You鈥檙e an animal!
Human beings are animals, but we usually don鈥檛 like to think of ourselves as animals, at least in 鈥渃ivilized鈥� societies, i.e. those who build cities. In English, as in many other (but not all?) languages, you can insult a person by calling them an animal name, putting them in a position inferior to human. A bitch is any female dog, but comes to mean a vicious female human. A cow is any female bovine, but comes to mean an ugly and unpleasant female human. A chick is a baby bird, but comes to be a dismissive term for any young woman. You can see a pattern that develops in a patriarchal society, too, can鈥檛 you? More degrading names for women than for men in English. There used to be wolf, meaning an older lonely man who preyed on young women, but that鈥檚 somehow been replaced by cougar, once again putting the focus on putting down women.
Are there any positive animal terms for people in English? How about bears? I like that it鈥檚 a name they give themselves as a subset of the gay community and not a pejorative term. But I can鈥檛 think of others at the moment鈥攜ou can email me and suggest some! 鈥� And if you鈥檙e thinking about endearments, I鈥檓 just getting there.
Possum, kitten, pudding, sweetie, baby, and so on, they鈥檙e positive, right? Well, sort of. They鈥檙e not pejoratives, and they鈥檙e not all animal words, and they鈥檙e generally said in love, but in a way they鈥檙e also dismissive. An endearment word is usually a little thing, a sweet thing, a weak thing, a feminine or feminized thing. When people call their partners or children 鈥渟weetie,鈥� they鈥檙e saying you belong to me and I love you, but you鈥檙e less than I am, weaker than I am, more female than I am. We don鈥檛 encourage our children to call adults by diminutive and dismissive names. It鈥檚 a power relationship thing.
Now let鈥檚 talk about the word 鈥渒id鈥� (which is where I鈥檝e been heading for several paragraphs, frankly, and a peeve of mine). A kid is a baby goat. Contemporary English-speaking cultures have largely lost sight of this fact, as we have for the word 鈥渂itch.鈥� If you hear someone say 鈥淚鈥檓 getting a new bitch in from Germany,鈥� you鈥檒l probably do a double take and then realize they鈥檙e a dog breeder. Some people feel awkward calling a female dog a bitch, because they don鈥檛 want to seem as if they鈥檙e insulting the dog! But I think there are many English speakers who don鈥檛 even realize that 鈥渒id鈥� means baby goat, and might assume that someone calling their young goat a kid is for some reason humanizing it. I know I鈥檝e had students who think that the expression 鈥渢o handle someone with kid gloves鈥� means to treat them gently, as if they were a child, but it literally means made of the skin of baby goats. Kid gloves were expensive but very thin and supple, and you could handle small objects with great dexterity and care while wearing them.
Imagine using the word 鈥渓amb鈥� instead, please. If you found yourself saying 鈥渉ey, you lambs come over here!鈥� or 鈥渄o you have any lambs?鈥� you鈥檇 likely think it sounded odd and dismissive, yes? But we鈥檙e ok with calling young people baby goats. Calling someone a kid used to be a pejorative, in fact, meaning either an obstreperous or troublesome young person鈥攖hink of Wild West gunmen and rustlers with names like 鈥渢he Waco Kid鈥濃�攐r someone behaving inappropriately playful鈥攖hink of 鈥渟top kidding around鈥� or 鈥渒id stuff.鈥� Now it has become a neutral and totally accepted word to refer to any young human.
But should it? If you know the origin of a word is insulting, you generally try to stop using it, right? We鈥檝e tried to cut a lot of racist terms out of our vocabulary in English, and not say 鈥渨hat a gyp!鈥� or talk about someone as an 鈥淚ndian giver.鈥� Admittedly, this is a work in progress, as you鈥檒l still hear lots of people say 鈥渓ong time no see,鈥� which is from the Tonto-style speech of stereotyped Native Americans, or 鈥渘o can do,鈥� which imitates Chinese pidgin and likewise makes fun of people for whom English is not their first language. (Now I hope you鈥檒l think about that when you find yourself saying those two phrases.) Are my people ready to start taking ageist terms out of their language? Probably not. As a society, settler Canada isn鈥檛 embarrassed by treating the very young (or the very old) dismissively or demeaningly. We鈥檙e happy doing it. I think we need to rethink that. Children and teens are people: young people, but not animals in the sense of being less than human.