In India,we are accustomed to the habit of making grave things sounds petty, for it leaves room for procrastination and escapism .Methinks for a country and society which prefers euphemism over actual definitions of an act or problem, can never be comfortable with dealing them…..Why as a society are we so uncomfortable with actual definitions of problems ? And because we treat the words to be more offensive and anti culture ,in a course we tend to undervalue its impact.Personally i regard it as a defective method ,because concealing inappropriate ,disturbing and damaging activities under the cloak of convenient and less unpleasant words undermine appropriate attitude towards serious issues.
Euphemism have what i believe a kind of dehumanizing effect,they make you callous,they lend a kind of disguised insensitivity to a person.The debate that is often used in favor of using euphemism is that some words may sound offensive or inappropriate and may become a cause of embarrassment for certain people.I totally regard this as hoax,i feel the society tends to avoid certain certain issues and in order to lessen their gravity resort to euphemism.i mean it’s hard to believe that people get offended by the definition of certain issue and not the issue itself.It’s just not an act of dodging offensive or bad words but intentional dodging of vile issues.
Popular euphemism in our country :
Eve teasing:Public sexual harassment
I don’t think that the word eve teasing can even distantly cover what all happens to women on streets in our country.I have been hit on my breast, a pat on my back even when my father was walking besides me ,and shocked when i looked at the guy he just winked and pulled off.I don’t think the word teasing stands a chance to do justice with all such acts.I have heard more horrendous cases which the society would cover casually under eve teasing.We need to face the reality, by keeping things under the cloak won’t change the reality instead would make the situation more awful.
Neha Raghuvanshi 