PC or not PC ?
Nov. 10th, 2018 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
garoteI believe it was that venerable old film Crocodile Dundee II where a woman visiting a group of Aborigines attempts to take a picture of them and is told “you can’t,” by one of them.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says with a mixture of politeness and condescension, “You’re afraid that the camera will steal your soul, right?”
“No,” says the man. “You left the lenscap on.”
The woman makes an embarrassed face, everyone laughs, and then they take the picture.
Now, basic politeness declares that the woman should ask to take a picture before doing so. At which point the man could have just said “No,” and there would be no misunderstanding about soul-stealing either way because he would not need to give a reason for declining. That’s obvious.
But if we skip over that and assume she didn’t ask, a question about political correctness comes up: Would the woman be an asshole for assuming that the man believes his soul is at risk? Or would the woman be an asshole for assuming he was entirely comfortable around cameras? Or is there no good assumption here, and instead she should ask what he means by “you can’t”?
Or is the correct reaction - and I believe this is the one that modern political correctness favors - that she should just shut the fuck up and not ask him why he doesn’t want his picture taken, and just not take the picture, because he said “you can’t,” and asking for a reason why is considered a microaggression?
While you're pondering the right move here, I'd like to throw in some related questions to ponder as well.
There is political correctness, and there is call-out culture. Attempting to scrub the media and our language of damaging stereotypes is political correctness. "Naming and shaming" individuals or groups that employ these stereotypes is call-out culture. The two are almost always mixed these days, but it's possible to separate them.
How much of call-out culture exists entirely online?
If we could get rid of call-out culture but keep political correctness, should we keep it?
If so, should we keep the political correctness of the 90's, or the political correctness of today? Or are they identical?
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says with a mixture of politeness and condescension, “You’re afraid that the camera will steal your soul, right?”
“No,” says the man. “You left the lenscap on.”The woman makes an embarrassed face, everyone laughs, and then they take the picture.
Now, basic politeness declares that the woman should ask to take a picture before doing so. At which point the man could have just said “No,” and there would be no misunderstanding about soul-stealing either way because he would not need to give a reason for declining. That’s obvious.
But if we skip over that and assume she didn’t ask, a question about political correctness comes up: Would the woman be an asshole for assuming that the man believes his soul is at risk? Or would the woman be an asshole for assuming he was entirely comfortable around cameras? Or is there no good assumption here, and instead she should ask what he means by “you can’t”?
Or is the correct reaction - and I believe this is the one that modern political correctness favors - that she should just shut the fuck up and not ask him why he doesn’t want his picture taken, and just not take the picture, because he said “you can’t,” and asking for a reason why is considered a microaggression?
While you're pondering the right move here, I'd like to throw in some related questions to ponder as well.
There is political correctness, and there is call-out culture. Attempting to scrub the media and our language of damaging stereotypes is political correctness. "Naming and shaming" individuals or groups that employ these stereotypes is call-out culture. The two are almost always mixed these days, but it's possible to separate them.
How much of call-out culture exists entirely online?
If we could get rid of call-out culture but keep political correctness, should we keep it?
If so, should we keep the political correctness of the 90's, or the political correctness of today? Or are they identical?
no subject
Date: 2018-11-11 11:44 pm (UTC)Probably the problem these days is that the information flow is much larger than what we were used to.