spaz is offensive because it's short of "spastic", which is a kind of cerebral palsy. I have no idea if it has yet been adopted as affirmative slang in the way that "dyke" has.
Now, this would be the perfect time for a swear word.
Kaylee ,'Jaynestown'
Bureaucracy 2: Like Sartre, Only Longer
A thread to discuss naming threads, board policy, new thread suggestions, and anything else that has to do with board administration and maintenance. Guaranteed to include lively debate and polls. Natter discouraged, but not deleted.
Current Stompy Feet: ita, Jon B, DXMachina, P.M. Marcontell, Liese S., amych
Betsy HP - Feb 24, 2004 4:31:04 pm PST #6835 of 10005
If I only had a brain...
RobertH - Feb 24, 2004 7:07:53 pm PST #6836 of 10005
Disaffected college student
While I have no opinion one way or the other on its use in a thread title, I have trouble imagining most of the people who use it today even being aware of its etymology.
bon bon - Feb 24, 2004 7:25:42 pm PST #6837 of 10005
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.
I can't believe the Buffistas would take the word of a quasi authority on a linguistic matter. AT LEAST forty people need to weigh in first.
All snark aside, seems like spaz is no worse than "dumb". After all, all pejorative words have negative etymologies. We have any actual empirical evidence of offense? I wouldn't have connected spastic to CP without explicit help.
§ ita § - Feb 24, 2004 7:33:47 pm PST #6838 of 10005
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I wouldn't have connected spastic to CP without explicit help.
On the flip side, I had no idea so few knew.
When it was tossed around in high school, everyone knew. So it's not as distant as "moron" for me. More like "retard." Worse, perhaps.
P.M. Marc - Feb 24, 2004 8:14:05 pm PST #6839 of 10005
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
On the flip side, I had no idea so few knew.
Having had this discussion on LJ in the last six or so months, I think I can safely say it's a US/UK difference. (A UK friend brought it up, and the split in comments was pretty locale specific, with EN-US speakers not seeing anything wrong with the word, or its use in Buffy S3, and EN-UK speakers agreeing that the casual use of it was somewhat jarring.)
Spastic wasn't/isn't in common use here for description of a particular disability, where I gather it was/is in the UK. So spaz here doesn't/didn't (the tense order shift here is intentional) carry the same sort of baggage.
Deena - Feb 24, 2004 8:24:32 pm PST #6840 of 10005
How are you me? You need to stop that. Only I can be me. ~Kara
It was pejorative in my grade school and meant something like retard.
JohnSweden - Feb 24, 2004 8:27:32 pm PST #6841 of 10005
I can't even.
Yeah, we had a "school for spastics" down the street when I was a little kid in Scotland. Thems were less-enlightened times, to be sure.
On the other paw, "Summers, you drive like a spaz!" is canon and OTQs being robbed of their rightful place like Spaz! is thread culture in Quotables.
Connie Neil - Feb 24, 2004 8:30:02 pm PST #6842 of 10005
brillig
I like Spaz as a quote thread title.
JenP - Feb 24, 2004 9:10:31 pm PST #6843 of 10005
Sorry, this is nattery, but I had to share that I'm watching one of the special features on a Stargate DVD (leave me alone; can't sleep), and Amanda Tapping just referred to herself and Teryl LastName as spazzy. This is not a pro or con argument - it just made me giggle 'cuz of this discussion.
t /natter
DavidS - Feb 24, 2004 10:04:12 pm PST #6844 of 10005
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I'm pro spaz. Though not a professional spaz. That's Jon's job.