Britain’s public broadcasting corporation has decided to cut the word “girl” from a documentary on the Commonwealth Games, fearing that it might “cause offence.”
The offending speaker, Mark Beaumont, hosted a segment for the documentary on 19-year-old Judo champion Cynthia Rahming. In the segment, Beaumont described Rahming as a “19-year-old-girl” after she demonstrated her Judo prowess by slamming him to the ground.
What Beaumont did not know, however, was that the epithet “girl” is a hurtful weapon of the patriarchy. The dread slur was cut from the segment.
“Mark didn’t mean to cause offence,” a BBC spokesman has said. “But the word ‘girl’ was taken out just in case it did.”
The BCC has faced some criticism over the decision. “We are going to end up in a situation where nobody is going to dare say anything lest some politically correct zealot deems it offensive,” says British Conservative Party politician Phillip Davies.
Among the BBC’s critics are Rahming herself. “‘I wasn’t offended – I didn’t find it sexist,” says the martial artist.
As usual, the enforcers of political correctness saw no need to ask Rahming whether she herself was offended. They were more than willing to be offended for her.
[about_ian]
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