Characters with handicaps

[Kilana2]

Geordi is he most populalar example of characters with a handicap (blindness) who is well-integrated.

Then there is Melora Pazlar, who struggled to adapt to gravity aboard a space station or starship and usually put off well-meaning people. Independence ist obviously very important to her.

In TLE One Constant Star a crewmember lost an arm due to amputation and had to undergo rehabilitation.

There are worlds were people with handicaps are considered a burden, pregnancies with children having disorders are aborted on a regular basis or children with handicaps are abandoned or even killed.

Which opportunities does the Federation offer for those affected? Workplace adjustments shouldn’t be a problem anymore one might think.

 

[DimesDan]

Is handicaps or the handicapped still an ok term to use? I thought it was less-ably-bodied and on further reflection, those two terms are pretty derogatory and just as bad as saying retard or retarded.

As for a character who was less-ably-bodied, I would like to see someone who needs to inject a perfectly benign hormone as their body doesn't produce it.

 

[φ of π]

Nog from DS9 became physically disadvantaged, too.

 

[Tenacity]

Is handicaps or the handicapped still an ok term to use?

Uhura: "You see, in our century we've learned not to fear words."

 

[DS9Continuing]

P8 Blue was a 'quiet', a minority who had difficulty communicating in the same way as most Nasats. She learned to do so through hard work, but could lose it again if she got too stressed or emotional. Turns out it wasn't so much a disability as a way of communicating with the other species that lived on their planet, which mainstream Nasat society had just forgotten about.

As mentioned, Nog has a prosthetic leg from the knee down, and I believe Tuvok also had a prosthetic elbow or something like that.

 

[φ of π]

Seven of Nine has a prosthetic eye.

 

[DimesDan]

Uhura: "You see, in our century we've learned not to fear words."

Which is all fine in a fictional future. But here and now on the 27th January 2018, words can have a real affect on people hence what I said.

Would you post the same idealistic quote if we were discussing the "N" word?

 

[Reanok]

Nog has an a prostetic leg after losing his leg battling the Jem Haddar at AR588.

 

[David cgc]

Is handicaps or the handicapped still an ok term to use? I thought it was less-ably-bodied and on further reflection, those two terms are pretty derogatory and just as bad as saying retard or retarded.

I just watched "The Loss" since it was featured on Random Trek this week, and I was wincing throughout the scene where Troi tells Picard she wants to quit in the Ready Room. It was like they were in a contest to see who could use the most outdated terminology. "Disabled," "handicapped," "confined to a wheelchair," and, honestly, I'm finding it hard to believe "normal people" wasn't seen as cruel even in the early '90s.

As for a character who was less-ably-bodied, I would like to see someone who needs to inject a perfectly benign hormone as their body doesn't produce it.

They'd probably have some sort of implant, like an insulin pump. IIRC, in the "First Contact" novelization, Cochrane's backstory was that he had bipolar disorder, which had been treated with an implant that dispensed medication. He hadn't been able to get it repaired or refilled since the war, so he was self-medicating with alcohol by the time we met him. Crusher quietly gave him a more permanent 24th century treatment for it just before the Enterprise went back to the future.

 

[Kilana2]

Is handicaps or the handicapped still an ok term to use? I thought it was less-ably-bodied and on further reflection, those two terms are pretty derogatory and just as bad as saying retard or retarded.

As for a character who was less-ably-bodied, I would like to see someone who needs to inject a perfectly benign hormone as their body doesn't produce it.

It wasn't meant derogatory, by no means. What about the term "disability"? I work with people who have disabilities which are recognized by public authorities but who don't consider themselves as disabled. They cherish their independence.

 

[Kilana2]

Nog has an a prostetic leg after losing his leg battling the Jem Haddar at AR588.

Yes. And he struggled to adapt to it. Understandably enough, considering all he went through.

 

[JD]

Is handicaps or the handicapped still an ok term to use? I thought it was less-ably-bodied and on further reflection, those two terms are pretty derogatory and just as bad as saying retard or retarded.

As for a character who was less-ably-bodied, I would like to see someone who needs to inject a perfectly benign hormone as their body doesn't produce it.

The term I see the most often these days is people with disabilities/disabled.

 

[Christopher]

The thing about derogatory labels is that the derogatory aspect often comes from their use as a negative by bigots, rather than any intrinsic negativity about them. I've always thought that "disabled" -- which implies lacking ability -- was intrinsically more insulting than "handicapped" -- which, in sports, refers to compensating for an imbalance in order to give all participants a fair shake. But too many people used "handicapped" as an insult, and that tainted it.

You see the same progression with demonyms for African-Americans -- once they preferred "colored" until that became too derogatory, then "Negro" until that became too derogatory, then "black" until that became too derogatory, then "African-American." (Although "black" has certainly made a comeback as a term of pride these days.) The problem is that changing the labels doesn't change the attitudes. So even the most innocent word can be turned into hate speech. Although, conversely, initially hateful terms can be reclaimed and turned into positives by the groups they're applied to, such as "gay" (which originally meant sexually amoral and licentious) or "queer." Words mean what people use them to mean.

 

[Kilana2]

When Klag son of M'Raq lost his arm, he refused to accept a prosthecic but got his father's arm instead as a replacement. Great story, but Klag's decision was obviously not very popular among the Klingons. Being 'handicapped' isn't a problem as long as it keeps you fighting properly , though.

 

[DimesDan]

They'd probably have some sort of implant, like an insulin pump.

Having T1D for nearly 20 years,

It wasn't meant derogatory, by no means.

I'm sure you didn't, but it still came across to me like that.

What about the term "disability"? I work with people who have disabilities which are recognized by public authorities but who don't consider themselves as disabled. They cherish their independence.

Under certain laws, I am classified as disabled and as far as I am aware, that is an acceptable term.

 

[Tenacity]

Would you post the same idealistic quote if we were discussing the "N" word?

I certainly went though school with enough people who would self-describe and referred to their friends with "the N-word." It wasn't a problem because it wasn't being used as a pejorative.

It's the same with handicapped, it's a common understood descriptive term that isn't a insult unless it intended to be such. Not using the term doesn't change the person's condition.

 

[Christopher]

I certainly went though school with enough people who would self-describe and referred to their friends with "the N-word." It wasn't a problem because it wasn't being used as a pejorative.

That's the sort of thing where the impact is very different depending on which group uses the word. Like how making jokes about Jewish people is only okay if you're Jewish. It's all a matter of what end of the power dynamic you're on. Punching down is never okay.

And it's not even uniformly accepted within the black community. See the scene in Marvel's Luke Cage TV series where a punk kid calls Cage by that epithet and Cage objects, or rather expresses disappointment that the kid would see him that way.

A similar, but somewhat less fraught, dynamic applies to the label "girl" for a grown woman. The pilot episode of Supergirl had Cat Grant give this big speech about how calling oneself a girl could be a feminist, empowering thing -- and of course the show was developed by a female showrunner who evidently agrees -- but my cousin dislikes the name because she's from a generation of feminists who fought against the use of "girl" applied to grown women as a derogatory, diminishing label.

 

[Kilana2]

A similar, but somewhat less fraught, dynamic applies to the label "girl" for a grown woman. The pilot episode of Supergirl had Cat Grant give this big speech about how calling oneself a girl could be a feminist, empowering thing -- and of course the show was developed by a female showrunner who evidently agrees -- but my cousin dislikes the name because she's from a generation of feminists who fought against the use of "girl" applied to grown women as a derogatory, diminishing label.

What about 'Miss'? It's 'Fräulein' in German, a title for an unmarried young woman. And oldfashioned, by the way. I'm not used to being called that way, except by old Gentlemen. But if they do so, they do it mostly in a charming way.

 

[DimesDan]

I certainly went though school with enough people who would self-describe and referred to their friends with "the N-word." It wasn't a problem because it wasn't being used as a pejorative.

Good for you. I've grown up knowing such a term was deemed inappropriate at best and highly insulting at worst.

It's the same with handicapped, it's a common understood descriptive term that isn't a insult unless it intended to be such. Not using the term doesn't change the person's condition.

I know it doesn't, but one really should check ones privilege and potentially upsetting others when using certain words given I can be classified as handicapped and I do find it insulting.

 

[David cgc]

Having T1D for nearly 20 years,

Whoops. I totally misread that, and was thinking of the other hormones that are more in the news. Totally forgot that insulin was one.

What about 'Miss'? It's 'Fräulein' in German, a title for an unmarried young woman. And oldfashioned, by the way. I'm not used to being called that way, except by old Gentlemen. But if they do so, they do it mostly in a charming way.

Well, that's why they invented "Ms." to split the difference between "Miss" and "Missus." And thank God for that, I don't need to keep track of the marital status of every woman I encounter.

I remember in French class the teacher mentioning that at after certain age it wasn't polite to address an unmarried woman as "mademoiselle" anymore, no matter how blatantly single she was. I don't know enough about French feminism to know if "madame" has become generalized the way "frau" has been, if I take your meaning correctly, and you can address any woman or girl that way without getting a weird look. I know in English if you called a child "Mrs. So-and-So" it'd be weird but, like I said, we had another solution for that.

I don't know of the English "Ms." having an equivalent in other languages. Of course, I also don't know how to spell it out when not abbreviating it. "Miz"? That can't be right.