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➕ Add definition for tone-deaf (#112)
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* ➕ Added Asian terms and subterms, Orientalism

* ➕ Add misia, update fatphobia

* ➕ Add tone-deaf

* 🚩 Changed flag to medical appropriation

* 🐛 Fixed indentation issue, broke build
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tatianamac committed May 5, 2020
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43 changes: 43 additions & 0 deletions 11ty/definitions/-misia.md
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---
title: -misia
slug: -misia
speech: noun
defined: true
sub_terms:
- text: Fat
full_title: fatmisia
- text: Islam
full_title: fatmisia
- text: Trans
full_title: transmisia
reading:
- text: Beatley Library Anti-Oppression Guide
href: https://simmons.libguides.com/anti-oppression#s-lib-ctab-10174165-1
- text: 'Anti-Oppression: Anti-Fatmisia'
href: https://simmons.libguides.com/anti-oppression/anti-fatmisia
---
from Greek for hate or hatred

## Use

-Misia can be appended to minoritised identifiers that are targeted for hate, such as to fat (fatmisia), trans (transmisia), or Islam (Islamomisia).

## Issues

-Phobia is Greek for 'fear of'.

When used as a suffix in the context of Islamophobia, transphobia, or fatphobia, it is translated to mean that the group has a fear of individuals and communities who identify in those ways. However, the implication and subtext typically is that there is prejudice and discrimination against those groups. It falsely masks hate as fear.

Additionally, phobias are one real component of anxiety disorders and mental illness, so conflating prejudice and discrimination (things that can be helped) with anxiety disorders (things that cannot necessarily be helped) additionally harms people who experience phobias from their anxiety disorders.

As such, it removes the responsibility from those who exhibit prejudice and discrimination as it implies it is outside of their control.

## Impact

Hateful actions of prejudice and discrimination are unfairly conflated with mental illness. It can create a false parallel where one could imply that actual phobias are something that can be controlled, which harms people who experience actual phobias.

Meanwhile, people exhibiting prejudice and discrimination are given excuses for their bigoted behaviour and not held accountable.

## Preferable To

-phobia
4 changes: 4 additions & 0 deletions 11ty/definitions/fatphobia.md
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Expand Up @@ -24,3 +24,7 @@ A history of being ignored and shamed prevents many fat people from visiting med
Employers will pay fat employees less than their thin colleagues and offer them no protection from weight stigma in the workplace, as their fatphobic biases lead to their perception of fat employees as lazy, less intelligent, and unmotivated.

Law enforcement officers are less likely to believe fat people reporting sexual assaults, as their fatphobic biases lead them to think of fat people as unattractive, not sexually active, or undesirable.

## Note

While fatphobia is a more widely known term, many prefer fatmisia, as [-misia] means hate or hatred of, which more accurately describes the prejudice and discrimination.
7 changes: 6 additions & 1 deletion 11ty/definitions/minoritised.md
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groups resulting from social constructs have grant less power or representation compared to other members or groups in society

## Preferable To

[minorities](/definitions/minorities)

## Benefits

Minoritised places the emphasis on the power struggle, and on the systemic issues at play. It's also an adjective, which requires you to add "group" or "people" so it's people-first language

## Impact

It removes the pejorative nature of "minorities".
It removes the pejorative nature of "minorities", illuminating that this is an effect upon the individual or group, rather than the singular way to identify the group.

46 changes: 46 additions & 0 deletions 11ty/definitions/tone-deaf.md
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---
title: tone-deaf
slug: tone-deaf
flag:
text: 'Medical appropriation'
level: avoid
defined: true
speech: adjective
alt_words:
- badly drawn
- in poor taste
- insensitive
- negligent
- not thought through
- unaware
- poorly-conceived
reading:
- text: 'Less well-known ableist language'
href: https://thisisforyoucarrie.blog/2018/01/07/less-well-known-ableist-language/
- text: 'Quora: Is tone-deaf ableist?'
href: https://www.quora.com/Is-the-term-tone-deaf-ableist?share=1
---

amusia, a neurological disorder that can be congenital (from birth) or acquired (due to comorbidity or injury) that results in the inability to differentiate speech, loss of ability to sing or produce pitch, or other disassociations with music (like rhythm); colloquially, when something is insensitive or poorly thought through.

## Appropriate Usage

Referring the medical condition (amusia) as described above

## Inappropriate Usage

As a literary metaphor for insensitive or negligent

## Issues

Connoting negligence with a medical disorder implies that actions we can control (bad choices) are the same as actions that cannot necessarily be controlled (deafness). It reinforces the discriminatory idea that disability is bad.

## Impact

Using the word tone-deaf reinforces the idea that Deaf and/or non-speaking/non-verbal people are somehow less than and that disability is bad (see [Ableism](/definitions/ableism)).

By using ableist language, we are perpetuating violence against people who experience mental or psychological disabilities. Using this language perpetuates those systems and language of harm, regardless of our intent.

## Usage Tip

Be mindful if you're referring to the medical condition or using it as a literary metaphor. If the latter, substitute by being more specific. Typically we can find an alternate definition by simply reflecting on what emotion we're really feeling.

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