(FiveNation.com)- A California “diversity, equity, and inclusion champion” has created the Evolving From Violent Language guide to encourage people to stop using phrases that allude to physical violence, the Daily Mail reported.
Ayana Taylor, the communications director for technology company Phenomenex, told the Daily Mail that her guide is for people who want to stop using common idioms that use allusions to violence with more non-violent alternative phrases.
The guide provides a column of supposed “violent” idioms like “roll with the punches,” “deadline,” “kill two birds with one stone,” “jump the gun,” and “bite the bullet.” Alongside that column is a second which lists an appropriate alternative phrase for each of the bad ones.
So instead of saying “kill two birds with one stone,” Taylor suggests that people say replace it with “feed two birds with one scone.”
Of course, Ayana Taylor may have jumped the gun in her objection to the idiom “jump the gun.” The saying is derived from racing when a runner starts the race before the starter pistol fires. That’s not an especially violent expression.
Likewise the idiom “bite the bullet.” This isn’t a violent expression at all. Instead, it refers to the time before painkillers or anesthesia when soldiers bit down on a bullet to stop them from screaming in pain.
But this isn’t the first time some “woke” person provided a list of idioms that need to be replaced.
In 2018, the UK Independent reported that researchers from Swansea University in Wales had concluded that idioms with violent imagery against animals should be replaced now that veganism is on the rise.
As with Ayana Taylor, Swansea University’s Shareena Hamzah suggested replacing “kill two birds with one stone” with “feed two birds with one scone.”
Hamzah also wanted to replace “beating a dead horse” with “feeding a fed horse.”
Hamzah concluded that phasing out the old sayings and replacing them with more animal-friendly ones would help build a better relationship between all creatures while helping to stem the tide of youth violence against animals.
