let's talk about the normalization of ableism among kpop stans

  • alright now before y'all tell me im overreacting or i shouldn't talk about this, I'm hard of hearing. I have mild-moderate bilateral hearing loss, and I wear hearing aids. I can't speak for anyone else's experience, so feel free to share your perspective if you're disabled. Alright now let's get into it. some of y'alls behavior has been absolutely sick lately and it needs to be addressed. I've seen people say an opinion about an artist, and to discredit that opinion, stans will say 'you must be deaf, blind, or stupid if you think...' or 'are you deaf? this sounds nothing like...' No matter how much you disagree with the opinion, how biased you think it is, and how much you think they're talking out of their ass, it's never okay to imply that these disabilities correlate with intelligence or that being disabled makes you less than or to use disabilities as an insult for people whose opinions you don't like. Just why would you call someone deaf in order to mock them? It's so messed up and I feel like y'all don't realize how messed up it is. it's not okay because you're literally associating disabilities with unintelligence as if disabled people don't know how to act and communicate properly and be rational human beings. As if disabled people don't enjoy kpop like abled people. y'all are literally perpetuating the same offensive 'deaf and dumb' stereotypes that gets Deaf people discriminated against. Just come up with a different fucking word instead of using deaf as your token insult.

  • what if they keep making you repeat yourself even if you're right next to the person you're talking to and you've already explained whatever you're saying in the simplest way possible? i think you can jokingly call them deaf or dumb at that point. you're just referring to the person you're talking to anyway and not an entire population born with disabilities. if it's just a private conversation between two people then it really isn't anyone else's business to police how they talk or what they talk about

  • what if they keep making you repeat yourself even if you're right next to the person you're talking to and you've already explained whatever you're saying in the simplest way possible? i think you can jokingly call them deaf or dumb at that point. you're just referring to the person you're talking to anyway and not an entire population born with disabilities. if it's just a private conversation between two people then it really isn't anyone else's business to police how they talk or what they talk about

    no, you can't. you need to be patient instead of using deaf as an insult because of a mild inconvenience. being deaf is not a joke. the fact that you see the words deaf and dumb as interchangeable shows how the 'joke' is actually ableist. the term 'deaf and dumb' has been used for literally thousands of years to push this belief that deaf people are incapable of reason and learning. no matter how private the conversation is, it still perpetuates stereotypes and harms people.

  • This is very good to know. We can always better ourselves and become more aware of others' feelings

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    This is why I also have a problem with people using the word "delulu" as an insult. I didn't learn this till recently but it's pretty wrong to use that as an insult since there are people out there with mental illnesses such as delusion. Ever since I learned about it I stopped using it. I'm sure there are other ways to not bring in other people's disabilities in order to insult someone. But even then insulting others shouldn't be normalized whether you use those terms or not.

  • well it really isn't just a kpop normalization thing, it's a global and universal thing. It's still used in almost every form of literature, music, art, culture, and heated contextual moment.

    kpop fans won't stop using them when the majority of the world still does, me included. I use " blind " and " blinded " in and out of insults. It's taught to kids in their classes, they're taught to use it.

    I dont understand OP's focus on Kpop stans as well, I've been using these phrases since i was like 7 well before i knew what Kpop was. So were all of my peers and my parents and their parents and everyone i worked with or went to school with. They're not meant to insult anyone, i mean hell, i'm short for a guy 5'8, and i've probably heard a million jokes/insults about being short from people and from television and movies and books, but i never take them personally.


    I do really feel bad for OP though. Losing my hearing would kill me, since i love listening to things, whether it's music or just people talking or laughing. :-(

      

  • well it really isn't just a kpop normalization thing, it's a global and universal thing. It's still used in almost every form of literature, music, art, culture, and heated contextual moment.

    kpop fans won't stop using them when the majority of the world still does, me included. I use " blind " and " blinded " in and out of insults. It's taught to kids in their classes, they're taught to use it.

    I know we still have a long way to go, but one way to start rooting out ableism is to make the conscious decision to stop using offensive and hurtful terms and to think more about the way our words affect disabled people. and I can't control what people do in other spheres of their life, but if I can educate some people on this forum, I think it can make a difference.

  • I dont understand OP's focus on Kpop stans as well, I've been using these phrases since i was like 7 well before i knew what Kpop was. So were all of my peers and my parents and their parents and everyone i worked with or went to school with. They're not meant to insult anyone, i mean hell, i'm short for a guy 5'8, and i've probably heard a million jokes/insults about being short from people and from television and movies and books, but i never take them personally.


    I do really feel bad for OP though. Losing my hearing would kill me, since i love listening to things, whether it's music or just people talking or laughing. :-(

    my point isn't that kpop stans are more ableist than the average person, it's just this is the most relevant thing to address on a kpop forum. it's a massive issue deeply ingrained into our society. i needed to bring it down to a level that people here could relate to and understand. without specifying behavior in this forum by kpop stans, people may have just agreed with my post and not recognized the behavior in themselves.


    you don't have to feel bad for me. seriously, please don't.

  • well it really isn't just a kpop normalization thing, it's a global and universal thing. It's still used in almost every form of literature, music, art, culture, and heated contextual moment.

    kpop fans won't stop using them when the majority of the world still does, me included. I use " blind " and " blinded " in and out of insults. It's taught to kids in their classes, they're taught to use it.

    I agree. Language has evolved a certain way and words do have multiple connotations.


    I sympathize with OP but I don’t think deafness and blindness or even some other terms like some one here said ‘delusional’ and even ‘insanity’ are words that can be stopped using....these have connotations above being just the illness.


    How do you differentiate between being “metaphorically” blind towards certain issues or something Vs physically unable to see. I don’t think languages are gonna adapt to such boundaries.


    I do not really expect people to stop using it. I acknowledge they can be perceived as ablist and derogatory but I don’t believe I can stop using them. Nor do I expect society to do so.

  • Metaphors of illness are ablist. Which I can acknowledge but also I don’t really know if it’s something that’s worth being overly concerned about. Or something that can really change.


    The only type of usage I don’t like is using illness as a noun for example the r word where ppl say “are you a R word” that’s a direct derogatory usage.


    But phrases “blinded by love” or “deaf to the cries of the people” are part of the English language and I don’t think can be expected to be removed from usage. Not because I don’t think status quo can change but because I don’t think they are incorrect in the first place.

  • I agree, the language need to evolve.


    For people saying 'well that's how it is', sure it is now, but let's remember that a lot of things already evolved. A few years back, people regularly used 'that's gay' as an insult. 'Don't be such a girl'. 'I get it, I'm not retarded/autistic'.


    We need to do better, we need to be better about the way we express ourselves.


    Someone talkes about the word 'delulu', and I'm guilty of using it a few times, but I tend to replace it with 'extreme' or 'hardcore' whenever I can.

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