I am not sure what to say any more. (Is it politically correct to start a blog post like that?)

Sure, I am all for the label-bashing (girl?boy? human? pfft) but sometimes I get plain confused when I say something and someone tells me, “That’s not politically correct any more”. Bewildered, I look at the ceiling a while and then say, “It was, until a few months ago, yes?”

Yeah, but not any more. (Well then honestly, I didn’t get my last edition of the “Label Basher Weekly”. It must have been lost in the mail, or wait should that be post?) Because, “mail” is just too, you know…’sexist’, phonetically speaking.

I studied some social anthropology back in high school, and last year I am told that the word “tribal” is politically incorrect. Though apparently and I can’t stress the world-shattering practical relevance of this enough, “Many anthropology scholars are still in disagreement about this.”

Oh good, let’s wait with bated breath.

I am glad that some labels have been done away with, the actor-actress/ poet-poetess business one, for example. Humankind is another one, I am pleased with. Then again, it’s all rather capricious, isn’t it? One fine day, it might do a 360 again.

One of the latest updates is hilarious though, and I don’t know which side I am on. It’s politically incorrect to say ‘husband-wife-boyfriend-girlfriend’. You must say ‘partner’ and make it more gender-equal. Now, the funny thing is, I am one of those repressed souls who inwardly cringe when having to use ‘girlfriend’ or boyfriend’. (Maybe I am dead inside) That however, is my general awkwardness in human relationships in general and nothing to do with my ‘girl power, yeaaah’ ideals.

So for me, having to call my er,argh, eek ‘boyfriend’ as ‘partner’ is the best damn thing. But seriously, ‘partner’? I am not sure, isn’t it a little cold and well, business-like for the general thinking-feeling-warm and fuzzy human populace? All for being part of the ‘cool, we don’t need no gender’ kids? Maybe I would have more faith if I knew that there was no possibility that ‘partner’ could phase out in the not-so-distant future to make way for yet another acceptable label.

Oh, I forgot. We don’t do labels, right?

So what is it for you? ‘Partner’? Girlfriend? Husband? Wife? Boyfriend?

(Note how I evenly positioned the labels above to make sure that both the sexes were getting equal placement.)

Related article:

Being Politically Correct: Are Ethnic Groups called Tribes or Nations?