June 27, 2000
Hey there, babydoll - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- The world has gone to hell and a handbasket, in the last 10 or so years on a binge of political correctness. In those last 10 or so years, political correctness has gone onto erode the public school system. It’s turned into an almost censorship type state.
I remember one year in elementary school when my grade 5 class was visited by a local television personality. The guy was essentially a weatherman and we were asked to prepare questions for him. The teacher told us to write our questions down on paper, as she would check them beforehand. If a teacher asks me that now, I simply refuse to show my question, as is the journalism axiom that no man, woman or child should show their notes. (I also hate doing previews.) Well, she saw my question which, come to think of it is a pretty good one, in terms of humour: “Will Kim Campbell’s election as Prime Minister have any impact on the weather?”
The teacher laughed and said I couldn’t ask that.
Now, my mixing of federal politics and the weather really wasn’t appropriate in terms of the subject we were doing, but the teacher at the time, was one of these sticklers on not bringing politics into the discussion. She probably thought it would smack that our pristine little minds weren’t so virgin after all. Politics, as she let me in on later, was a necessary evil.
Perhaps political correctness breeds apathy in the arena of politics and public awareness. Those who went through the SuperHost program learn that when dealing with customers that the subjects of marriage, sex, politics and religion are off limits. Funny, because the last time I checked, the divorce rate was high, AIDS is rampant from unprotected sex, citizen’s participation in the political process is low and no one goes to church anymore.
One of the things that really bugs me is that, in high school in particular, we aren’t allowed to really express ourselves. Sure, they say we should speak our minds, as this is a democracy; express our emotions through art, express our feelings through music and prose etc. But, should we be critical of the establishment or present an inkling of what is not deemed dissent we get stifled faster than... damn I can’t use that cliché.
The girls in my cooking class, about two years ago (shoot, I can’t call them girls,) were used to me calling them “doll”. Rosey Mani will remember, fondly I might add, her being referenced to as “toots,” by this writer.
Now, I will admit sometimes it is somewhat tasteless to act or speak in terms that are not necessarily politically correct, but that shouldn’t keep us from showing our fellow man (damn, I mean people,) that we can light-heartedly look at the absurdity of life.
Wasn’t that the whole concept of All In The Family? Sure, it glamorised the loveable bigotry we found in Archie Bunker, but hell, that show broke down so many barriers for all peoples. Including I might add, added to the burgeoning tolerance American’s found themselves with in the 1970s.
If I call Miss Mani ‘toots’, do you think I really deserve a lynch-mob? Must I have bleeding heart people who’ve come from the school of “human rights” plethora, preaching platitudes of how to practice proper political correctness?
Now, I must submit to you, that sexual harassment has been a problem and that these human rights tribunals are needed to fix those ails. But sometimes these so-called tribunals are turning into witch-hunts, the kind that were prevalent at the time of McCarthy.
I relinquish to you, dear reader, that all should simply lighten up. The freedom train of political correctness has simply run aground in my neck of the woods and it’s clear this fad has faded. The late ‘80s and early ‘90s are over. Just like Murphy Brown, Thirtysomething, Cagney and Lacey and LA Law are off the air, the hot air still harped on about by the PC police is awfully old.
You from around here, doll?
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .