I abhor political correctness in all its forms. Some months ago, I watched a news or current affairs story on how some groups have urged the title and lyrics of Baa Baa Black Sheep to be changed because they could be viewed as racist. In addition, it seems there’s a problem with Humpty Dumpty being sexist. Finally, Fairy Penguins can’t be called that any more because these days the word fairy connotes homosexuality in addition to its regular usage as the name given to a class of tiny, imaginary humanlike creatures typified by Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. The other day I was also told how the title of a Nickelodeon cartoon had to be changed in the UK because the word bender is associated with homosexuality. In the USA, the word flamer is avoided by cartoons and computer games because it is also used to describe a homosexual. The question is, who exactly is suggesting bans on all these words, as in the case of flamer, bender and fairy, it’s surely not individual homosexuals who take offence at such terms. I’m left wondering whether one day there will be any words left in the English language which haven’t been blacklisted by some special interest group or another.
For the record, the suggested alternative to Baa Baa Black Sheep was Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep, but then that surely calls into question the sexual orientation of the sheep, and it probably won’t be long before the same people are calling for a ban on the word rainbow.
