Nipplegate? No.
But i do feel that we lose a little every time “society” decides that some topics - like teenage sexuality, racism, sexism, drugs, abortion - are too sensitive to be tackled seriously on TV or in movies unless the plot follows society’s conventions.
To take a more trivial case, while the war on christmas is manufactured nonsense, I regret the wholescale replacement of sacred music at christmas with dross like frosty the snowman.
We know that the happy middle ground is reached because NObody is happy. 
I forget who said it, but I recall reading an article that mentioned political correctness started dying the moment the phrase ‘politically correct’ became common. That’s the point where people could attack the overall idea PC without having to get into the specifics of the situation. Taking a stand and saying a racist bastard should be able to yell ‘nigger nigger nigger nigger’ on TV? That’s a losing argument and even many non-PC people don’t think he should have that right. Taking a stand against an attempt to enforce values on others, censorship, and so on? That’s an argument people can agree with and after a couple decades of arguing, PC has taken a real hit in the general public’s mind.
As for my own position, I’m non-PC enough that I actually would argue the racist bastard has a right to spam nigger so often people think he has tourettes syndrome, even as I knew I couldn’t win that fight.
Just for the record, nipplegate was a horrible moment in decency. Not because there was a nipple though, but rather that it was Janet Jackson’s nipple. I like boobs as much as the next guy, but I don’t want to see old woman fake titties on TV.
More accurately, it’s about a small group of people attempting to speak for society on what should be acceptable or unacceptable.
I’m not really sure what ‘politically correct’ means.
Does it mean listening to and appreciating others values/opinions/ideas without judgment?
I think it means censoring your speech to avoid offending someone.
I expect that much of the controversy around political correctness arises from two sources:
I think it’s the second source that causes most of the trouble though. There is a wide swathe at one end of the spectrum where many of us think “Oh! Come on! I can see why you don’t like this but… offended?”
Three year olds in burlesque? Not exact, but has anyone watched Little Miss Sunshine? And while it has been fourteen years since the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, the odd “beauty contests” in which she was featured continue without hindrance from the authorities or a lack of audience.
Politically Correct? Typically attributed to Left Wing politics and attitudes, yet it was the Bush Administration’s control of the FCC that established the policy of threatening to shut down or severely fine “offenders” of “community standards” while coyly refusing to state what would be deemed objectionable (so that a lot of stuff was suppressed by fearful authors and producers in broadcast media–which was pretty much the intent of that move).
On the other hand, there was the idiotic phenomenon of the Penn State “Water Buffalo” affair and the trashing of the rights of Eden Jacobowitz in an effort that clearly originated on and was supported by the Left.
The use of the phrase “politically correct” in its current existence is about 40 years old, but the actions it suggests have been around probably as long as humans.
Hollywood lived under the Hays Code for 38 years. (Heck, Plato argued for strict censorship of the arts in his Republic.)
Where does it come from? The human desire to control behavior by controlling thought, with the corollary that one can shape and control thought if one can control the expression of language. (Orwell made the most explicit case for that belief in1984, but there are plenty of examples of that belief littering human history.)
How do we stop it? Eradicate humanity. (Not a proposition I support, but the only effective one to eliminate the perceived problem.)
How do we address it? Refrain from getting too shook up when we encounter “offensive” speech or art; teach our children to be tolerant; communicate with our elected officials, supporting tolerance and opposing intolerance.
We won’t win the war, (too many people on “our side” of any specific discussion will still support censorship, either employing laws or by supporting various forms of social control involing shame or embarrassment), but we can pass on the fight to another generation.
There are far more people who are pissed off by the *idea *that someone somewhere *might *be offended by hearing “Merry Christmas” than there are people who are actually offended by hearing “Merry Christmas”.
“Political correctness” is largely the creation of a right-wing media machine that wants to paint the left as out of touch and repressive. It’s a useful bogeyman for keeping the troops whipped up.
Just thought I’d point out PC stupidity in action, here, in this thread.
You mean the thread where the fact that the rapist is Muslim is somehow significant, but the fact that the prosecutors, judges, and human rights activists are Muslim isn’t?
That was at UPenn, not Penn State.
Sorry. Going by flawed memory; I think I got the name calling and the victim’s name right.
To understand what politically correct means, look at the terms. You’ve got a modification of correct, implying being incorrect, and you’ve got political, meaning having to do with politics. So a politically correct statement is a lie a politician might tell to appease people.
So for someone to admit to being politically correct, they’d have to be admitting to lying to make other people like them. Why would you do that?
I hope that made sense. My brain feel fried.
The whole PC thing is tied in to the US courts-it has become possible to sue for damages, for very trivial issues. Lawyers have been quick to realize the huge money to be made in such lawsuits-which is why everybody is careful to avoid stating the truth about anything. You want to hire a college graduate? be careful that you ever include any kind of test for competence-if you test an individula of the wrong ethnic group, you may be hit with a costly discrimination lawsuit.
Someone tells an off-color joke? Be prepared for a lawsuit-with damages.
Fail to inform somebody about the terms and conditions-another lawsuit coming.
This will only stop when some common sense is observed.
PC died when Fox came on TV. They will say anything they want as unfairly and nasty as possible to activate their followers. They suffer from creeping Ann Colterism. She has no brakes at all . They have followed suit.
Yes a couple leftys have followed suit. But far less in number and vitriol. And with a smaller stage.
OMG, I agree with something you said!
Wait, are we really mourning the loss of blackface performance and making racist jokes in public?
I think “PC” starting coming in vogue when the opinions of black people, women, etc. stopped being entirely irrelevant. Being on the bad end of a racist joke sucks, and we are better off without them. If your racist joke is really that funny, then how hard is it to find a place where you can tell it where you know you won’t be hurting someone?
Places like SD make it impossible to have a debate because pussies everywhere start crying when someone calls a spade a spade. Pardon the pun.
I can only assume it was the Stonecutters.
Dude: See, the joke is funny because it says Mexicans are lazy. Haw Haw Haw.
Mexican Dude: Uh, I don’t really think that’s very funny.
Dude: I’m just calling a spade a spade.
Mexican Dude: I’m a lawyer who works 60 hours a week. Mexicans are not inherently lazy, and your ‘joke’ is kind of needlessly hurtful. The kids at school call my eight year old son a “Lazy wetback” thanks to bullshit like that, and it makes him pretty upset.
Dude: Stop being such a pussy!