Imagine it is 2030, and we only use gender-neutral pronouns. Spokesperson replaces the rather impolite and overly specific spokeswoman or spokesman. The word woman has been changed to womyn so as to eliminate any notion of women being a subset of men. Society now finds it unacceptable to say or do anything that offends or upsets anyone. These changes, along with many others, have completely eliminated all of the ills of society, including sexism, homophobia, racism and religious intolerance.
Of course, this scenario is completely ridiculous. Too many “intellectuals” these days wish to control and police word choice as well as the way in which people hold conversations and interact. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, Article 19 declares that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression … and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
On Wolfpack Students, a female student described an incident in which a “dirty, tall, white-haired man” said to her, “Hey missy, has anybody ever told you how beautiful you are?” She felt “angry, offended, hurt, confused, silent and scared” and said his message was “not a compliment.” The story was detailed along with the support of gender-neutral pronouns, respect, equality and the notion that the man should not have said anything to her at all.
What is most interesting about the story is that she was not repeatedly harassed or physically assaulted. The man offered his form of freedom of speech by stating what he most likely thought was a compliment, and the female student exhibited her freedom of expression by choosing not to respond or react to the statement. This is exactly what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would want. Whether we believe he should or should not have made any comment is beside the point; what he did was completely legal and should be upheld as free speech.
She has every right to be upset by the comment if that is how she truly feels, but in no way does this specific situation require the speech police to tell anyone what to say or how to feel. Forms of harassment, such as catcalling, are serious issues that should be discussed and worked out in the public forum. Unfortunately, authorities sometimes misuse these societal concerns to suppress the speech of fellow citizens.
Many offer the explanation that minority opinion should be protected from the majority and given equal weight. Yet in the process of protecting the minority, the typical solution seems to be creating a witch-hunt-like hysteria to silence the majority groups of individuals in our nation. Christianity, for instance, is highly criticized in this country, which is perfectly valid and fair. However, as soon as Islam is spoken of in a negative light the terms “islamophobia” and “bigot” are spat out almost seemingly with the intention of the defamation of character of the speaker.
The same can be seen in the way in which, to be honest, mostly white individuals are called “racist” when speaking on the topic of racial issues. Or when men are called “sexist” after relating a different opinion than womyn about gender issues. This is not to take away from the fact that actual islamophobia, bigotry, sexism and racism occur. Rather, the intent is to express the idea that discussion is being stifled because people are terrified to express their opinions in the midst of widespread speech policing and political correctness. Regardless of whether an individual belongs to the majority, minority or any group, no one’s opinion should be suppressed, controlled or modified.
We often wonder how, in our progressive era, there still seem to be hidden tensions between different groups of people. Policing how individuals speak, use language and express themselves will not only do very little to address the deep underlying social problems that exist in our society, but it may in fact cause even more strife. People are different; the best way for them to understand each other is to speak openly about their respective beliefs, opinions and conceptions.
Now imagine it is 2030 and we choose to use specific pronouns and gender-neutral pronouns where they make sense. Some words stay the same, and some evolve as language always has. People freely express themselves without fear of defamation. Despite having to hear opinions and viewpoints that we disagree with, we all learn from them and try to better understand each other.
There are still many major problems in the world, but we should at least be able to freely discuss and debate them.