Subject: Apologies.
Author:
Posted on: 2011-05-12 00:26:00 UTC
Once again It seems that I have put my foot forward only to find out that it was the wrong foot. It was not my intention to come across as denigrating toward people on the basis of their sexual orientation. I would like to clarify my thinking, and hopefully convince you that I am not the total jerk that I seem to have come across as.
The definition of Political Correctness that I was working from is this: 'replacing a given word with a more socially acceptable term.' This is not, in and of itself a bad thing.
For example, in the 1960s during the Civil Rights movement, the common appellations for people of color - Black, Negro, etc - were pejorative, which is to say, they were intrinsically linked with negative stereotypes. There was no effective way to redeem the old appellations and so a new appellation was needed. Thus we end up with African American.
[I am now entering anecdote mode. The following is an entirely subjective account. If you don’t feel like reading my long-winded, biased perceptions, you may skip ahead to the next set of brackets. Otherwise, please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times, and enjoy the ride.]
On the other hand, when I was in high school, someone put forth the idea that the typical masculine default of essay writing was demeaning to women. That someone made a loud enough demand that for a while my teacher would make it a point that we should not use 'mankind' to refer to humanity, or 'he' to refer to generic individuals. The first is rather simple to work around, but how do you replace a pronoun if the gender neutral, 'it', carries the connotations of object status? The solution: instead of using a single pronoun you had to use both; instead of "when a man looks inside himself, this is what he sees," you had to write "when a person looks inside him or her self, this is what he/she sees." We had to write like that every. single. sentence. The replacement was not only longer, but didn't flow as well; There was no elegance in that solution.
Now here I was, and the default that I had been trained in, the format I was comfortable with, had just been thrown out the window because someone assumed that just because I was using the masculine form that I was automatically insulting women. This irritated me. It felt like some total stranger had walked up to me out of the blue and said "you think you're better than me, don't you? well you know what? I'm going to penalize you for it: from now on you have to...." Someone somewhere decided that the masculine default was so oppressive that it should be removed entirely, and worse, instead of simply switching to a feminine default they made us write in a ridiculous dual format, And they did this because masculinity itself was, apparently, an insult to women.
I would like to take a moment to make it clear that I have a great deal of respect for women; some of them are smarter than me, most of them multitask better than I'll ever be able to, and every single one of them is a darn sight prettier than I am. On the other hand, I am male, and I am perfectly comfortable being one, so when I project my thoughts out into the world they carry a masculine bias. I don't intend any insult to any party with that bias, it's just there. Then someone comes along and tells me "you can't think from a male perspective because men aren't better than women."
Wait, What? Why don’t you just introduce a feminine default? If you don’t want everyone making the assumption that readers are male then give the writer latitude to assume they’re all female. Why do you restrict my choices in the name of equality instead of simply giving others more freedom to act?
[Now leaving anecdote mode. We hope that you had fun, and that we’ll see you again in the future.]
Now, since rant mode has dragged me rather farther afield, I’d like to summarize My perception of the topic.
Political Correctness = I want a new word
In the current context there are two reasons for a new word
a) Your word for me is offensive
b) Your word makes you sound better than me
If you are offended by the appellation I use to refer to you or your group, and ask me to use a different term in the future, I will make an effort to do so. In fact, if you do so politely, I will respect you as an individual for your levelheadedness in regards to my ignorance. If, however, you come to me and tell me that some group over there should be called a different name because the one they have makes them sound better than your group , I will make two comments: a) that the connotative definition of a word is the product of society, and b) I will ask why you aren’t confident enough in your own group to prove that your group is just as good as the other group without my help.
Society has its own perceptions, and you can’t change them by demanding that they change. If you replace a positive appellation from something that society considers truly positive, then whatever replacement you chose will eventually take on the same positive connotations. If society thinks something is better or more useful or more ‘normal’ or more common, then that same thought will carry over, no matter what you call it. Words sometimes can change perception, but perception more often changes words.
Finally, and this is the real point of my whole discussion, I don’t believe in top-down equality. Tearing down a skyscraper doesn’t add any extra stories to your house, and cutting off a taller man’s head doesn’t make the short man any less short. Progress is what you get when you pull yourself to a higher level; pulling someone down to yours only gives you the illusion of progress.
Thank you for your time. If you have any comments or criticism I welcome them, and will try to give them the same consideration that you have given me.