This is a RANT

The facts first:
Tourette Syndrome does not have an ‘s on the end of it. That’s for any editors who might be reading this and are allowing their writers to use the term irresponsibly (I’ll get to that) in their books. You might as well have it spelled correctly.

Tourette does not necesarily include swearing. In fact, my research shows that it is a separate affliction and that while people with TS may have it, they don’t all have it, but most people who have the swearing affliction, have TS so everyone THINKS they go together. My internet is working very slowly and I can’t find the name of the actual “other thing” so just take my word for it or go online and find out. I have done the reasearch, but it’s been about 8 years.

And now for the rant:
What are you writers thinking????? Have you no compassion? I am so sick of seeing abuse of TS in novels, especially in YA.

Example: 
Character A swears a whole bunch.
Character B: “God, whatta ya have? Tourette’s? Get a grip already.

Example 2: 
He was freaking out, yelling and swearing like he had Tourette’s Syndrome or something. What a freak.

I just think that you shouldn’t throw possibly hurtful comparisons around if you don’t know anything about it. The book I WAS reading last night where the author did this was written by a guy. Hmmmm. Is he aware that most of the people who have TM are male and it’s at its worst in middle school and high school? You know? YA readers????? YA readers that LOOK for books written by guys! Grrrrr….

It’s one thing to write about a kid who HAS TS. And I’m not even asking your characters to be nice to him/her. If making fun of them is what they do, so be it (although, hopefully that will work itself out). But what gets me is the sort of offhand way writers sometimes use this. When I was a kid, calling someone a retard was really quite common, but I was of the generation where it became absolutely unacceptable. You would read it in a book though. Not so much anymore. Why is this different?

Okay…done now…bless and release and return the book to the library (I actually kept reading but the rest of it sucked too so I didn’t get to my regular 50 pages)…