I am not sure at what point exactly euphemisms replaced straight talking all over the world, but the journalist in me thinks it may have gotten out of hand, especially in the media, and it is time said what we meant.
My dictionary defines a euphemism as “a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.”
So for instance in this era of the overly polite, people no longer die, as it is far too harsh and real. Instead, they pass away, they expire, they answer a heavenly summons (by the way interesting how even when people are as evil as possible, we don’t say they answered a hellish call) or we lose them. You get the picture.
This issue comes up for me a lot, and especially at this time when my country of residence, South Africa, is suffering power cuts which are described as “load shedding.” Obviously, somebody somewhere thought that the euphemism was less severe than the truth, which is: A power blackout may come at any time and sometimes without much warning. Of course, this is even more sensitive with less than eight weeks to an election, but more about that some other time.
Then there is the tired headline that one comes across in the Kenyan media fairly often about teachers having “love affairs” with students. It is 2019 and surely by now most thinking people are aware that if a teacher is having sex with a student there is a power dynamic at play. Any sexual contact between someone in a position of power or authority and a person who is not should be called what it is, sexual harassment or rape—especially if the other party is under the age of consent.
The more we in the media refer euphemistically to “love affairs” to describe inappropriate sexual behaviour between teachers and their students (be they in primary school, secondary school or at university) or even bosses and their staff, the longer we perpetuate rape culture. That’s the long and short of it.
Of course, certain euphemisms are less harmful than others. Sports reporters will, for instance, continue to say that an athlete has injured their “groin” instead of plainly saying what everyone knows they mean, which is that the athlete’s penis or testicles were hurt.
News reporters will refer to “rendition” to mean the illegal transportation of foreign nationals suspected of terrorist links across international borders.
Having said all that, I suppose there are situations where the euphemism is somewhat more picturesque than the actual fact. For instance, years ago when Russian President Boris Yeltsin was too drunk to disembark from his flight in public during a foreign visit, the journalists and diplomats gathered decided to be polite and said the President was “too tired and emotional” to appear in public.
Meanwhile, can my colleagues in the Kenyan media let me know what they mean when they write, as they do so often, that a certain well-known figure (that’s me being euphemistic) was “visibly angry”? Is it a euphemism for something, or just a cliché?
@MwangiGithahu