I'm too sensitive

[ostarella]

So, a discussion on a writing forum about how to write a character who is 'mad', as in 'crazy'. And of course, he's violent!

Having a mental illness, I politely said that 'mad' and 'madness' are archaic and insulting, that the correct term is 'mentally ill' and that, btw, most mentally ill are not violent.

The members continued to use the terms. I again objected, and got all kinds of grief (including the 'threat' of being reported to the mods) because 'no disrespect' was intended.

Well, that makes it all better, doesn't it?

Sometimes the ignorance and arrogance of writers makes me want to puke... until I realize that they are probably no more ignorant nor arrogant than other folks. Just more pigheaded about their right to be so.

Comments

[beckyblack]

Gah, people. Certainly someone could give offence without intending it. But after someone has said "actually that is offensive", they can't still claim the offence is unintentional if they continue. They have to own the fact they've chosen to continue and take the consequences.

A person has a right to be offensive if they want to be, but they don't have a right not to be challenged on it by someone else.

[a1cmustangpilot.livejournal.com]

I agree, not all people who are mentally ill are violent. Some of them just walk down the hall accusing you of either being God or Satan. Her story made me sad. :( I think some people take horror movies way too seriously. Perhaps they should spend a few weeks inside of the hospital as one of those patients and see if they like being called "mad", "crazy", and "violent".

Thank you for challenging these people on it because it is insulting. In character dialogue, it could be argued that a character would say that because s/he's either a jerk or severely uneducated, but when discussing characters? Uhg, that's just really really sad.