Well, I guess we will have to disagree here. This "don't offend anyone" attitude is growing to ridiculous proportions. It's like a return to the 1950's. Do you want to suggest that all women have to wear burqas now because their naked hair offends Muslims? Or a better question: where do you draw the border?
And if you want to argue that my example doesn't fit, I have to remind you that, in both cases, it's about telling someone what he or she is allowed to wear in order not to offend some nebulous other person.
The problem is not that your example doesn't fit, it's that you're engaging in black and white thinking, and presenting a false dilemma. Nowhere have I suggested that people not be “allowed”, or forced, to do anything. I've said things like.
“a greater sensitivity to the question of offence in certain contexts”
“portraying images which could be interpreted as a casually reductive representation of women in that context is unhelpful and unwelcome.”
This is measured language, because of course it is shades of grey, and every situation must be considered rationally. Does it make sense for a person to be forced to observe a religious dress code at all times in public, to avoid offending a Muslim? No, of course not, because that is a huge impingement upon their freedoms, to suit someone else's philosophy. But, if my girlfriend goes for tea and sandwiches at a mosque, maybe she wears a headscarf, out of respect and consideration on that occasion. And if the Muslim guy next to me at work is fasting for Ramadan, do I whip out a bacon sandwich right there, with an attitude of “It's my fucking right to eat bacon sandwiches wherever I please!” Of course it is, but maybe I eat them in the park that day.
This is all that political correctness really is – a convention towards consideration and respect, instead of “I'll do what I fucking like, and you can deal with it.”
In the specific case of the shirt, the thought process might be, “As women are under-represented in the sciences, and at the highest levels of employment, perhaps I won't wear my metal-bikini babe shirt while I'm acting as spokesperson for the scientific achievement of the decade, because that might make some of them uncomfortable, and create the wrong impression about our attitudes. I will wear it at the bar tonight, though, because it's awesome.”
That might not be your choice, then some people might criticise you, and your boss might tell you off because you have not represented the organisation as he would have wished. And, the process of a reasoned “political correctness” over time is what will help to shape those societal ideas of what is acceptable and desirable. But no-one, at any point, is under any personal obligation to abide by it.
It is what has made it much less likely for Round Brown Boy to be openly treated that way any more. And we are all Round Brown Boy!
