Political Correctness

What do we mean?

When referring to political correctness we will use the following meaning:

Actions or expressions that avoid excluding, marginalising, or insulting individuals or groups over issues such as gender, culture, race or ability.

The term is often used in a derogatory way to suggest that these actions or expressions are motivated more by the desire to conform to prevailing social standards rather than a genuine respect for the rights of the individual or the group.

Open your worksheet. As soon as you have opened it, save it in your own account on your (or the school's) computer, preferably in your portfolio. Keep it open all the time you work on this unit.

Now, in Task 1 in your worksheet, order the incidents from 1 to 7, with 1 being the least offensive and 7 being the most offensive.

Thin line

There is a thin line between political incorrectness, innocent humour, freedom of speech, respect for other people, insensitiveness, intolerance, oversensitiveness and cultural bias.

For instance, what about jokes about "dumb blondes"? What about being allowed to say whatever you want about anything and anybody? And should we really replace manhole by maintenance portal?

In the next section we look at some "politically incorrect attitudes" and at some "moral principles".