Thursday, February 12, 2009

Barbers change

Heard about latest SRK movie? It was named 'Billu Barber'. The barbers' association demanded the name be changed on the context that the word 'barber' is derogatory. They prefer to be addressed as hair stylist or hair dressers. (Not sure what they call their association).

The word 'barber' seem to have gone through a phase of euphemism. It is going out. The word got enough negativity that it got to be pulled off. Another classic word in Indian context is about addressing the SC/ST community. Olden day nomenclature went with 'Sudras'. That is a big no no. Gandhian era gave a name as 'Harijan', to mean god's people. These days people get offended with harijan. Preferable word today is 'dalits'.

I guess there is nothing wrong in words. It is the context and meaning we fix the words. Many neutral words gather negativity and slowly the neutrality usage drops out. Only negative context associates with the word. After a while, we start looking for a new word to mean the old thing.

It is highly probable that the word 'style' becomes negative charged because of these barbers, oh sorry .. the hair stylists.

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