Saturday, February 12, 2011

Dear Lori

Did you read First Page at DA today? I bet that poor author didn't know she was a bigot. I bet she's an old fart, just like us. It's hard to keep up with all the political correctness, isn't it?

We used words in everyday speech and they were just words. Back then Indian was not a racial slur, it was an ... Indian. What the hell else would you call them, except their tribal names which I never could pronounce. Now I'm a bad person because I'm not supposed to use it anymore, I'm supposed to use Native American, and I keep forgetting because for me, Indian is NOT a racial slur.

My coworker, who started life as a Filipino, was having a conversation with her son, who told her not to use Oriental, that the correct term was now Asian. Boy, was she surprised. Still, it's always handy to know what you're supposed to be called. I suppose, way back in the day, I'd have been called a potato eater or spud or some other term related to potatoes. Famine is so comedic.

And did you know there are no dwarves anymore? No, the polically correct terminology is little people. I've always wondered if this included midgets because, after all, they are little and they are people, nevermind that the medical condition is completely different from dwarfism (I believe that's a legal medical term there), as is their appearance.

Now I'm wondering how this will affect books. Will some dedicated scolar go through LOTR and The Deed of Paksensarrion and all other fantasies, to change all the dwarves to little people? The term 'little people' does not invoke the same image-you know, fierce warriors wielding big axes and collecting enemy heads to count coup.

You gotta be careful these days. No telling when or where or how you'll slip up. Being on the internet is very educational, but it also heightens the chance you'll make a big fool of yourself. Or others will make big fools of themselves.

Take your pick.

Sorry to be so serious, but this old fart is frustrated as hell. Don't even get me started on food!

Love

Carolyn

5 comments:

  1. PC is getting ridiculous isn't it?

    It's going to get to the point where you will have to name things with numbers for fear the word you use is discriminatory. then again, some twat with nothing better to do will probably find a way to make that seem hurtful or nasty and we'll have to think of soemthing else.

    Your comment about having to rewrite LOTR got me to thinking about how most of Enid Blyton's books are being edited (along with others, no doubt) because of the small mindedness of some people.

    A couple of the changes now mean Noddy and Big Ears can no longer sleep in teh same bed, or Golliwog's can't be called Golliwog's. Seems the gay and racist undertones aren't 'kid safe'.

    For the love of Pete! As someone who has grown up the victim of bullying/hurtful taunts, I understand the need to stamp out racism/other isms but please, there has to be some sense in this.

    I grew up reading Enid Blyton's books (and many others) and I can't see the harm in them. So what if Noddy and Big Ears share a bed? Kids will read that as a sleep-over. It's the adults who read in to it the 'gay undertones'.

    If anything/one is taking away the innocence of youth it's the so called 'do gooders/pc police' who are forcing the rest of us to an almost sterile way of life. What makes the few think their way is the right way? DOn't they trust us to know the right and wrong way of things without having to force it down our throats in EVERYTHING we see/read/do?

    I guess I got off the point somewhere but I had to say I agree with you Carolyn. It is very frustrating. And the scary thing is it will only get worse.

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  2. They're editing Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain here in the States. I meann - MARK TWAIN!!

    Taking out the N word, never mind that it was appropriate for the time written. Let's change history. Who needs to learn from it? Young minds might be scarred. No one teaches anymore.

    Bah!

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  3. Exactly. Didn't they stop to think that all this editing and drawing attention to the little things that wouldn't normally raise an eye (the N word aside) is half the problem?

    I guess PC officianados are so perfect in their lives and attitudes they want the same for us. I'd tell them what I really thought but it would probably be edited...

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  4. I understand the need for current speech to be free of hate words but I don't understand a lot of the chaff.

    The DA first page was interesting. I agreed with the commenter that asked how the heroine knew the woman was Vietnamese. But I thought of the Vietnamese woman I work with and she's the mother of two and yet could buy her clothes in the girl's section so diminutive or little would be an appropriate term. Does it make her child-like? No, it makes her small.

    The Mark Twain rewrite is sick. I can't believe they're touching it.

    Soon it'll be illegal to even note if people are differnet.

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  5. That's a scary thought Lori.

    Being different is what it's all about. I don't want to read stories or watch movies or listen to music that is all the same. If it's gonna be that way, it will be like someone with a big cookie cutter mass producing.

    But you are right about getting rid of the hate. Just as there are many colorful ways to describe a sunset, I'm sure there are to describe people without going to teh nasty.

    I can see PC becoming the death of (or severely stifling) creativity and that's a shame.

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