So it seems my fellow gimps have found something to be outraged over, leaving me to wonder...
Are they retarded?
Before I get flamed, some background:
I am in a wheelchair, rode the short bus all my school years and knew (and was friends with) many of the kids on that bus. I have had friends with Downs, friends who had CP, friends who were mentally retarded, and many more conditions than I can count.
I am also a writer, and this is where my frustration comes in.
See, I write some gritty stuff - I have characters who are far from pleasant at times - and they say and do things that I never would. If a racist character calls someone a nigger, spic, kike, wop, or hey - a gimp! - does that mean it should be boycotted by those groups? What if I write a character that rapes a woman? Or a man? Or a child? Does it mean that I am a rapist, too?
No. It means that I am a writer.
If we could never write about things we are not, there would be a huge shortage of entertainment and fiction in the world. If a screenwriter cannot use the word retard because it offends a group of people (as opposed to calling them retards), then where does it stop? I guess much of our classic literature is pretty fucked, huh?
And that makes me sad. People I can identify with - people with disabilities like me - are seeing the enemy as a word, and if that word just goes away, they can magically be happy. But the word is not their enemy.
Bigots are.
I, too, get pissed when someone hurtfully calls someone a name, but I am not angry they said that hateful name. I am angry that they are a bigot. Big difference.
If I, as a writer, cannot write bigots into my story, well...
That is pretty fucking retarded.