If PETA gets its way, many of the familiar phrases that we’ve used would fall victim to political correctness. Normally, when we use these sayings, we are using the characters in the sayings to symbolize something.
For example, taking the bull by the horns. Granted, most of us will not run out to the pasture and grab any bull by the horns. That’s just asking for trouble. The “bull” happens to be whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish or overcome.
One use for this saying is that we simply have to just “dive in” and tackle the issue. The idea is that a bull would fight back if we tried to grab it by the horns. We’d sometimes find ourselves dealing with a problem that does not offer an “easier route”.
But, we still have to “prevail” regardless of how daunting and difficult the task. This describes many a problem and challenge. Both evolve, and both seem to “tend to try to overcome us”.
A flower doesn’t do that. If you grabbed a flower by the thorn, said flower would not try to fight you back. The meaning of the saying would simply not match the meaning of the original saying.
Ditto with “Kill two birds with one stone”. One of uses of this statement is to resolve two issues with one action. “Killing” implies a benefit to the one doing the “killing”.
If you’re feeding two birds with a scone, this statement becomes more of using one action to compound more than one problem.
From Fox News:
Instead of “kill two birds with one stone,” say “feed two birds with one scone.” “Take the bull by the horns” should be replaced with “take the flower by the thorns” and instead of “bring home the bacon,” say “bring home the bagels”.
They’re trying to include “anti-animal” statements in the same category as “anti-gay” statements.
Our language may be evolving, but the universal meanings, of the sayings that PETA wants to change, remain the same and would lose these meanings under PETA’s version.
Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are and start ‘bringing home the bagels’ instead of the bacon.
— PETA (@peta) December 4, 2018
Thanks to AnotherPat for this link. You can read more here.