Ten years ago, our daughter went on a trip to Oz with one of her best friends from school. It was not exactly a back-packing trip as they like their home comforts too much, but they did work hard and save up for the trip so they could be reasonably comfortable. When they got back, they said that they had had a great time, but found that Oz was a bit behind the times in terms of emancipation Basically, their report reinforced the old TV ad for Castlemaine 4X, you know the one: “Just another couple of crates and…oh yes, better add a half -bottle of sherry for the ladies!”
It seems times have changed a bit. Much of the following, but not all of it, was courtesy of various coach and taxi drivers, so maybe there is some hyperbole or plain untruths here, but I did get the same impression by talking around.
It seems that Oz is going politically correct. For example ,the Sydney Pink Mardi Gras parade is the third largest in the world, after Rio and New Orleans. Now, I wish to make it clear that I am in no way anti-homosexual, but I do wish they would stop mucking about with the English language. They have already ruined a perfectly good English word meaning happy or carefree, and now we are told that in Oz they are greeting each other as, “Are you family?” or “Are you a friend of Dorothy?”. I do not care if they denigrate the Wizard of Oz, as I always thought it was greatly overrated, but how dare they misuse the word “family”?
On the same lines, one thing we visited while in Oz was the Penguin Parade on Philip Island. Here small penguins spend all day at sea fishing and come back to shore at dusk to feed their chicks. They live in sand dunes some way away from the shore line, and can be seen in their hundreds as they emerge from the water and start shuffling up the beach. It is a spectacular sight. The breed of penguin are quite small and used to be known as the “Fairy Penguin”. Guess what, nowadays they have to be called the “Little Penguin”.
Another example of PC is the good old Aussie insult “You great galah!”, meaning “You nitwit/idiot!”. The galah is a breed of cockatoo that is noted for its somewhat daft behaviour, hence the insult, but nowadays, you are not allowed to call it that. You have to call if a Pink and Grey Cockatoo, thanks to the bleeding heart brigade speaking for the mentally disabled.
What chance is there of a sensible world if even the Aussies have gone politically correct?
Boadicea's Chariot 
It has struck me for a long time that so called Western societies have been on a death wish trip to immolate their own culture.
Quite why Has never been apparent.
But if any flotsam, jetsam, deviant bottom feeding creatures are to be found they must apparently be imbued with attributes far superior to those of any heterosexual WASP and instantly accommodated in every way.
As I no longer have a dog in the race of evolutionary genetics I don’t actually care on a personal level and can afford to live well away from all of it but why the rest of you put up with it God alone knows.
Non judgemental, my arse!
I’d hang them from the walls with piano wire.
CO: you don’t mash words, do you? Though you may mash mealy-mouthed PC types. Good on ya!
In San Francisco it has become so bad that a number of people in education are having to push people to state the bloody obvious because debate and discussion has become so inhibited. Guess who was the only one in my class who decided to say non-PC things?
FEEG: Confucius once said “when terms lose their meaning, the kingdom falls into chaos”. The fairy penguin was thus named because it resembled a fairy, whatever came out of it later one was of no consequence. Perhaps that is why I enjoy being around Asians so much. If they call something something they will keep calling it that thing no matter what anyone says.
FEEG – I am greatly enjoying your articles on, and around, your trip to Australia – please keep them coming. 🙂
Here are a few reactions from an Australian perspective –
Yes, we do have our fair share of left-wing luvvies and devotees of political correctness. To some extent, pc has replaced the earlier ‘cultural cringe’, and Paul Keating bears a significant responsibility; he famously described Australia as “a pimple on the backside of the world” which was tending towards becoming “a banana republic”. But it depends on where you are and what stratum of society you are interacting with.
The Sydney “gay and lesbian Mardi Gras” has been going for years, and Sydney is well known as the poofta capital of the southern hemisphere. Australia, however, is still known for its “poofta bashing”, a sport which is now not penalty-free but still widely practised. To the antipodean cognoscenti, the GLMG has become dated and irrelevant, relegated to the status of “quaint folk subculture for the tourists” and no longer taken very seriously.
While you are right about the demise of the Fairy Penguin (although many still use that term), it’s the first time I’ve heard of galahs not being called galahs. I suspect you have been misled (possibly ‘wound up’) – or, alternatively, the news has not yet percolated to the inhabitants of South Australia and Queensland. Try telling citizens of the Northern Territory not to call a spade a f***ing shovel – you will probably require attention from the paramedics. 🙂
By the way, the correct expression in Strine is “you bloody galah”. “Bloody” is not a swearword in Australia, our High Court ruled on this some time ago.
Your daughter had it right, although these days there will be a smile on the face of the lad who treats her as an accessory. 🙂
There is recently a strongish backlash against the wilder excesses of pc, which have grown worse under our Labor government, particularly so since Juliar [sic] came to power. A recent poll on the website of a national daily showed over 80% hostility towards one trenchant example.
😆
Beasry:
Thanks for your comments. As I said, it is always possible that some of what I heard was hyperbole or even complete porkies. As regards Northern Territories, I would not say that political correctness and bleeding heart interference has entirely passed them by. I like a nightcap of a straight Scotch. no ice or anything else, when on holiday. Imagine my surprise when I ordered one in a hotel bar in Ayers Rock only to be told that “Sorry, but because of the alcohol problem round here, it is NT law that spirits can only be sold on the rocks or with a mixer”. As if that would make any difference to a determined drinker! Doh!
Territory.
Things have obviously changed since we lived in Darwin. When we visited Uluru and Kata Tjuta, in the early 90s, we stayed at the ‘Sails in the Desert’ hotel at Yulara and, following our polite complaint about the restaurant service, we were served Crème de Menthe (for Boadicea) and Armagnac (for me), on the house, in half-pint tumblers, no ice, by a guy who was the spitting image of Paul Hogan. Those were the days!
There were no speed limits in the Top End back then, either. 😀
The gronks trying to change our lingo have a better chance of getting a headless chook to piss on a fire. But it is true bout the shirt-lifters with their gender-bending dribble words, giving our slang a bit of shake. 😦
🙂
Bearsy: Same hotel, different rules 🙂