Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Is using blindness as a metaphor problematic or offensive? (self.Blind)
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noaimpara 19 points 3y ago
This is just my personal thoughts but i dont find metaphors offensive. What I do find genuinely annoying are sighted people calling themselves blind because they have to wear glasses.
So to me,
Metaphor = fine
Hyperbole = you are the single most annoying person the world has ever seen
So to me,
Metaphor = fine
Hyperbole = you are the single most annoying person the world has ever seen
codeplaysleep 5 points 3y ago
I feel the same way.
Blindness as a metaphor is... accurate? Blindness as hyperbole is just minimizing and dismissive of actual blindness.
Blindness as a metaphor is... accurate? Blindness as hyperbole is just minimizing and dismissive of actual blindness.
noaimpara 2 points 3y ago
Exactly like especially as someone who lost my sight later in life and had strong myopia before, I would fucking pay good money to go back to needing very strong glasses. So these people with their -2,5 calling themselves blind actually pisses me off so much. Like. Just wear your glasses.
Nebraska29 1 points 3y ago
Out of curiosity though doesn’t that also extend to stuff like saying a ship is blind because it doesn’t have radar working or you’re “flying blind” without instruments?
noaimpara 6 points 3y ago
That’s just another metaphor i don’t mind that at all personally
DrillInstructorJan 3 points 3y ago
Gravity. "Houston in the blind, this is Spaceman."
Real_Space_Captain 7 points 3y ago
I don’t care at all, I totally understand why people use these phrases.
The only problem with it is when you “oh sorry I’m blind” and people take it as a joke, like “oh she’s not actually blind she just wasn’t pay attention“
But to be honest, this would always be a problem so I’m not fighting against changing phrases that have been around for centuries.
Also I love saying “it’s the blind leading the blind” when I’m showing my friends something new.
The only problem with it is when you “oh sorry I’m blind” and people take it as a joke, like “oh she’s not actually blind she just wasn’t pay attention“
But to be honest, this would always be a problem so I’m not fighting against changing phrases that have been around for centuries.
Also I love saying “it’s the blind leading the blind” when I’m showing my friends something new.
OutWestTexas 5 points 3y ago
Doesn’t bother me at all. I often use the metaphors as a joke with sighted people and they panic. LOL. If someone comes up and says, hi, I will say, I didn’t see you, you were in my blind spot. I laugh every time.
AllHarlowsEve 5 points 3y ago
On the whole, I don't mind them particularly. I'd prefer people not be like "ARE YOU BLIND?" or say things like "oops I'm so blind teehee" but not enough to even bother saying something to people.
razzretina 5 points 3y ago
I'm not bothered when blindness is referring to something literal (ex: a boat without sensors being "blind in the water", well yes, of course it is). When it's a metaphor, it's crappy (to be polite). Metaphors are always negative in reference to blindness and created out of ignorance. "The blind leading the blind" is a negative phrase that makes assumptions about blind people (that we're stupid, that it's ridiculous to assume we might be independent on our own or as a group, that sighted people are by nature superior, etc). It's ignorant on top of being rude, and every metaphor using blindness that I've ever heard has the exact same problem.
Nebraska29 1 points 3y ago
In your view does this negative metaphor cover ideas like blind faith or blind loyalty? Would it extend to Turing a blind eye or making a decision blindly like without information, or it that literal?
razzretina 1 points 3y ago
If you replace "blind" with any other descriptive trait, like race, phrases like these show their negativity more easily. Blind loyalty and blind faith are both ways of saying, more or less, that someone is ignoring what's in front of them and these are negative turns of phrase in spite of them being used as if they are more positive. Although the negativity is more subtle and these are more examples of the blind being represented as both saintly and naive, a set of stereotypes that are rather frustrating for most of us. Turning a blind eye is a way to say ignoring something bad that's in front of you and is also negative.
Nebraska29 2 points 3y ago
I appreciate hearing your perspective. What do you think of how society puts value on metaphorical sight (as in, I can see clearly now the truth, I see what you mean)? Blindness seems to present itself as a natural metaphor in this context as in I was blind but now I see. Is this whole deeply rooted paradigm problematic and in need of change, not a problem, or somewhere in between?
razzretina 2 points 3y ago
Haha thanks for encouraging me! I think about this stuff but don’t talk about it often.
“I was blind but now I see” is very rooted in western monotheism, which has a poor view on the blind (you’re not a person until you can see and you are doomed to beg for charity and forbidden in the presence of god if you’re blind). These kinds of metaphors are another example of something that at first sounds positive but really it’s taking a dump on the less fortunate.
Phrases like “I see what you mean” are fine; it’s descriptive and kind of just pointing out the obvious. Most people have working eyes and it would be unproductive to ask then to stop referencing sight. People dancing around vision related language is considered more offensive; just like someone in a wheelchair goes for a walk and not a roll, I ask to see what my friends are looking at and i watch tv.
Really it’s not about changing language to eliminate sight phrases, but to get people to think a bit more about what they’re saying and if it’s something legitimately hurtful. If you can replace a sentence with words about race and it still makes sense, such as “I was blind but now I see” with “I was black but now I’m white”, it kind of puts the root of the problem in a more familiar light and you can see how it dehumanises another person.
“I was blind but now I see” is very rooted in western monotheism, which has a poor view on the blind (you’re not a person until you can see and you are doomed to beg for charity and forbidden in the presence of god if you’re blind). These kinds of metaphors are another example of something that at first sounds positive but really it’s taking a dump on the less fortunate.
Phrases like “I see what you mean” are fine; it’s descriptive and kind of just pointing out the obvious. Most people have working eyes and it would be unproductive to ask then to stop referencing sight. People dancing around vision related language is considered more offensive; just like someone in a wheelchair goes for a walk and not a roll, I ask to see what my friends are looking at and i watch tv.
Really it’s not about changing language to eliminate sight phrases, but to get people to think a bit more about what they’re saying and if it’s something legitimately hurtful. If you can replace a sentence with words about race and it still makes sense, such as “I was blind but now I see” with “I was black but now I’m white”, it kind of puts the root of the problem in a more familiar light and you can see how it dehumanises another person.
DrillInstructorJan 4 points 3y ago
No. It's fine. And honestly, any time you find yourself reaching for the world "problematic" is a good time to... I don't know... figure out exactly what sort of problem is being caused.
TheFake_VIP_yt 2 points 3y ago
I have to emphatically say **no,, absolutely not.** While I can fully understand the sensative situation some blind people are in, especially those emotionally recked by the terrible prospect of losing one's sight, I think there is simply too much stigma in the general public that causes blind people to be left out for fear of offending them, or putting them in an awkward situation, and I think that does more damage in the long term, even emotionally, than anything else (it alienates blind/VI people from the rest that the world has to offer).
bscross32 2 points 3y ago
I see it as silly, find something else to do with your time. There's a whole world to explore, hobbies to dig into, and people look at the smallest little things to become offended over.
bradley22 2 points 3y ago
It doesn’t bother me
SLJ7 1 points 3y ago
We easily make associations between the metaphors that confuse blindness with ignorance and the people who treat us like we're stupid. I don't really think they're related at all, so while I'd prefer neither one were true, I don't mind metaphors.
15WGhost 1 points 3y ago
Metaphors, figures of speech, they’re all fine. I can’t tell you how many times people have thought they were going to offend me by asking if I had “watched that TV show,“ they usually follow that up with “oh I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to say watch,“and I’m just here thinking shut the fuck up. It’s a figure of speech. Anybody who thinks metaphors and figures of speech are offensive as it pertains to this sort of thing should be quarantined. I mean if that’s the hill you want to die on…
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