Political correctness
Political correctness (PC) is a phrase that describes language, measures or policies taken as a way to ensure you don’t offend particular members in a society. Notably, the term is used to describe hostility or criticism in the public conversations and in the media implying the policies are undeserved, (Halmari 828). Also, back in 1980s the term has been used to show the importance of inclusive language and keeping away from behaviour or language that appear exclusive, insulting or marginalizing certain groups of people that are known to be discriminated, oppressed or disadvantaged due to their race, ethnicity, physical disability, sexual orientation or gender, (Littlewood & Michael 290). In this backdrop, it will be noble to discuss the important areas affected by political correctness and objections or criticism facing it despite having been greatly supported by many.
Critically, the authors have been carrying out research and study on political correctness to maintain a balanced view and recording their findings e.g. 2010 journal, Strani jezici. Political correctness is very crucial to effective language teaching teachers whose task is to ensure that users of English really understand the cultural setting of the language and communicate successfully, (Andrade & Shivashanmugam 76). Also, the study aims at increasing teachers’ and learners’ awareness of various societal issues like diversity, tolerance, democracy, and flexibility among others. Mostly, languages used to address different minority groups exhibits an area sensitive in English and several other languages like the Croatian language.
Background of political correctness
However, the usage of this term dates back to 1970s and 1980s where it was perceived as a self-critical satire rather than a political movement. Also, it was a jokingly used to mock people who were found fixed in their faithful support to political faith. Besides, the current pejorative use of this phrase came from a conservative critique of the New Left in the late 20th century (Halmari 830). Notably, the usage was made popular by various articles published in The New York Times and several other platforms of media in the 1990s and discussed widely the book by Allan Blooms of 1987, The Closing of the American Mind, (Dickerson 163). Moreover, political correctness gained momentum in response to other authors’ work such as Tenured Radicals of 1990 by Roger Kimball and Illiberal Education book by Dinesh D’Souza who was a conservative author.
Most of the people in the political left argue that conservatives use political correctness to divert attention and de-emphasize the discriminatory behaviour against the minority groups. Furthermore, it is argued that the political right mostly uses the term to crush any criticism of their desirable ideologies. For instance, political correctness has become popular thus playing a great role in the political struggle between conservatives and liberals, (Dickerson 163). Many of the Americans are conservatives hence making political correctness a powerful term in the United States whereby it’s adopted by political parties and other corporate media though many equate it to patriotism.
Ideally, the pioneers of this movement called for cautious and extra careful behaviour in the struggle against bias, intolerance, prejudice, and intolerance based on ability, sexual orientation, age, and physical appearance. The pioneers’ beliefs, principles and great intentions of the political correctness movement have been frequently compromised thus making these efforts purposeless, (Littlewood & Michael 290). Besides, many authors and founders of this term have found the use of this term mostly misused in an attempt to make it universal.
Essential areas affected by political correctness
In this regard, authors have made remarkable efforts to draw attention to some of the most important areas widely influenced by political correctness. As a result, they have emphasized the prominent areas such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental and physical disability, language biasness, etc., (Chuang et al. 100). Notably, there has been great changes over the past decades in the gender term which has since been changed to ‘a person’ to show neutrality and drop man, especially in compound nouns such chairperson instead of chairman, firefighters rather than fireman, etc. Likewise, some terms in the field of the profession have recorded remarkable changes thus seeing the female suffixes like –ess, -trix and –ette appear in the professions that were traditionally reserved for men, for example, prophet vs prophetess, usher vs usherette, manager vs manageress, actor vs actress etc., (Mills 88).
Besides, about titles preceding surnames like Mr, Mrs, and Miss are considered unfair because they put women in an inferior state. For instance, Mr has been used to refer to men and in no way does it address their marital status while Mrs and Miss do show disparity since it addresses married and unmarried women, respectively, (Mills 88). Therefore, to have neutrality and inclusivity, it is important to use Ms when addressing women. Consequently, the Croatian native speakers fail to comprehend the reason why the title Miss that refers to unmarried women will be offensive and yet makes sense in English.
Consequently, same tendencies appear to be applied while referring to other aspects such as race, religious, ethnic, minority issues, for example, endless use of terms like negro, Latino, African-American, Caucasian, Asian, American Indian, Italian-American, Native American, etc. Critically, it is evident that there is a lot of ethnic disparity in this terms all contradicting the basic rule of language simplicity and clarity and importantly bringing about vagueness and on certain circumstances pure nonsense, (Loury 428). However, in search of alternative words that are less offensive, it is naturally unavoidable to use these terms hence making this language insincere, condescending, pompous, ridiculous and meaningless. Interestingly, use of neutral terms such as de racialisation for political correctness has resulted to the majority of this neutral terms being depreciated hence becoming unsuitable and hackneyed, for example, coloured, Negro, Afro-American, black, etc.
Concerning the mental health issue, it’s true that many of this is regarded as a liability in the society and their families. As a result, due to delicacy of this issue, it is advised to use careful and thoughtful terms such as psychiatric hospitals or clinics rather than mental institutions while addressing institutions of people with a mental health problem, (Loury 450). On the other hand, minority groups that concern people with different disabilities and people of different sexual orientations have resulted in heated arguments over the past. In this regard, use of terms like visually impaired, disabled, persons with hearing impairments, mentally challenged, people with special needs and differently-abled people are preferred from terms such as invalid, deaf, handicap, and blind, (Mills 93). However, political correctness proponents hardly use these terms and strike many as being.
Moreover, about age, many people are sensitive since they have been subjected to prejudice, unfair treatment and ridicule. Hence, older people have been referred to as elderly or chronically gifted or challenged to avoid using the term old age, (Chuang et al. 100). However, modern society refers to this group as senior citizens or people of the third age to show respect and fairness.
Critical objection
Arguably, despite attraction attention and interest, political correctness, however, have been faced opposition and criticism thus making this term to have some negative meanings. One of the first opponent to the term ‘politically correct speech’ is George Orwell, an English author. Notably, back in 1940s and 1950s is said to have anticipated fairly majority of future developments and trends, (Loury 100). This is because there seems to have been a deterioration in language usage to please the political class and achieve non-linguistically needs at the expense of sounding neutral for political correctness.
Besides, he stated that political language is a means of, not expressing one’s thoughts, but often hiding the fact that one has no thoughts, happen to be well known and quoted frequently, even in English speaking non-speaking world. Furthermore, linguistics argues that language users naturally and freely determine changes but not decreed, (Chuang et al.101). However, areas, where some words or phrases are favoured for political correctness and replaced with other terms with reasons not related to linguistic, is taken as violation of the freedom of speech and this has led to the deterioration of the English language.
CONCLUSION
In summation, increase in social and political consciousness resulted to use of politically correct language in English and other languages in that all people should be treated with respect despite their religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc. Therefore, politically correct speech should be in line with changes in our current society that has created more awareness on the rights and privileges of the underprivileged and minority groups, (Andrade & Shivashanmugam 76). Despite the important critiques to this, students and language users are encouraged to learn and become familiar with these changes. Besides, authors appreciate the need to uphold these changes and use of political correctness with care to ensure that it is inclusive or not offensive to any member of the society.
Work Cited
Halmari, Helena. “Political correctness, euphemism, and language change: The case of ‘people first’.” Journal of Pragmatics 43.3 (2016): 828-840.
Littlewood, Jane, and Michael Pickering. “Gender, ethnicity and political correctness in comedy.” Because I tell a joke or two: Comedy, politics, and social difference (2018): 289-307.
Chuang, Rueyling, Vijay Krishna, and Tom D. Daniels. “Gender and Ethnicity Influences on Student Attitudes toward Speech Restrictions, Political Correctness, and Educational Models.” Free Speech Yearbook 33.1 (2015): 99-115.
Dickerson, Donna L. “Framing “political correctness”: The New York Times’ tale of two professors.” Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world (2016): 163-174.
Mills, Sara. “Caught between sexism, anti-sexism and political correctness’: feminist women’s negotiations with naming practices.” Discourse & Society 14.1 (2018): 87-110.
Loury, Glenn C. “Self-censorship in public discourse: A theory of “political correctness” and related phenomena.” Rationality and Society 6.4 (2019): 428-461.
Andrade, Chittaranjan, and Shivashanmugam Thyagarajan. “The influence of name on the acceptability of ECT: The importance of political correctness.” The journal of ECT 23.2 (2017): 75-77.