Back at the height of the first round of the political correctness movement I was at UCD (never graduated). I ended up in an upper division essay composition class that ended up focusing on political correctness. There were 3 guys in the class. There were many women, a few womyn, and 3 gyno-Americans. Most everybody also clamed some subdivision of race or protonationality. A young black man read his essay as to why he called himself black was challenged by several of the African American women as to why he called himself black, when African American was the proper term. His rebuttal was short, Do you bloody hear the accent Im from E-n-g-l-a-n-d. Was he wrong now that he was in America? All I thought is I cant read minds, so if I offend, please correct me and know that I meant no insult., but at this time the world wasnt hearing this thought.
The upshot is that out of respect, in common parlance, women should be called women. The point of referring to somebody with the most appropriate term of respect is to do just that, show respect. If its wrong, correct the person.
I do call my closest female friends my witches* and the girls. They enjoy both terms, and I doubt anybody else could get away with it. Some of the elderly volunteers that I work with, over 70 years old, call any woman younger than them a girl. On a daily basis I am faced with quite the spectrum of terms. It isnt just limited to the proper terminology for adult female humans.
I do believe that I did call the guys that yelled a rez boy in Phoenix, and asked me to remove myself from the wrong side of the street under threat of a conversation with a few baseball bats F#@$ing testicle lickers, though I did it while crossing the street with great haste. In hind sight this was wrong, as it came into the standard male misogynistic pool of insults. Who exactly is a testicle licker and why is that an insult? I should have come up with something better.
The most important part of political correctness isnt the outward communication and forms of interaction, but rather the underlying thoughts. If we treat and think of people as our equals, then the interaction and proper forms of addressing one another follow easily.
* Note: Before I anger anybody, the female friends that I refer to as witches are sufficiently pagan- with out being specific. They struggle against religious sterotypes far to often.
Great thread!
The upshot is that out of respect, in common parlance, women should be called women. The point of referring to somebody with the most appropriate term of respect is to do just that, show respect. If its wrong, correct the person.
I do call my closest female friends my witches* and the girls. They enjoy both terms, and I doubt anybody else could get away with it. Some of the elderly volunteers that I work with, over 70 years old, call any woman younger than them a girl. On a daily basis I am faced with quite the spectrum of terms. It isnt just limited to the proper terminology for adult female humans.
I do believe that I did call the guys that yelled a rez boy in Phoenix, and asked me to remove myself from the wrong side of the street under threat of a conversation with a few baseball bats F#@$ing testicle lickers, though I did it while crossing the street with great haste. In hind sight this was wrong, as it came into the standard male misogynistic pool of insults. Who exactly is a testicle licker and why is that an insult? I should have come up with something better.
The most important part of political correctness isnt the outward communication and forms of interaction, but rather the underlying thoughts. If we treat and think of people as our equals, then the interaction and proper forms of addressing one another follow easily.
* Note: Before I anger anybody, the female friends that I refer to as witches are sufficiently pagan- with out being specific. They struggle against religious sterotypes far to often.
Great thread!
God, I always miss the good threads. I know this comment is pointless, but it made me laugh out loud, which not many topics do 
