I’ve been in an on-again, off-again conversation with a friend regarding ‘weakness’, of vulnerability =ing weakness in terms of technology, and in terms of societal structuring/social justice.
That conversation has helped clarify something for me: Though I’ve largely stopped doing it anyway, I am flat out through using the word weak to describe human beings.
Weakness, to me, is a word/concept reserved for one dimensional, single threaded notions and objects. Having a weakness for chocolate. Having a weak knee. Noting a structural weakness in the pillar of a bridge. All single dimensional uses of the word, all super fucking clear. Usually, I use the word integrity, instead, for this.
But to say, refer to the poor as also weak? Fuck that.
For starters, a triggery hogepodge of this shit is what I am expressing, when I use the word ‘weak’ to describe a person or class of people, or proclaim a persons ‘weakness’ somehow.
weak
adjective, weaker, weakest.
1. not strong; liable to yield, break, or collapse under pressure or strain; fragile; frail:
a weak fortress; a weak spot in armor.
2. lacking in bodily strength or healthy vigor, as from age or sickness; feeble; infirm:
a weak old man; weak eyes.
3. not having much political strength, governing power, or authority:
a weak nation; a weak ruler.
4. lacking in force, potency, or efficacy; impotent, ineffectual, or inadequate:
weak sunlight; a weak wind.
5. lacking in rhetorical or creative force or effectiveness:
a weak reply to the charges; one of the author’s weakest novels.
6. lacking in logical or legal force or soundness:
a weak argument.
7. deficient in mental power, intelligence, or judgment:
a weak mind.
There are so many other poignant, focused words I can use to express all of these things that weakness defines above, without enacting the structural discouraging punch down guiltfest that ‘weakness’ incites in terms of emotions and human experience.
Even the clearest definitions which are the least offensive to me, like a weak strategic position politically because of class oppression, have far better and more descriptive words for them in terms of people, that do not leverage the pervasive societal teaching that a lack of privilege or opportunity equates to character weakness.
Disadvantageous. Underrepresented. Marginalized. Detrimental. Problematic. Unfortunate. Adverse. Rigged. Unfavorable.
All of those words speak to the situation rather than potentially the constitution of the person/people, which so often ‘weak’ does. All of those words speak to the situation without sapping the power out of how one describes the oppressed population.
Which brings us to vulnerable:
vulnerable
adjective
1. capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt, as by a weapon:
a vulnerable part of the body.
2. open to moral attack, criticism, temptation, etc.:
an argument vulnerable to refutation; He is vulnerable to bribery.
3. (of a place) open to assault; difficult to defend:
a vulnerable bridge.
I see vulnerability equating to weakness in only two situations:
1) When the vulnerability is advantageous for someone to deem such to rationalize. Usually to manipulate, use, pity, or otherwise abuse or leverage its opening. Protip: Way too many of us do this to OURSELVES. And it still doesn’t make it true. Openness in human beings is not fucking weakness. It is the opposite.
2) When the vulnerability is of such a character that the entire or majority use/purpose of the entity is compromised: As in vulnerabilities in defense-related tech, and structural weaknesses in things like bridges and buildings.
People are not tea. People are not firewalls. People are not their defenses. People are not their handicaps. People are not their mental illnesses. People are not their broken limbs. People are not their social statuses. People are not their hardships. People are human beings.
And humans, being, are NOT, weak.