Cute: defined as possessing physical features, behaviors, personality traits or other properties that are mainly attributed to infants and small or cuddly animals.
If you ever want to get a reaction out of me, just refer to an adult with a developmental disability as 'cute'. Call them scary, weird, or even annoying because those, while being harsh (not to mention politically incorrect), are sometimes true. But they are NoT CuTe! Adults are not infants or small cuddly animals, they are grown people with years of life experience. Calling them cute is one of the most demeaning and insulting descriptors you can use because it effectively strips them of dignity and respect, making them less than and never equal.
Treating adults like children is not loving.
Neither is allowing children to do whatever they want because they have Down syndrome.
All small children are cute, okay most small children are cute. But most parents agree that cuteness is not a free ticket to do whatever you want to whomever you want whenever you want. Boundaries are a essential in communicating love and respect. The same is true for adults, able and disabled alike.
Bottom line: The problem is not really the word cute. The problem is the tendency for people to stop at that word and not work to see past that label to the person. When you look past the label you are daring to be equals with that person with a disability. Suddenly they aren't cute anymore. They are stubborn, messy, loving, aggravating, wonderful people just like you.
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