DrCloud

Something that bubbled up (heh, heh) in the Thanksgiving thread tweaked a memory, and, rather that respond there with what, based on the "What do you want Vintage to be?" thread, would require a "Tangent Warning" preface, I thought I'd start anew:

While it's our generation (loosely, the Boomers) who have mainstreamed political correctness, I think it was started by our parents. I suppose it could logically be traced back to the Victorians, but I remember two instances where I can blame it on the Greatest Generation.

In the menu discussion of side-dishes, an old ditty arose:

,

which I remember had a second rhyme:

I first heard this as a child in some adult-supervised group activity (Boy Scouts? Church Camp?). It was only later that the alternative, and probably original, version that starts with "Bean, beans, good for the heart" came to my attention.

Similarly, and I think this was via Church Camp, where we sang a lot, there was

Being a literal child, I never did quite get out the shoulder thing, until I heard the original, which may have derived from boot camp in the WWII Women's Army Corps, or something. It concerns other anatomy.

So it was the Greatest Generation who really invented political correctness, at least in my world. I wonder what other such sanitized versions of popular doggerel I grew up with. HPH

fltsfshr

I don't think greatest generation invented it, I think was shaped by history around them. The great depression, a war where millions were killed, large veterans contingents, the threat of communism, socialism and nuclear war all contributed. Most of the country was still united in a close political arena. Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower weren't that far apart on anything.

The split that began with Rosa Parks evolved through both parties and their leadership. The draft was mandatory. Vietnam evolved. The Unions began to fall.
Technology exploded. Women began to enter the workforce.

In the end though blame Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, Jack Keroac, and ROck and rOLL. They scared the hell out of our parents. .

fltsfshr

ralper

Started much earlier. The 1920s, prohibition, the jazz age, the flappers, the automobile and the telephone. What Lenny Bruce, Dylan, Keroac and rock and roll did to our parents, the 1920s did to our grandparents and great grandparents.

DrCloud

I suppose, really, PC was phased in over a long period of time. My examples are sort of post-Victorian PC in which body parts and so on are taboo. Other forms have evolved since.

For example, I grew up with the "Eeenie, meanie, miney, Moe..." thing, and it wasn't about tigers. There was, however, a popular childrens book about tigers entitled "Little Black Sambo" (which I grew up thinking was about India, as there are no tigers in Africa). Neither of those is socially acceptable now. HPH

fltsfshr

Little Black Sambo is a great kids book. MMM pancakes. Too bad it didn't stand the PC test. Neither did Mark Twain and lots of other authors condemned for using the language of their time.

I'm sure that form of cultural censor has been around since the dead sea scrolls. . Matter of fact, isn't it still be applied to the dead sea scrolls.

Just to meander for a second.....did vintage spread into the US congress last night? I heard some of the quotes. Is this a synchronistic event? Boy they really play nasty.

Look what happened to Brazil they named a nut after them in the name of PC. We can't catch Jewfish anymore only goliath grouper.

Is PC generated by the evolution of language in our society? If so are we truly victims of the "great wasteland" of media. Is this the essence of the pen is mightier than the sword.

On another note. I'm in the path of another damn soon to be hurricane.

fltsfshr

fltsfshr

Legal Bill

I question whether the sanitization of the descriptions of bodily functions or secondary sex organs is really the same as political correctness. PC seeks to modify or delete previously "accepted" language which is now deemed to be hurtful. (Yes, I know not everyone accepted everything that is now deemed to be incorrect by the PC police, but I don't have time to write a dissertation on this.) The "vulgar" references to gas and anatomy were rejected long before our parents were born as impolite, especially in "mixed company" and around children. It was really more of a chauvinist standard. That standard seems to have been eroded.

I'm not a student of the subject, but I seem to remember something about the Victorian era. Maybe someone here with a better knowledge of the history of western culture can provide better info, but I don't think it starts with the boomers or their parents.

valentine

There was no political correctness taught by my forebears. Your little toot versions of the bean poem went this way in my area:

beans, beans, good for the heart
the more you eat
the more you fart

No pc there -- no toots, just plain old gas.

ralper

That's how my father and his army buddys used to sing it too.

paS2K

The was a piece on our local Public TV station last night that touched on PC. Marty Moss-Coane was interviewing Doug Massey, author of a book entitled "Return of the 'L' word" L= LIBERAL

This leftwing author opined that the liberals made a big mistake by making such a big deal out of Political Correctness. In his opinion, it was started in the mid-70s as a follow-up to the initial Great Society and Civil Rights Act. The academic world took up the flag of PCness and ran it right into the ground. There were huge hidden costs and conflicts with unions, etc. Class issues were a blind spot to liberals in the 70's, he says.

LINK to the interview; click on the Radio Times topic; enter ARCHIVES: 5/9/05 or SEARCH for 'L word'

This leftwing person tends to agree. What do you think

DiamondDave2005

Legal Bill is correct - the Victorian era was probably the first to be known for its 'prim and proper' behavior. I'm pretty sure they invented those chair covers (now making a come-back) that cover up the chair legs. Legs were meant to be used, not seen!