The UK press today has reported widely the case of an IT employee who sued her supervisor for alleged sexual harrassment. The accusation was based on the use of "xx" in correspondence which the supervisor claimed was innocent but the employee interpreted as kisses.
Further evidence was the use of the letters "AJG" by the boss. The employee claimed this was a vulgar expression, an abbreviation for "A Jumbo Genital". However, the tribunal accepted the explanation of the boss that these are simply the initials of his name.
Like Poland and the USA, the UK is undergoing a "culture war" where society is sharply divided along both political and cultural lines. However, the "hot button issues" which are most divisive are notably different for each country. In the UK, alongside Brexit the attitude to political correctness is a key marker of which side in the culture war someone is on.
The phrase "political correctness gone mad" is used sincerely by conservatives and ironically by the left. It is noticeable that the story about the IT employee - which seems to vindicate the claim that political correctness can go too far - was carried immediately by the BBC, The Telegraph and The Express, but not, for example, by the left-leaning Guardian.
The opposite perspective was given, for example, by the satirical news program The Mash Report, in a "report" expressing sympathy for men (sarcastically) because it is "so difficult" today to know what constitutes harrassment. The "PC Brigade" has made life well-nigh impossible.
Sources: BBC, The Telegraph, The Express, The Mash Report
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