A few more words on political correctness

In the darkness, place a studio light behind your model. You will get a silhouette like this one. Fill it up with whatever you like.

spirit of rocks

You can try different ideas, tell a different story.

spirit of dusk

I have a light personality, it is why I am not interested in doing dark, creepy photography even though it is more popular, marketable and straightforward. Even in the darkness there is light if you choose the light.

cave spirit

In my previous blog post on this topic, there is a portrait of a young girl.  It is an old portrait – now the girl is happily married, with a family.  At that time, at the age of fifteen, she had already lost her mother, and had been through trials that would have broken many grown up people. I call her ‘survivor’. She is beautiful inside and out, sweet soul, but she is also as tough as a rock. Life has tossed some opportunities her way, and she never missed one. Smart, hard working, young woman of integrity, she has built her life only relying on her own decisions. A very young mother, she has a child with disability.  Life isn’t getting any easier, but it is a busy and happy life anyway. We can decide how to feel about our life.

I know that not everyone can be as strong as this young woman, but many people just have to be strong. Last night I met an acquaintance, a former refugee from Syria, now an Irish citizen, a respectable family man and community member, fully assimilated into society. Life isn’t easy, but he is getting there, with a smile and good cheer. He would wave away any ‘political correctness’ like an annoying fly.

These two people who had a bad start in life used all the help they could get and built their new life from scratch. They never demanded a special treatment.

The government institutions can help you with material things. Your moral value is your own.  Compassion, tact, care, gratitude cannot be enforced.

Political correctness hurts both the sender and the receiver. It is a distrust, a doubt, a fear that keeps us from doing our best when we communicate with others. It is a myth of a Total truth that makes people reluctant to speak the Necessary Truth! Instead of reaching to each other, people avoid each other.

Now tell me – are these normal human relationships?

Political correctness is invented to hide the lack of moral value. Don’t take that bait, don’t swallow that poison. You have been manipulated, and your CHOICE of being a better person is stolen. I would say, this is a glimpse of the Zombie Apocalypse – people stripped of their identity and free will.

Growing up in the Eastern Block, I remember the term “political correctness” too well, and I know where it is leading.

Here are some unsolicited advice – partly photography-related 🙂

  1. Don’t stay in the darkness if you don’t want someone else to sneak into your head and stuff it up with labels, slogans and ready-made recipes. Don’t be a silly puppet.
  2. Live today. Learn from the past but don’t go back there. If the only light you have got is coming from behind, read #1.

Have a wonderful weekend!

115 comments

  1. In certain jobs or positions you have to toe the “party line” or suffer the consequences, although hopefully in one’s personal life that’s not the case. I love the advice and the images. I can see some of them or some using the same technique making great book covers. Must talk to you about that at some point…:)

    1. Thank you Olga! Yes, I feel especially sorry for medical professionals and teachers. Some people just look for extra cash suing others. I know how the system works – I grew up in the Eastern Block.
      Glad you like the pictures 🙂 xxxx

  2. What a smart lady you are in every way. And you talk of other people’s experiences while brushing over your own with great skill. Your photographs are amazing yet again, your words are so true. Take a bow lady!! (I hope…this being such a PC world, I can call you lady. LOL)

    1. Haha, it is a PC-free blog 😉 Thank you so much for your kindest comment!
      Another day I was very upset to realise that i didn’t feel comfortable talking to a certain person. Some sort of paranoia. Good I know a cure – I will stay away from reading news and unhealthy articles for a couple of weeks. xxxx

      1. Honey, you can aye feel ok talking to me cos we all need refuges I am the most non pc person I know AND that is saying a lot when I consider those I know !

  4. This was an interesting post. I was fascinated at how you tied the art of photography together with political correctness. I have thought about how shallow it is to be politically correct but I have thought about how much it separates people.

    1. Thank you so much for your comment! People are afraid, they prefer to stay away from each other because they don’t know what the other person has in mind. I am especially sorry for teachers and medical professionals.

  13. You are not only an accomplished photographer, but also a woman of wise words. I love how you took a practical application and turned it into philosophical truth. I guess there is no cure for PC except to eschew it in one’s own life, at least. As a person who deals in images, you know the huge role that illusion plays in human life, and how difficult it is to see, really see, the actual, for most of us; so much of perception is wishful thinking. Thanks for two great posts on the subject!

    1. Thank you so much for your comment, Cynthia. Growing up in the Eastern Europe freed me from illusions long before I started doing photography 🙂 You are so right, it is very difficult to see the hidden lie. I just hope that it exposes itself before it is too late. Thank you again for sharing your insight!

  14. The silhouette photos are beautiful, Inese. I like the way they frame another picture and yet have that fringe of their own light. I wish some people (Donald Trump) were more “correct,” politically or otherwise 🙂

    1. Exactly! Being ‘correct’ is the least we can ask from him 🙂 I feel sorry for the people who are so desperate that they support him. It only indicates that your country has problems.

    1. Thank you so much for stopping by, Gulara! These are not really words of wisdom. I am simply very sad that people are manipulated and so easily deceived. Concept of political correctness is not new. It is a recycled tool of dividing and silencing. When we are divided, we are easy to control.
      Thank you again for stopping by!

  19. Well said Inese — throughout this lovely post. I especially liked your words about light and dark. So true.
    I for one am sick and tired of all the “PC” stuff. Here you can’t even call something by it’s legitimate name without offending. Sorry, but that’s taking it too far.
    I very much enjoyed this collection of photo art. The one with the Mohawk is delightful! This technique really stimulates the sense of sight. (I’m doing a mini-series about the 5 senses, launching tomorrow. But mine begins with “hearing.” If you have photo posts relating to a particular sense, feel free to let me know and I’ll link to them, along with a shout-out.) Mega hugs!

    1. Thank you so much for you comment, Teagan! It hurts me to see all these crippled relationships between people. It is insane.
      I will check out if I have any pictures. Thank you so much! Many Hugs!!!!!

  20. That’s an important message, Inese, made all the more powerful because of the clever way you presented the idea.

    I don’t think my head is being stuffed full of labels and slogans, but I’m not entirely sure, and I must admit the possibility makes me a little uneasy.

        1. I don’t even have a bag to hide under… But it is a very painful topic for many reasons, and I have made my statement as light as I could… I am feeling very uneasy too.

          1. I may be putting two and two together and making five, Inese, but I took what you mentioned earlier to mean that you have bitter experience of living in a place where people were strongly conditioned into thinking in officially sanctioned ways.

            In my life up to now, I’ve never really experienced that kind of pressure. I hope very much never to have to experience it in the future either. I like having the freedom to make up my own mind about things.

            1. That’s right, but my family were different. Regime didn’t succeed in washing our brains. That’s a long story, but what I want to say is that ‘political correctness’ is a tool for oppression and control. I wish people were not that naive.

              1. All I can really say is that I hope people avoid naivety too. I do my best to try, but I’m not sure that I always succeed. I feel I have been hoodwinked from time to time in the past. With luck, I may have become a bit more warier for the experience, though.

                1. I was talking with a man another day, and noticed that I was ‘watching my language’ too carefully. After pondering on that all the evening,
                  i came to conclusion that I got the ‘political correctness’ virus. It is why I decided to write and speak it out. (I am not even smiling when I write this)

                2. I guess it would depend on the exact situation for me. I like to think of myself as pretty open-minded, and I enjoy a robust discussion about politics, religion or philosophy as much as anyone. I don’t expect or need the world to agree with me about everything.

                  On the other hand, I have still sometimes been accused of political correctness. The term simply means different things to different people, which is why I dislike and distrust it.

                  For example, I’ve been accused before of being politically correct because I did not take kindly to what I thought were some very mean jokes about disability. I was told that a) I have no sense of humor, and b) I was forcing other people to watch their words and not giving them the freedom to say what they wanted.

                  I’m afraid I don’t really see it that way. My father is disabled and I have known a number of other disabled people in my time. Certain kinds of joke are hurtful and cruel. I feel people have a perfect right to make derogatory jokes if they want to — that’s part of free speech — but I also feel that I have a perfect right to question, challenge or even be offended by what they say.

                  I’m not sure whether or not my attitude qualifies as political correctness. What I would say is that other people are being unreasonable if they insist that I should never be offended by anything they say, no matter what it is.

                3. Bun, sorry for the late reply – I was certain I pressed ‘send’. Making jokes about disabilities is simply stupid, because it is too easy to cross the line with such jokes and look cruel even if you are not. Even if the person in question jokes at him/her self, I would just smile and say something friendly. I wouldn’t play along.
                  All that you are saying here has nothing to do with PC, but has everything to do with morality, ethics, culture, and with ignorance. What is easier (and safer) – teaching moral values to the society or establishing PC? You know the answer, and sure you see the danger.

                4. I’m certainly all for teaching morality, ethics and culture, so it seems we probably feel much same way about things.

                  I think I just get a little hung up each time on the phrase PC because, as I mentioned before, I’ve been accused of being it even though I don’t think I am. It sounds as though, from what you say, you don’t think I am either, which is a relief. 🙂

                5. Oh you are not 🙂 Yet. But it can become epidemic if we don’t kill the germ in our minds with extra dose of tact and sincere interest in other people. I am not sure that I am immune 😦

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