On Language & Animals
PETA ruffled some feathers this week with a campaign to change the way people talk about animals. Many turns of phrase, they said, are rooted in violence towards animals — and the language is so casual and everyday that we don’t even notice.
On the one hand, they’re absolutely right. Our language is shot through with derogatory and sometimes violent terms. Sometimes it’s explicit: “kill two birds with one stone.” Sometimes it’s implicit: when animals are called “it” or “that,” for example, or labeled as “alien,” or a pig is transmuted into “pork.”
Reasonable people can disagree about whether this is a big deal or not. Personally I think it does matter. Language is very important; it shapes how we think. If you try referring to people with the language reserved for animals — calling your best friend an “it” or replacing those two birds with “two kids” — it feels gross. And, notably, we don’t refer to our own pets that way.
That so many people took offense at — or made a mockery of — PETA’s comparisons between animal and human suffering simply underscored their point. We live in a society where, except for pets, animal lives are regarded as having little or no value. Acts of extreme cruelty receive slap-on-the wrist punishments. Often they’re considered normal and unremarkable.
On the other hand, PETA made this point in a manner certain to invite ridicule and alienate potentially sympathetic people. Perhaps in the long run they figured that was less important than seeding a conversation, but it was still somewhat cringe-inducing. (“Two birds with one scone”? Eesh. Also, giving bread to birds is a bad idea. It fills up their stomachs but provides few nutrients.)
Anyways. It’s an interesting topic, and for anyone who wants to reflect on it more, here are some references I’ve filed away over the years:
The Animals and Media style guide
Cara Giaimo on pronouns for animals
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Orion Magazine essay, “Speaking of Nature” plus her podcast
Faunalytics on the language of meat
On a tangential note, involving not derogatory animal-related language but words that invoke nature and are falling into disuse, Robert MacFarlane’s magnificent Landmarks and The Lost Words.
