It was a common insult in the playground in the UK in the 70’s & 80’s, generally shortened to ‘mong’. See also ‘spaccy’ (spastic) and joey (a reference to Joey Deacon, a man with cerebral palsy who had appeared on TV).
I don’t think the vast majority of us really thought about or understood what it meant, but kids can be thoughtless little shits at times (source - was a kid)
What about “plug”/“jack” and “socket”
In 1981, during the last year of his life, Joey Deacon was featured on the children’s magazine programme Blue Peter for the International Year of the Disabled. He was presented as an example of a man who achieved a lot in spite of his disabilities. Despite the sensitive way in which Blue Peter covered his life, the impact on the public was not as intended. The sights and sounds of Deacon’s distinctive speech and mannerisms were picked up on by children and he quickly became a figure of ridicule in school playgrounds across the country
Head, meet desk.
In Carlisle it was “spaccer”, but we also said “charver” instead of “chav” (we also were saying that in the 80s, a lot earlier than the first recognised printing of chav, but the playgrounds of northern English schools are not good enough for references in the OED).
And we go full circle back to Ian Dury and Spasticus Autisticus
Growing up I thought this was by a British band and was singing about Benny from Crossroads (a long running and notoriously low budget soap), who wore a hat and had a job and was a bit simple.
I was surprised to find out it was by Devo.
Here’s some media that I find interestingly problematic:
The relevant bit is 29:27 to 31:30; it should be cued to the right bit.
Frankie launches with a rape joke, then turns it meta, then transitions into an attempt at a feminist section. But he’s tap-dancing on the line the whole way, and to me it feels like he slips a bit too far at times (across his career; he’s been doing this style of thing for years).
Yeah, I’d agree with that assessment.
Though I did like his line about predator vs scavenger.
I still have trouble watching Frankie Boyle because of his repeated transphobia on Mock the Week. He left the show 8 years ago.
So, the Watcha reading thread brought back memories of this book:
I remember loving this as a 9 year old, but that was when cowboys and indians was just on its way out. I suspect that I’d find that the Suck Fairy has visited were I to read it again… anyone read this recently? Does it hold up?
An example of good, rather than bad. Interesting gender politics in this:
Hip-hop videos have a long history of hyper-sexualisation of women. Even rad-left artists are not immune to this:
(Akala made some effort with costumes and roles, but the women in that are still sexualised)
For The Coup, though…
They wanted dancers, but realised that they’d be sexualised even if they put them in Akala-esque constumes. So they went with balaclavas, which almost completely remove that aspect.
OTOH, the most conventionally attractive woman in the vid is cast in the role of the Wicked Witch. Even in the good ones, there’s always something open to critique…
Some old favourites that are a bit on the problematic side these days. Intended as tragic love songs, but a bit stalkery.
Related:
I took a peek over at Google Maps to see what John Marshall High School looks like these days, since I don’t often have occasion to drive through that section of Los Feliz. (It’s the school in the “Hot For Teacher” video, and you might also recognize it from the end-of-school carnival in Grease.)
The school itself doesn’t look too different from the front, except for the addition of some weird scaffolding-hallway-entrance thing, which as far as I can tell seems to be there to protect young skulls against falling masonry in the event of an earthquake or something. But what struck me about Street View’s image is the foreground. In place of David Lee Roth’s roadster, there’s a police car now.
1984:
2017:
And it’s been there for years and years now:
2016:
2011:
2009:
2007:
All the years Street View has available, except for 2014. For some reason, the Street View car drove by Marshall 3 times in 2014, but one time was in July, so school would not have been in session. I imagine the November and February views may have been on weekends.
Anyway, I know this is OT, but it just reminded me how things have changed since the 80s. It’s good that we recognize the problems and horrible racist & sexist bullshit that just seemed normal back then. But now we routinely have cops stationed at schools for the entire school day, and that’s become normal and okay, and not unnerving at all.
Some things are generally improving. Some things are getting worse. Relatively little is staying the same. Story of all history, really.
I’ve been in the mood for lighter fare these days, and decided to revisit How to Lose a Man in 10 Days. Now I know the whole rom-com genre is steeped in misogyny, but a good chick flick can be great comfort food.
Spoiler alert: Andy is going to win her bet to lose her guy in 10 days by wanting her guy to do GIRL stuff: like, wanting closeness, attention, and romance. The hilarious plot twist? Andy is ACTUALLY every guy’s dream: basically, a guy with boobs. She loves sports, meat, and, oh yeah, she’s freakin’ gorgeous.
I am very pro-sex, but I dislike such terms in electronics, plumbing, etc because they anthropomorhize inanimate objects. Humans are generally egotistical and love to project their likenesses and motives everywhere.
There isn’t anything that isn’t ambiguous! People often prefer to overload existing words, rather than look for existing ones. The compliment to a plug is usually a socket. In A/V parlance, many will describe either as being a “jack”, which technically refers to a socket.
Re: Devo’s Mongoloid I can see how it might be problematic to some, but IMO it is written with some clever ambiguity where it can be read as pro-disabled, or anti-normal. So how problematic it might be could depend upon whether one thinks the word Mongoloid is problematic in itself.
That’s where I think it can be difficult to simply accept or decry media with “unfortunate implications” - one has to guess if their motives were critical or not, and if depicting a thing is automatically the same as endorsing a thing.
Many acknowledge that a lot of this comes down to being a matter of context. But often, many people will agree that certain contexts are implicit.
(Yes, I’m necroing an ancient post from an anonymized account. So sorry.)
I love KRS-ONE and he’s a hip hop legend, but yeah. Some very cringeworthy lines in this song for sure. Most notably, “Roxanne Shanté is only good for steady fucking”
Shanté was 14 at the time.
Speaking of creepy stalker songs…
It’s hard for me to separate my admiration for Paris’ music and militance from the undercurrent of patriarchy and homophobia.
Is that a bad thing? I sometimes enjoy seeing something from a while back (that I may have missed at the time), and sometimes I like to comment on such things. Is that a Party Foul?
As far as netiquitte goes, I think it largely depends. I feel no qualms about it but wanted to note it was intentional.
