misterd on 03 July 2007
| kn said: since I have a special needs child, I'll tell you what spastic is: It is short for spasticity and can either be low or high. It refers to muscle tone. People with high spasticity are very rigid and have serious difficulty moving their arms and legs. Low, conversely, leaves people with very flopply limbs. It has nothing to do with "mental" capability and such. Using the term spastic to describe or poke fun at a normal person would essentially be saying they have jerky, uncontrolled arm and leg movements rather than slow, fluid movements in a "normal" person. There ya go. Now you know how to use the term. |
And that's my problem. The term spastic has nothing whatsoever to do with mental ability. "Spaz" was a common jeer when I was in HS, but it was aimed at those who were uncoordinated (looking at my students, it is fair to say "Spaz" has since fallen out of use, along with pretty much any other derogatory term save "gay" or "fag").
I suppose if the DS game were keeping track of the movements of the stylus and detected poorly coordinated motion the term "spastic" would be more appropriate, but in this instance it is completely out of place.
