OMG! lighten up people!! it's a word. it only has the power you give it. the "r-word" is a lot more broad than it used to be. did you protest the movie "something about mary?"
My brother is highly functioning developmentally disabled, but he has no problem with the word.
do people protest movies that say "f*G" or "n****r?" no, because they're just words. if you don't want to hear them, go see a disney flick.

Ben Still should be ashamed. He has turned so many retards' lives to fodder in pursuit of an Oscar.

Get real people. Move along, nothing to see here...

The PC police are in action again. Get over it.

michaelh...you brought the LOLs

The 1st Amendment says that companies can produce these films. What will you say when it is ultra successful this weekend? What will that say abut how relevant your protest is?

Here is a great way to protest the movie...don't go

How many people, like myself, don't spend much time with TV and have not even seen advertisement for this movie? How many will go see it now that attention has been brought to it? I personally think most of his stuff is distasteful and don't watch it anyway and I did not like the last movie that came out that made fun of special olympics but I did see it (although not at the theater) because I wanted to judge for myself after I heard so much hype about it. These protestors are creating curiosity about the movie and probably slightly increasing the number of people who will watch it.

Melody, I dont want to rain on your protest party, but dont you think you r time and energies could be put to better use someplace else? The movie isnt really making fun of retarded folk , its making fun of movies about retarded folk(i am sam, rain man, whats eating gilbert grape, etc.) Maybe you should see the movie before you protest it, because from where im sitting it appears that somebody told you they say retard a few times and the your righteous indignation flared up and now your going to be in front of a movie theater looking like a nutjob. is that really how you want to spend your evening? The movie theater is not going to pull the movie. Myself i wouldve thought that more people would be offended by robert downey jr's dressing up like a black man. If black people(citation needed) didnt get up in armsabout it, what makes you think you have a shot at changing anythig. I will however say that its your right to make an a** of yourself however you see fit., But how about instead of protesting the movie , go inside and watch it. Then, if you want to protest, knock youself out. But at least sample what you are protesting beforehand otherwise you just look like a causehead.

party on wayne

What a joke, a word is a word.....

The comments posted on this site are precisely the reason the protest is a good idea. There are too many people out there that think the comedic use of harmful words are ok. Just as this movie has the freedom to use hurtful words, Special Olympics and other advocacy groups have the right to voice their opinion on the atrocity that is using a class of human beings that have no choice but to be who they are, whether the general public acknowledges their ability to attain greatness or not.
Should it be illegal to say retard, probably not, should people start thinking about the dribble that comes out of their mouths? Yes.
As an FYI - Melody might not have seen the movie, but leaders of many disability groups were allowed to pre-screen the movie and found it disgusting, offensive, and worth fighting against.
I hope someday you find something that you have a passion to fight for and do not have to listen to ignorant comments like the ones I have seen in support of this movie and the use of the r-word.

Dawson,

If you don't like the comments posted on the site, pay for the paper in print, and stay off their website....

Dawson, do you think the movie should be banned?

were you up in arms for the movie "the ringer", dawson? It actually FEATURED the special olympics and someone pretending to be disabled. But the point of the movie was that people are the same and it used humor to do it. I'm absolutely sure Ben Stiller didn't wake up one morning and think "i'd like to make a film that utterly offends all disabled people" there are lots of offensive words out there, but we have this thing called the First Amendment. you should look it up sometime. If you don't like a certain speech, don't listen to it. what comes out of Fred Phelps's mouth really irks me, so i just ignore him, but he has the same rights as i do and you do and ben stiller does, so put on your big girl panties and deal with it.

Great now we have the "R" word. I don't think you should make fun of anyone that cannot help what you are making fun of him or her for. But people do it all the time.

My only problem with people protesting this movie is that now I will have to wade through a crowd to get in to see it......

The word 'retard' appeared in Forrest Gump on several occassions as an insult toward a disabled character in the movie, yet no one protested. But when the same word is used in 'Tropic Thunder' to refer to an actor who once played a disabled character, people organize protests across the nation. So let me get this straight: personal insult=good, joke=bad, right?

Wake up! The movie mocks Hollywood actors, not disabled people. This protest is no different than the Obama-is-a-Muslim or John Kerry swiftboat campaigns. It's designed entirely to capitalize on the ignorance of people who refuse to research the facts, or in this case, watch the movie.

These are probably the same PTA moms who fought to take Huck Finn out of public school libraries because it had the n-word in it.

Dawson,
The 'R' word".... really, really?? Some of us grew up to understand the meaning behind the little childrens rhyme "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." You might want to go back and review it. What are people supposed to do, protest everytime we get called fatty, baldy, shorty or ugly? Good grief, what a waste of time.

My take on this is that the word is thrown around so loosely and without regard to the people it was supposed to “describe”. In this open country it is frowned upon to use words that represent discrimination; there is one exception to this, a word people use every day for a cheap chuckle with no regard to what its meaning is or to who it hurts.

I hear a lot people who are turned off by people protesting and supporting "Ban the R word". I am curious about those who have jumped to rather hasty generalizations about the boycotters and protesters.

How many saw Tim Shriver and Eddie Barbanell on Fox and Friends discussing Special Olympics’ position against the movie?

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3020175&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends/

The protest and boycotting against the movie is something happening around the US. Many organizations have taken their concerns to DreamWorks and its’ leaders: The Arc of the US, AAPD, and The Disability Policy Collaboration,

“The degrading use of the word “retard” together with the broader humiliation of people with intellectual disabilities goes too far. When the R-word is bandied about and when bumbling, clueless caricatures designed to mimic the behavior of people with intellectual disabilities are on screen, they have an unmistakable outcome: they mock, directly or indirectly, people with intellectual disabilities. They perpetuate the worst stereotypes. They further exclusion and isolation. They are mean.” – Tim Shriver CEO Special Olympics

I would suggest you to watch Soeren Palumbos speech about the use of the R Word… he gets the message across better than I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoqaNG0Ozqc
Search YouTube for: The R word

No one is disputing First Amendment rights, in fact it is those rights that are allowing them to protest. I think the real goal with “Ban the R word” is having people make a conscious decision to stop using the word outside of the context to describe someone that learns slowly. The use of the word to call a friend a retard or to say something is retarded is out of the context and has a lot of connotations that demean a lot of people.

Does boycotting the movie actually help the cause? I am not sure maybe it will spread awareness of how language matters, maybe it will increase the use of person first language, maybe it will increase awareness of people with intellectual disabilities, maybe those boycotting will donate that price of admission for a cause that supports people with intellectual disabilities.

Instead of bashing people whose honest intent is to support individuals with intellectual disabilities, by trying to promote awareness and the use of language, I suggest you take the time to research (if you haven’t) why people from around the US and the world are relatively banning the R word,.

J. Conklin says "I think the real goal with “Ban the R word” is having people make a conscious decision to stop using the word outside of the context to describe someone that learns slowly. The use of the word to call a friend a retard or to say something is retarded is out of the context and has a lot of connotations that demean a lot of people."

I've worked in homes and care settings for people with Developmental disabilities, and i'm wondering what "context" you're speaking of. There is NEVER A TIME when it is appropriate to call a person with Develpmental Disablities "retard." NEVER. we were always instructed to call them by their names. I never equate someone with dd to being a "retard" because to me, calling someone a "retard" is a smart-a** way of calling a friend of mine stupid or goofy. Two completely different things.
Good luck getting a WORD banned. you'll need it.

Hey, watch it, Rax! I AM fat, bald, short and ugly! Quick! Somebody protest these epithets / adjectives!! = )

By the way, can those are who are mentally disabled call one another the r-word?

ITS JUST A WORD..LIGHTEN UP..everyone is taking protesting too far..gays, blacks, disabled, PETA everyone needs to lighten up..i wish protesting was never allowed and people couldn't sue..then we could concentrate on something more meaningful..like guns, drugs, and gangs.. think about it..

Don't worry DADicated...I will issue a public apology to you. I wish someone would protest all of those Bowflex commercials where the guy says "I'm going to give all of my fat clothes to my fat friends" that really hurts my feelings. It just so happens that I have fat friends and I don't appreciate it.

Anyone have time to help me make some signs?

bowflex commercials are the devil.
i'm with you protesting those.

lol...... Rax & boombaladee..... I don't think that bowflex guy has any friends fat or not! Rax I can help but we can't use "F" for fat.... we already have an "F" word.

I can only think of one other groupd of people that have embraced a word created to insult them.

In that light I would have to say, yes, a person with mental disabilities can call another mentally disabled individual a retard. But only if they're both obviously handicapped.

And what's with that anyway? Retarded has been used as slang since the early part of the 20th century... you know, when they started using the terms, "developmentally disabled," or "mentally handicapped."

Since when do you call a mentally disabled person retarded? That's just wrong. I think JConklin should rethink his stance.

Are these people really fighting for the right to call disabled people retarded? Sounds like it to me...

This whole thing is just retarded.

Party on Garth.

Mentally Retardation is a specific term used to qualify the cognitive functioning level of a person with an IQ of at least 2 standard deviations below mean and adaptive behavior skills comensurate with their IQ. So in other words people with an IQ of 70 or below (if mean is 100) who have deficits with adaptive behavior could be termed as having mental retardation.

Not all mental disbailities are considered mental retardation or intellectual disabilities. It should also be known that in referring to best practices and person first language a disability is not always a handicap. Thus people with disabilities should not be qualified as handicapped. I know, I know its more language issues.

The context of when you would call someone mentally retarded would be in the context of discussing an educational or medical diagnosis, or when discussing related supports associated with said disability.

I should make it clear that it was never be ok to call someone with an intellectual disability "retard" but it could be ok in context to refer to them as mentally retarded (again which is not using person first language.) The preferred language that have been a person with mental retardation but thanks to the national change to intellectual disability we can eliminate some language issues.

I know of teachers from around the US that still use the terms like "TMR= trainably mentalal retardation" and "EMR= educateable mental retardation" which to me are horrible terms. To say based soley off an IQ score and adaptive behavior assessment that a person is trainable, is grossly understative of a persons potential.

Well ill apologize in advance for any retarded folk i personally have offended. Did anybody whos doing the protesting actually see the movie? Probably not. Im curious to know why this movie? Why now? Retard(i refuse to say "the R word"), has been used in movies, books and every day conversation for as long as i can remember. What if my tomato plants arent growing the way they should, do i say the growth is devolpmetally disabled? No i would say growth is retarded. The context and situation apparently deems whether its ok to use the word. People bandy about the term white trash all the time and nobody bats an eye but call somebody a retard whether they are or not and some suburban soccer mom gets all in a tiff and tries to disrupt peoples moviegoing experience. What has this country come to. Now before the trolls start flaming, im not advocating calling people retard or anything of the sort but in the context of this movie which btw has no retarded people in it i dont see the harm. I just think some people have to much time on their hands and dont have anything better to do than protest peotest protest.i think you should goto block buster and protest till they remove all thecopies of rain man i am sam and whats eating gilbert grape. if your going to do it you need to do it all the way. I personally think people need to lighten up and laugh once in awhile,. I myself have been known to go full retard

If RETARD is a bad word, they will delete this message!

Ok...last post i hate to keep beating this dead horse because i really consider it a non-issue, but how come nobodies protesting "The Fatties, Fart 2". The fatties is a trailer within the movie to sort of introduce you to jack Blacks character. Its an Eddie Murphey type thing, where jack black plays all the characters of a fat family. Now to me this would be more of a sore spot than the whoole retard thing debacle.

To MichaelH & sharpstyx:

WE'RE NOT WORTHY!!! (deedlydeedlydeedly)

So jconklin it is never okay to call someone a retard, I got that part. But it is okay to call them mentally retarded as long as you don't use don't do it to their face?

And to those of you concerned about the f-word.... err fat, not THE f-word:

http://www.naafaonline.com/dev2/

Wow! A lot of yelling about a movie that probly isn't any good anyway. I think I will wait til it comes out on cable, then watch it 4 times a day.

My guess is that none of you have a child or sibling who is mentally challenged. If you did, then maybe you would understand why this hits a nerve. Don't be so quick to dismiss their concerns.

When referring to someone with mental retardation / intellectual disabilities it could be appropriate to say they have said disability. Your statement is a bit loaded in the since that most people in the educational or medical fields should not call somone mentally retarded, becuase it is not acknowledging the person but the disability. Its called person first language. The correct way to refer to someone with ID/MR would be to say they are a person with mental retardation or an intellectual disability. Just as its not appropriate to say someone is confined to a wheelchair but they are a person who uses a wheelchar. It's all about identifying the person before the disability and not just the disability. The goal with person first language was to hopefully change the mindset and language of people. Instead of seeing the disability of a person first, over time we would start to see the person before, if ever the disability.

Hope that helps.

Ben Stiller must be laughing all the way to the bank! After all he is getting millions of dollars of free advertisement for his movie!! I probably would not have heard about it if it wasn't for the protests!!!!!