Words and Point of View

Point of view
A friend of mine recently commented on the media's continued use of the term 'comfort women' in relation to women who were forced into having sex with soldiers during the Second World War. While the assumption of the reporters might be sympathetic to the women involved, the mere use of such language embeds certain assumptions about the default point of view or subjective position from which one views reality. In the more responsible Australian media words which imply other points of view have been challenged  in recent years, with some success - illegals - boat people - refugees - asylum seekers. Prostitutes - sex workers. But others remain - victim (a word raised in a writing workshop I recently attended) places the onus on the person targeted rather than the person who commits a crime against that person, and changes the way a person feels about him or herself, and about the way others view that person.

Words used might have unintended consequences for many of those using them, but not everyone who uses them is unaware of their power. Any speech writer for  any politician, regardless of political persuasion, is very much aware of how words position people, and the relative advantage (or disadvantage) to which those words place them. The oldest trick in the book is to shore up one's own position by contrasting it against that of 'the other' regardless of who that is. We have all been put in the position of 'the other' at some time, and it is not nice to be the foil against which the desirable is made manifest. For some, though, the position becomes so entrenched that those advantaged by it do everything they can to maintain their relative advantage at the expense of 'the other' who is then... where? How demoralising to be raped and labelled a 'comfort woman', to be attacked and called 'a victim', to be labelled in any way that takes responsibility away from the person acting unethically and places it on the person who has behaved to the best of their ability.

As writers we need to be conscious of this in the words we use.