Yesterday I jokingly told my wife she looked like a cone head after having her head shaved. Someone took great offense to me making light of her chemo treatments and wrote me a letter telling me what a boor I am. Gosh I hope they don’t get offended when they learn that I sang “Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Bear”. I mean give me a break; we’ve been married 44 years and she has a wonderful sense of humor. What do you want us to do tear our clothes, beat our chest, and pour dust on our heads?
Today our speech is being monitored like never before, (unless you happen to be a rapper). It has gotten to the point whereby lists of words that are no-no’s are conveniently placed on the Internet to help guide us into politically correct oblivion. Check this out:
According to the Global Language Monitor the Top Politically Correct Words and Phrases for 2012 include this partial list:
Peanut Butter Sandwich — Deemed by a Portland grade-school principal to be culturally insensitive to children of other cultures.
Columbus Explorer’s Day, Offensive to those who believe Columbus was the beginning of a 16th century ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of American Indians, Native Americans, or First Peoples.
Normal (Australia) — According to new guidelines, normal persons in the presence of people with disabilities should not be referred to as ‘normal’ but rather non-disabled persons.
Pet Owner — It is becoming less acceptable to ‘own’ animals, pet owners have been transformed into ‘pet guardians’.
Holding Down the Fort — Possibly offensive to Native Americans, since we all know who the forts were being held down against.
Rule of Thumb (UK) — Originates from the old English dictum that a husband could not beat his wife or children with any stick wider than his thumb.
Handicap (UK) — Aside from the ‘disabled’ reference, ‘handicap can be offensive to beggars, with ‘cap in hand’.
Christmas — Considered by many under siege until supporters realized that the ‘holidays’ in ‘happy holidays’ originated from ‘holy days’ and the ‘X’ in Xmas is the Greek letter ‘chi,’ representing the first two letters of Christ.
Prayer — In public the favored word substitute for ‘prayer’ is now ‘thoughts,’ as in ‘keep her in your thoughts and wishes’.
Another website provided the following:
- Bag boy: agricultural product organizer
- Bald: follicularly challenged
- Failure: non-traditional success
- Fart: human ozone depletor; ecologically incorrect expression
- Fat: horizontally challenged: person of substance
- Heroine: hera
- Homeless person: residentially flexible individual
- Hurricane: himmicane (non sexist)
And yet another listing the bad word and the preferred alternative:
- Black sheep Outcast
- “Guys” (when referring to a mixed group) Friends; folks; group
- Oriental (when referring to people) Asian (using the specific nationality, i.e. Korean is even better, when possible)
- Acting like wild Indians Out of control
- Girls (when referring to coworkers) Women
- Policemen/postman Police officer/mail carrier
- Manhole Utility hole
- Chairman Chair
- Handicapped People with special needs; people who are physically/mentally challenged; people with disabilities
- Retarded Developmentally challenged
- Gifted children Advanced learners
- Race Ethnicity or nationality (There is only one race–human)
- Uneducated (when referring to adults) Lacking a formal education
- No culture (when referring to parts of the U.S. where the opera and the theater are scarce or nonexistent) Lacking European culture
- The little woman; the wife Your wife; his wife
- “Don’t go postal on me!” No alternative; someone in your audience may have relatives who are postal workers
- Acting blonde No alternative
- Old people Seniors; “Chronologically Advantaged”
- Bitchy or “PMSing” Assertive
- Flip chart Easel (Flip is a derogatory word referring to Filipinos)
- Wheel-chair bound A person who uses a wheel-chair
- Jew down Negotiate
- Half-breed Multi-ethnic
- Blacklisted Banned
- “Manning” the project Staffing the project
Many words are currently banned as being sexist. One website has a list of suggestions of what to call someone who violates their rules, They are: Racist, man, hypocrite, homophobia, antifeminist, liar, masculinist, masculist, useless arsehole, chauvinistic, egotistical, patriarchal, selfish, worthless, antisocial, egocentric, regressive, transphobia, and last but certainly not least walking abortion
I suppose if I sang, “The Old Grey Mare Ain’t What She used To Be” the feminists would get as mad as wet hens and get their feathers ruffled . . . Uh . . . Should that be Roosters?
You gotta love ‘em. Com’on lighten up today and have some fun. This old world has some real problems and life is too short to waste time worrying about peanut butter sandwiches offending someone from a culture that apparently doesn’t like peanuts . . .
The best guide for political correctness came from Jesus. Love all – Serve all. We just need to abide by it and not some global speech police committee.
Chiding my wife about her hair loss helped to cheer her up and take her mind off the darker side of her battle with cancer. Love can be expressed many different ways my friends; however if it offends you, then go jump in Honey Lake. I’m sure the snakes and gators that live there won’t be offended . . . )
Romans 8:7
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
June 4, 2015 – Click here to listen