Penis Envy

Recently, I saw an article about Sarah Palin challenging Barack Obama to a long distance running race.

If you'd like to read the article, here's the link: http://www.adn.com/palin/story/849491.html

Anyway, the gist of the article is that Palin, apparently an avid runner, claims she could beat Obama in a running race. Apparently, she finished the 2005 Mayor's marathon in Anchorage in less than 4 hours, a pretty impressive time. To me this whole article smacks of the sort of "well my dad could beat up your dad..." retort often heard on the playground when I was a kid.

Anyway, I posted this story on facebook, and in an effort to make a joke, I commented on the post saying: "Looks like someone has presidential penis envy yet again... When will the gov. learn to shut the hell up to save what's left of her image?" Now I don't know whether this is her way of showing that she's still up for the job, or her way of trying to show why she perceives herself as a better candidate than now President Obama, and frankly I don't care. I just attributed her stupid statement to her being a retard.

Anyway, this gets me onto my point. A friend of mine (who is a politically correct lesbian, and likely an ardent feminist) commented on my post with the following: "Why's it got to be about his cock? I mean, maybe she's got white house envy or private chef envy or military escort envy." Originally I responded with the following: "Figure of speech. How about "presidential election winner envy"?" But then, on reconsideration I commented: "Upon further consideration, any of the replacement phrases don't have the same effect. I'd happily call it "[not penis] envy," but that's a little too watered down. If there was a phrase that didn't have to do with the male member that meant the same thing and had the same effect, I would use it. Unfortunately, I can't think of one." (emphasis added) Another of my friends jokingly suggested that I replace "penis" with "dildo," but I didn't think that would work either. I always thought the point of the term "penis envy" was that it was jealousy regarding something over which you have no control, and someone can always buy a dildo. Regardless, I don't think the phrase is comparable.

This got me thinking about political correctness, and language, and the damage done to our way of communication caused by hyper sensitivity and parochial, petty causes. Now, I'm not advocating the use of many truly bad terms, like "ni**er," "ki#e," "towel head," etc... I'm just saying if we stop using expressions like "penis envy" because we thing society is too emasculated, then we'll lose ourselves in a sea of words to try to express ourselves. And on top of that, we'll be wasting our time in trying to convey simple meanings with a sea of words. Wouldn't it just be a bit easier if we just accepted the fact that phrases which, because of the words used in them, may be associated with a particular sex, sexuality, gender, mental acuity, brain development, etc..., they also may be used to describe common expressions, and feelings for which there are no adequate synonims?

So in conclusion, go on out and say things like "penis envy," "retarded," "gay," and all other adjectives/phrases to explain things. Truth be told, many more people will know what you're saying than if you water it down in a sea of political correctness.