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Saturday, August 8, 2015

PC or Not PC? That Is the Question.


On different issues I know in an instant what my position is because I can identify its substance to one facet or another of my own life like the anti-choice movement. Or, in its infancy, I quickly know how I feel because it's just a given, like the Black Lives Matter movement. From day one I had a connection so passionate as to think, "I will absolutely meet you in an alley out back over this."

There are some things that I have to spend time in reflection before I really know how I feel because the debate, itself, encapsulates my own inner turmoil about variables of either side, like the death penalty debate. It is obvious that our system is a clusterfuck where innocent people are sentenced (or worse) and it is questionable, at best, if a 'civilized' society would have a government that has killing human beings on its agenda. On the other hand, from the day I met and instantly loved my daughter I knew that if anyone brought the irreparable harm to her as finds so many of America's children, I would not want them to enjoy a moment in this realm where my child could not.



So with this discussion about our present definition of political correctness and whether or not it has been stretched so thin as to disallow our own societal growth, I have been back and forth on the subject and struggled while on both sides. I certainly will, for the rest of my life, disavow the ideas of political correctness offered by the meme creators on the right whose only obective is to denounce everything and everyone the basic tenets of political correctness uplift and celebrate, but I have questioned recently if we have found a way to take those ideals to extremes.

Yesterday, before I saw this video from Bill Maher I think I had pretty much found my answer, but as with all things in my mind that passionately demand definition, I still needed to understand why or how we found ourselves in this place. We can all point our fingers at problems and lament those who perpetuate them, but without understandings of their origins and implementations, nothing will ever be done to resolve them. Our own defensiveness will instigate theirs and leave no room for growth.



For me it was nice to have been afforded this perspective on the same day I felt pushed over the edge on the political correctness question I was teetering back and forth about because I now won't have to drive myself crazy trying to figure out the 'whys' and 'hows' for myself. The thesis offered by Caitlin Flanagan makes a lot of sense. There may be a few caveats I will need to manipulate a bit for my own belief structure, but the basis of why we find ourselves in this place is quite clear. And, having been a parent who raised a child during this age with steadfast absolutes regarding how to embrace and promote variables in society, the causation is evident. (So is my own complicity. Sorry).

If any good will come from people dismissing the Black Lives Matter mantra with generic reminders that all lives matter, it is our reaction to that dismissal. Our reactions are visceral. They are innate and genuine. We have raised ourselves and our children not only to know that truth but to demand it of society. But when we condemn those who agree with us on our embrace of humanity but either do not understand the definitions the same as we see them or with the same limitations, we begin creating more problems for our defined cause than maybe even solutions.

Below, please find my last straw. I realized our own failures yesterday and the dangers which come from our very narrow expectations of those who define themselves similarly. Quite simply, we alienate those who are our allies in the universal struggle and we, possibly, take that struggle to such an extreme as will never be accepted by a society whose progress is generally slow and whose identifications of variables will never come from the same places and experiences as another.

I am a feminist. I have had countless arguments with others who say I am not a feminist because I do not meet their definition. It is childish and I always let them know that. I will never question or be uncomfortable defining myself as a feminist and I will never need to reach out beyond myself to determine if it should change. It always pisses me off that someone thinks it is their responsibility to define it for me. Feminism is about equality. I can take it from here. Really. Thanks.

I always get very defensive when someone tries to define feminism for me. And here I am openly acknowledging that I am pissed off about the definitions of another. Beyond that acknowledgement, I am not really comfortable with the fact that I am doing it, but I do not feel apologetic for it, either. I will allow these people to not share my definition, I suppose, but I will say that my interepretation of their projections will make the movement even more difficult than it already is. I want my grandbabies to grow up in a world where the ERA has passed. I want them to have laws specifically not just to protect their rights to their own bodies, but on the books saying that no politician or judge can determine otherwise. The farther away the cause of equality comes from the mission, however, the fewer accomplishments we will have had for my grandbabies future. Frankly, that is unacceptable to me.






Has anyone else struggled with or questioned the political correctness debates, lately?




3 comments:

  1. I have noticed that the phrase "politically correct" is now used the way the term "feminist" has been used for the last couple decades. In other words, people are quick to say "I'm not a feminist" or "I have political correctness" without thinking about what it means.They just know it's "bad." The two terms have been co-opted by the Right Wing, and the general public have come to accept the Right Wing's definitions.

    The terms PC and PI (Politically Incorrect) first appeared in the early 80's on the LEFT to make fun of others on the LEFT. The term was meant as a joke, almost a term of endearment to laugh at those who take themselves too seriously. The Right has twisted the term PC to mean anyone who complains about racism, sexism or systemic injustices.

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  2. I can't think any other way than women having the right to choose. A good friend loaned me a book recently that is about how we are overpopulating OUR planet. The book is "Countdown" and the author is Alan Weisman. He traveled the world and wrote this about different cultures and I believe it should be required reading for the entire World population! We are killing the very planet we call home and if we don't stop very soon our children and grandchildren will all be homeless!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can't think any other way than women having the right to choose. A good friend loaned me a book recently that is about how we are overpopulating OUR planet. The book is "Countdown" and the author is Alan Weisman. He traveled the world and wrote this about different cultures and I believe it should be required reading for the entire World population! We are killing the very planet we call home and if we don't stop very soon our children and grandchildren will all be homeless!

    ReplyDelete