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By Students in Section 1, Fall 2021 For one assignment in class, participants read an article about how language can promote speciesism. They then chose idioms or phrases that involve animals and researched where they came from and discussed if these phrases are harmful to nonhuman animals. We have already posted once with some of the great findings of this project. We are at it again because this semester students chose more, unique terms we didn't cover in the last post. They phrases they chose to research are . Here are their findings! Kill Two Birds with One Stone Devon Heiling The idiom that I am going to be researching is “kill two bird with one stone”. The meaning behind the idiom, kill two birds with one stone, is to accomplish two objectives with one task. This is a very commonly used idiom throughout the United States and most people have at least heard of it. Kill two birds with one stone is a very old idiom that has been used for centuries. Some sources say that the idiom originates from Thomas Hobbes in a book called The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance, 1656. “T. H. thinks to kill two birds with one stone, and satisfie two Arguments with one answer, whereas in truth he satisfieth neither” is how Hobbes uses the quote in his book. Another source of this idiom was said to originate from The Proverbs of John Heywood, 1546. The phrase looks quite different than it does today but it still gets the same message across. In the book the idiom looks like this, “I will learne to stop two gaps with one bush”. The idiom looks quite different, but it generally sends the same message. The last source of this idiom is said to have originated from ancient Greece from the story of Daedalus and Icarus from Greek Mythology. Although there is no written proof that this quote happened many people believe that this is the original source. I would say that on the outside that the phrase, kill two birds with one stone, is harmful to other animals because it directly talks about killing birds. But, as we dig into the real meaning I think that this is just the most popular version of the phrase and that meaning of the phrase is simply accomplish two things with one task. There are many alternative phrases that mean the same thing and the one that I would choose is, “get two giggles from one tickle”. The Idiom. “Kill Two Birds with One Stone.” The Idioms, 2021, https://www.theidioms.com/kill-two-birds-with-one-stone/. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Michelangelo Maccabee So, I’ve decided to discuss one of my most loathed of animal related idioms, “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” I do not hear this one used much anymore in popular culture, but when I was younger, it was thrown around often enough for it to both stick in my head and be a personal annoyance. This phrase seems to have originated in English, with the meaning behind it being that of cynical sentiments surrounding the institution of marriage in that the ‘cow’ refers to a woman, and ‘milk’ refers to the benefits of being romantically or otherwise socially entangled with a woman. In essence, the idiom asks the question, “Why should one get married to a woman, when one can gain the material and emotional benefits of being in that relationship without the legal and social commitment of marriage?” As stated, the phrase is of English origin, however it is a variation on older phrases meaning roughly the same thing. In Australia, since at least the 19th century, the phrase has often been heard as “If you like milk, why buy a cow?”. If we take an even further look back, we can see the use of a version of this idiom in John Bunyan’s “The Life and Death of Mr Badman” written in 1680 that goes, “you don’t need to buy a cow merely because you like milk.” (Partridge, 353) The phrase, as it is presented, is antifeminist, and in my opinion, is a harmful phrase. One of the more interesting and vulgar iterations of the idiom that I have come across while doing research was encountered in the script for the movie Chasing Amy, when one of the characters offers, “Why buy the cow when you get the sex for free?” As you may be able to see, this further ratchets up the sentiment by twisting the idiom on its head, getting it wrong just enough to get it completely correct. The woman is seen as a cow to be milked. Her value comes from what she can offer, not who she is as a person. (Smith 1997) Is the phrase itself harmful to non-human animals? Perhaps there is a discussion to be had on whether or not one can or should be offended to be compared to a cow this way from an anti-speciesist prospective. Does the idiom fundamentally change if we removed animals from it altogether? “Why buy a book when you can join a library?” This version of the idiom was also popular in Australia, and dates back to at least 1920. (Partridge, 353) Honestly, I have never heard this version and I believe that it is probably because it lacks the hook of speciesism to get people agitated enough for it to be considered witty. Partridge, Eric. - Dictionary of Catch Phrases (Kindle Edition) 1975. Revised and Updated. Smith, Kevin. - Chasing Amy. (1997) New Line Cinema. Packed in like Sardines
Kate Melssen The idiom I chose for the Applied Project: Choose Your Words Wisely is “Packed in like Sardines”. I chose this phrase to research because I have heard it many times. I decided it would be very interesting to research. I found two different definitions for the idiom “Packed in like Sardines”. The first definition states “extremely crowded, as in I could barely breathe”. The second definition is “When many people are tightly packed together in a small space leaving little or no room for movement”. Researching the definitions of “Packed in like Sardines” idiom I realize some people might not understand what it actually means or how this idiom originated from. The history of this phrase comes from Russia in the 1800s, but it is not documented people used this phrase until 1911. The Russian’s original use of this idiom was “Packed like a herring's barrel. Which translates into English packed in like sardines”. The early use of this phrase described fish were backed into a herring barrel. Eventually this phrase was used as a visual to explain the packing of sardines. The history aspect of this idiom was used for describing how there was a lot of human overcrowding throughout history. In today’s society, it is used for overcrowding on public transportation. Many people talk about using public transportation and there are no places to sit and standing makes it overcrowded. People will refer to buses or subways as being packed like sardines and how it relates to over population. I think this phrase is harmful to animals because they are killing sardines and then putting them closer together in a tin can. The harmful part of this idiom is the actual killing of the animal and how people reference it to a dead animal. I don’t think people think there is any harm to this phrase since the sardines are dead. I also think this phrase is neutral to other animals because there are no other sayings that relate to this idiom. When you think of a lot of people in a room you think of sardines not, other animals. Another parallel phrase that relates to this is “packed in like pickles”. Packed in like pickles is a good alternative because it’s talking about a vegetable and not an animal. Pickles are grown from cucumbers. Referring to this saying instead of packed in like sardines can be less offensive and still mean the same thing. Pickles are overcrowded in their jar they come in but are technically not alive, so it is not as offensive. https://thecontentauthority.com/blog/what-does-packed-like-sardines-mean https://vegina.net/2012/07/09/liberate-your-language/ |
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