LadyConstanze
Posts: 9722
Joined: 2/18/2005
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Though in a way I do understand where Chatte is coming from, language is powerful, it just reminded me of a discussion I had somewhere else where we talked about if such things like actor, waiter, etc. instead of gender specific comments really are just lip service. I think the reply I made there sticks fits here too, even if it was more aimed at sexism than racism... Since I'm too lazy to type it all out, I do a copy and paste job:
The language thing is interesting, I think we are expecting too much too soon. As a teenager, there were things like Miss and Mrs, now nobody uses them anymore because if they do, they'll get the "Welcome to the 21st century, get with the times" look, at the same time you also saw an increase of women working in jobs that weren't "traditionally female". I think it's conditioning, if you get used to seeing and hearing something, it becomes routine, same as if somebody takes a cold shower every morning, after a few weeks, they don't even think about it anymore. I think it does help to pave the way to gender equality.
Our parents or grandparents might have specified if the doctor they are seeing is male or female, now you're just going to see a doctor, actually I think there are now more female than male doctors. Kids hearing job titles without a gender attribute, they might not cancel some jobs out automatically because it's "for girls" or "for boys".
I used to really be against all the PC stuff, because I thought people can think for themselves, but far too many simply can't and by making it a rule, you're just weaning them off from using offensive language, be it gender or racial. Of course there will always be the - shall we say - less evolved person somewhere, referring to women in a derogatory term and thinks it's endearing or flattering, they tend to be the same who still believe gay is an insult instead of a sexual orientation, but it's really dying out.
Of course sometimes people go a bit too far with the whole PC thing, and everybody can find examples, just everybody can find examples where BDSM wasn't consensual but abuse, nothing is perfect, but in general there seems to be a whole new acceptance, and I do think that linguistics have helped to make a difference. Maybe not quite as much as cognitivism, but by behaviourism but I don't see them as mutually exclusive.
Some companies have very formal structures, also the police in a way, used to puzzle me, and recently I talked to a cop (just a friend and we often walk the dogs together), I was joking that it must be really hard for them to call a drunk offender still Sir. He explained to me that it's basically a language barrier that also helps to avoid a flare up of violence, you call somebody Sir, you are reminding the person of social structures, show respect, but that it's actually also keeping the police officer in check, his exact comment was "Most of the people we have to arrest aren't very nice and we don't like them, they often kick off, it's harder to say Sir A-hole, than you a-hole, which really would kick things off!"
Come to think about it, language is quite a powerful tool...
_____________________________
There are 10 kinds of people who understand binary
Those who do and those who don't!
http://exdomme.blogspot.com/2012/07/public-service-announcement.html
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RE: Do descriptors such as white (or black), make a per... - 
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