Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

94 Forbidden Words
There once was a young person named Red Riding Hood who lived with her mother on
the edge of a large wood. One day her mother asked her to take a basket of fresh fruit
and mineral water to her grandmother’s house – not because this was womyn’s work,
mind you, but because the deed was generous and helped engender a feeling of
community. Furthermore, her grandmother was not sick, but rather was in full physical
and mental health and was fully capable of taking care of herself as a mature adult.
So Red Riding Hood set off with her basket through the woods. Many people
believed that the forest was a foreboding and dangerous place and never set foot in
it. Red Riding Hood, however, was confident enough in her own budding sexuality that
such obvious Freudian imagery did not intimidate her.
On the way to Grandma’s house, Red Riding Hood was accosted by a wolf, who
asked her what was in her basket. She replied, ‘Some healthful snacks for my
grandmother, who is certainly capable of taking care of herself as a mature adult.’
The wolf said, ‘You know, my dear, it isn’t safe for a little girl to walk through these
woods alone.’
Red Riding Hood said, ‘I find your sexist remark offensive in the extreme, but I will
ignore it because of your traditional status as an outcast from society, the stress of
which has caused you to develop your own, entirely valid, worldview. Now, if you’ll
excuse me, I must be on my way.’ (Gamer 1994: 1–2)
The end result of all this was that the label political correctness had turned
into a powerful rhetorical stick to beat your political opponents with; a way
of bringing contumely on someone you didn’t like; an effective strategy to
short-circuit serious debate. No wonder the diverse group of ‘alternative’
organizations and individuals involved in PC initiatives denied that any such
movement existed. Their denial made political correctness appear all the more
menacing; PC-dom started to smack more strongly of Big Brother. It became
‘so-called political correctness’; a political movement which no one actually
appeared to endorse. 13
Political correctness – from politics to etiquette
etiquette noun 1. conventional requirements as to social behaviour; proprieties of
conduct as established in any class or community or for any occasion. (Macquarie
Dictionary 2003)
Specialist terms often get taken up by the mass media and introduced into
everyday parlance. When this happens, meanings usually shift away from
their original precision as the words appear in more and more contexts.
Nowadays, political correctness typically refers to behaviour, especially
verbal behaviour, rather than to a political position. Moreover, the emphasis
has now moved to civil gentility. This shift was already apparent in 1995, when
journalist Jefferson Morley wrote, ‘the moral seriousness of politically correct
people has become part of what is regarded as decorous behaviour’. 14 This is
not a surprising change; the term was already one of ridicule, and ‘correctness’