Political correctness gone mad? Or not? Or what?

Last summer the president of the Spanish football federation, Luis Rubiales, had come in for justified criticism after he kissed the forward Jenni Hermoso on the lips following Spain’s 1-0 victory over England in the final in Sydney at the end of the women’s World Cup. And for a while in the days and weeks after the entirely inappropriate action the story had taken an obscene amount of airtime and ink in the media (admittedly this may have to do with the fact, that during the summer there wasn’t much else to write about).

Sure, the gesture in itself is wrong, Rubiales, rather than making excuses etc should have apologised humbly and in public right away, but the the whole story turned into some kind of madness.

I do get the #MeToo movement, no problem with that, but what this story grew into has nothing to do with repeated sexually predatory and criminal actions by powerful people such as Harvey Weinstein. Sure, Rubiales was wrong, not a shadow of a doubt about that, but this clearly was a spur of the moment thing, out of euphoria having just won the World Cup, nothing more. And as such the amount of media attention this got was clearly exaggerated. We have way bigger problems this world has to deal with: the war in Ukraine, climate change and a cost of living crisis to name but a few. Rubiales’s kiss is a bagatelle in comparison.

And its not only this incident: More and more I seem to be reading or hearing about inappropriate or politically incorrect behaviour. There are now language consultants which advise companies and individual on words and phrases duly to avoid. So, apparently, refrain from the following:

• Male-only pronouns, trms and titles (Manpower is now human resource)
• Stereotypes (a woman doctor is now simply a doctor)
• Victimisation (you no longer suffer from but have an ailment)
• Implications towards sexual orientation (partner to refer to significant other)
• Generalisation of ethnicity and race (she is Japanese rather than just Asian)

One has to wonder whether, for example as far as ethnicity is concerned, everyone should in future use the vocabulary of British police forces, which identifies people of different backgrounds by their identiy codes: A white, north European person is an IC1, a white south European individual an IC2, a black person an IC3 and so on.

Sometimes political correctness does really go too far, take for example the case in 2020 of professor Greg Patton at the University of Southern California who was telling students in a communications lecture about filler, or pause words. Footage of his lecture shows Prof Patton saying: “In China, the common pause word is ‘that, that, that’. So in China, it might be na-ge, na-ge, na-ge.” Enunciated, na-ge sounds like the N-word, which led several of the professor’s students to complain to the university. Responding to the complaint, the dean of the university, Geoffrey Garrett, told students that Prof Patton would no longer be teaching the course.

There used to be a time, 20 or 30 years ago, when we were able to make risqué jokes and borderline comments without being branded, as homophobic, misogynistic, antisemitic or whatever. Common sense would tell us who was just taking the mickey or being provocative. Rather than really being obnoxious and absusive. Nowadays, you can’t pat a female work colleague on the back, let alone, give her a hug without being called a sexual predator or pervert. Nowadays, it’s other people who tell us what behaviour is acceptable and what is not. In a way this reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984, where the Party defines acceptable behaviour and speech.

What for god’s sake has happened to good old common sense? Have we really forgotten to judge ourselves when what comment is inappropriate? Or don’t we trust our own judgment and that of our fellow citizens any more? And isn’t it simply human we sometimes get it wrong, for example when being elated and jubilant as no doubt Luis Rubiales would have been, and then having to eat, humble pie and apologise?

My original text, which I didn’t publish when I wrote it a few months ago, actually ended at the last paragraph. And since then things have evolved: Rubiales has stepped down from his role at the Spanish football federation and, at the end of October, was banned by the FIFA disciplinary committee from all football related activities for 3 years and has recently upheld its ban following Rubiales’s appeal. Moreover, late last year new allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Rubiales against English women players at the World Cup were raised by Debbie Hewitt, president of the British Football Association. So, all of a sudden, I ask myself: Did I get it wrong? Or is Luis Rubiales simply a ‘dirty old man’ but on the fundamental point about political correctness I am still right? Or neither of those? The mind boggles….