some type of adult girl

gradientlair:

I sent these tweets as a part of a Storify, Being Bigoted Isn’t Being Brave (On “Political Correctness” As A Pejorative). These tweets are NOT about is siding with those who want the right to degrade and that’s their issue with political correctness but are in fact questioning two things: The first is privilege and resistance to political correctness (as my tweets were originally in response to a White feminist writer who alluded to the laboriousness of political correctness and how it will harm). Um, what kind of feminism cannot value the choices, identities and humanity of others? That’s the core of my womanism. The second is how the very notion of political correctness needing to exist where it is a pejorative to avoid is antithetical to any feminism where the humanity of all is valued, protected and fought for.

In the Storify I also included tweets from Crommunist who shared an exquisite essay where he mentioned this:

To declare oneself ‘politically incorrect’, once we understand why political correctness is necessary, ceases to be a bold declaration of one’s refusal to mindlessly follow social conventions. To the contrary; it is announcing one’s intention to courageously embrace those conventions and the pillars of privilege upon which they are built. It is stating unequivocally that the speaker is completely uninterested in understanding why it is necessary to adjust language to reflect reality. Rather than being an iconoclastic stance, it is a vainglorious assertion of one’s lack of interest in swimming against the tide of cultural prejudice; preferring instead to tread water in the flowing tide of public opinion.

I really love that he explains how it is adherence to existing oppression, not some sort of insight that makes people think political correctness should even have to exist to then be a pejorative. I’m not interested in feminist politics where even respecting my humanity is a “chore” for the privileged. That…sounds a lot like oppression.

(via carazelaya)