Literati!
If you think your novel or memoir is apolitical, think again. Even what is seemingly innocuous text is fraught with language that perpetuates the status quo or leads a quite insurrection as the language of dissent.
For example, traditionally our binary society dismisses the behavior of homo-sexuals, bi-sexuals, trans-sexuals and poly-amorous adults as deviant, something perverse, immoral, wrong, simply unnatural.
To which Freud responds, “The only unnatural sexual behavior is none at all.”
What if instead of using the word “deviant” we replaced it with “variant?”
It’s baggage-free, carrying no negative connotations, and simply acknowledging that someone’s sexual proclivities vary from what the majority subscribes to.
More prescient in these turbulent times:
Jorge Ramos, the commentator for Univision broadcasting from Florida to 2,000,000 listeners worldwide has advocated for years that politicians, and indeed, all of us, excise “illegal aliens” from our lexicon, because, as he points out, no person is illegal. And as soon as you ascribe that to a person, it implies something criminal and contaminates any potentially fruitful debate. Instead, he suggests we refer to undocumented workers. Without advocating a position on immigration, he simply states “If you change the language, you change the conversation.”
