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Am I the only one who sees this as an extremely stupid move? I begin to think all this "pollitical correct" crap got into the heads of most english speaking peo
by _cipher_ 12y ago
Am I the only one who sees this as an extremely stupid move? I begin to think all this "pollitical correct" crap got into the heads of most english speaking people.
I hope all this crap will not become the norm.
- beerbajay 12y agoThis is "satire" by a group that thinks feminism is bad. For future reference, the term "political correctness" is used exclusively in a derogatory way. The main idea is that some people are somehow controlling political discourse by objecting to certain terms and thereby requiring politicians (or whoever) to speak in a certain way even if they don't actually agree with the reasons to use the term. This is, however, mostly wrong. What is actually occurring is that some people (politicians and others) use language which degrades or marginalizes certain groups (think ethnic slurs, the word "faggot" etc). These groups then speak up and say "hey, that sucks, we're people too". People who are actually racist/homophobic/whatever then object because they're "not allowed" to say what they think. This isn't true; they are still (obviously) allowed to say what they think, people are just going to be pointing out that they are assholes. Which is as it should be. Summary: nobody actually advocates for anything called political correctness. Some people are being assholes, others are telling them not to be assholes. Why did I put "satire" in quotes? The thing which is being satirized is a tendency in the 1960s (50 years ago!) of feminist groups to remove the letters "man" from certain words as a symbolic gesture against an oppressive and patriarchal society. This is pretty much dead in modern feminism, even as symbolism. That is; it is a non-issue; nobody seriously wants to alter existing words, most people never actually wanted to alter existing words. The only people for whom it is still an issue are anti-feminists (read: misogynists) who want to create a straw-man of feminist ideas in order to further marginalize the concerns of women. Which is to say, this is pretty terrible satire. So, what does feminism actually want? Equality for all people, even men. Why is it called "feminism" then? Modern feminism grew out of the suffrage (voting-rights) movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s, when women were not allowed to vote because they were seen as being too uneducated, too emotional, inferior, etc. That's 51% of the human population that wasn't allowed to participate in politics. A famous suffragist, Rebecca West, famously said: "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." Most people today would take this for granted, but still be suspicious of feminism. This suspicion is often fed by the strawman arguments of anti-feminists. Why should men be feminists? Maybe you have a mother or a sister or a wife or a daughter; are they people? Should they have an equal chance in society? Should they be able to choose their own path in society or should they be confined by tradition or the whims of their male relatives? Maybe you don't feel like you can fulfill the social roles for men; that is also a feminist issue. Basically: if you want a society where people are allowed to be who they want to be, you should be a feminist.