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Political Correctness
What is your opinion on being politically correct?
I decided to make this topic due to conversations I've had at work due to male coworkers being politically correct about gender. For example, when I'm on site doing work under a container wharf I need to contact a control tower to let them know who I am, and where I'm going. The call usually goes: "Hi, I'm Lotus the Cat from Pokecommunity. I'm part of a two man crew..." etc. Regardless of whether I'm working with a man or another woman. I have no problem with this because in this context "man" just means person, the actual gender is irrelevant. However, when talking to a make colleague at work using similar terms he will purposefully correct himself to say woman, which I think is silly. I find that's the problem with political correctness, it forces people outside the group to alter terminology for fear of offending in even the most benign circumstances. Add your thoughts. |
Being politically correct is another way of restricting yourself on behalf of someone's sensitivity, kind of like freedom of speech. Comedians get away with making stereotypical jokes but if someone were to casually make the same joke with friends, someone could get offended and retaliate. I myself just stick with being politically correct for the sake of not causing any trouble. The last thing I need is unnecessary stress. I do admit that no one should target any group of people so that's why political correctness exists. Although we're humans and sometimes we say something and slip up.
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I'd just like to say for those who are going to make the "freedom of speech" argument (not directed at you in particular Alfieri) -- there's a difference between freedom of speech and being an asshole, and while I guess you can be an asshole if you want, just know that you're, well, being an asshole.
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The thing is, especially when it comes down to gender, that most people just wanted to be treated exactly the same as normal. Not many people really have a problem with the every day situations, which is what I find silly about most extreme feminists (I'll come to this later). Most people laugh and joke and talk normally and get on with their lives feeling completely unsuppressed and free to do as they like so long as that doesn't have a negative effect on others. I don't find it in any way necessary to restrict my speech to many people in terms of complying with gender equality. Again the same with Black and white people. There is no difference, so I don't alter my speech. I keep my slang, I keep my habits of speech and I don't discriminate.
At the end of the day, most people (sorry, this is generalised for MEDCs; I should have said earlier) just want to live their lives without any bother to how these rules are laid out, because mostly they are fine how they are. I admit there are some funny regulations around that could go, but that's not the subject here. The only time you need to be aware of being politically correct are in formal situations that demand it. Such as being a manager or in a Court of Law. These are two examples where not being politically correct can have horrible consequences, and unfortunately is where a lot of people end up getting their ideas of how various people want to be treated and talked to. Generosity of the media of course. These means that, despite most people not really giving a hoot about whether somebody said 'man' or 'disabled people' in a general context, a lot of people are now conscious of it because of the few people that make a roaring fuss over so little. This leads me on to the problem of extreme feminism, and why it really irks me so. Feminism actually isn't about rights for women at all. It's main focus is gender equality. Coincidentally, this currently means getting more rights for women as they do get the short straw in some circumstances. People start joining in and hollering for this cause, without, more often than not, actually stopping to understand the true motives of the cause they are shouting for. So when these ignorant warriors for justice end up on a large social media site in numbers able to spout what they please to others who aren't against the cause (yes, I'm looking at you, Tumblr), but not fully in it either, we have a problem. More people get the wrong idea and start hollering the wrong idea. Soon everyone is shouting about something that wasn't intended, and the rest of us end up forced to comply, or be called out as a malicious pig. Note at this point that when I say us, it stands for a generalised collective of people, not subject to any one gender, ideal or motive. So then, more people are suppressed into thinking that they must act such a way and speak in such a tongue to prevent insult to the majority who don't even care. At the end of the casual, average person's day, no one gives a hoot about political correctness, as long as you aren't being a racist sexist dog. People feel forced to talk in a certain way because of a minority who have had the opportunity to spout ignorant nonsense to those who don't wish to for hostilities, only to go about their lives trouble free. |
I think political correctness has gone to far, much to the level now when your speaking in public or to people you don't really know, you have to be very careful what words you use because you could find your self in court for using the wrong word.
Of course I don't think people should go around saying offensive and rude things, but I don't think people should be fined, lose their job, be sent on "awareness" course or any other penalty for saying something that may be deemed offensive to another group of people , If however saying those things was part of a greater harassment or bullying then yes the guilty party should face punishment. The other big problem is when words can be interpreted differently by different people. for example: When men call woman love or dear, many people seen that as being nice where feminist would see it as sexist. Queer: It means unusual or odd (Tolkien loved using that word in his books) yet many homosexual find it offensive (and it is used often in a derogatory way to describe homosexuals) also forgive me if am wrong here but some homosexual use the word amongst each other. Faggot: In the UK its a type of food (made from minced pork) yet its a pretty offensive word to homosexuals. |
Political correctness does more harm than good, because the way it's being influenced has forced me to be more restrictive in my taste for certain things, fictional or not, so I wouldn't offend someone. If this keeps going, the future of humanity would look more like this dystopia but more down-to-Earth.
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I think you should be politically correct to an extent, but like what seems to be the general consensus here being too "politically correct" is a bad thing. If you're argument/statement/whatever loses its meaning by your political correctness then you ought to not even bother. Or find a better way to be "correct."
A particular instance I can think of is say there is a group of men, and all of them are white except for one who is black. I can think of a few people who if you were to describe the black man by saying the word "black" they would get all offended, call you racist etc. Say something like "THE CORRECT TERM IS AFRICAN AMERICAN!!!" Which has a whole lot of issues in and of itself. Namely, what if they aren't American? |
I think the main issue people seem to have with the idea of being politically correct is that they seem to think that they have to 'bend over backwards' - so to speak - and watch how they talk around people. And honestly I feel like if you find yourself walking on eggshells when you get into a conversation with someone of a different race/gender/sexuality/religion/whatever, then you have some very serious questions to ask yourself.
Honestly, I don't see a difference between being 'politically correct' and just being polite. Why should anything other than their personality matter? Who cares what they look like, where they're from, who they go to bed with, and what 'bits' they have? Yes these things matter in reference to their identity and experience, and when I say 'who cares' I don't mean to say that the information is irrelevant, but what I mean to say is that it has (or should have) little to no impact on whether or not you find yourself getting along with that person. Personalities clash - gender/sexuality/skin colour does not. Saying that, there are people who will take offence to literally anything even remotely tongue-in-cheek or trip over themselves to make sure they aren't upsetting anyone when absolutely nothing is going on. As an example me and one of my best friends are pansexual. We make jokes with each other about how pansexual (or bisexual, if you'd rather) people don't really exist, that we're just promiscuous or 'greedy'. We know it's dumb and we know it's all a joke, because the joke is at the expense of the people who would genuinely say that kind of thing. But I'd never say that kind of stuff to someone who I don't know, because I don't have that relationship with them. I don't know if this person will take those kind of jokes and run with them or if they'll be genuinely offended by something. I won't refrain from telling the jokes if I get to know them better at a later date, but I think it's down to rapport. Additionally, say you made a comment about someone which you thought was innocent enough but which was taken the wrong way - in this case let's say it was taken as being a homophobic comment. Being 'that guy who hates gays' is a really difficult thing to shake off, and it can be REALLY damning. So of course people are scared of coming across as homophobic/racist/sexist. I just think it's a case of one group of people overthinking things and another (albeit smaller) group making things overly sensitive. Bringing this back to the original post, I think the dude in question just lacks that rapport. Perhaps have a word with him - if you haven't already - and say that it isn't a big deal? The way your post was worded it sounds like the two of you don't know each other particularly well, so maybe that's part of the problem? It's late and I'm babbling so it's very possible that none of this makes any sense. |
Political correctness is a load of bullcrap. Since I'm a member of a religious minority, I'm expected to take offence to lots of things, when in fact I don't. I don't care if people eat pork or have seeing eye dogs. Us Muslims are stereotyped as easily offended, and I'm tired of it. There's a difference between being polite and being politically correct. I mean, I take offence when people refer to Lebanese as "Leb" or "Lebo", but those are derogatory terms from the get-go.
I've met black people and they have no problems with being called black. (I don't capitalise the word since I think that's kinda political correctness, and capitalising white is something a white supremacist would do.) My best friend's mother is a stage actress and she refers to herself as an actress (to be fair, she is in her fifties, but the younger women at her theatre refer to themselves as actresses too). I noticed other languages are not as politically correct as English - many languages still use gender-specific job titles. Sometimes the gendered suffix is okay if it changes the image one gets. I mean, for example, the words prince and princess conjure different images; so do the words lion and lioness (a lion has a mane and lazes around, a lioness does not have a mane and does most of the hunting), the words god and goddess (especially this one - we often think of gods as old bearded guys and goddesses as beautiful women), and the words priest and priestess (priest is associated with Christianity, while priestess would probably make people think either ancient polytheistic religions or neopagans). But if we look at the words poet, doctor, and author, we don't get different images, which is why we no longer use the female forms of those words. |
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I think those that have to make the allowances by watching their speech are forced into an awkward position, particularly if they slip up and need to correct themselves. All pity to the straight white male I guess. |
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People who go around to be "edgy" in the pure attempt not to be politically correct have absolutely no social skills imo and so I can't find myself taking them seriously? It's honestly not that hard to listen to someone if they're upset about something you've said and then not be a dickhead about it. I've said many politically incorrect things in my time, consequently got called out on them and I never got upset about it because I'm an adult? I mean sometimes I may disagree but I have better things to do with my time than purposefully annoy people. It honesty really is a sign of maturity imo.
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Politcal Correctness falls into the "watch what you say in the presence of specific people/the public" for me. I don't think it's silly, stupid, or a waste of time to consciously not offend people, I truly think that's an important aspect of being an individual in society. I don't want to have a negative impact on someone's day and it doesn't bring me any added stress to be aware of what I am saying. In certain social settings I don't monitor myself as much because I know these people aren't offended... but having said that I don't honestly say offending things as part of my personality.
If some words have the ability to hurt someone then it's best not to use them. I have a large vocabulary/lexicon and I am happy to use them to their fullest to avoid offending people even if I don't exactly feel offended by certain words myself. |
Judge the situation properly and act accordingly. Absolute political correctness is inefficient and limits a social climate, but the lack of political correctness and the abandonment of one's filter only breeds ignorance.
Find the balance that works for the situation at hand and hope it works out. |
Being politically correct is only useful insofar as it serves the purpose of being respectful, courteous, and polite. When it fails to do this and it's just being done for its own sake, it has gone too far.
Plus, there are times where you shouldn't be respectful, courteous, or polite. Sometimes people need to be offended. That's often how progress is made. Quote:
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I think being correct has become somewhat of a hazard more for men than for women. I just say person, employee, worker, or citizen. Sounds kind of robotic the longer you're speaking with me. Can't be caught slaking because they put us through these damn classes on being correct all the time.
It probably helps that I viewed everyone the same to begin with, as they all bleed the same. So perhaps looking at everyone with a slight dash of narcissism can put you on the path to becoming politically correct. Although I'm pretty sure none of us are in a position to be running politically. |
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