Political Correctness The Term example essay topic

Political Correctness The term "Political Correct" has been in the nation's vocabulary for only a short period of time but has changed the way that we view life and communicate with one another. Political correctness, politically correct, and P.C. are terms that refer, to a social idea that is characterized by efforts to redress, mainly by the use of language, real or supposed discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, nationality, disability or any other criteria that could offended a particular group. The main goal behind political correctness is to prevent the exclusion or the offending of people based upon differences or handicaps. In an essay written by Michiko Kakutani entitled The Word Police, she examines the idea of political correctness and questions society for taking a good idea and making a mockery of it. Kakutani is quick to point out in her story that know one can argue that the moral idea's behind being political correct are wrong but that those in potions of authority have gone completely out of control trying to rewrite the view of the world in a rigid unyielding style that forces words and phrases into the minds of ever person in America. Groups like the MLA (Modern Language Association) have taken words that have been used for centuries and have created new ones overnight that are political correct and non offensive, the problem is that society is not prepared to be political correct overnight and who is to judge what should be changed and where the line for all this change should be drawn.

Kakutani points out many obscured changes that have occurred since the word police have begun enforcing changes to the terms we use. Phrase such as "charley horse", "lazy Susan", "bull market" and "Kaiser Roll" have all come under fire because they are now considered to be politically incorrect. When going to a restaurant you will no longer be using the term "Waiter" or Waitress" to address the person who serves your food since this is a complete prejudice attack on that individual, you will need to refer to that person as the "Waitron" so as not to offend. In fact all references to sexual orientation associated with any position or station life are to be removed from the words we speak and write, no longer can we use terms such as "lord"", king", "master" or " fellow" to describe a man, I'm not certain what the new words are to replaces these but I'm sure someone will catch me saying something like", my friend is a nice fellow" and quickly set me straight for my blatant disregard of women and society as a whole. One of the figures that Kakutani points out in her story is writer by the name of Rosalie Maggio who is a top cop in the world of the word police, she is not only against words that imply gender she also is against anything that could imply race as well. Ms. Maggio points to phrases such as " black ball", black eye and "black mail" and tells society these terms are wrong and are offence to African American's, she informs us of the new "PC" terms to be "ostracize", "mouse" and "payola", .

While reading The Word Police you are struck by the fact that there are those in society who feel they can change the world by eliminating words that are considered by them to be offensive. The fact of the matter is the actual actions of those that offend in society against people that are different from themselves which all groups are guilty of and not irrelevant terms and phrases words such as "lazy Susan" or "waiter", the point is that society much changes it's behavior not it's phrases. 3 In a revised and politically correct story of Hansel and Gretel written by James Finn Gardner, we are introduced to the undisputed political correctness for literature. We have a story that has completely been changed to fit the role of a political correct story which has taken every word that could ever possible be considered offensive such as lumber jack and turns it into tree butcher. The old story was simple, a lumber jack leaves his kids to because he can't feed them, the kids meet a witch, the witch try's to eat the kids and at the end the father comes in to save the day.

In the new version by James Finn Gardner we are dealing with survivalist, Wican's, organic remedies, lawyers, and corporate greed. This book is a great late night story for the children of the word police. The revised story of Hansel and Gretel completely proves the point of Kakutani in regards to the fanatical word police and their attempts to re-write the view of the world while not actual changing anything. The fact of the matter is that society will eventually mature and evolve away from prejudice and abuses of those that are different from one another but this is a matter of time and can not be done in rewriting the way the world is.

In conclusion the idea of choosing better words to describe those that are different from you is a good idea but when a few individuals choose to change everything for all of us then it's time to install a word IAD (Internal Affairs Division) to police the word police.