As I started writing this, it began to sound awfully familiar.
Had I previously written something about this politically correct crap we keep having shoved down our throats? So I did a bit of research, and I had indeed, but that was 27 months ago, so I feel it’s time to bring this to the forefront again because it’s absurd at best.
Remember when you were in middle school English class and they taught you the parts of speech ... nouns, verbs, adjectives, and the like? Well, you might as well forget everything they taught. It’s all different now, because now is a whole different time with a whole different set of rules, and if you want to be on top of things, you’d better get with it.
When I was taught the parts of speech, we were instructed that a pronoun is that part of a sentence that could function all by itself the same as a noun or be used to modify something else already mentioned in the sentence. For example: “He is going to the store.” In that case, “he” is the pronoun functioning as both noun and pronoun in the sentence. Then perhaps a few lines later, “The store was having a sale, and that made him very pleased.” In that case “him” is the pronoun. Got it? Well, those may have been pronouns then, but things have changed, my friends. Today pronouns often are part of the signature line of a letter, an email, or text written under the sender’s name, and they are supposed to refer to how that person then identifies. Huh?
Now I know I’ll get mail and phone calls because I’m not being politically correct in this, but I am so sick of “politically correct” these days and how that term is allowed to justify every dumb thing for which people want to make an issue.
I have nothing — repeat — NOTHING against the transgender population, but for God’s sake, why does anyone have to “identify?” Many college applications are now even asking those who wish to matriculate in their hallowed halls about their identity. Think I’m making this up?
Do a little poking around, and you will find prestigious schools such as Dartmouth, Connecticut, State University of New York, MIT, Duke, Ohio State, Purdue, UMass Amherst, our own RISD, and Penn State Law School among those asking how the applicant identifies. And why? Why is it even their business to know, and why does a 17- or 18-year-old have to ponder their identity when getting high marks on the SATs, having an enviable high school grade point average, and a laundry list of outside activities, service work, hobbies, and awards are so much more important in the scheme of things?
This identity awareness has now flown straight off the college applications and into the business world where people are now signing their letters, emails, and texts with their names followed by either he/him/his; she/her/hers; or they/them/theirs. It is supposed to not only identify them, but to offer a show of solidarity and support, thus making this politically correct.
What is being considered politically correct goes so far afield from even this that it is impossible to ponder. Clemson University currently has a diversity initiative in which they teach the attendees that it is offensive to expect people to be on time. Why, you ask? Clemson’s response is that in some cultures being on time is relative. I think it’s even more offensive to be habitually late ... but that no longer matters. It isn’t politically correct.
And we have cities that have changed the name “manholes” to “utility spheres,” librarians at Simmons College in Boston who put in writing that saying “God bless you” when someone sneezes is an affront to Muslims, and in yet another instance small chairs in preschools are being considered sexist, problematic, and disempowering. When you’re less than 3 feet tall, where are you supposed to sit? And I doubt that preschoolers were the ones to object.
So I guess to be thoroughly politically correct, I should sign off today as she/her/hers, but I just can’t. You see, it creates a problem with my throat because it makes the bile keep coming up.
So I guess I’ll just wish you all a pleasant Sunday and sign off this way:
RONA: had enough, sick of it, and getting more nauseous by the minute.
See ya!
Rona Mann has been a freelance writer for The Sun for 19 years, including her “In Their Shoes” features. She can be reached at six07co@att.net or 401-539-7762.
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In My Own Shoes: Those politically correct parts of speech - The Westerly Sun
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