It’s a fact of life that you have to be very careful what you say these days and how you say it. The Political Correctness police are everywhere and they will bring the sky down upon you if you make a slip up. Political correctness is described as the avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. That’s a fine mouthful but what does it mean?
Not so long ago, the use of certain terminology to describe some sections of the community was often offensive and particularly so for black people, gays and lesbians, people with physical or mental disabilities and others. They had a lot to put up with and for them, political correctness was, I would imagine, very welcome. The original intention was probably to achieve exactly that and to make life more comfortable for people generally.
We have gone overboard with political correctness
But somewhere along the way we have gone overboard with this PC business. It has become impossible to have a conversation with some who insist on correcting everything you say. If you mention male, they will interrupt and tell you to mention female. If you say he, then you must say she. If you mention him then you must mention her. I have attended meetings with people like this and it would drive you to distraction.
Policemen are now police officers and firemen are firefighters, chairmen have left the building and are now chairs. But be careful because you can still use chairperson and I think chairwoman is ok. As for humankind you better replace that with personkind. Gone is the man on the street and he, or she, has been replaced by the person on the street and you can tell your kids all about the person on the moon.
This is probably not something that exercises the minds of the average Joe, or Josephine, Soap too much and I’m pretty sure that as long as you are not insensitive in other ways, few people will be offended if you restrain yourself from putting ‘she’ after every ‘he’.
No offence but……
Pandering to every plea for politically correct terminology can make conversation impossible and can make the written word unreadable. There is a need to be balanced here and deal with the genuine issues and avoid taking offence at every opportunity, especially where none was intended. We have to maintain a sense of humour at the same time.
Some people believe that avoiding the possibility of giving offence, causing embarrassment, lowering self-esteem, reinforcing stereotypes, perpetuating prejudice, victimising, marginalising or discriminating is more important than telling the actual story. But if you take that to extremes then you probably wouldn’t open your mouth.
There are some examples of how a story can be altered for the sake of political correctness and, while some of them have been denied, they nevertheless give examples of how things can get a little PC mad from time to time.
A load of nonsense
There was a story about Punch & Judy shows that featured at the British seaside for centuries. In fact, its history stretches back to the diarist Samuel Pepys, who wrote about seeing a show in Covent Garden over 350 years ago. That hasn’t stopped Barry Town Council from banning the show from a festival because of its “inappropriate hitting” – and because it depicts an “abusive” relationship. (Credit: WikiCommons)
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in Kent allegedly banned the term “brainstorming” and replaced it with “thought showers” – for fear of offending epileptics.
An unknown school in England banned a Wonder Woman lunchbox for being “too violent”, according to a viral image posted online by a mother and a school in the US supposedly renamed its Easter eggs ‘spring spheres’ to avoid causing offence to people who did not celebrate Easter.
These stories may be completely ridiculous and may not even be true but they are entertaining. On a more serious note though, it is becoming more difficult for some people to express themselves honestly for fear of upsetting the PC applecart and using the wrong terminology without having the slightest intention of causing offence to anyone. Speaking in public is fraught with danger and it’s not always easy to navigate a safe passage through the mine field, especially when there are certain people ready to jump down your throat at the first opportunity.
A sense of humour is required
Jeremy Clarkson, of Top Gear fame, is probably one of those people you would not associate with being politically correct and he has found himself in hot water again recently because of remarks he made in relation to the Ebola virus. He described a particular racetrack as being dangerous because there is an unexploded bomb underneath it. He then went on to describe how it even looked dangerous on a map because, according to him, the shape of it resembled the Ebola virus.
If people are going to jump up and down about this we might as well throw our hat at it. The likes of Clarkson and Billy Connolly, the Scottish comedian, would never see the light of day if these PC sensitive beings are to have their way. We need humour and to be able to laugh at ourselves and some humour can be found in the darkest of situations so let’s lighten up a small bit.
That we as a society should be considerate and that we should think before we speak and avoid the use of inflammatory stereotypes goes without saying. Political correctness is basically just being a thoughtful, curious, compassionate human being, sorry, person being. It shouldn’t be about trying to catch people out for being stupid (no offence intended to people who are stupid). Political correctness is about real life and that includes having a sense of humour as well.