PC Essay

Language is a powerful tool for hurting, disempowering and offending

others”

In Australian society, language contains a large ability to harm, disrespect and

disempower people, particularly marginalized groups such as women, the
disabled and LGBT community. However, language also possesses a great power
to meet the positive face needs of these groups and make them feel appreciated,
promoting social harmony. Additionally, some people may feel that politically
correct language disempowers them, because it impedes upon their freedom of
speech and censors them from making offensive claims.

Women have been marginalized and victims of society’s prejudices and still
today people make linguistic choices in order to perpetuate a difference in social
class. For instance AFL footballer Dane Rampe said to an AFL umpire “you talk
like a little girl” reinforcing the past negative connotation of the noun “girl,”
which is offensive to women and acts to make them feel inferior based upon
their gender, which disempowers them. Furthermore on the TV program “The
Bachelorette,” one contestant, Jess Glasgow, referred to the ‘Bachelorette’ Angie
Kent as a the taboo expletive “bitch” and used sexual innuendo’s such as “slip it
in.” The use of this language acts to objectify women and belittle and hurt Kent’s
feelings, impeding on her negative face needs. However, society has evolved in
general and uses politically correct language when referring to women in order
to empower them and meet their positive face needs. For instance, Taylah Harris,
and AFLW athlete recently used #morethanakick, which is a lexical
compounding of the ‘hashtag’ symbol, prepositions ‘more’ and ‘than,’ determiner
‘a’ and verb ‘kick’ in order promote gender equality in sports and condemn
misogyny. Additionally Ex-AFL player Robert Murphy recently called AFL, the
Australian Football League, the AFLM, meaning the Australian Football League
Men’s. This was in an effort to mimic the women’s division, the AFLW, therefore
further promoting equality and meeting the face needs of women, particularly
those partaking in sport, a part of society usually dominated by men. However,
some people believe that being encouraged to abide by politically correct
language, which can empower marginalized groups, actually disempowers the
speakers by infringing on their freedom of speech. Radio Host Alan Jones is one
such person, who received large backlash after he said someone should “[shove a
sock down” New Zealand Jacinda Ardern’s throat].” This use of language by Jones
was harmful to Ardern, which resulted in many people condemning Jones’
language. Upon being discouraged for his comments however, Jones claimed his
freedom of speech was being impeded upon and therefore was being
disempowered. This notion is agreed upon by author P.D James, who believes
“politically correct language is a form on linguistic censorship.” Overall, although
language referring to women has a powerful ability to harm and disempower
others it can also promote equality and meet positive face needs. However it
must be noted that people believe that their freedom of speech can be impeded
upon, disempowering them as a result of politically correct language.
Language referring to the disabled community can also highlight society’s
prejudices and languages ability to harm others. For instance the euphemism
treadmill is when a euphemistic term is utilized originally to meet positive face
needs, but eventually gains negative connotation, therefore it is replaced with a
new one. This is seen with language referring to the disabled, which first used
the word “retard,” stemming from the Latin ‘retarde’ meaning slow, before it
contained negative connotation, leading to it being replaced by a series of
euphemisms which would eventually become offensive, such as cretin, imbecile,
slow and special, all of which have become offensive. The euphemism treadmill
highlights society’s tendency to use language in order to offend others and
disempower them. Furthermore AFL commentator and celebrity Eddie McGuire
recently claimed “throw it up properly” when commentating a coin toss
performed by a double amputee. McGuire’s ignorance lead to him making an
offensive claim and using his language to harm members of the disabled
community. However, recently society is beginning to use language in order to
respect and empower disabled people. For instance, person first language uses
fronting to place the ‘person’ before their condition in order to place emphasis
on the human, and illustrate that they are not defined by the disability. For
instance, “autistic person,” would become “person with autism.” This use of
language empowers and humanizes members of the disabled community
highlighting languages power to include and show respect. Additionally people
within the disabled community may capitalize the word initial letter of their
disability in order to show ownership and pride in their disability, for instance,
‘deaf person’ would be written as “Deaf person.” The existence of the euphemism
treadmill and many peoples tendency to still verbally mock disabled people
depicts the power of language to harm and disempower, but person first
language and word initial capitalization can empower and meet positive face
needs.

Furthermore language referring to the LGBT community often aims to harm and
disempower. For instance the semantic change of the adjective ‘gay,’ which was
adopted by the Gay community because of its positive connotation meaning
“happy” eventually underwent semantic deterioration and is now often used
pejoratively as an expletive or insult. Furthermore, Member of Parliament Peter
Killin publicly called author Tim Wilson the “notorious homosexual” which uses
the negative connotation of the adjective “notorious” to purvey homosexuality as
a negative thing. The use of ‘gay’ and ‘homosexual’ as insults highlights how
language referring to the disabled can offend and harm members of that
community. However language can also meet the positive face needs of members
within the LGBT community and promote social harmony, for example inclusive
pronouns such as “she, he, sie and zie” meet the positive face needs of people
who have previously struggled to be accepted. Additionally the term “FOBGays”
which is a compounding of the initialism FOB, meaning Fresh Off the Boat, and
“gay” promotes acceptance of members of the LGBT community, therefore
demonstrating languages ability to empower. Language referring to the LGBT
community highlights both how language can be used to harm and disempower
and to empower and promote social harmony.