Re: why PC keeps coming up

[Bex <rebeccaf -at- COMPNEWS -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

On Thu, 29 Jun 1995, Sue McCullough wrote:

> [This message is converted from WPS-PLUS to ASCII]

> Matt Ion, the Soundman wrote:
> >(Soundy is equally bemused at the number of responses to his
> >"time of the month" comment and wonders why people don't have
> >anything better to do than jump after every comment they
> >perceive as non-PC... MUST we get into this again???)

> Dear Soundy:
> I have noticed that whenever the PC issue comes up, you seem to
> be right smack in the middle of it. Could you be bringing it up
> repeatedly on purpose? Are you one of those types who likes to
> stir the pot?  Professional victim perhaps?  Prove me wrong.
> Stop spouting off about it.  Fix your personal problems on your
> own time.

> To other members of the list.  This guy is a baiter.  For some
> deep psychological reason, he wants to make people, even
> unsuspecting technical writers, mad.  Maybe if we stop
> responding, he'll take his ball and go home.

Good answer.  I've been weathering out this politically correctness
trying not to join in because it seems like an abuse of
the list - just a lot of unPC people trying to put the case that it is unPC
to be anti-unPC.

But now that I've broken my silence on this (for the second time) I might
as well add my thoughts on the subject :-)

Often, but not always, it is easy to test the intentions of 'unPC'
language by reflecting it back on the user and by observing their
response.  Only then can you get an idea of their intentions.

For example, my male colleagues are welcome to call me a 'girl'.
If they are comfortable with me calling them 'boys' then we are all
happy.  If an individual complains, then he has openened up the
debate.  (Sometimes they say "Why do you call us boys?" to which I
reply "Well, you're not girls are you?"  Usually they pause and then
agree, but if they were ever to ask for an in depth discussion about use of
language then of course I'd have the manners to comply.)
The only problem it causes for
me is that I have got so much in the habit of using the word 'boy' that I
forget to use the word 'man' even when it is appropriate.

Similarly with such a word as 'bright'.  If someone calls me 'bright', or
'pretty' and I am not sure whether it is a compliment or a kind of
put down or qualification of a compliment then I smile and say "So are
you."  (Or if it's not appropriate to answer straight back then I leave
it till I've got an opportunity to refer to their "pretty little head".  If
they are flattered by the compliment or accepting of the reference then I
know they meant well.  If not, then they know that I know that they did not
mean well and they may get an inkling (sp?) of why being on the receiving end
of something presented as a compliment can feel like a put down.

(Oh, and if anyone pinches your butt, then casually step backwards
onto their toe, whether or not it's their time of the month.)

One of the reasons why comments about 'time of the month' are so out of
line is that they can't be sent back in the exact same form and any
similary crude comment would sound ten times as crude.  (Not to mention
the fact that IF the time of the month does change women's behaviour it's
likely that all it does is make them more honest, so saying "Don't listen
to her.  It's her time of the month."  Is like saying "Don't listen to her
when she's telling the truth."

But getting back to the simpler level
we know that such comments are generally used by people who don't want to
hear what a woman has to say.  i.e.  If she is 'snitty' with your enemy,
she is wise and sane.  If she is 'snitty' with you it's her time of the
month.  Very cheap.

Sorry about spellings.  No dictionary in this office.

> Sue McCullough
> Sr. Technical Writer
> Glaxo Wellcome, Inc.

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