By Annaham on 4 April, 2010
In the most recent Dear Prudence live chat on Slate, a reader asked the following: Negativity: I have had a bad couple of years—intermittent employment, moved twice, lost a sibling. I’m a pretty positive person, but I’m having trouble keeping my chin up, since that mainly results in me taking it on the chin. I [...]
Posted in blaming, language, media and pop culture, normality, othering, shaming, social attitudes | Tagged advice, good advice, mental health, privilege, social treatement, the secret, things people say
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 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 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 Annaham on 21 October, 2009
“I don’t have time for positive thinking. I spend all of that time thinking negatively.” –Kathy Griffin I might as well come right out and say it: I highly dislike the whole positive thinking movement. I would say “I hate it,” but that might get me accused of being bitter, cynical, negative, and many other [...]
Posted in blaming, bodies, class issues, intersectionality, media and pop culture, shaming | Tagged ableism, advice, disability, exclusion, illness beliefs, problematic attitudes, self-help, the secret
By amandaw on 20 October, 2009
Access is an all-consuming endeavor in a disabled person’s life. I love that the disability community learned to frame it that way: it emphasizes that the problem is not the person, their body or their condition; the problem is society’s indifference. Many accessibility solutions are structural; they require collective action — constructing spaces such that [...]
Posted in accessibility, blaming | Tagged accessibility, advice, barriers to access, disability, exclusion, fibromyalgia, illness, invisibility, invisible disabilities, invisible disability, isolation, me, participation, passing, personal, privilege, social inclusion, social treatment, structural vs. individual
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