Political Correctness - has it really gone mad?

How many times have you heard it? 'It's political correctness gone mad! Many times, I would imagine. What I would like to ask is whether those people denouncing political correctness know what it really means? In addition, how aware are the critics of political correctness of the good that it has undoubtedly done?

Political correctness - PC - took off in the late 1960s in America and its aim was to put a stop to the marginalisation of various excluded groups - excluded from the mainstream of 'successful' society. These 'excluded' groups included disabled people, people from ethnic minorities, gay people, old people and women. Political correctness has significantly improved the lives of these groups of people by shunning certain language to describe these groups, which has derogatory and pejorative connotations, and encouraging the use of words which convey  positive connotations.

Who can argue that Senior Citizen does not sound dramatically superior to old age pensioner? Senior suggests wisdom, experience and capability. Citizen conveys pride, a certain standing and being part of something. Old age pensioner places the emphasis on being old and dependent on the state, someone who is not useful or active.

Shocking though it is, people who were born with Down's syndrome were often referred to as mongols. People with disabilities were often called spastics or cripples.  The term spastic is sometimes used by children as a term of abuse; often shortening the word to 'spaz' for extra insult power. Clearly the word spastic had to go and so the Spastic Society changed their name to Scope, suggestive of possibility and broader horizons. Now we are encouraged to say people with disabilities rather than disabled people. People with disabilities emphasises the 'people' first, not the disability.

There are so many words for women which political correctness has tried to make us more aware of, which have connotations, all conveying either sexual promiscuity, a certain kind of brainless decorativeness, simple stupidity or plain nastiness. Slag, bitch, whore, eye candy, piece of skirt, bint, prozzy, dollybird, cow, nag, being just a few of the almost endless list.

It is unthinkable nowadays to use the 'n' word to describe a black person. Interestingly, black people have reclaimed the 'n' word as their own, just as gay people have reclaimed the word 'queer'.  Surely all these changes to language are for the good.

Political correctness is not censorship. It is a way of being kinder, more thoughtful, less exclusive, therefore more inclusive. Who can object to that?