A big topic in mainstream has been the decision US singing star Beyonce made regarding her latest release. According to reports, the singer had removed an ‘ableist slur’ from her latest song – the second time the term has been removed from a song in the last two months, the previous being in a song by the artist Lizzo.
A simple glance at the media covering the topic won’t tell you about the word though. As if overnight, a common part of the combat sports lingo has started being censored and is now no longer okay to mention.
The so called derogatory term was used in the song “Heated.”
On the track, co-written by Drake, Beyoncé sings the line: “Spazzin’ on that ass, spazz on that ass.”
Apparently the woke media had decided that spaz is now a forbidden word with a lot of the mainstream media even putting stars in it.
In Jiu-jitsu, the term spaz is commonly used to refer to newbies or so called white belts, who try to frantically force their way out of position and are generally uncoordinated and unaware of the gentle art.
Although the word “spaz” is often used colloquially to describe “freaking out” or “going crazy,” it’s origins are what’s actually insulting.
It is derived from the word “spastic,” which is considered demeaning to people with spastic cerebral palsy and or some seizure type disorders.
“So @Beyonce used the word ‘sp**’ in her new song ‘Heated’. Feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community and the progress we tried to make with Lizzo,” disability advocate Hannah Diviney wrote on Twitter.
“Guess I’ll just keep telling the whole industry to ‘do better’ until ableist slurs disappear from music.”
Another commentator tweeted: “Screw you @Beyonce. You should be a role model, not making money from the lazy use of derogatory language. Shame on you.”
Apparently the term is now labeled ableist – meaning it discriminates and has social prejudice against people with disabilities or who are perceived to be disabled. Ableism characterizes people as defined by their disabilities and inferior to the non-disabled.
For now, it’s doubtful jiu jitsu community will stop using it – or that they should really. But it’s certainly interesting that out of all the slang this is the bit that’s now insulting and so bad that it shouldn’t even be written down.