Political “Incorrectness” in “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs
...physical or mental.” She also chooses not to use the word handicapped because it “implies that [she] has deliberately been put at a disadvantage.” According to her, these words are “moving away from” and “widening the gap between the word and reality.” Mairs says she has grown accustomed to disabled and handicapped because, although they are “vague,” they at least “hint at the truth.” A newer term, however, that she particularly dislikes is differently abled, which she says is “pure verbal garbage” that is designed “to describe no one” and, quoting Orwell, represents the “slovenliness or our language.” She also describes the use of this word as a “degeneration of the language” that denies that she has “lost anything in the course of this calamitous disease.” She refuses to pretend that she is no different from anyone else. “Some realities,” she says, “do not obey the dictates of language.” No matter what term that might be used to describe her, she is still crippled. Crippled is not a word Mairs would ever use to refer to someone else. She is well aware that our society is no more willing to accept “crippledness” than it is “death, war, sex, sweat, or wrinkles.” She uses it only for herself. However, the implication that in our effort to be politically correct we have gotten farther and farther from reality is well founded. Of course, it is always important to be respectful of others, but the potential for honest conversation is often lost in our fear of being pol...