What does the phrase ‘politically correct’ really mean?
The dictionary.com definition is: marked by or adhering to a typically progressive orthodoxy on issues involving esp. race, gender, sexual affinity, or ecology.
But what does that really mean to the rest of us?
Ever since we read Hayakawa I have this unwillingness to just accept certain things about language, and the idea that people can be politically correct is one of them. Why ‘politically’? Are people involved in politics more adherent to the progressive orthodoxy involving race, gender, sexual affinity or ecology? Does this mean that normal people don’t need to worry about referring to others by what would normally be considered politically incorrect terms?
I’m not condoning the use of terms that would be considered offensive, but I feel as though in today’s rigid society people get so tongue tied with political correctness that the meaning is lost behind their words. This idea that no one will ever offend anyone is truly unrealistic. If a word has a different meaning to everyone, how can we possibly not offend anyone? What even makes a politically correct word politically correct? How many people have to agree that they are not offended by a word to make it useable?
As time continues to alter the culture of the nation, politically correct terms begin to change as well. What was once an ok term to call an African American is now a politically incorrect term. The emphasis is placed on the word itself rather than the thing it is representing. The past context/connotations of words become more important than the actual physical things someone is referring to.
This is a lame example but say it became politically incorrect to call a stapler a stapler and instead it was to be called a clipper. If someone innocently said, pass the stapler, they would be chastised for using such a derogatory term. But did the stapler change? It is the same thing in the physical world, but an abstract connotation with the word stapler makes it inappropriate.
I’m not sure if this post made sense, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the words politically correct actually mean to everyone.
1 comment:
I suppose that being "politically correct" means using speech with the least amount of negative connotations. But "politically correct dialog" is only "politically correct" in certain settings; it is dependent upon the audience that the speaker is addressing and the actual speaker himself/herself. A term that is offensive to one crowd may be harmless for another. As you said, Donna, the meaning/connotation of a word must be generally agreed upon first before usage of that word can be determined, but its almost impossible to decipher which words offend which people because we all interpret words differently based upon our past experiences. This issue concerns all politicians, especially in today's world when their every word is recorded or otherwise documented. If they say just one wrong phrase or word, it's splashed all over the pages of the newspaper.
An interesting scenario: I was watching 60 minutes tonight, and Al Gore was being interviewed about his latest ad campaign for Global Warming awareness. The interviewer also asked him about his new career training other people to give his famous "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation. Gore alters the way he presents the material depending upon who he is presenting to. When he speaks to Evangelical Christians, he includes passages from the bible to try and make global warming a moral and religious issue. The inclusion of this crowd, but it would be considered entirely inappropriate if he presented the powerpoint this way to another group of Hindus in India.
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