Ok, so the latest
Pussies Twats and Bitches brouhaha got me thinking about something...
(well...and getting called the "PC Police" and baited for living in the Bay Area did too...)
I think it's time to take a fresh look at what the hell "PC" means...and who's using it to what end...here's what I'm thinking...
First off, my own history with the term PC.
In the late-80's I remember hearing the term PC all the time. As student activists and kids coming out of the punk movement we'd call someone "PC" if they were posers. ie. Free Tibet bumper sticker on the car....zero clue of the struggles of their neighbors down the block.
In this context "PC" meant someone who would sanctimoniously tell everyone that they had to do or think something in order to be "pure"...and had zero action / history to back it up. Basically, PC was a term critical of people who wanted to pay justice "lip service", who wanted to have a clean conscience....but didn't really do anything, didn't put their ass on the line.
Moral purity vs. grassroots activism is what spurred the creation of "PC" as far as I remember. ie. PC was a criticism of someone who said, in effect, "Don't blame me, I'm pure."
So then along came Dinesh D'Sousa, Robert Novak and Allan Bloom and the hijacking of "PC" began. Basically, as I remember it, the right came along and started to use PC as a term against everyone on the left. We on the left were "PC" because, basically, we were all sanctimonious, narrow-minded do gooders who didn't do squat except complain about how this or that group was offended by this or that statement. (Sounds like the GOP to me, but that's another story.)
Ie. PC became not just about "purity" but "fake purity". It also became a completely disingenuous term. I can't tell you how many times I heard white folks pretend to choke out the word...."African-American" as if it made them sick. Criticizing PC became a way for right wingers to have it both ways. They could seem to stand up for free expression at the same time as they exempted themselves from having to change anything. (PC also became a way for innumerable drunk frat boys to explain how they were really down with "Black people"..but they just "messed up sometimes."...but that's another story.)
Of course, at that same time we on the left also stood up for Anita Hill in the huge "PC battle" of the Clarence Thomas hearings...and we lost. But, in this we "lost" like Yoda and Obi-wan "lost" however, and even though Clarence Thomas sits on the Supreme Court today...in the aftermath of that war, in the business world, folks realized that the time had come to change a few things about sexual and racial harassment in the workplace.
So, even as "PC" was being used as a bogus term to skewer the left...Corporate America was deciding to get clear about what is and isn't acceptable behaviour at work. And in the process. big business defined what has now become the de facto definition of "PC"...a kind of neutered, "clean" manner of speech and action unlikely to offend anyone and enforced by "training sessions" that teach "preferred names" and "modes of interaction" etc. etc.
Now, if you didn't work and live in the workplace before Anita Hill, you might not know how much things have changed. Whatever one thinks of the changes in the workplace in the 90's...(Most people, right and left, see PC as empty and bogus even as they live by it for the most part)...things are different from the early 80's, and on many levels, better. That much is true as far as I can see.
So, in the end, PC went from left wing epithet about "action vs. purity", to right-wing epithet about "pious purity" to corporate policy about "empty neutered speech" in ten years.
Fast forward to the present day and you had Bill Maher taking the term and exploding it as far as he could go. Politically Incorrect. In effect, Maher tried to re-appropriate the term by being forthrightly no-BS in how he talked about things. And, from where I stand, you could say there's a general consensus that folks should try to do this. To be honest and frank and get on with the debate if possible, and not get stuck on getting "offended."
Of course some folks here think we should take this another step and embrace offensive sexist expressions that nobody on the Left thought were acceptable in the first place.
I disagree. And having just been called "the humorless Berkeley PC Police" for agreeing that folks shouldn't call somone a pussy or a cocksucker here...it feels to me that this whole thing has come full circle.
(Can I just ask all those who think calling someone a "cocksucker" is a good idea....are you high?)
If the origin of PC was criticizing folks who talked like they wanted to change the world but didn't do diddly, I think it's important to note that our start point was something that's been lost in all of this. We wanted to change the status quo. We were sick of the racist, sexist, homophobic bullshit that held people back...especially in that cauldron (cesspool) of American values, High School. Take a look at the philosophical underside of the punk movement; what we talked about and idealized and you'll see it's true. We sang songs about racism and sexism and vegetarianism. Believe it or not.
So, yeah, we we're PC in today's terms, but we did something about it, we didn't just run our mouths. To give one example, folks wore pink triangles on the street and in school and took shit for it got things thrown at them etc. etc. but they did it because they were sick of the altenative. Which was gay bashing, homophobia and governmental silence about the AIDS epidemic.
And, yeah, high school and public life has changed since the 80's for all teens...not just gay teens. And, no, that didn't happen by people thinking it was cool to call someone a "cocksucker." It happened because countless courageous kids and adults did something about it....to name one example.
So, yeah, the point is, if we want to change the world for the better. And that's what we on the left want to do...we ARE going to be sanctimounious, challenging. We are gonna have to push people to see how their assumptions are whack. We're gonna have to step out of line and say no to the status quo.
In my view, underneath the whole "PC" debate is something that is clear as day. The status quo.
If "PC" is a stand in for new rules in which we treat each other with respect, where everyone gets a fair shake, where we build a society that aspires to equality, respect and justice...the status quo is what we've got today.
- How many Black U.S. Senators have we got?
- What's the gender balance of the House of Representatives?
- Who runs at the top of the ticket in both parties?
- What party used homophobia to motivate voters?
- What party used race to scare voters away?
You want to call me the PC Police for standing up for a vision of equality and justice? For saying that calling someone a "cocksucker" is not cool?
Cool. I embrace it. Call me PC.
It's come full circle and I can live with it.
If you ask me, we live at a juncture where the only sane response to what we see going on is to attempt to change the world. Things are messed up out there. There's more than enough hatred and prejudice.
I wouldn't embrace the term "police"...or "humorless"...and personally I could give a shit if someone's language is raw or real or whatever. In many contexts, people should say what's on their mind in their own words, and it's politically the right thing to do so...:
But I want justice. I want equality. And I'm not satisfied with how things stand. I want to change the status quo.
And if you wanna call me PC for that...I'm cool.
It's come full circle, and I'm happy with it.
If you ask me, we've got work to do and I don't have time to worry over someone who is childish enough to think that sexism is cool.
update: Clearly I didn't know the whole history of "PC". Maoism, the 70's ironic usage, academic deconstructionist usage in the 80's, Lynn Cheney, etc. etc. As usual, the comments are chock full of good info on this. My POV is shaped, and limited, by graduating high school in '87.