To be P.C.
Being politically correct is one of those things that sounds like a good idea on paper, but doesn’t end up working in practise. More than just the use of a phrase or euphemism, political correctness is an entire liberal ideology based on equality of gender, race, and religion. We don’t want to purposely offend anyone; we want to cultivate an environment where everyone is treated fairly. To help achieve this goal, we simply take any action or phrase and make it digestible to anyone who might happen to see the action or phrase.
Take any occupation you know ending with ‘-man’. Apparently this suffix implies that only a male can do that occupation. As such, a garbageman, a businessman, a freshman are now referred to as a garbage collector, a businessperson, or a freshperson. Yes, freshperson. Being a female myself, I have to say, I’m not particularly offended by the term ‘freshman’.
I know the original term is not meant to offend me and that it’s just a word used to describe a person in their first year of high school, university or college. Funny thing, though, as soon as someone uses the term freshperson, it sounds alien to me.
Same thing with these ‘winter’ events that tend to happen around December. ‘Merry Christmas’ is a thing of the past; ‘Happy holidays’ is five minutes ago; the correct term for any event in December is ‘winter’. That doesn’t even make sense. Winter is December to March, so shouldn’t any holiday that falls under that umbrella be given the title? In reality, ‘Winter’ is used so people who don’t have a holiday to celebrate can be included and absolutely no one will be offended. All, of course, with the little expense of losing individuality.
Really, you have to look at the side effects of trying not to offend anyone at any time. No matter what you say, someone is going to be offended by it. Even ‘Winter’. What if someone who doesn’t experience winter hears it being used? Oh, you chuckle now, but that line of thinking is what got us to these ‘Winter’ events. Someone was offended at ‘Merry Christmas’, a sentiment used to convey the peace and goodwill associated with the holiday. What’s to stop someone from lamenting about a season? Maybe we’ll just revert to Months. “Happy December!” you say to your friend. Ah, but wait, that’s using the Gregorian calendar, which is obviously has a clear bias toward Christianity. What next? Happy Thursday! No, wait, that’s a reference to the Norse, Thor and all that. Happy Day! But wait, what about the people at the poles who live with six months night, and six months day? Doubleplusungood!
Yes, that’s very extreme. The point being is that with enough political correctness tucked into a concept, the meaning and context of the concept can become muddled.
However, it’s what political correctness doesn’t say that holds the most weight. Recently, Facebook adopted a policy of deleting any photo uploaded which featured a woman breastfeeding. The idea, of course, is that any depiction of a woman’s breast is obscene and should be removed to maintain the standards of the site. But breastfeeding is a perfectly natural process, and the biological function of a breast is to feed an infant. By removing these photos, isn’t Facebook implying that breastfeeding is in someway obscene or sexual? And doesn’t that imply that some pervert was trolling around Facebook and found a picture of a woman breastfeeding someway arousing? I think that’s more offencive than any child merely feeding.
This is why being P.C. doesn’t work. On the one hand, the practise oversimplifies the meaning trying to be conveyed, and on the other hand invites the audience to invent their own meanings from what the action or phrase has neglected to mention. Isn’t it just easier to say what you mean?