By s.e. smith on 19 March, 2010
This week’s Miss Manners featured an interesting piece of embedded content which I think that a lot of readers probably skimmed over. The main letter of the week was a complaint from a reader about online review sites. The reader felt that such sites are injurious to the reputations of the professionals and businesses reviewed, [...]
Posted in Dear Imprudence, medical practice | Tagged advice, Judith Martin, Miss Manners
By s.e. smith on 12 March, 2010
The Dear Prudence column for 4 March included the following letter from a reader: Dear Prudie, I’m almost ready to settle down and have kids, but I have a bit of a problem. I was born with an extra toe on each foot and part of an extra finger. Surgery when I was 1 year [...]
Posted in bad advice, bodies, Dear Imprudence, normality | Tagged Dear Prudence, genetic counseling, polydactyly, Robin Abrahams
By Annaham on 18 February, 2010
The hits just keep on comin’, thanks to Slate. Earlier this month in Dear Prudence, we got to read this winner: Dear Prudence: My husband had a stroke 18 months ago. At first he was unable to speak and his right side was paralyzed. He regained his speech and, with a lot of work, got [...]
Posted in autonomy, bad advice, Dear Imprudence, gender, life changes, normality, shaming, social attitudes | Tagged ableism, family, myths and misconceptions, problematic attitudes
By Annaham on 30 January, 2010
The following appeared in Slate’s “Dear Prudence” advice column chat-room supplement fairly recently: Chicago: We have a close friend who is prone to embarrassing malapropisms that surpass even the best Norm Crosby bit. These are not innocent and simple mispronunciations—but ugly mangling of words including misuse and lack of understanding of the meaning of some [...]
Posted in Dear Imprudence, language, normality, representations, shaming, social attitudes | Tagged advice, communication, language, privilege, social treatment, word use
By s.e. smith on 12 January, 2010
One of the things which inspired the “Dear Imprudence” column here at FWD was the Savage Love column from 30 April, 2009, in which a reader sent in a letter politely asking Dan to stop using “retarded” as an insult. abby jean kindly covered “retarded” for the Ableist Word Profile, explaining the origins of the [...]
Posted in bad advice, Dear Imprudence, language | Tagged Dan Savage, leotarded, PC, Savage Love
By s.e. smith on 28 November, 2009
After our inaugural Dear Imprudence column, in which I called out some bad advice, I thought it might be nice to go to the other side of the spectrum, and check out some good advice offered up in an advice column. After all, advice columnists do get it right now and then. As it turns [...]
Posted in Dear Imprudence, intersectionality, language | Tagged advice, good advice, Miss Conduct, Robin Abrahams
By s.e. smith on 3 November, 2009
Welcome to our newest intermittent series, “Dear Imprudence,” in which FWD/Forward contributors (and guest bloggers) deconstruct advice columns which offer monumentally bad advice about disability issues. Do you have an advice column you’d like us to deconstruct? Shoot us a link in the comments or via admin at disabledfeminists dot com. Our inaugural entry in [...]
Posted in bad advice, blaming, Dear Imprudence, media and pop culture | Tagged Dear Prudence, Emily Yoffe
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