30 Oct
2015
30 Oct
'15
3:01 p.m.
I am NOT "progressive". It is another loaded term in my opinion. To assume
most of the (silent) people on this list serv are progressive is...........probably
true!
I am sensitive to people's dignity and would not intentionally offend anyone. I find
the Gypsie issue troubling but do not have a solution. Create another CallerLab to
standardize terms and meanings? probably not.
All that said I agree with everything George says.
I wanted to emphasize the point George makes on the terms Gents & Ladies. Those terms
"print" in the hearer's ear (harder consonants). When you have music and
distractions on the dance floor you can lose the "WO" of women and it can be
confusing. Even in the "all position terms" these print the best on the dance
floor in my experience.
Cheers! -Joe (Independent in Seattle)
On Oct 30, 2015, at 11:50 AM, George Mercer via Callers wrote:
I am a free speech kind of guy and about as
progressive as they come. Political correctness is a loaded term that I avoid at almost
all costs. There is no constitutional provision to claim a right to not be offended.
Neither should there be one. The world and life are just to complex and complicated for
that.
Having said that, I'll add that it is wise to remember that it is better to be nice
than it is to be not nice; it is better to encourage people to be nice rather than not
nice; it is better to create and enhance an environment where people will want to be nice
and not be not nice. That's human kindness, thoughtfulness and making the world
better, not politics or language manipulation.
The discussion has been interesting and, for me, profitable, so I'll leave it with
this. I will continue to use the "g" word as necessary while at the same time
endeavoring to find good workable (for me and others) alternatives. I will continue to
use "allemande" until such time as I may have to change, I prefer it to
"turn," which in dancing can have a whole different and therefore confusing
meaning. I liked the reference to "gents and ladies" being class-based terms.
They are and, as someone who has spoken out upon hearing someone say, "He is a classy
person" or "she did that with class" I have thought long and hard about the
usage in contra dancing. Still I prefer them to "men and women" which for me is
clumsy and on the dance floor sound very similar. While I use active and inactive on my
dance cards, I rarely use them when instructing or calling, I find them even clumsier.
Lead and follow are also rarely functional. So until I find something better, "Gents
and ladies" it is. The terms are indeed class-based, but other words are
religion-based, or ethnic-discrimination-based, even ageism-based and sexism-based.
Language is kind of that way. And English is confusing and cluttered enough without making
more rules. Clarity appears to me to be all important. For that matter, the same thing
applies to numbering couples of neighbors #1, 2, 3, etc. They can be problematic and
vaguely imply status, but for the moment they're what I've got. If you want to get
into it even proper and improper can have issues. In the mean time, I'd rather dance
than call -- at least until the body gives out -- so much of this is just theory for me.
Lets keep working on it and discussing it as friends Thanks, George Mercer