"That's So 'Gay'": Duke Students vs. Free Speech
Claire Healey writes at The College Fix:
A new word-discouragement campaign at Duke University has labeled phrases such as "Man Up," "That’s So Gay," and "Don’t Be a Pussy" offensive language that "delegitimizes" homosexuality and oppresses and insults people.
But as the campaign has gained national popularity, its detractors have bristled at the effort, calling it a politically correct war on words that will stifle free speech and suggesting its true aim is to redefine terms to control public opinion and -- ultimately -- public policy.
I am a proud user of the phrase "man up," but other words and phrases these students at Duke University wish to control are not part of my thinking or verbalizing.
Having said that, I wonder whether these students have thought through their position, for it seems rather easy to defend the uses of such language these days.
As I have shown elsewhere, the "tools with which to" defend such language "are available on the nightly news, college campus, and in the elite neighborhoods of secular America."
Related
Coulter on "Faggot" Easy to Defend
Memo to Conservatives: Accepting Homosex "Marriage" Opens Door to "Unlimited Statism"
Memo to Supreme Court: Who Respects the Human Body? Not Homosexuals
Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat
O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War
