Issues such
as racism or sexism date back hundreds of years. While many other issues that
deal with things like technological advancements have been resolved over the
years, prejudice is so deeply rooted in the minds of some that it has not yet
been entirely diminished, despite our best efforts. It has been suggested that changing
words like “black eye” to “mouse” or the “politically correct lion” to the “monarch
of the jungle” will solve these kinds of issues (Kakutani). If only it were
that easy to get people to stop thinking of themselves as higher than others simply
based on appearance. Such word replacements have been proposed with a good
intention of putting an end to the problems that have been pressuring
minorities throughout history, but they are not as effective as some might
think.
Engaging in
euphemisms that seem to be completely detached from biases can actually cause
more harm than good. For example, if someone were to say “ovarimony instead of testimony”
for the sake of gender equality, others would probably laugh, which is not what
you want when it comes to problems as serious as sexism (Kakutani). Many of
these replacement words and phrases actually ridicule and downplay the
wrongness in prejudices, countering the whole purpose of using them in the
first place. Besides, changing the way people speak does not change their
biased mindset, nor will people want to use the euphemisms considering how
exaggerated some of them are. It is better to address the issue at hand rather
than avoid it by using words deemed to be free of bias.
