“Hey You, Midget!”

“Hey You, Midget!”

I’m a writer and, as such, it may be expected that I would have much to say on the subject of words.  This is my second post regarding words. If you’ve followed my previous posts you may remember that I wrote about the power of words and the importance in choosing them carefully when interacting with our families, friends, colleagues and complete strangers. Choosing words with kindness is important and it may, in fact, be one of the most important things we can do on a daily basis to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. That being said, today’s post may appear to deviate greatly from this belief of mine and, in reading it, one may think me hypocritical. I want to say upfront, that the language I use in my daily life may differ vastly from the language I use in my creative writing. Writing is an art. Words are the tools of that art. So, when I am using words artistically, there are no words that are off limits.  I just wanted to make that statement and get it out of the way. I suspect this topic may offend a few people—although there’s no reason it should. If at any time you start to feel yourself becoming offended, I invite you to reread this first paragraph, in which the summation of it is this: the language of communication should often be different from the language of art.

Okay, moving on. Today’s sermon on words will focus on their political correctness.

Ughhh!

I hear you! What a tiresome concept, am I right? These days folks of all walks of life just make a hobby of being offended. And who can blame them? After all, isn’t it fun to feel victimized? Or, better yet, be the hero’s voice for a victimized group? But my point in writing this isn’t to editorialize society and its propensity to get butthurt at every opportunity. My point is to say that individual words are not the true source of offended feelings. It’s the intent and the behavior of the speaker or writer of the words that is truly offensive. Let’s not punish innocent words.

I am a member of several online writing groups and, I swear, at least once daily I see a question posted along the lines of, “Is it okay to use (insert objectionable word here) in my story? Will people get offended?” Should I choose to respond to this post, my first questions to them would be, “Are you writing a children’s book? How about a professional ad campaign? How about a speech for a local politician you support?” Because in those instances a little political correctness is warranted. And if I was feeling especially saucy that day, I might also ask them if they consider themselves to be artists or professional panderers. What can I say? Sometimes I’m a dick. But if they’re writing creative fiction…well then, it’s balls to the walls, motherfucker! What in the hell is stopping you from using any word? Some invisible person or group’s sense of indecency? If you’re going to write creative fiction, why hobble yourself with a limited vocabulary for the fear of offending someone especially in an age where everyone is offended all day long. If they are not offended for their own sake, they are offended on behalf of the entire fucking world. Good for them, I say! (Haha, you caught me…I don’t really say that!) What I do say is this: if you’re not offending someone, you’re not doing it right!

 Hell, there were people who managed to be offended by Mr. Rogers!

For those who don’t know me (and that’s most of you), I can tell you that I’m a very liberal-minded person and as I mentioned earlier, I am also a writer. Theoretically, this could create something of a disconnect with me because while I truly don’t wish to offend anyone, let me make this clear: there will never be a word that’s off limits to me, I will never censor myself artistically. These include newly disgraced words such as “midget” or “retarded” as well as the classics like “cunt” or “nigger”. (GASP, OMG, did she really write that word, you know the “N” word? Yes. Yes, she did.)

A rose by any other name.

And I will continue to write them whenever they serve a purpose. Now pay attention because that was an important point. The words must serve a purpose. Otherwise, they are just gratuitous, crass and inflammatory.  And I never wish to be inflammatory if it serves no greater purpose. Sometimes we need to be offensive and we also need to feel offended. Because, this is an offensive world we live in and it’s alright for an artist to draw attention to it.

As a source of personal pride, I consider myself to be one of the least judgmental people I’ve ever met. And I believe it’s a fail-proof prediction that there will never be a day where I’ll be walking around calling people midgets or faggots or niggers. It’s just not in my wheelhouse, ya dig? Those are powerful and ugly words. And always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, words are a more accurate reflection of the speaker than of those they are spoken about. So, while I know these words will never filter into my day to day language, I won’t hesitate to use them if they are needed to express a point—for example: using the words in this very blog post you’re reading right now. You know, to make a point.

For the sake of cementing said point, I’m going to arbitrarily select a group to pick on. This group will be midgets.  Historically speaking, little people have been called by many names: midgets, dwarves, imps are just a few names that come to mind. At different periods of time, one word would fall from grace and be replaced by a more sensitive word. Then, that word would also be replaced and so on and so on. It’s only a matter of time before ‘little person’ becomes unacceptable as well. Why? Because it is a phrase like the other words that preceded it, which serves to identify. They are words that compartmentalize, marginalize and serve to isolate an individual or group of individuals from the whole of society. But here’s the rub, any word could stand in its place and accomplish this goal. Any. Word. At. All.

Let me show you what I mean.

Let’s say I’m walking down the street and on the other side of the street is a little person walking in my direction. When this person gets close enough, I yell in hostile tone, “Hey you, midget!” The result is that the person is rightfully offended. Now let’s substitute a word and see what happens. Let’s say, in the same hostile voice, I instead yell, “Hey you, tuna casserole!” I hypothesize that the person will still be offended…and perhaps a little confused and in a quick hurry to get away from the crazy white woman. And I’m not advocating for changing the terminology from “little people” to “tuna casseroles.” Although, I must admit, the thought of it does make me chuckle. I’m just imagining a whole little tribe of tuna casseroles protesting on my front lawn. Ahhh, shit….give me a minute to collect myself. Okay, okay, what I’m trying to say is that what was offensive in both those scenarios was my theoretical behavior…not the words. It’s not the word that offends us but rather the action of being identified as someone different. Maybe we should be offended by the behavior that serves to isolate rather than any arbitrary word.

(Inserting random thought: now I’m wondering how many times I’ve used the word, ‘word’ in this post. My editor will pitch a fit.)

Okay, I have one final thought on this subject. I will try to be brief but you may have come to realize that brevity is not my forte.

There is a side of me that actually admires some of these folks who are getting offended and picking up their torches and pitchforks and storming the castles with their outrage. It gives me hope that our society is not completely zombified yet. I just wish that we, as a society, could focus our outrage on things that mattered more. There’s some really outrageous shit going on in the world. Personally, I don’t have much hope for future generations if we don’t unglue our eyes from our phones and start taking a good hard look around. Our outrage would be much better served on more worthy causes.

Sorry, I seem to have deviated onto a tangent of social commentary.  I shall save these thoughts for another day.

til next time

Maxie out

P.S. For those who are interested, ‘word’ appears thirty-six times in this post.