When I read "Too much change in the Navy" in this morning's Virginian-Pilot letters to the editor, that's all it took to light me off on the subject of political correctness. The writer was talking about how the Navy has decided to fix its ratings and titles to reflect a genderless force, e.g., airbeings, seabeings and firebeings, instead of the airmen, seamen and firemen.
Did you ever hear of such a load of B.S.? And I'm not the only one who thinks of political correctness in such a light, either. I was reading a piece by the editor of a sporting journal this morning, who began his article by talking about how he loathed the trendy bastardization of our language with words like "spokesperson." While editor of a large daily newspaper, as he was at the time, he once instructed his desk editors, "Spokesman is perfectly acceptable. Webster's definition plainly states that a spokesman is a person who speaks for another. We will avoid the use of spokesperson as long as we possibly can."
When he grew tired of fighting "city hall" on this matter, he took up outdoor writing... and got "as far away as I could from spokesperson." Now, though, he's battling a new politically correct, gender-neutral abomination that's infiltrating the sportsman's vocabulary. "If you hadn't noticed," he said, "'fisher' has become the cutting-edge standard now and has replaced that once-comfortable and timeless old word 'fisherman.'"
"Why is this change necessary?" he wants to know, when Webster defines "man" as a human being and "fisherman" as a person who fishes. However, Webster also now defines "fisher" as a person who fishes. And, there are definitions for "outdoorswoman" and "sportswoman" but not for "fisherwoman," all of which only points out how convoluted things are getting.
One of America's most famous females who fly fishes is Joan Wulff, wife of the late-Lee Wulff. She eschews "fisher" and likes to be called a fly fisherman, thank you very much.
"But don't be fooled by the traditional girly look," said one writer. "Collins may have the face and physique of a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue cover girl, but she could well aspire to grace the cover of Sport Fishing Magazine."
The writer went on to note that Collins, a Fort Lauderdale resident, is no novice. "She's been hooked on fishing since she barely was old enough to handle a pole," he said. "At the tender age of three, she already was learning the difference between crankbaits and jigs.
"And she's in the 'big boys' league in the fishing world. Collins already has landed a personal best nine-and-a-half-pound bass," the writer concluded.
As the sports-journal editor I referenced earlier noted, "Competitive bass anglers wouldn't be caught dead calling themselves bass fishers, would they? What about youngsters who dunk worms off bridges? Are they fishers?"
Incidentally, everything that appears in that sports journal still uses the word "fisherman," instead of "fisher." The editor admits, however, that he "can feel the steam roller rumbling off in the distance. Inevitably, 'fisher' will prevail. 'Fisherman,' one of my favorite words, will go the way of so many other perfectly useful words that are now just a memory."
As for me, however, specifically as it relates to this blog, I make no such admissions about political correctness... now or ever. I only promise to always try and keep my language clean.
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