November 19, 2009
-
Love: Politically Correct Edition
You all heard that saying, “significant other,” well, my question is - which other? I know a lot of, “other” people aside from myself, but which others? And how are those, “others,” “significant?” if neither, “significant,” nor, “other” are defined?
Well, I suppose then all my teachers I have ever had are my, “significant others” because well, they are others, and they were significant, or are significant because they teach me stuff. Isn’t that legitimate enough?
So, what is wrong with calling the person you love, the person you are actually in a relationship with, “lovers?” Or, some other love-related term, like, “my babe…” or, “my sweetheart…” or, “my boyfriend/girlfriend…” Are not those terms more accurate and precise? I mean, what makes, “others” so, “significant,” that we fail to define exactly what either of those two words in the phrase mean?
Is love so forbidden and unmentionable, even embarrassing that we resort to such silly terms like, “significant other?” Are we so immature and childish we need to take away the, “offensiveness” of love itself? What if one day, hypothetically, love is no longer called, “love?” Instead, it is called, “sudden plusgood emotional outpourings?” That is right, “sudden plusgood emotional outpourings!” And what about the term, “couple?” Well, we can easily make that term more politically correct by saying it is simply a, “strong comradeship” could we not? And how about the term, “sex” (the act) – “semi-automatic-manual double production!” And what about sex, the biological term itself, “manufactured external-internal production mechanism!” How about a politically correct term for, “marriage:” Permanent unpaid contract! Also – how about a politically correct term for the word, “family?”: collective common comradeship! How about a term for romance too – because in the future, we may not want to be offensive to women, since romance implies something to do with men instead of women: mechanical stimulation and simulacrum! How about a term for break-up, and being dumped? Ungood comrade communication syndrome! And courtship…dating? Camaraderie bondship! How about, “making out?” doubleplusgood surplus mechanical interaction!
At what point does any and all political correctness just become a form of manual, monotone language – devoid of emotions, feelings, and life itself? Imagine – language devoid of meaning, essence, truth, and honesty.
My point is, this whole political correctness thing in regard to love, relationships, and marriage is taking away the life out of life, and the love out of love, and the relationship out of relationships.
What do you, my dear readers think? Has this whole, “significant other” thing gone too far? And should we just call each other what we really are when we are in a relationship – girlfriend, boyfriend, lover, etc?
Why do we have this politically correct term in regard to to “love?”
Thank you
Comments (1)
I think it started because it was too unwieldy to say, “Come and bring your husband or wife / boyfriend or girlfriend (whether live in or not) / or male or female escort,” it was much simpler to say, “Come and bring your significant other.” People didn’t want to assume that just b/c a man and woman lived together that that meant that they must be married, and they were afraid people would take offence if they mischaracterized the relationship. Further, they certainly didn’t want to say, “Come and bring your wife or girlfriend,” since doesn’t this treat women as if they are just the property of men and that the men get to make all the decisions?
Hence they came up with a silly and basically meaningless phrase which beats around the bush but hopefully offends no one but those with too much common sense. You, my friend, have too much common sense, so you see that this phrase – is a futile attempt to try to avoid making too many assumptions — so it ends up actually draining the romance from a loving relationship and describing it in the most clinical of terms. Oops, I called you my friend. To be more more politically correct, should I call you my “Fellow Xangan Correspendent”?