Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)
STUDIES - András Tarnóc: "Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" Reflections of Political Correctness in a Distorted Mirror.
intervene to save the young girl from being devoured by the wolf is slain by the grandmother. This tale provides excellent examples of language revisionism, the purported elimination of all terms reflecting any type of bias or discrimination from the English lan-guage. The first line reads: "There was a young person named little Red Riding Hood." In order to deflect the charge of sexism, as the term "girl" carries a somewhat demeaning connotation when applied to grown women, the author opted for the valueneutral form. His choice demonstrates the futility of PC's oversensitivity because the protagonist is really a minor who, being addressed as a "girl," would not suffer any discrimination. Garner, at the same time, ridicules the position of "non-sexist language authorities" who regard the term "girl" unacceptable for any female past puberty (Beard 91). This girl is asked by her mother to take a basket of fresh fruit and mineral water to her grandmother. The contents of the basket in the original story were a piece of cake and a bottle of wine to be substituted here by the above-mentioned items for in the health-conscious 90's pastry and alcohol are deemed health hazards. LRRH's basket also reflects Garner's frustration over the increasing politicization of the American identity, as according to Jerry Adlen "In America ... everyone's identity is politicized —not just in terms of race, ethnicity religion and language ... but also gender, sexual behavior, age, clothing, diet and personal habits" (Adler 30). The author employs the term "womyn" for "women" in his effort to avoid the use of the gender-specific "man" suffix. Undoubtedly, thanks to the advances of PC, the "man" suffix is the most endangered element of the English language. According to Saussure one's knowledge of this world is dependent upon the language that serves to represent it (Norris 4). Thus a language full of sexist, racist and ethnocentrist terms would contribute to the entrenchment of a sexist, racist and ethnocentrist society. In like fashion George Orwell argued that language was a mirror of existing social conditions, and the elimination of undesirable words led to the improvement of those conditions. Following this line of reasoning, the elimination of the remnants of sexism from language would lead to a bias134
