Definition and Examples of Visual Euphemisms

Definition and Examples of Visual Euphemisms Visual code word is the utilization of a satisfying or tame picture to speak to an article, idea, or experience that is viewed as upsetting, tacky, or distressingly unequivocal. In Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language (2006), Keith Allan and Kate Burridge call attention to that visual doublespeaks are ordinary; for example,â low-calorie serving of mixed greens dressing (without usuallyâ oil) is introduced in shapely, thin waisted bottles. The shape, the cunningly changed spelling and turned around shading on a portion of the bundling conveys the message non-stuffing noisy and clear. Models and Observations Goodâ visual doublespeaks areâ to be found in commercials worried about dentures something that nobody needs to see. A promotion for one fixative just shows two lovely thin blue chambers fitting together splendidly, as a voiceâ â praises the productivity and salubriousness of the product.(Toni-Lee Capossela, Language Matters. Harcourt Brace,â 1995) Visual Euphemisms in Everyday Life: Romance in the Toilet Bowl CleanerSociety has numerous occurrences of visual doublespeaks. Uncovered men wear toupees. Both genders wear contact focal points. Fig leaves shroud the privates of sculptures. Pubic hair was enhanced with Photoshop out of delicate pornography photos until the 1960s. The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals planned fighter shorts, pants, and underskirts to cover the sex organs of creatures during the 1960s (cf. Fryer 1963:19). Frilled pantalettes unassumingly concealed the appendages (legs couldn't appropriately be referenced, particularly in America, see Read 1934:26 5) of the table and the pianoforte during the Victorian time. . . .Appealing bundling itself is a sort of doublespeak: accentuation on appearance rather than the item stands out strikingly from the bygone era food merchant who showed things in mass. Lighting impacts that blush meat, the waxing of natural product, and the alluring bundling are restorative; and like verbal doublespeak, they make a positive dream. Still photography, film, and TV are eminent media for tricky doublespeaks. . . . These media present a universe of idealized structures in which there is sentiment in the can bowl cleaner, verse in the sterile napkin, allurement in the tampon, and excellence in a glass of dentures.(Keith Allan and Kate Burridge, Euphemism and Dysphemism: Language Used as a Shield and Weapon. Oxford University Press, 1991) SharksAs refuse cheerful and strange as it sounds, the film [Spring Break Shark Attack] isnt simply one more heap of tired old sea shore bunk. For a certain something, the frightening parts truly are terrifying, enough with the goal that little children ought to be sent to their roomswhere, apparently, they can watch the less threatening oceanic tricks of SpongeBob SquarePants. . . .At the point when a mostly gobbled shark casualty cleans up inland, for instance, he truly resembles an incompletely eaten shark casualty, not the scoured up visual doublespeak of TV times passed by. Is this advancement? Wellkinda?(Tom Shales, Cue the Shark Music and Prepare to Be Scared. The Washington Post, March 19, 2005) Sexual EncountersVictorian books and pictures often highlight a lady enthroned on a gentlemans knee as a visual code word for sexual experience. In spite of the fact that William Holman Hunts acclaimed picture The Awakening Conscience (1854) demonstrated that the fallen lady recapture d her ethical conviction by indicating her in the demonstration of ascending from her darlings knee, numerous photos and stories praised the cheerful spouse, held by her better half on his knee as both darling and child.(Judith Farr, The Passion of Emily Dickinson. Harvard University Press, 1992) Double dealing and SecrecyThere is no uncertainty that some code word includes measurements of misleading and mystery. What's more, on account of the visual code word the dream is extremely viable. Its in every case a lot harder to demonstrate distortion when a case is communicated non-verbally; as such, not in propositional language with real things and action words. The visual code word can be significantly more sneaky.(Kate Burridge, Weeds in the Garden of Words: Further Observations on the Tangled History of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2005)