Some people love to sneer at examples of what they deem to be “political correctness.” My usual reaction is to wonder what’s wrong with them.
Let’s use the N-word as an example. How is it not a good thing that most people don’t use that term anymore? Or how about some of the truly horrible terms people used to use in reference to people with mental or physical disabilities? Would the people who snort dismissively about the “PC Police” prefer they were still used?
There are hundreds of examples of words, terms and practices that used to be acceptable but aren’t anymore. What’s labeled political correctness is usually just being kind and considerate, and I fail to see anything wrong with that. Being “PC” has made us a more aware, gentler and more inclusive nation. I call that progress.
But not in every instance. Sometimes, yeah, political correctness goes too far, just like everything else. We have two examples before us right now in the mini-debate over the silly 1944 Christmas tune “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and the TV special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
A radio station in Cleveland recently banned “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from its holiday playlists after listeners supposedly complained. (I say supposedly because I used to do a little radio and recognize the smell of a publicity stunt. Nothing boosts ratings like a manufactured controversy.) A handful of other stations across the nation are apparently following suit.
The main gripe seems to be that the song promotes date rape and is therefore inappropriate in the #MeToo era.
Whoa, what? I’m all for the #MeToo movement, which has empowered women to step forward, speak out and fight back – all great things, obviously.
But are we listening to the same tune? From the million or so times I’ve heard it, the song seems to be about a mildly obnoxious guy who won’t take no for an answer and a woman who doesn’t want to give no as an answer. She wants to stay. He wants her to stay. So they’re looking for an excuse to make it happen and, well … baby, it’s cooooold ouuuutsiiiiiide. (I’m singing while I type this, and you can’t stop me).
Did I miss the parts about how he was drugging and raping her? Maybe I’m a bad person, but I’m just not offended by this song. What does offend me is why it’s considered a Christmas song in the first place since there’s no mention of Christmas in it. (Someone please explain.)
Then there’s Rudolph. The Huffington Post posted a video calling the show “seriously problematic” for the bullying Rudolph endures from Santa, the other reindeer (those jerks) and even Comet the reindeer coach. I suspect the video was intended to be satirical, in that it calls Rudolph “the marginalized reindeer,” which is a pretty funny line.
If they were being serious, well, they’re welcome to their opinion, I guess, but it would be pretty hard to make a parable about the awfulness of bullying without actually depicting the bullying, wouldn’t it?
Maybe I need sensitivity training but when I watch Rudolph (which I still do), I’m not wondering why a 50-year-old TV special doesn’t conform to modern mores. I’m focused on bigger mysteries.
Like how is it, exactly, that Bumbles bounce?
One can read anything into whatever they desire.
One has only to look at the current political climate in this country to know it is true.
Open minds seem to be a thing of the past, so sad, but oh so true.
This “Baby it’s Cold Outside” is just another example of reading into what is in one’s mind at the time.
I am all for PC, but this song fiasco is not a PC issue to me.
I don’t know about the Rudolph one. Maybe satire? But, the Baby it’s cold outside one sounds like it was cooked up by a right-wing nutjob like Alex Jones to further push the rhetoric that liberals are hysterical and irrational.
I do see plenty of examples of going to far on HuffPost though. It’s become more of a left leaning tabloid than a credible source for information. It’s like the Left’s version of Fox New. I wish they would knock that off.
You credit the PC movement with the transfer of the N-word usage? (It is hardly gone – Likely increased in usage overall if you take rap “music” into account. One song may have 40 usages in 3 minutes) I would give zero credit to the PC movement for anything. It is essentially a very self absorbed, collection of censors who base the definition of right/wrong on their personal desires to weild power. They actually offer nothing of substance or meaning. It is true that the political left has waged a war on Christmas for over 30 years. Trying to ban these two songs is just one example.
Ignore the idiots who try to tell us what Christmas songs are “allowable”. Their opinions are meaningless.
Merry CHRISTmas!
There never has been a “War on Christmas” by the political left or anyone. This is a right wing nut job manufactured issue dreamed up by Faux News. Everyone who wants to say Merry Christmas or celebrate it can and does. Heck, the Christmas decorations and songs start way before Thanksgiving these days. So, quit trying to make something from nothing. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all, even those that don’t celebrate Christmas!
Sometimes I wish you’d read what I write instead of just throwing a hand grenade of opinion in the vicinity of what the topic is. First, you make my point in that you see no value in becoming a better society by eliminating awful things. There’s no damned war on Christmas. Christmas is fricking everywhere. Churches are even still tax-free. People are leaving churches because churches aren’t living up to their ideals. Look at the Catholic church pedophile scandals. Look at the televangelists. And you whine about a war on Christmas. What you really want is for everyone to think and act just like you. That’s what the conservative right is upset about – and yet irony of irony they’re also the ones who claim to be the biggest “patriots.” Pretty strange for a nation founded on religious and political freedom. Abner.
Here you go Andy. This article points out another front going on right now in the leftist War on Christmas.
It’s real – It is happening right now.
http://dlvr.it/Qt10T1
Wow Abner I think you have your facts mixed up. Left wingers are the ones that are open to all types of religions and religious beliefs. There is only one religion for the right wingers. Christianity or nothing.
Typical tone deaf right-winger. They just don’t get it and no amount of rationalization will make a difference.
“Churches are even still tax-free. ”
Thank you from r 100% proving my point that liberal Democrats have in fact a long, established War on Chirstmas…
Andy – Would you right now, endorse a repudiation of tax exempt status for Islamic Mosques?…
I’ll wait for your liberal, dodging response.
I am as liberal as they come. All places of worship for ALL religions should be paying taxes just like any other legitimate business does.
Almost every liberal Democrat I know is a church-going Christian.
I hope you learned something today, right-winger, but like I said; no amount of rationalization will make difference. So, you probably didn’t learn anything.
P.S. Be more careful when spelling your beloved word “Christmas”, ya hypocrite.
It seems to me that the values of the left and right have switched sides since I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. My parents were Republicans. We believed in getting a good education, getting a decent job, and contributing to the good of our community. We were Christians, and believed in living with integrity and honor, treating others with dignity and respect, and helping those less fortunate. Today, the Republicans seem to have made a religion out of capitalism, and it’s the Democrats who believe in the principles that I once thought were exclusively Christian, but now realize are more accepted as universal truths. Of course these are broad generalizations. I recently saw this thought: Pure capitalism has all the moral integrity of a cancer cell. Thanks for another great column, Andy.
Uh oh….how long until mistletoe is outlawed ?
Surely a contributer to teen pregnancy, and unwanted office party groping. One more Christmas tradition out the door right along side the nativity in the park.
I don’t know if this would fall under political correctness or not but why do the characters in Rudolph only have three fingers and a thumb???
Jims, My theory is that with an even number of fingers, they don’t have a “Middle Finger” so they can’t flip anybody off.
Ha! Good one! Do some of you guys not know the cartooning tradition of only drawing four fingers? Quicker, easier to draw, and nobody used to notice.
Just for the heck of it I looked up the words to the song. (and then later today they were published in the FREEP.) Andy, you may be right that this is a cooked up controversy.
Yes, there is a war on Christmas and Christians. It is not an open front assault, but an assault that is just barely showing.
Let us start with the 2012 Democratic Convention. A proposal was brought before the floor concerning God and Jerusalem. It was voted on three times by voice vote. Twice it was voted down. On the third try, the Chair could not really tell how close the vote was, so the Chair declared that the measures passed. There was a minor debate if the vote was accurate.
Then there is the “Freedom From Religion” group. founded by someone who is an atheist. I do not have his name right now. His group is against crosses and any other religious looking item in the public square. If someone in the Armed forces has a Bible on their desk and someone complains to this group they tell the person with the Bible that they cannot have the Bible on their desk or a picture of Jesus. The reason why is that the allegedly offended person felt threatened by it. They also do not want Bibles place in hotel rooms. Some chains have given up without a fight and do not put Bibles in their rooms.
Some big box stores had and have a policy about employees saying “Merry Christmas”. They do want their employees to say it. Why? Somebody might get offended by the saying. Instead, they were/are to say “Happy Holidays”. Whether an employee says Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays does not make a difference to me.
If a liberal/democrat/socialist/communist is invited to speak on a college/university campus. The Republicans/right side of the political spectrum will just go about their business and go ho-hum.
If a Republican or someone who does not toe the liberal/democrat/socialist/communist line,
the “parties of tolerance” get their panties in a bunch and protest the speaker being allowed to speak at all. They will demonstrate and if they get into the auditorium they will do anything to stop the person from speaking.
The term “politically correct speech” is actually anti-1st amendment censorship. If Andrew Heller is not careful in his writings along with other left-leaning writers here, they could find themselves in the crosshairs of those of on the left who easily get offended by something.
I have more examples, but this is long enough for now.
Too long. Waste of effort.
Oh, you guys! There are places in the USA where, “Merry Christmas,” just ain’t right. I have not lived in Christian West Michigan my whole life. In New York, or even in Detroit, many people are not Christian, or even from Christian backgrounds. “Happy Holidays,” is better there. And, it is not bad, even here. This is not a war. Just courtesy.
What utter nonsense. If you want to say some people prefer separation of church and state, fine. But to say there’s a war on Christmas is just laughable. The right seems to want a national religion, which is ironic given we were founded on religious freedom. Religious freedom also includes freedom from religion, does it not? And politically correct speech is not censorship. Good god. You’re free to say anything you like. Last I checked there were no laws against using bigoted terms. If there were, well, there would be jails full of people from one particular party.
You are referring to America. jimiii lives in ‘Murica. Everything he said is 100% true in his mind.
True. I forgot. I have never seen people who felt more aggrieved and under attack in all my life. It’s kinda like they’re … snowflakes? You certainly wouldn’t think they’ve controlled Congress and the White House for two years. If Christmas was under such an aggressive assault, surely the Republicans would have made Christianity the national religion and banned anyone from blaspheming against it. Why haven’t they?
‘Murica is populated with millions of victimized snowflakes who long ago accepted an alternative reality from Fox News where their culture, livelihood and identity is in danger of being erased by Obama loving liberals. In ‘Murica; up is down, fact is fiction, lies are truth, war heroes are traitors, cowards are heroes, religious freedom is Christianity and George Soros called the shots in the Republican controlled government.
‘Muricans are a lot like North Koreans, they have digested so much propaganda that they live in a completely different world from the rest of us. I am not sure we can help them find reality, but we can try to keep others from getting sucked into their alternative reality.
Post of the month!
I’m with you, besides the fact that we need something to debate other than politics and the idiot.
We have a heaven of a lot to celebrate right now! In this part of the USA, we have no suicide bombers. Nobody is after us, in any lethal way. We gather for football and basketball games, without any real fear of attack. Just fear of bad hot dogs, sometimes.
We are lucky, because we are sunk deep in the middle of the USA, not at the flashy, flamboyant edges. Kiss your lovely children; take them skating; buy them too many presents! Have lovely fun. You need not fight now. We are blessed. Merry Christmas! Love our peace, here, now, while it lasts.