The Other F Word.

I was reading something the other day that was talking about how the Twilight series & Disney Princess stories create unrealistic expectations for little girls, and how they're misogynist because the princesses just passively wait for the prince to rescue them. And although it is hypocritical of me to judge someone else for over-analyzing the trivial, I thought "Oh, come on! Really?"

Hello, it's a fairytale. There's nothing wrong with fantasy.

I mean, who doesn't want to be rescued? If you were Cinderella and an absurdly wealthy, handsome bloke turned up and fell in love with your soot-streaked face, would you give a second thought to feminine solidarity with those bitchy stepsisters of yours and say "No thanks, I'll rescue myself. I depend on no man!" Of course not, you'd say "Take me to your castle, handsome!" It doesn't mean that you then expect this is how real relationships function.

However, I must recognize that I can take that point of view because I have other options. I can work. I can choose my own career. I chose my husband for myself (okay, we chose each other but you know what I mean). I'm not one of those women who wrinkles their nose prettily and says "Ooh, no, I'm not a feminist!" like it was the other F word (yeah, I knew you were wondering what the post title was on about). Actually I can't understand how it came about that it's considered a bad thing to say you're a feminist - by some women. Are they afraid the boys won't like them? "Thinking gives you wrinkles!"

...Sorry, this post is kind of going in six different directions at once. And here's another one. Since I've decided that fairytales are perfectly acceptable when we accept them as fantasies, wouldn't it be nice to see a fairytale in which the woman rescues the man from his wicked stepmother / life of drudgery / lack of hairdresser / centuries-long coma? Or would the gender reversal require a different type of "rescue"?

Your thoughts in the comments, please and thank you!

"I've been called a greasy thug, too. It never stops hurting. So here's what we're gonna do: We're gonna grease ourselves up real good..."

Warning #1: Heavily opinionated blog post ahead. This is my blog and I am allowed to express my opinion here. I am in no way forcing you to read it or agree with it.

Warning #2: Unlike my last two posts, this one has nothing to do with sweet treats! Sorry about that!

The other day I mentioned people who whine about political correctness.

I mean those people who bitch & moan like "Oh, now I have to watch what I say or the PC police will be after me."

In my opinion, the whole point of "political correctness" is to prevent people's feelings being hurt - inadvertently or otherwise. For example, perhaps you didn't know that a certain word or phrase was upsetting to someone from another culture. Political correctness seeks to provide people with terms they can use that are not upsetting.

I say "seeks to" because we all know there was a point where some of it became a bit crazy, like calling a short person "vertically challenged" (I'm short, and I have absolutely no problem with anyone calling me short. I don't find it offensive or belittling, and I'd be surprised to find anyone did). However, most of the really outlandish stuff was just people playing with the concept and poking a bit of fun at it.

But the reality is that there are a lot of words for a lot of things, and many words and phrases have history and layers of meaning that give them the power to hurt people even when spoken without the intent to hurt.

So to someone who complains about having to watch what they say because of political correctness, I would say - So you would rather hurt and upset people? Really? You hold your ability to tell your dumb bigoted jokes or whatever above the feelings of other people? Honestly, is what is being taken away from you so much more valuable than what it gives to others?

I mean I just don't get it. If I had been using some word or phrase that was upsetting to a whole bunch of people, I would rather know and have an alternative given me so I could stop upsetting them. Like saying "Native American" rather than "American Indian" because duh, they have nothing to do with India and that name comes from the fact that Columbus was a dumbass.

Everyone knows what it's like to be offended and upset and have their feelings hurt. So why are there people that are so desperate to hold onto their ability to blithely do it to others?