Dorothy Parker: The Antidote to Political Correctness

Dorothy Parker was outrageous, and not just by 1920′s standards. Even today, speaking from beyond the grave, she has the power to offend. And for many of us, that’s enough to warm our secretly defiant little hearts.

For the uninitiated, Dorothy Parker was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers and artists who met daily for lunch throughout the 1920s. They all had biting wit, but only Mrs. Parker was scathing enough to be called “the mistress of the verbal hand grenade.” She was, after all, the one who noted that Katharine Hepburn’s performance in a play “ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.” She was also the critic who said, “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”

I run a Dorothy Parker Facebook page, where I post her witticisms and poems daily. Most of the page’s followers understand exactly who she was and revel in her naughtiness. But clearly not all, because whenever I post one of her more shocking quotes—such as “Tell him I was too f—ing busy, or vice versa”—a handful of people leave in a huff. And good riddance. Because if that offends them, they don’t understand that she was a true artist of wit, and shock value was one of her sharpest tools.

And that’s why her star continues to rise, even today. Maybe especially today, because in our politically correct modern world, where we’re afraid to utter a single syllable that might offend someone, her audacious quotes are exhilarating. For example, she once described a female acquaintance by saying, “That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can’t say ‘No’ in any of them.” And when a garrulous woman at a party was described as outspoken, Dorothy Parker said, “Outspoken by whom?”

She turned her scathing wit on herself, as well. When a party host explained that a game involving a barrel of floating fruit was called “ducking for apples,” Mrs. Parker said, “Change one letter and it’s the story of my life.” Her wit was also a shield from pain. On finding herself pregnant from a man who wanted nothing more to do with her, she remarked, “It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.”

A popular favorite involved brilliant word play. When someone asked her if she could use “horticulture” in a sentence, Dorothy Parker responded, “You can lead a horticulture but you can’t make her think.”

It’s a classic, and every time I post it on Facebook there are dozens of appreciative comments. And while there are often one or two prissy responses to any given quote, nothing could prepare me for the agenda-driven, politically correct commenter who responded that she was “shocked” Dorothy Parker could be “so insensitive to sex workers.”

That’s right, friends. Be warned. The PC police are now after anyone who would dare make a disparaging remark about the cultural proclivities of a prostitute. (I’d get on their case about it, but then I don’t want to offend the humor-impaired.)

But there was more to Dorothy Parker than a brave, sharp tongue. Long before political correctness was part of our national conscience, she was a fighter for justice and equal rights for all. In 1927, when Italian immigrant anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a clearly biased trail, Dorothy Parker staged a protest, amid taunts of “Guinea lover!” “Red scum!” and more. She also supported the civil rights movement from the very beginning, with such complete conviction that when she died in 1967, she left her estate to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., despite that she had never met the man.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.