Being Politically Correct Is Not Always Good

First, I would like to start off and say how much Nancy Mairs essay touched me. It really amazes me how people can take an illness such as Multiple Sclerosis and have the attitude that she has about it.

My favorite part about Mairs essay is when she talks about how she does not really like the other words that are associated with being crippled. She states that the word “cripple seems to [be] a clean word, straightforward and precise” (par. 3). I have always wondered how people who have a physical disability feel about the certain words that are used to describe them and after reading Maris essay it really made me think. Why has society coined these “politically correct” words? Is it to make the people, who those specific words affect, feel less bad about themselves? I have never met a “handicapped” person who actually liked being called handicapped. One of my friends who has a disability actually hates the word. She told me once that “just because I can not walk doesn’t make me any different than you.”

I can understand where the whole politically correct idea comes from. I think that it really stems from the idea that no one wants to offend anyone because everyone wants to avoid arguments, but why? I sometimes feel that using the so called “politically correct” term causes more damage than the word it is supposed to cover up. Maris actually gives a good example of this in her essay. In paragraph three where she talks about how the idea of political correctness “transformed countries from “undeveloped” to “under-developed,” then to “less developed,” and finally to “developing” nations.” This really makes sense to me, because even though people are trying to change the name of the situation it really has no effect. Like Maris said, “[The] people have continued to starve during the shift” (Par. 3). So why do people think that using the word “handicapped” or “differently abled” makes the person they are talking about free of their affliction.

So like I said before, why “beat around the bush” with how we use our words? I know this idea of being politically correct is not the main idea of Maris essay, but that is what really stuck out to me. Why should people like Maris be treated like children about their disability? Why do we have to sugar-coat everything we say to each other just to avoid “hurting” each others feelings? Thinking about this reminds me a little of William F. Buckley’s essay Why Don’t We Complain? Why do we have to avoid situations such as not to complaining to even the words we use?