I was sifting through some old emails and trying to decide what weird planetary alignment had caused me to keep some of them when I came upon a blog post I hadn’t read at the time, but had set aside for later. As it turns out, much later: the post was written in 2007, but struck me as fresh and shiny and new as if it had been written yesterday.
It is about two topics that interest me: language and respect.
Not sure about you, but I am really, really tired of people rolling their eyes and giving an exaggerated sigh as they say, “Oh, I guess that wasn’t politically correct, now, was it? Have to watch out for the language police!”
You bet you do.
Listen, whatever you think about “political correctness,” whatever you accept about the power of language to frame thought, consider at least that sometimes, even when you don’t mean it, people get hurt by what you say. When it’s not all that difficult to change the language that hurts and offends, why on earth wouldn’t you?
From the blog post: “I started with a discussion of connotative values of words and terms, and how our word choice can betray our assumptions. I explained that I prefer the terms “bias-free language,” or “language of respect” to “politically correct language,” because the latter implies that we’re choosing terms merely to be politic—to placate certain interest groups—rather than from any interest in actually ridding our language of terminology that reflects bias and prejudice, and choosing language that reflects a certain level of respect for everyone.”
Not a bad start.
George Lakoff has written and spoken extensively on the ability of language to frame a discussion. The expression “right to life,” for example, was chosen deliberately—its foes, presumably, embrace a right to death. And so on. WORDS HAVE POWER. Power to heal, and power to hurt; power to uplift, and power to drag down.
Are you aware of how you’re using your language?
From the blog post: “If we are being polite, we do not wish to unwittingly alienate our readers. We may choose, for whatever reason, to intentionally alienate a portion of the readership; certain writers have made careers out of alienating people, quite deliberately. But we wish to pay attention to the connotations inherent in our word choice, and to the way our language may exclude some readers, and not assume, uncharitably, that these readers are merely being “picky,” or “difficult,” but instead assume the burden of ensuring that our prose is welcoming and gracious to our desired readers. In order to be truly gracious in our writing, we need not the “do’s” and “don’ts” of politically-correct jargon, but a sensitivity to our readers’ backgrounds and experiences, and a very real desire to respect and include those. Once you do that, the words come a great deal more easily.”
Read it all here and think about how you use language—in your writing, in your editing, in your life. Share with me, if you’d like. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
