POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Political Correctness in English Language

Political Correctness in English Language

PART I

Political correctness 

Political correctness (PC) is a term used to describe language, ideas, policies, or behaviour seen as seeking to minimize offence to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups. Conversely, the term “politically incorrect” is used to refer to language or ideas that may cause offence or that are unconstrained by orthodoxy.

 

The Need for PC

The Political Correctness movement is an intellectual effort to use language to allow and encourage social progress.  It has suffered from a great deal of ridicule and scorn, and it has also been confused by many. 

The theoretical foundation of the PC movement is this: language creates categories for thought, and words can create either opportunities or boundaries.  The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a widely accepted part of this theory.  All of language is a construct that attempts to signify abstract meaning, and any construct will be lacking.  The language we use affects not just the messages we communicate, but the fundamental ways that we think and act.  The problem arises when the linguistic constructs we use influence our way of thinking in negative ways.  These negative influences from language can be called politically incorrect. The three categories of this kind of language:

Subtle.  Words like policeman, mailman, fireman; referring to all people as man; referring to an androgynous individual as he.  These exclusionary words subtly influence our way of thinking.  The first three imply that these are roles for men only.  This kind of language can keep women from being comfortable aspiring to these positions.  The other general references of man and he are simply inaccurate and unnecessarily exclusionary.  They imply that masculinity is the default and superior gender trait.

Offensive.  Words like gay or retarded to refer to something undesirable; words like fag or retard to refer to people.  The first set shows how these descriptions inherently link certain types of individuals to anything bad by using terms that refer to them as insults for other undesirable concepts.  The second set is offensive because of the pejorative connotations implied by these slurs.  There are appropriate ways of referring to individuals that does not unnecessarily demean them.

Blatant.  The n-word to refer to black people or the c-word or b-word to refer to women.  This type needs little explanation.  These words are highly offensive and indicate a great deal of disdain.  They objectify and belittle entire groups of people based on one trait.

The PC movement is widely dispersed and obviously includes many more elements than these.  However, these three are probably the most insidious and misunderstood.  Instead of lampooning the idea of PC, we should recognize its theoretical validity and usefulness in promoting social progress.

At its core, the PC movement is not about censorship.  People should be allowed to use almost any kind of language that they want to.  But the much more important question is what kind of language they should use.  The PC movement operates well within the open marketplace ...