Too far?
"It's hard to imagine women earning points for political correctness be saying 'ovarimony' instead of 'testimony...'"
Prejudice unfortunately plays a large role in society today. Hopefully in the future we're able to defeat it without crazy euphemisms and banning certain words. Of course, some words shouldn't be said by certain groups because of years of oppression and hatred toward them. Some may say that the first amendment protects freedom of speech, so those words should be allowed. However, discrimination prevented specific demographics to exercise their first amendment rights in the past, and society should respect that. On the other hand, I agree with Kakutani's claim that some people take this too far. In the quote above, she uses humor to express the how exaggerated people can be when "flaunt[ing] their lack of prejudice." Though this quote may have made me chuckle a bit at first, after thinking about it, I realized the truth it contains. Will altering words really have any effect on changing society's standards towards women? Unfortunately, I don't believe so. Society may have come a long way in accepting equality, yet there are still a handful of people who have the deep-rooted belief that some groups are better than others. Using words like "ovarimony" instead of "testimony" won't change this--in fact, it could make it even worse. In a way, these words ridicule women's role in society. It seems more like these words are making fun of women who are trying to achieve equality. This clashes with the goal of creating harmony and diversity in the world. Thus, we should put a stop to extreme euphemisms, but continue with the idea that certain words should be banned.
Prejudice unfortunately plays a large role in society today. Hopefully in the future we're able to defeat it without crazy euphemisms and banning certain words. Of course, some words shouldn't be said by certain groups because of years of oppression and hatred toward them. Some may say that the first amendment protects freedom of speech, so those words should be allowed. However, discrimination prevented specific demographics to exercise their first amendment rights in the past, and society should respect that. On the other hand, I agree with Kakutani's claim that some people take this too far. In the quote above, she uses humor to express the how exaggerated people can be when "flaunt[ing] their lack of prejudice." Though this quote may have made me chuckle a bit at first, after thinking about it, I realized the truth it contains. Will altering words really have any effect on changing society's standards towards women? Unfortunately, I don't believe so. Society may have come a long way in accepting equality, yet there are still a handful of people who have the deep-rooted belief that some groups are better than others. Using words like "ovarimony" instead of "testimony" won't change this--in fact, it could make it even worse. In a way, these words ridicule women's role in society. It seems more like these words are making fun of women who are trying to achieve equality. This clashes with the goal of creating harmony and diversity in the world. Thus, we should put a stop to extreme euphemisms, but continue with the idea that certain words should be banned.
Totally agree! Altering a word in the slightest way can change the overall meaning, which in the end, is not going to help society in any way! At the same time though, certain language should indeed be banned to allow for a more equal country!
ReplyDeleteI agree that changing certain words will not cause issues like racism to end, even though that is the intention of doing so in the first place. I also think that your idea of getting rid of some extreme words that are directly related to harming others would cause more of a change than trying to alter everyday words.
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