The media uses the word to make money.  It worries about other forms of discrimination, but not discrimination against disabled people.

This is a short article on the author’s experience with the word retard and how it affected the family and how people do not understand how hurtful it is.  The central claim of the article is that the word ‘retard’ is hurtful.   There is a stigma associated with disabilities and using the word inappropriately reinforces that stereotype.   The author related a story about how her daughter with Down’s Syndrome was teased by some young girls and how it affected her.  “Margaret hadn’t done anything to attract the unwanted attention.  But then, my blond, blue-eyed daughter lives every day behind a face that can be a lightening rod for such talk.  The beautiful face I’ve loved for 24 years displays some of the characteristic signs of Down syndrome”  (Bauer 118).  This quote exemplifies that instead of helping people with Down’s syndrome, the media goes against them by producing films and more that make fun of these people.  Media uses mocks handicapped people to make money.  The movie Tropic Thunder prompted the author to write this article.  Bauer gives quotes of some statements that appeared in media. For example, on a website, a marketing campaign featured the quote, “once upon a time…there was a retard” (118). Another quote was, “never go full retard” (119).  the author states that she “can’t help thinking that those people (movie audiences) have been handed both a weapon and a target” (120). Bauer explains that people just want to make fun of someone else, and that the media is not helping; when they say “don’t go full retard,” the media has told the world that it is okay to make fun of those with Down’s Syndrome.

The author uses many statistics to help the readers understand the issue. For example, she detailed information and research about the lack of a federal policy to provide community services, which has caused concern for parents when they get too old to care for their Down Syndrome child.  Another way Bauer supports her argument is by providing evidence that young people nowadays do not want to spend time with intellectually disabled people. Even parents do not want Down Syndrome students to go to their own children’s schools.  Her final statistic was that young people did not prefer to sit next to a student with Down Syndrome. These examples provide evidence to make clear that many other people experience the same situation as the daughter of the author.

People judge handicapped people by the way they look and make up stories about them, demean their accomplishments, and do not try to understand them.  The author uses her daughter as a counter example of the stereotype of mentally handicapped people.  The author brings in a description of her daughter in order for the readers to understand that even though she looks different, actually she has a normal life like everyone else. “She’s a high school graduate, works part-time at a Mediterranean restaurant, takes care of her own apartment, and volunteers at her local hospital and senior center.  She’s a regular at the gym.  She has a lively social network, a cell phone, an e-mail address.  That is not to say her life is rosy, but it seems to be working” (120). Even though people say hurtful things, it doesn’t represent the truth.  The author tries to make an argument that when people use hurtful words, they put more pressure on the family and make it more difficult for them to have a normal life.

 To persuade the audience in her view, she describes more about her view: ”my husband and I have spent much of the last two decades doing all we can to shield Margaret from the effects of what I’ve just described.  With lots of hard work on her part, and with the active support of family and friends she’s faring far better than doctors predicted when she was born” (120). The author also describes what her family has done to support their daughter by making sure she is not affected by the hurtful portrayal of her looks by others around her whose thoughts have been influenced by media.   Used as a joke, people assume it doesn’t mean anything, or is not hurtful.  When the author confronted her friends about their use of the word, they would play it off and say “Gosh, everybody says it.  It’s just a joke. Or: I didn’t mean it like that.  Or: Lighten up. It doesn’t mean anything.  People reacted as if I’d offended them when I would tell them they were insulting my daughter and others like her; they would never insult such people, they said.” (119)

The author uses by describing how it affects her daughter and the rest of the author’s family.  The story is emotional and tries to draw the audience in her daughter’s story and make them part of it.   The author forces the audience to feel guilty about the word retard by appealing to their sense of values.  It is wrong to make fun of handicapped people, but many people do it without realizing they are bullies.  The author grabs the audience’s attention by describing her Down syndrome daughter’s response to people using the word retard against her. The author uses a lot statistics to help the audience understand the issue, which supported her main argument.  She tried to humanize the issue by discussing her daughter and her families’ struggles, making the problem less abstract.

The author intends this article to be read by everyone, there is no specific age or group that the author is targeting.  The author uses her own experience to make it more interesting to the audience, which pulls readers in emotionally and makes them feel like they are part of story and relate to her and her daughter. Those who have discriminated against people with Down syndrome may find this article to be interesting because they will be reconsidering the use of the word “retard.” For those who come from different language and cultural backgrounds, it is a new experience to understand, a new story, and a new word never heard of; they too will also understand people who have Down Syndrome. Teenagers will be more influenced when they read this because they will see Down Syndrome students all around them in class,  and in the school; they will start to  understand the hurt that is caused by language that they never thought twice about. For other parents of children who have Down Syndrome, this article may first give them emotional support through knowing others are experiencing the same thing, and also may empower them to fight for the rights of their kids.

The organization is good – very clear, direct, and to the point.  It started with an anecdote to draw the audience in to the story and relate to her daughter.  Next she mentioned how the culture that we live in doesn’t understand, people are very ignorant about how the words they speak affect people and how words can be used as a weapon to hurt people.  She goes on to provide more statistical evidence to state the problem.  She also focuses on her daughter to bring statistics to life and put a face on the numbers.  The media is a main culprit, particularly how the word is used in the movie Tropic Thunder. 

Send message to people that the word retard is painful, and how it is defined is hurtful to those that are handicapped.  Author uses personal history to present a complete story.  The author presents a classic argument in order to convince us to stop using the word retard.  Her focus is on the movie tropic thunder, this movie caused her to write the article and want people to think about what they are saying and how it affects those around them.  The main issue in the article is based on a current event and may lose some relevance as time goes on.