Reaction to "The Word Police" 3/5/2017

  In "The Word Police" Michiko Kakutani analyzes the way politically correctness has changed language. Despite the fact that the article is from 1993, it is surprisingly relevant still. It addresses words that may be considered offensive based on race and gender. Throughout the article Katunani makes fun of Rosalie Maggio's " Bias-Free Word Finder". In her dictionary Maggio chastises the use of "male-oriented words" like "fellow" and encourages gender-free terms, like "waitron". Even though Maggio's intentions were pure, Katunani was correct when she said that making words prettier won't fix the problems they describe. This article made many valid points about how political correctness would rid the world of individualism, and freedom of speech but it also raised various questions about offensive terms. For example, who might need to follow Maggio's guidelines? And can once offensive words be reclaimed?