"Nutters" - an alternative view ...

[sunny-dave]

EB (in her thread here - http://www.theanswerb.../Question1123029.html ) got a bit of a kicking for using the word "nutters" in the thread title.

I was going to defend her there, but hi-jacking that thread would mean she would not get any more useful answers to her original question - so I'm flying a kite here instead.

I'm a bit grumpy about the responses she got for two reasons.

* Firstly *

"nutters" is a perfectly good word and (certainly in the context in which it was used) is not demeaning of people with mental health issues. It quite nicely describes a particular type of megalomaniac, who exist so far beyond any concept of normality as to be utterly 'out there'.

The parallel with use of the 'n' word as an offensive racial epithet is just bonkers (which is, by the way, another word which I don't intend to have removed from my vocabulary by any sort of phony "eek you can't say that" hand wringing).

Context and tone are everything - "nutters" could be an offensive word in some situations, but as used by EB I don't think it should have even caused a raised eyebrow, let alone a public smacking of the legs.

* Secondly *

I especially dislike responses which seek to give themselves added value/weight by making claims on behalf of a whole community/category of people. I have (many years ago now) had my own MH problems and I was not then (and am not now) precious about the use of these words. Please don't speak on my behalf without consulting me.

I have worked extensively, both as a volunteer and professionally, supporting others with organic and functional MH illnesses and I don’t recall anyone ever taking offence at the word used by EB – in fact many people use it as an ice-breaking, tension removing, humorous self-description in otherwise difficult situations.


Yes, we have to root out bigotry and the use of language as a weapon to demean/threaten other people - but the English language is a rich store cupboard of quirky, useful, interesting, entertaining vocabulary that we should celebrate rather than seek to emasculate.

This sort of knee-jerk "compulsory blandness" risks neutering our communication and we will all be worse off if we don’t defend our right to express ourselves.

[madmaggot]

Hear, hear!

[Mick-Talbot]

Hear, hear ! here too

[ummmm]

I use the word all the time. Usually in a joke manner as this place is full of them :-)

'Headers' is another one we use...that kinda mean a bit unpredictable, but not in a bad way.

People like to moan.

[wolf63]

My brother calls me a nutter, my friend calls me fatty and sometimes men refer to me as a 'lady'.. I ain't no lady. I own up to the other two.

Life is too short to be serious and to analyse everything that we read or hear.

I must go - work beckons - I get 10 times my normal rate for working on a Easter Monday. ;-)

[Baldric]

Well said sd,

[ummmm]

As far as I'm concerned using the word 'nutter' has nothing to do with mental health. It's used to describe loads of different types of behaviour.

[NOX]

I was officially diagnosed as being a sociopath once which is probably why I don't care what anyone calls me ;-) - specially not ' nutter'- I think it's quite quaint and quirky rather than aggressive and judgemental. People usually use it fondly, ocaaisonally nastily but generally is a fairly mild and harmless word and one which she certianly should not have been castigated about.

[mccfluffy]

The vet thinks im a nutter now

[ummmm]

You are :-)

[Barmaid]

Yeah but you ARE McFluff. ;)

[ummmm]

See^^

[friedgreentomato]

Never been called a nutter been called loads of other names but never a nutter -feel a bit left out now!!

[mccfluffy]

Thanks

[Zacs-Master]

Agree 100% SunnyD

[vulcan]

I always thought nutter was a mild expression, "He's a nutter if he thinks I'm buying the next round". It wasn't many years ago that the expression nutcase was used in advertising and it was "sung" by the delightful Frank Muir.

[mightyWBA]

It's all yampy and saft sunny Dave.

[EvianBaby]

Thanks Dave! It didn't cross my mind for one second when I posted that thread that the word nutter would be in anyway offensive. It's a word commonly used - "did you see the way that nutter was driving" - and I'd have thought if it held any way as an offensive term it would be given the same awareness as the other N word or other such words.

I do apologise if it did offend anyone but ive never come across anyone yet who has told me its an offensive word to use, including the people close to me to have mental health problems (some of them quite serious).

To be frank, it annoys me more that people are happy to join a thread just to berate another user for a piece of terminology and not make any contribution to the actual subject in question.

I'll be more careful with my choice of words in future because I don't want to offend anyone but I do think sometimes people are also a little too easily offended.

[lcg]

i'm mad....and i am not offended by the term. i am also a nutty nurse by trade! people need to relax about words which are not really offensive. i can think of a myriad of others which would be x

[Traci66]

Some people just take political correctness to the limit.