I realize that your point is that people should not be so touchy about feeling offense when none was intended. This is true. But it's also true that people should be careful about giving offense without realizing it.
The other day, as a consequence of the ongoing discussion, I googled definitions of PC. I use the term as a negative as do most people, best I can tell. So I was startled when I found this: "Political correctness is the alteration of language said by proponents to redress real or alleged unjust discrimination or to avoid offense. The term most often appears in the predicate adjective form politically correct, often abbreviated PC, and is usually used mockingly or disparagingly. "
That quote is from en.wikipedia.org. There's a long discussion of the term at that site and lots of commentary on the web on how the usage has evolved. You might find this bit interesting.
<<The term politically correct and the accompanying movement rose to broad usage in the early 1980s, but the term itself is actually much older, suggesting that such linguistic sensitivity is nothing new. The earliest cited usage of the term comes from the U.S. Supreme Court decision Chisholm v. Georgia (1793):
The states, rather than the People, for whose sakes the States exist, are frequently the objects which attract and arrest our principal attention [...]. Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language. Is a toast asked? 'The United States,' instead of the 'People of the United States,' is the toast given. This is not politically correct. >>
There is also some discussion there and elsewhere about how the usage has evolved.
I digress. What startled me was the "real or alleged." When I use the term, PC, I'm talking about the alleged, not the real. I mean for the term to convey scorn at the extraordinary contortions we go through to avoid offending the most easily offended among us or those who have an axe to grind. I did not think that the term in current usage any longer referred to the real but only to the alleged and absurd. In my mind, avoiding real offense is not PC but a matter of politeness and sensitivity, which I don't think of as negatives.
Anyway, what started me on this research was the discussion about "Merry Christmas" and the assumption expressed by some posters that saying "Happy Holidays" to someone not obviously Christian was PC (negative) rather than manners (positive). My thinking is that we live in this world with other people and we need to get outside our self-absorption enough to be aware of them recognize their individuality and potentially different needs. When we walk through a door, we look back to see if there is someone coming through the door behind us rather than just letting it swing shut on someone. We don't wear obscene slogans on our t-shirts if we're going to be anywhere that children might be. And we don't say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" to a store patron wearing a Muslim headscarf. And, as you point out, we don't call women "broads." I don't think that any of that is PC, simply courtesy. |
