People Can Be Retarded Sometimes

I'm really annoyed by the uproar that is happening over the new movie Tropic Thunder. If you haven't heard about the uproar and you're too lazy to read the link above, let me sum it up for you: Many groups are up in arms that the movie uses the word "retarded" over and over again in a disparaging way. Yes, the use of the word is shocking. Yes, it's meant to be shocking, and these groups want it cut from the film. From a linguist's point of view what they want is a mistake. Here's why.

For all time, people have made fun of people with mental disabilities. It's not right, but it's always happened. Sad but true. And one of the effects of people making fun of this group is the co-opting of psychological terms for the disabled and the use of those terms in a derogatory manner.

The first IQ tests were made around the turn of the 20th century, and they defined people with mental disabilities as those having an IQ less than 70. Psychologists further divided that group into three sub-groups: Those with an IQ of less than 26, those with an IQ of 26-50, and those with an IQ of 51-70. Each of those groups was given a name. Any guesses what those names were?

Through guessing already? Okay. I'll tell you: Those with an IQ of less than 26 were called "idiots." Those with an IQ of 26-50 were "imbeciles," and those with an IQ of 51-70 were called "morons." It's hard to believe that these were actual psychological terms in the early 20th century, but they were, and they did not have any of the negative connotations associated with them now. However, eventually people who were NOT mentally disabled starting using these terms on each other, and the three words went from having a neutral meaning to having a definitely negative meaning.

To combat this change of meaning of the three words, the psychology community adopted new terms: The former idiots were labeled "profoundly retarded," the imbeciles were "severely retarded" or "moderately retarded" depending on their IQ score, and the morons became "mildly retarded." The word "retarded" was used to suggest that these people were not idiots, at least not idiots in the sense that the word means now. They were simply a little slower to learn than the average person, a little retarded in their learning.

Of course, eventually "retarded" became a word with a negative connotation as well. Blame it on me and my friends. We pretty much called everything "retarded" as kids: school, people in authority, each other. So "retarded" fell out of favor and has been replaced by more specific words. Mentally disabled. Learning Disabled. Autistic. Dyslexic. And "retarded" is now so out of vogue that many publications reporting on this film are referring to it as the "r" word.

Getting back to Tropic Thunder, though, the problem is this: If the film's creators did what everyone is crying for them to do (edit the film to remove the use of "retarded") they would most likely replace "retarded" with a word like "mentally disabled" or "learning disabled." But if a politically correct term like "mentally disabled" was used in a comedy over and over again, the very real possibility might occur that whatever term they use could also fall into the public vernacular as a negative phrase and then the psychology and special education community would have to find new words to describe the disability. Again.

So I say let Ben Stiller use "retarded" if he wants. The word is already damaged by poor use. Why subject another, perfectly good phrase to possible damage as well?