The phrase ‘politically correct’ has become inescapable. You can hear it over and over in campaign speeches, read it many times in media headlines and Twitter feeds. And what does it actually mean? Well, that depends what year it is, and whom you’re asking. On January 13, 2016 The Washington Post published an interesting article [written by Caitlin Gibson] on this phrase, titled "How ‘politically correct’ went from compliment to insult".
This article in The Washington Post makes clear that in the 1930s and ’40s in communist as well fascist circles the phrase 'Politically correct' was used as a straightforward term meaning: “the proper language to use, or the proper position, for a member of the party to take on a particular issue."
Until some people began to snicker about it. It was also used jokingly — kind of in an eye-rolling, tongue-in-cheek fashion — to refer to those doctrinaire sticks in the mud. The phrase was taking on shades of irony — used to describe the rigid orthodoxy of a doctrinaire government.
In the ’60s, the phrase reappeared in left-leaning political and activist circles. The phrase was applied in a variety of ways — sometimes as a fairly neutral term to describe another group’s orthodoxy or vulnerability to political pressure, and sometimes with a tiny hint of judgment straightforward in meaning again. Even into the 1980s, you still saw the phrase being used almost literally, though hints of cynicism were creeping in.
By the mid-’80s, “politically correct” was being leveled by some conservative critics with heavy doses of irony against what they viewed as feel-good liberal pieties. For instance on the use of
fair-trade Nicaraguan coffee: "it's delicious... and even more important, it’s politically correct.”
By the early ’90s, more people were growing outraged by “political correctness”, especially in higher education. Fewer activists were flying the “P.C.” banner as a glorified ideal. When the first President Bush declared that free speech was under siege by P.C. culture, mainstream America [began] to latch onto this term. More than 25 years later, you can still find it there. But instead of describing a culture clash within academia, it’s now a broad-brush insult directed against any ideological opponent.
Calling someone 'politically correct' now is an insult. A 'politically correct' person is weak and disingenuous, because he believes that language and actions that could be offensive to others, especially those relating to sex and race, should be avoided. The term now describes language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offence or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society.
Comentários