Former Prime Minister John Howard has added his two cents to the political correctness debate after The Daily Telegraph revealed Australian Defence Force personnel are being told to stop using terms like ‘him’ or ‘her’ that could offend the LGBTI community.
Challenging what is fast becoming the norm, Howard slammed the country for reaching an out of control level of PC.
“It’s language madness,” The Daily Telegraph reported Howard said. “It is absolutely defies common sense to overturn millennia of language usage to describe men and women in the name of helping a minority.
“Nobody wants to persecute a minority. But you don’t protect a minority by rubbishing a majority.”
Howard called on Australia’s leaders to push back hard on political correctness. “It should be dismissed by people in authority. I think more people should simply denounce it for the madness that it is,” he added.
His comments come after Malcolm Turnbull told the daily paper that people’s concerns must be addressed, whether they’re on the side of political correctness or not.
“You’ve got to be honest with people. You have got to be fair dinkum and you have to acknowledge when people have concerns,” The Daily Telegraph reported Turnbull said.
So what are some examples of politically correctness going absolutely mad in recent times?
Toy weapons such as mock pirate swords, bows and arrows and toy guns were restricted from childcare centres across New South Wales earlier this month, with the Australian Childcare Alliance NSW hinting the toys could promote violence and “warlike” behaviour.
Retail stores also felt the backlash of the PC brigade, with sleepwear brand Peter Alexander being forced to remove a boys jumper from its collection after a worried parent complained the clothing item in question contained a “sexist statement”.
The jumper, which featured a slogan, “boys will be boys”, was slammed by a mother, who accused the store of excusing bad behaviour by boys and that the message wasn’t a step in the right direction. Peter Alexander apologised and said it didn’t tolerate the behaviour being associated with the slogan.
Other stories from the past year include a married couple being kicked out of a petting zoo for not having children, the walking man symbol at traffic lights being accused of discrimination, supermarkets selling gender-neutral cards on Mother’s Day and even the national anthem being banned from some ACT schools because it is deemed offensive.