Okay. So you’re not ready to become a vegetarian. You have compassion for animals, but you’re not an activist. You’re a writer, but essays about animal abuse are not the kind of thing you write.
There is still something you can do for animals—something simple and powerful. You can write as if they matter.
Language is one of the most influential forces on Earth. The way we use language determines how people think, whether an issue is seen as important or trivial, whether a problem makes headlines or disappears from view. Anyone who’s been labeled because of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, size, or hair color (and that’s pretty much all of us) knows what I’m talking about. Language is a powerful tool, and one way you can show compassion for animals is by being careful about how you use it.
Here are some tips:
1. Don’t call animals “it.” Use “she” or “he.” Animals are not objects.
2. Never, ever refer to an animal as a product or by the way it will be butchered and cooked. When you read these sentences, think about what they are really saying:
“Taylor owns a hundred head of beef.”
“Are those chickens fryers or broilers?”
Question: “What kind of calves are those?” Answer: “Veal.”
Pretty ugly, isn’t it? You’re talking about a living being here. Do you really want to call her a “broiler” or him “veal.”?
3. Refer to animal products by what they are. Don’t use euphemisms that let us to pretend they are something different. That “leather” handbag is made of skin. That “pork roast” is the body of a pig. Not long ago, that “steak” was breathing, seeing, hearing, and feeling.
4. Avoid idioms that refer to animal suffering. It’s astonishing how many of these we have in English:
“The straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Beating a dead horse.”
“Killing two birds with one stone.”
“Sick as a dog.”
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
We’ve gotten so used to these phrases, we don’t even realize what we’re saying.
5. Don’t use mass nouns for animals.
“The forest is full of deer.”
“They’re off hunting bear.”
Use “deers” and “bears” instead. Animals are not collections of indistinguishable objects: They are individuals.
6. Avoid using animals as references to negative qualities. Chickens aren’t cowardly. Pigs aren’t selfish or dirty (and, for that matter, they don’t even have the ability to sweat). Rats don’t “rat” on others.
7. Eliminate entirely the many animal names we use for women: chick, biddy, bitch, cow, dog, hen, fox. (Notice that they’re almost all negative).
So, am I saying that all you have to do is change a few words and phrases and you can have an real impact on animals? That just changing the way you talk and write can change the world?
Yep, that’s what I’m saying.
[For an academic approach to these issues, you can’t beat Aaron Stibbe’s article, “Language, Power, and the Social Construction of Animals,” which analyzes in detail all of these usages. It is available here: http://www.animalsandsociety.org/assets/library/434_s923.pdf.]
Interesting post!
Glad you liked it!