Christian J. Robinson: "Politically Correct"

The "Politically Correct" movement infuriates me, in one way in particular. That is the assumption that the generic pronoun "he" excludes women.

Quoted from the bottom of a Register article:

"All right, I'm only going to say this once: 'He' is the singular indefinite pronoun in English ("if a person drinks too much, he will likely experience a hangover"). 'He' also happens to be the masculine personal pronoun.

"'She' is the singular pronoun of personification in English ("if England fails to advance America's foreign-policy ambitions, she will suffer terrible consequences"). 'She' also happens to be the feminine personal pronoun.

"Confusing the two exhibits not a warm-and-fuzzy concern for the inclusion of women so much as a writer's or speaker's ignorance. Using the feminine personal pronoun as an indefinite article is as moronic as using the masculine personal pronoun for personification. Thus the captain greets us: "Welcome to my ship. Isn't he splendid?"

"Give it up, people. It's not thoughtful; it's just illiterate."

"PCers" may consider it offensive if I properly use 'he', but I consider it much more offensive that they're quite literally telling me what I'm thinking and telling me that it's somehow immoral.

So I refuse to use atrocities such as "s/he", "she/he", "he/she", "he or she", "humankind" (it's "mankind"), etc. I realize that the use of "their" is considered acceptable, and I've even seen arguments that well-known authors through the ages have used it, but I have also seen better arguments that it was not in the context claimed. In my opinion it looks awkward, and at best semi-literate.

I am not excluding women when I use 'he'. Those that feel I am are the ones with a problem. They should realize that allowing the use of 'he' as the generic indefinite pronoun makes it much more difficult to purposefully use women-excluding language.

As a last point, English is not the only language that works this way. German is quite similar, along with others.

I don't care who you are, where you're from, or how good a person you try to be. You will eventually say something that is "politically incorrect". It is those who have some kind of agenda against you or in general that will "call" you on it. In other words, calling someone "politically incorrect" is absolutely no better than using other ad-hominem attacks against him.

We can't communicate if we're always worried about making sure what we say is semantically "acceptable."

I once overheard a discussion that the use of "blackboard" was politically incorrect. I personally prefer the name "chalk board" but I don't care if people use the former. This is beyond ridiculous, and I don't think I should have to explain why. There are whiteboards too, and nobody gets worked up about that name.

I also don't think people should be accused of being "politically correct", which does happen. Since there is a backlash of (certain kinds of) political correctness, there are times when accusing someone of being deliberately "politically correct" can be an effective attack.

It is not acceptable to attempt to silence someone with either accusation.

A particularly good rant about ignorance and "politlical correctness" appeared in the Coshocton Tribune about the use of the word "niggardly". Unfortunately it has since vanished.

And a friend pointed this one out to me, though I was unable to verify the source:

The 2007 winner of the Texas A&M University competion to define a contemporary term:

"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."