Friday, May 9, 2008

style and "p.c."

over at The Moment, style editor Sandra Ballentine responds to a complaint regarding a layout featuring fur: "[...] I can’t profess to be anti-fur. It would be hypocritical to do so, as I own clothing that incorporates fur, and sometimes we feature it in the pages of T. I also don’t think it’s necessarily part of my job as a style editor to be politically correct" (emphasis mine).

first of all, the strange uses of the term "politically correct" . . . the dismissive moves, as though "p.c." concerns were so trivial as to be irrelevant, have always bothered me, but this is what happens when we sloganize important cultural work. still.

but so, a *style* editor -- someone who manages popular information flows (@ The NY Times) of mass communication -- does not see political correctness as "part of her job"? maybe it's part of your humane calling? but . . . oh right, it's *just* a job; i see this attitude a lot, and it's distressing. it's like saying, "it is what it is" (such a dumb, silencing expression; it says, "pleeeeeezzze take your issues somewhere else").

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