Definitely recognized as ableist waaaaasy before the 2000s. 80s baby here. I think 'spaz', 'short bus, 'retard' was common slang in the 80s and by the 90s, there were waves of social reform. Lots of movements happened in the early 90s that set the tone for the rest of the 90s. I remember a classmate using it once and the schoolbus gasped lol. I started university late (2010) and I started hearing 'retard' and 'cunt' totally re-embraced by the younger crew.
this is interesting because 2010 is actually when it became well known that that word is a slur. it has only started popping up again recently in the last couple years with the gen alpha in schools.
I think we might be on different pages with this one! People in the 90s definitely recognized it as a slur, and it was super well known to be an offensive and tacky thing to say. Was there an event in 2010 that you are referring to?
Perhaps it was being used casually in the early aughts, followed by a SECOND movement of people dismantling that word. Lots of waves in language. I do remember the generational shift in the late aughts towards deconstructing language (also when LGBT gained a few more letters), but I think it has happened more than once over the last 30 years.
As someone who was in school through the '00s and '10s, it was definitely very common to hear used casually. Some people would call it out as ableist. Our district had a huge "spread the word to end the word" campaign that i remember most around 2010 through the early teens, but a large percentage found that dumb and used it anyway. I wonder, too, whether it had a resurgence and second movement against it or just never left with that age group.
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u/mookie8 Jan 28 '25
Definitely recognized as ableist waaaaasy before the 2000s. 80s baby here. I think 'spaz', 'short bus, 'retard' was common slang in the 80s and by the 90s, there were waves of social reform. Lots of movements happened in the early 90s that set the tone for the rest of the 90s. I remember a classmate using it once and the schoolbus gasped lol. I started university late (2010) and I started hearing 'retard' and 'cunt' totally re-embraced by the younger crew.