In this post at Disability Culture Watch, Simi brings the unfortunate negative connotations of metaphorical blindness.
"Definitions of the word “blind” found in my computer’s Thesaurus support the idea that blindness limits . The terms ignorant, imperceptive, insensitive, irrational, oblivious, obtuse, random, rash, stagger, unaware, unconscious, uncontrolled, unknowing, unplanned and violent came up on my screen. My Roget’s Thesaurus also provided inattentive and purposeless. These meanings lurk under the surface when the word “blind” is used whether on its own, or in pairings, in such phrases as “blind passion”, “blind rage”, “blind justice”, “blind drunk” and “blind faith”."
Only recently, having read Planet of the Blind, do I now understand how unfortunate this seems. These definitions and based on an sighted perspective of how limiting blindness is. But I've come to understand that blindness is beautiful because of how it plays on the imagination and can paint a unique picture of the world.
Think of the beautiful moments created when sighted people have their eyes closed...
-The moments before sleep
-A kiss
-Eating somthing truely delicious
-Listening to beautiful music
-In prayer
When I have had these "blind" experiences, I was in a heightened state, grasping something that sight interfered with. The blindness freed me in those moments from the terrestrial world and let me experience another world.
Think now of how beautifully "blind" could be used metaphorically if we had this connotation in our language.
"She blinded me with her beauty."
"I was blind to my earthly cares."
"The music blinded me into a new realm."
"I was blindingly impressed by that play."
In this example, it should be easy to see how clearly society's negative views of disability permeate our lives. A seemingly innocuous word connotation reveals a blatantly narrow understanding of blindness, even though every person has the capacity to appreciate the beauty of not seeing in a kiss, prayer, etc. Thanks Simi for bringing up the subject and opening up the beautiful metaphors that await me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think it's rather unfair to accuse the "connotations" of blind of being "negative." Only "ignorant," "irrational," "obtuse," "rash" and "violent" strike me as "negative." That's only 6 of the 17 words you listed.
Ask yourself this question: what about blinding one with beauty makes it the case that "she blinded me with her beauty" expresses a "positive" connotation or metaphor or what have you?
I don't know the answer, but it's certainly NOT because "blinding" someone in this way involves a PLAN or some CONSCIOUSNESS or NONRANDOMNESS.
In other words, it seems to me, as far as it goes, the list of "connotations" you have there is just right, and without them, we wouldn't know how to go about constructing metaphors of your "positive" variety.
If there's anything to complain about your list of "connotations," it's only that we have to understand them in a limited way. For example, although one can be blinded by beauty because beauty makes you imperceptive of, say, the stressful day you were having, or the mundane task you were engaged in at the moment, it's also the case that being blinded by beauty is probably exactly the result of perceiving something you hadn't been able to perceive earlier (namely, the beauty).
But of course, we don't think that every "connotation" of a word will capture its sense in ANY context in which it's used. If anyone thought that, they wouldn't know how to use a thesaurus.
It is remarkable, it is the amusing information
This is my first post I'd like to thank you for such a terrific quality site!
Just thought this would be a perfect way to introduce myself!
Sincerely,
Monte Phil
if you're ever bored check out my site!
[url=http://www.partyopedia.com/articles/christmas-party-supplies.html]christmas Party Supplies[/url].
Post a Comment