Conference turris::womannotes-v1

    I hope you will not be angry at my asking, but I wonder if you could
    explain why you want only women to answer to your question? I am
    genuinely interested, not trying to be critical, believe me.
    
    Now to answer your question, for myself:
    
    Being politically correct to me is voting for who and what I believe
    in. Sometimes it means abstaining if nobody's ideas correspond to
    mine. Sometimes it means choosing between "who" and "what", as 
    happened to French communist who were against the invasion of Hungary,
    Tchecoslovakia or Afghanistan by the Russians. They were still commu-
    nists because their overall political outlook had not changed, but
    they did not agree with the line the French communist party was
    taking.
    
    "Correct" shouldn't exist in politics. "Correct" is for table manners.
    To me, the question is "does it feel, sound, look right? Do I believe
    in that idea and/or in that person? Is the idea right enough that I
    can vote for a person I distrust, because nobody else is pushing forward
    this idea I believe in?
                                      
    If you are an ecologist, "correct" is voting for the person who will
    keep promoters from destroying a natural site, even if you think
    that the guy is just an opportunist.
    
    If you are a fascist, "correct" is voting for the guy who promotes
    racial discrimination, even though he may not be extremist enough
    for your taste.
    
    Like religion, politics is based on beliefs. Not agreeing with the
    decisions of Vatican II will not make you less of a Catholic, it
    will just make catholicism more difficult for you. Not agreeing
    with anything the Catholic church says will make you an agnostic.
    
    I have (as may be noticeable from the above!) pretty strong feelings
    about politics, because what we are talking about is our future,
    and I am not willing to let a bunch of crooked politicians from
    all sides cow me into submission and decide on our future just because
    they are photogenic or charismatic!
    
    Joana
    
    PS: I realize that "politically correct" may have a meaning in the
        US it does not have in Europe. Is that right?
                                                     

    I hear the question a little differently than .1 does because I
    have only heard the phrase "politically correct" within the women's
    community!  In my experience, it means political in the sense of
    pertaining to power, as opposed to political in the sense of pertaining
    to government.
    
    In my experience, a group of women made a set of assumptions about
    changing their relationships to power in our society.  To reduce
    the equation to its simplest form, it would read something like
    this:  For women to have real power and overcome old roles and
    assumptions, it is important to behave/speak/dress like x.  In some
    segments of the women's community these norms were widely adopted
    and (in my mind) brutally enforced by excluding women who didn't
    agree to adopt those norms.
    
    This very simplistic description does highlight an old dialectical
    problem.  To accomplish social change, there is usually a radical
    "no-holds-barred" group in the vanguard and a more moderate group
    which sometimes has more staying power behind them.  Often the two
    groups begin to fight one another instead of the problem.  I felt
    this was happening a lot around 1977-1978, and I often heard women
    speak of women "trashing" one another at that time.
    
    I understand the issue better now that I've lived and worked in
    several different communities.  There will always be power issues
    and power struggles, and there will probably always be angry people.
    Sometimes the angry radical people get things done that the more
    moderate ones could not, and sometimes the moderate people interpret
    and maintain the changes their radical counterparts have instituted.
    There appears to be room for both.
    
    And charismatic leaders will be looked to in policy setting and
    enforcing.  When leaders change, norms seem to change.  Often what
    is poltically incorrect one year is the epitome of political
    correctness 5 years later.
    
    I have been hurt a lot by the notion of "political correctness"
    since I hate being a sheep.  I have sometimes happened to behave
    in a "politically correct" way, and I have sometimes behaved in
    a way that was judged "politically incorrect".  I decided that I
    preferred rejection by radical members of the community (and I got
    it!) to sheep behavior.  At the same time, I've been expanding my
    horizons, developing opinions, and quietly being a feminist wherever
    I happened to be.  I haven't sacrificed my talents or my integrity
    and I'm glad.  I can't imagine where I'd be today if I  had carefully
    followed the code of political correctness.  (Angry and stuck, maybe).
                                                      
    
    Holly

  Instead of expending energy on being "politically correct", I'd rather
  correct politics.
    
    Ann Marie
    
      

    i never use the term unless i'm making fun of myself.
    
    liz

    The last time I was "Politicly Correct" was, um, erh, I know I
    was once, I think.          
    
    That term does not work for me at all.
    
    _peggy
    
    		(-)
    		 |
    			The Goddess is change, change, change.
    
    

That was a very politically correct statement, Peggy.

Martin.

           
    I agree with the last several replies.  I tend to use the PC and
    PI phrases only when I'm kidding around.  (Of course, intruding
    into requested privacy is totally PC (ha, ha) )  I think the concept
    is a good one but has been carried to extremes.  It strikes me that
    the idea of political correctness serves as a reminder that those of
    us who have suffered oppression need to be especially aware of
    our own prejudices.  
    
    But it seems like the rules and regulations that have grown up around 
    the idea of political "correctness" have themselves become oppressive.  
    When I was in college (an all women's school) I remember feeling
    like I didn't fit in anywhere.  I was just coming out as a lesbian,
    and the "preppy" women saw me as too "dyke-ey", but I didn't really
    fit into the radical lesbian feminist community because I was too
    "preppy"  Preppy clothes are apparently very "PI"... so there I
    was feeling quite isolated.  It's only in the last few years that
    I really feel a sense of community with lots of women, (some lesbian, 
    some not) with whom I feel I can share more of my true self and not 
    just parts of who I am.
        
    Justine

    I am definately not PC, and never have been.  I used to resent women
    trying to force me to be PC.  I like my religion (Christianity), and 
    only a couple of years ago bought my first pair of Birkenstocks (and I 
    like them all right, but I am *not* madly in love with them like
    Shellie is).  I refuse to have to alter my clothing to be cotton, or
    my diet to be vegetarian, because that is limiting me to things I
    don't enjoy.  If other women want to do these things because they want 
    to - fine.  If they do these things because they care what people
    think about them - fine, but I'm living my life in my own way, and
    since it is my life, then I don't have to live by their ideas of PC.

    So there!  :-)
                             Carol

    Gee, Carol, it sounds like you're describing "PC" according to the
    wholistic community, not the women's community :-)
    
    Holly

    In San Diego, they overlapped quite a bit, but as Bonnie has been
    reminding me via MAIL, PC is PC according to whatever group is talking.
    So many people have THEIR ideas on how YOU should live.  :-)
    
                  Carol