[PREV - ORIGINALPC]    [TOP]

PCSOURCE

I'm sure it was reprinted in the _New York Times_,
but the first publication seems to be in
_Sinister Wisdom 28_, back in 1985.  The author
is Susanna J. Sturgis:
                                                 
            "Is this the new thing we're going to have to be
            politically correct about?"

              P.C.: politically correct.  I have two rubber
            stamps that I use indiscriminately on outgoing
            correspondence, one reading "politically
            correct," and the other (of course) "politically
            incorrect."  I do not like to believe that we
            are swayed, or even influenced, by prevailing
            dogmas.  I use "p.c." and "p.i." lightly,
            ironically, in jest.  For me "p.i." denotes
            independence and originality, and "p.c."
            suggests an absence of humor and a lack of
            flexibility.  Someone who is p.c. would probably
            not duck to get through a low doorway. 

              In her excellent essay "Traveling Fat,"[1]
            Elana Dykewomon describes her experiences as a
            fat poet-writer on the road giving readings.  At
            the request of reading organizers in one city,
            she prepared a brief statement on some fat
            liberation issues: she explained that the
            selling of diet drinks and the unavailability of
            t-shirts in multiple-X sizes made it unsafe for
            fat women to attend women's events.  When she
            made the statement at a reading in another city,
            the response that reached her, second hand, was,
            "Is this the new thing we're going to have to be
            p.c. about?" 

               Although this was presumably encountering fat
            liberation for the first time she was already
            dismissing it as "the new thing we're going to
            have to be p.c. about."  It is unlikely that she
            would then turn her critical attention to the
            essential feminist issues that fat activists
            have raised -- to , for instance, the diet
            industry, which uses billions of women's dollars
            to tell us that our bodies are not good enough.
            It is unlikely that she would bother to try to
            imagine what it is like to be perpetually too
            big for "standard" sizes, in feminist t-shirts
            as well as required-for-work clothes.  

               And I was chastened to realize that, though
            the fat liberation movement has deeply affected
            my life, I recognized myself in this woman.  I
            recognized her exasperation, since I have felt
            it too: oh, god, something else I'm supposed to
            feel guilty about and shut up about.  Reading
            Elana's essay, hearing over and over again that
            woman's response, convinced me once and for all
            that p.c./p.i. is more than a joke. 

            [1] In _Shadow on a Tightrope: Writings by Women
            on Fat Oppression, edited by Lisa Schoenfielder
            and Barb Wieser, Aunt Lute Book Co., 1983, pp.
            144-145
             


--------
[NEXT - FEMINISM]