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"Yes, ‘Aspergery’ Is a Slur and It's Time to Stop Using It"

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I haven't heard the word before. But it's such a funny sounding word I did giggle and mutter it to myself over and over with varying degrees of faux-drunkenness in regards to "that's burgery" and "that's perjury". "The fries be lyin'! 'At's perjury I tell ye, 'at's burgery perjury!"

Ahem, um, yes. Not an acceptable form of verbal insult.
 
For one thing, the way "Asperger's" is pronounced makes it a joke to begin with. It sounds like a food I would not put in my mouth. "Aspergery" reminds me of "ass-buggery," which isn't making things any better.

I'm all for changing the pronunciation of the word entirely. Instead of "ASS-per-gers" with the first syllable over emphasized and the "g" sounding like "great," let's try "uh-SPER-jers," where the first syllable is toned down, the emphasis is on the second syllable and the "g" becomes a "j" sound, as in "jerk."

Yeah, I know it was the dude's name who "discovered" the disorder, but he was from Europe. We pronounce European names differently in America all the time. In Germany, the name Henninger is pronounced with a "g" as in "great." Here, it is pronounced "Henn-in-jer" with that "jerkin" "j" sound again.

You may see this post again as a poll for thoughts on changing the way we say this word, so as to eliminate some of the snicker-worthy comments it causes.

And, as for the article, while I love any chance to slam the current administration, I just can't get too worked up over it. Honestly, it frightens me that autism advocates will begin to create victimhood where none really exists. Education of public seems to be a better route to understanding than slapping wrists and trying to shame people into proper behavior.
 
I've never heard this term either, but as a person with severe OCD, I can't stand people saying they're "OCD about this," because they have no idea what it's actually like. I'd say this falls in pretty much the same category.
 
buckyboy14 said:
I've never heard this term either, but as a person with severe OCD, I can't stand people saying they're "OCD about this," because they have no idea what it's actually like. I'd say this falls in pretty much the same category.
Click to expand...

I've found that many think saying "I'm OCD about this" is the same as "I'm obsessive about this". Like they don't know the "D" stands for "disorder". My brother has OCD. I'm borderline (lots of obsessive compulsive behaviors, but not to the point that it causes me trouble in day to day life).

I'm another who'd never even heard the word before. I can't see a need for it to even exist, so I'll agree that it needs to go.
 
I can't say I've heard this term, but I have heard people calling each other autistic as an insult. It is an issue, however from my perspective I do think that society is generally gaining more of an understanding of Asperger's Syndrome and autism (at a surface level, more towards the high functioning end. People don't understand the other end of the spectrum as well, but there are some movements happening regarding this). When I have talked about it with colleagues they are generally quite understanding about it and ask relatively good questions about it, and people don't treat me outlandishly differently but just mention things that may be an issue so that we both know that they might be an issue.

Society still has a way to go, but I would imagine it is definitely better then it would have been ten years in the past (unlike with things like depression, where I think that people struggle with understanding a bit more and so don't deal with it as appropriately).
 
In Australia we pronounce it as Ah-Spurge-Ers, so I have heard people laugh and say they misheard it as arse purgers, but generally speaking we didn't get too many people being derogatory about it until South Park had their 'ass-burgers' episode, then you would hear that and 'arse burners' being laughed about in groups of kids.
I think people mock what they don't know to hide their ignorance and insecurity about it, then that enters popular lexicon and winds up being used by people who are not familiar with the origin of the word.

Is it right, no, but it does have one saving grace in that it brings attention to that which it defames and knowledge brings understanding, or so I'm told ; ]
 
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