#euphemism treadmill

[greenwire]

#interesting article #euphemism treadmill

[mentalisttraceur]

On Euphemism Treadmills

Until very recently, euphemism treadmills really bothered me! As a teen I hated them, and any behavior or cognition that caused them - why keep throwing away words, indefinitely!? aren't we feeding the problem by giving words power!? Later, I tolerated them as a necessary evil: to not hurt people more than necessary by contributing to the subtle chronic drip of microaggressions; to not reoffend pain caused by living in a society that is systematically biased against you.

But I had this epiphany. It starts with bears. In the language that became English, the word that became "bear" was a euphemism. "The brown one". They had a real noun for bears, but stopped using it. This happened in many languages in places that had bears. And if you had the same reasons, you'd avoid saying "bear" too, and the treadmill would keep going. But we fixed the reasons that made the word have power in people's heads. "Bear" is an old euphemism treadmill, stopped long ago.

Now I don't worry about euphemism treadmills. It no longer seems like they are contributing to problems. I now have confidence that they are a pure symptom.

#euphemism treadmills #cognition #ethics

[deweydecimalchickens]

Also today at work in the Neurodiversity Café I totally went off on one about how disability is not a dirty word and it in fact links you to a history of hard-fought legal rights and community activism and anyone trying to cut you off from that probably has an ulterior motive that isn't gonna work out well for you.

Spaces that tell me I can drop the masks are dangerous because I really fucking drop the mask. You do not want me to be my whole true self.

#Who put 50p in the dickhead #Revolution! #Disabled is a political identity #Disabled is not a moral flaw #Disabled is not a dirty word #Disabled is not baggage my beautiful Person-First self drags around #Just fucking say disabled #Get off the euphemism treadmill #You only need euphemisms for things that disgust you

[top-lil]

I was going to make a post about how the meanings assigned to specific combinations of words or symbols are ultimately arbitrary, but decided against it because, yeah sure that's true, but these meanings are agreed upon by a language community (usually unconsciously). you can't just redefine a word and hope everyone goes along with it; some people will, but others will just use it as they always did. this is why I find the persistent and frantic desire of some to redefine "sex" into nothingness to be funny, because it's been years and it still hasn't taken outside of true believers. people know that it's bullshit, especially since the only justifications are hogwash, navel-gazing, or both

#the euphemism treadmill also means that if it ever DID take #people would just find another word for the original thing #even if it takes a hot minute to catch on

[feenyreadscomics]

Okay, so this is a sideblog so sorry for having to put you on blast?

Anyways, I am trying to respond in good faith since it doesn't seem like you're trying to be intentionally inflammatory, however:

Gay and lesbian were also used as slurs. I remember gay and lesbian being used as slurs. Your words aren't baggage free either.

The intention of using the word queer is including all the people who lived at Fire Island: not just gay men and lesbians, but also the bisexual people, the transgender people who were at the island, the people who may not have identified with a label.

#my god people use words to describe things and queer was the one i picked and you think i would have done something horrid 🙄 #literally any word will be turned derogatory because of the euphemism treadmill #bet you would have had a field day with a gay couple that my mom knew in the 80s who would refer to each other using the f slur #ya gonna cancel them too? #not described

[ghostlypawn]

what r u ON about

#ive had enough im going to sleep #i get what hes trying to say w the evolution of language or whatever #and the euphemism treadmill or whatever #but i promise you its not #actually it already is one . if u call me nd im hitting you

[qqchurch]

damn, those discourse icebergs really are getting more daunting. what in the fresh hell is a ‘tme transfem’ and how the hell did things reach to a point that that’s a thing?

actually, nevermind, i’ll let that iceberg pass.

#something something euphemism treadmill or something similar im guessing

[voidtone]

signed up for a “retro blogging platform” where one of the rules is “no harmful content (including self-harm or suicidal content)” what does that mean? what’s “harmful content?” talking about being suicidal? pictures of self-harm? discussion of self-harm? discussion of medical systems and how they interact with suicidality?

#just feeling aaaaaa today #harmful content euphemism treadmill moments #journaling i guess

[letmeliedown]

okay, gather round kiddos. i know you don't want to hear it but here's why saying you're "boy crazy" actually hurts real mentally ill men and boys, who have been tarred with this cruel and stigmatizing term since the middle ages,,,,

#txt #what people sound like doing the euphemism treadmill routine on here

[keitrinkomfloukru]

60s-80s: “bleeding heart”

90s-10s: “politically correct”

10s-now: “woke”

#the other euphemism treadmill #us politics #same shit different term

[sophieinwonderland]

Seriously though, if I had a dime for every time I saw r/systemscringe describe systems as crazy or insane...

(Too many pronouns is apparently mental illness now? Sounds like they might be transmeds too.)

(OP doesn't realize that yeah... sometimes alters can keep others out of front. It's not 100% foolproof and can't last forever but many DID systems do this to some extent.)

Okay, look... I'm not clicking on the NSFW image. I'm just going to assume based on the title that this one is someone pretending to have a butt and if I clicked the picture, I would see a fake butt. 🤷‍♀️

...

Look, I'm not one of those people who think "crazy" and "insane" are terrible slurs you can never say under any circumstances.

There's the whole euphemism treadmill thing where words will become taboo as they're used as pejoratives, then less taboo words will be used as pejoratives and then they'll become the taboos next.

Words used in place of ableist language today will be the ableist language tomorrow. So I tend to not care much about the words themselves as how they're used.

If you want to talk about an "insane" party or a "crazy" new game you played, I'm not going to care. But it is more than a bit problematic to be attacking people, calling them crazy and insane for having experiences that are associated with mental illnesses.

#syscourse #pro endo #pro endogenic #sysblr #multiplicity #r/systemscringe #systemscringe #ableism #sanism #hate groups #hate group

[king-of-men]

The euphemism treadmill has come full circle. I was playing a shmup with my son yesterday, and he was trash-talking the AI opponents... by calling them 'NPCs'.

#gaming kinda #trash talk #the children of men

[ghelgheli]

we're never getting off the euphemism treadmill but at least let us set our own pace

#text

[self-winding]

Just saw a Twitter interaction where someone got jumped on for using the term “non-verbal” (in relation to autism).  Apparently the new, correct term is “non-speaking,” and non-verbal (which was the accepted lingo until fairly recently, to my knowledge) is now considered offensive.

The rationale is that non-verbal is insulting because it implies a complete lack of language comprehension, which...I don’t think it does, really?  At least, I’ve never read that into it.  I can see why some people might prefer “non-speaking” as a self descriptor, but this isn’t just being presented as “some people prefer this term for X reasons,” it’s, “this is now the objectively correct usage because that’s what we, the self-appointed spokespeople for this group, have decided, and y’all better get the memo and change quickly or you’re an ableist bigot.”

These euphemism treadmills are not unique to the autism community, they’re a feature of social justice oriented communities in general, but I always find it extra bewildering when this kind of thing shows up within autism advocacy because like...you’d think autistic people would understand the cognitive drain that comes from having to constantly stay up-to-date on the latest linguistic fashion.

#autism

[machine-saint]

i think some concepts have a much higher ratio of misuse to correct use than others but ultimately you can't make a concept that's immune to misunderstanding. sort of like the euphemism treadmill. that being said that doesn't free you from considering whether the concept is useful and the name you've given to it is a good one, just that you can't point at some dipshit on Twitter with 500 followers saying "intersectionality means that the person in more oppressed groups is always right" as if it says anything about intersectionality per se because there will always be people who are wrong

#discourse

[luulapants]

Let’s talk about obscenity

Western culture is currently in the midst of a great linguistic transition from the second to the third age of obscenity. Right now, it looks like we’re going to approach it more or less the same way that we did the first two, but I think that would be a mistake. So let’s talk about the history of “foul language”:

The First Age

The reason it’s called “cursing” and “swearing” is because, originally, obscene words were religious blasphemy. Making oaths to God, taking the Lord’s name in vain, cursing God. We can see this in the numerous euphemisms that were created as stand-ins for those words: “jeez” for “Jesus,” “tarnation” for “damnation,” “golly” for “God,” “heck” for “hell.”

The commandment “Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain” meant to not invoke the name of God or make oaths on God except when sincerely meant. But as religious topics became entangled with the concept of obscenity, it was over-applied until people would spell out G-O-D rather than say the world when actually talking about God. Moreover, making religious words taboo didn’t stop people from engaging in the actual blasphemies that were meant to be taboo. Is shouting “Jeez!” really any less disrespectful than shouting “Jesus!”? They signify the same concept.

Many of these words continued to be seen as obscene in following ages, but increasingly only by the very devout. Words like “fuck,” “shit,“ “ass,” etc. existed during the first age. They may have been seen as crass, but they weren’t thought of as obscene until the second age.

The Second Age

During the first age, most common folks lived in one-room homes. Couples had sex in the same room as whoever lived with them. People used the chamber pot in front of their families. There just wasn’t room for people to have a sense of privacy about their bodies.

As that changed - starting with those of higher social standing - society developed new norms around sex and the body. The curse words of the second age related to these topics. Once again, a conceptual idea of what was morally correct - keeping sex and the body private - was extended to language. Not only were you not supposed to show anyone your ass, but you couldn’t say “ass” even when talking about it. So “butt”/”buttock” came in, which previously mainly referred to cuts of meat, but then that became obscene, so we have “rump” and “derriere” and “bottom.” What we might call a euphemism treadmill.

Looking back, it’s easy to call this silly. They’re just words, so what does it matter if you say “shit” or “crap” or “poop” or “doo doo”? They all mean the same thing! But the shift to ideas of body privacy weren’t bad. We’ve dialed back the Puritanical prudishness, but we don’t want to return to using the chamber pot in the middle of the living room either. Sex is still considered a private activity, and we don’t want to watch others have sex without agreeing to it first. But making the word “fuck” taboo didn’t create healthy attitudes toward sex or gave us space to grapple with issues like sexual health and consent.

If you’ve found yourself thinking that people don’t care as much about swearing anymore, noticing that media increasingly allows obscene language and no one really cares if you drop a curse word in casual company, you’re partially right... because the words we consider obscene are once again changing.

The Third Age

Today, the worst words you can use are slurs. Words that we use against groups of people. Like the second age, this shift has come due to a broader shift in social norms: it used to be socially acceptable to discriminate against groups of people. Now it is not. This is, objectively, a good thing.

However, if we follow in the pattern of the first two ages of obscenity (and we’re on that track), we can almost guarantee that a focus on correct words will overshadow and inhibit discussing the social changes we want to make. In an interview with Codeswitch, Professor Randall Kennedy, author of Nigger: The Strange Career Of A Troublesome Word, gives an example of the damage this absolutist approach can take:

I did not like it when that documentary was made about James Baldwin, "I Am Not Your Negro." That's not what he said. He said, I am not your nigger. He was very clear. He - that wasn't just a cavalier thing. He had a purpose for how we use the term. And I don't - I think this bowdlerization, I think that this cover-up, this denial, is bad. It is tampering with our cultural history, and we need to - we need realism. We need to be very attentive to facts, even facts that we view as ugly.

It’s not a bad thing that slurs are the new obscenity. It points to positive changes happening in our society. However, focus on obscene words will always detract from discussions of obscene concepts.

The modern day “tarnation,” I think, is something like “g*psy”: a word thinly obscured but signifying the same concept as the one it’s replacing. That asterisk does not give you a free pass to discuss the word lightly, but it gives that sense. If you’re going to talk about the word “gypsy,” I think you should use the word. I think that’s how we make sure we’re talking about it in a serious and conscientious manner. To force you to stop and think, “Have I put enough thought into what I’m saying to warrant using that word?”

Norms around obscene words do not last. In a century or two, people will probably regard the word “faggot” the way we think about “damn” today. It sounds awful to us today, but normalizing “Goddamn it” would have seemed awful to most decent people during the first age. That’s the nature of obscenity: its power exists only in the context of current culture. Language is a tool to convey ideas, but it can’t control them. You can’t kill an idea by killing a word. We need to have conversations about these words so when the fourth age of obscenity comes, the conceptual changes of the third are meaningful and enduring, even as concern for the words wanes.

#language #linguistics #sociolinguistics #slurs #obscenity