Political Correctness
evawhite on July 31st, 2008
OK, so no one is blind anymore, their visually challenged. No one is ever mad or retarded, they are intellectually challenged. Also no one is fat these days; they are big, plus size, curvy. As for the term Negro, it is not even whispered for fear of instantly being labeled a rabid racist. And woe betides you if you call a dwarf anything other than vertically challenged or short person. Oh! And people stopped having diseases or afflictions; the only have ‘conditions’. And you don’t say Merry Christmas anymore, peeps, you had better say Happy Holidays, or else!
So is this political correctness thing going just too far? Do we constantly watch what we say, lest we tread on some sensitive toes or lest we cause offence to overly thin-skinned people around us? (Or perhaps I should not say thin-skinned; perhaps the correct term is dermatologically challenged?) This excessive and almost obsessive preoccupation with saying the ‘Correct’ thing can sometimes get rather ridiculous as illustrated by this cartoon; that all the ‘correctness’ is stifling free speech, the right to express ourselves, creativity and variety. It is straitjacketing and most often quite unnecessary. Political correctness is often referred to as communal oppression, which it is at some level. This is manipulation and restraint of language to prevent dissenting thoughts being expressed, which makes the fabric of the language poorer as a result.
I came across this site where people share their stories about political correctness going to ridiculous extremes. Sample this: “I went into Costa coffee and asked for a black coffee, and the guy on the counter refused to serve me because I asked for a “black” coffee.”
HereI found a hilarious collection of political correct one liner for college goers which has some gems like, these days, a student isn’t lazy. He’s “energetically declined. And you don’t have smelly gym socks; you have “odor-retentive athletic footwear.”
Now even those who are downright abnormal cannot be referred to as such: you can’t call a pervert a pervert, you call him/her/it sexually dysfunctional.
Here I found a really comprehensive list of words and their ridiculous politically correct depictions.
But now I think these absurd shackles people seek to put upon language are being shrugged off. I thought that this is good article that postulates the reversal of this trend of political correctness. People are joyfully reclaiming a lexicon that calls a spade a spade and not an earth lifting implement!
