Has political correctness gone too far?

We all suffer from it these days, the ogre of political correctness. Yes, we are afraid to say certain things, for fear of offending this or that group of people.

I sometimes wonder where it will all end. The banning of ‘Christian’ names perhaps, or a rule against shaking hands in public?

I remember being very naïve many years ago, when it didn’t occur to me that the word we’re not allowed to use when referring to American black people, or the other word, again unusable for our Aboriginal friends, was in any way offensive.

They didn’t seem to me to be terrible in any way, but simply a couple of titles we humans apply to all manner of people in a quite friendly way.

In fact I’d have grouped those two descriptives in with “Cobber”, “Mate”, “Luv”, “Sheila” or “Pom”. The last often used to refer to me, because I originate from England.

I have certainly taken no offence at being called a “Pom” and it had always been my belief that all those other words fell within the same context. A friendly way of addressing someone whose name you might not know, or even as an endearment to a close friend.

It seems to me that we pay far too much attention to words and their misuse these days, something I place squarely on the shoulders of two particular groups in our community, the ‘politically corrects’ and the ‘feminists’, both of whom have a lot to answer for.

Because of the politically correct group, words that have stood us in good stead for hundreds of years, without offending anyone are now taboo.

As such, people who are blind we now have to say they are ‘visually impaired’. Then there is the word ‘Easter’. They want us to call it ‘Autumn Holiday’, despite this being the most important Christian event of the year.

Or the non use of the Australian National Anthem in schools, the abolition of Christmas and the fear of doing anything to embarrass or offend any of our immigrant community. I believe that they should be fitting in with our customs, of course alongside maintaining their own, should they wish to do so, but not at the expense of ours.

Then we have the ‘feminists’ as they call themselves, though this does seem to me to be the most unlikely title to give to people who want the exact opposite of femininity, as far as I can make out.

They want women to be just like men, do the same jobs as men and take part in all sorts of male preserves.  I would have thought a true ‘feminist’ would be aiming at emphasising her femininity and the difference between the sexes, not the similarities!

Thespian feminists don’t want to be ‘Actresses’, they want to be ‘Actors’, just like the blokes. They don’t want the old fashioned honorarium of Mrs. in front of their name, or Miss. If they’re single they want the completely meaningless Ms. What is the point of that?

I think women are wonderful, they do just as much for society as men do, they are the ones who produce our future generations, they bring love and beauty to the world, whereas men are useful for little more than fighting, and they have proved, time and again that they are at least as intelligent as any man! So why try to be like a man?

The things true feminists should be fighting for are, not all this silliness about what names things should be called, but equal pay for equal work. There is still a long way off in most professions, or equal status when applying for loans etc, this is something a lot of women still have to live with.

No, let’s do away with political correctness and feminism, and get back to some good, old fashioned common sense.