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An academic claims that certain phrases like “bring home the bacon” which offends vegans, and “killing two birds with one stone” which offends animal lovers, could be among several phrases to become banned due to their offensiveness to certain groups of people.
An academic named Dr. Shareena Hamzah of Swansea University has stated that the growing popularity of veganism and awareness of animal cruelty could lead to a banning of certain phrases, as a movement towards avoiding the offending of vegans and animal lovers begins to expand.
“If veganism forces us to confront the realities of food’s origins, then this increased awareness will undoubtedly be reflected in our language and literature,” Hamzah said.
“The increased awareness of vegan issues will filter through our consciousness to produce new modes of expression,” Hamzah added.
As an example, Dr. Hamzah referenced recent guidelines by the animal rights charity PETA, which follows.
PETA is in favor of replacing phrases such as “flogging a dead horse,” “killing two birds with one stone,” and “take the bull by the horns” with other phrases that aren’t offensive to animals. They suggest replacing the latter phrase with “take the flower by the thorns.”
But in the midst of all this hyper-sensitivity in language, you have to consider who alternative phrases may offend. If we, as PETA suggests, use the alternate phrase: “Take the Flower by the Thorns,” might we not potentially offend florists, botanists, and even gardeners?
All of this political correctness leads us down a deeper rabbit hole. Which in turn, begs the question: Will every phrase, metaphor and simile need to be discarded or rewritten, given that they could potentially offend a particular group of people? Is it possible to create a phrase that doesn’t offend someone, somewhere?
Lastly, will the use of non-offensive phrases eventually lead to the end of humor? After all, much of humor, and how humor actually works, is derived from making someone or something its target.
