Is the Meaning of Words Black and White?

Sometimes we say what we mean, but more often than not, we don't mean what we say. After all, how many times a day do we say stuff that we don't actually mean?

In a lot of my AP classes, people will say things like "I literally cried for two hours because of this class," which -- given that the classes are APs -- is possible, but not very probable. While it is true that many people use indirect speech to "establish relationships" or out of "ordinary politeness," I would argue that we -- as people from Gen Z -- use it more so to convey the exact meaning of what we truly want to say. Often, we cannot find words to correctly express the way we feel, so we use indirect speech to convey our feelings instead. Think about it, how many internet posts actually say what they mean?

For example, the post from above is not truly calling people that dog-ear pages Satan, but rather expressing its strong dislike for people that participate in that activity. However, by using language that indirectly implies this meaning allows the creator of the post to truly show the viewer what he or she means.

The post above is another perfect example of indirect speech. It provides a metaphoric example to convey what this person feels. Of course they didn't actually start crying and "climb to the top of the Empire State Building singing," but when he or she says this, every single Gen Zer knows exactly what he or she meant. Immediately we all reply with "same" or something of the sort because we understand even though they didn't say exactly what they felt.

The usage of indirect speech is differs in each interaction. What I mean is that when a Gen Zer talks to his/her peers, the examples shown above are used. However, we understand that that usage is reserved for Gen Zers only and will switch to using indirect speech for politeness when speaking to someone from a different generation.

Indirect speech was relevant and useful before 2007 and in 2007 when Steven Pinker wrote "Words Don't Mean What They Mean," before 2007. It continues to be relevant today, although in a slightly different manner and will continue to be relevant in the future. The usage of this speech is the only thing that changes in the sense of what it is used to convey (politeness in 2007 and self-expression today). It will evolve for as long as our language and we ourselves evolve.

Is Politically Correct Truly Correct?

Some people think that simply changing the language, specifically the words we use in our everyday communications, will banish the "racism and hate" in our society today. But changing "women" to "womyn" or "black eye" to "mouse" will change nothing about how people think about their counterparts. In The Word Police, Michiko Kakutani shows her readers how ridiculous the idea of replacing such words is.

Let's go example by example. Replacing "women" with "womyn" does not sound different phonetically. So when people use it in their everyday speech, it doesn't change anything to them at all. "But it will when they write." Wrong. When someone writes, nobody sits down to check the spelling of all their words. They just write, and come back for edits later. And when they come back, they are likely to forget that the spelling of "women" has been changed. So who corrects these "spelling errors?" Editors; meaning that the only people who actually use the "correct" spelling of the word add up to be a very small quantity of people compared to the entire population. "We'll just put the correct form of the word into our spell checks then." Yea, that won't work either. Sure, people will see a red squiggly line under the word in question, and will fix its spelling, but they won't give it a second thought. They are not going to sit down to think about why the spelling changed, they will just move on with their lives. So how are we changing sexism by doing this?

To change sexism, or racism, or any type of discrimination, it is necessary to change how people think of their diverse peers. Changing the language simply does not do enough to change people's perspective.