I Daresay there are lots of ways to skin a cat

As students of language, we’ve been keeping an eye on the cancel culture obsession with not only shutting down genuinely offensive language (a good thing), but also highly effective, old-fashioned metaphors, phrases that really pack a punch. And fail completely when we declaw, defang, spay, and/or neuter them with safe language. See below…

There are lots of ways to skin a cat

No, not literally! Of course, I’m not speaking of sharpening an ax, pulling out surgical instruments, and peeling the soft furry skin off of a cat. I’m using a metaphor to explain that there are different ways to solve any problem.?

Maybe I have offended a few of the cat lovers of the world, but I think nearly all readers will understand what I’m getting at, and I hope we can move on from there.?

More and more frequently, however, some of us can’t—or won’t—move on. In the interest of correctness, we’re sniffing out offense in almost everything we hear. If we don’t understand the imagery, we suspect foul intent. If the metaphor incorporates violence in any form, we get skittish and cancel it.

The Universal Impact of Metaphors

Which is unfortunate because it just so happens that, linguistically, metaphors are some of the most powerful tools we have to communicate complex ideas in understandable ways.

?Scholars like Berkeley professor George Lakoff even believe metaphor is fundamental to the ways conceptual thought and language work in the brain.

?Metaphors communicate in such concise, impactful ways. Lakoff and his fellow researchers even hypothesize that a lot of our so-called “abstract” thought incorporates “metaphorical thought.” So, metaphors aren’t just convenient ways to communicate ideas; they often help us grasp concepts on a deeper level than any other communication tool available.

?Before you “shoot the messenger,” let’s be clear here—There are definitely excessively violent and racially insensitive metaphors that should be tossed.

?If you’re just relocated to the U.S. from your firm’s Guadalajara office and hear the term “Mexican Standoff” on your first day, you might be justified in feeling uncomfortable. I would.

And in our increasingly violent society, we might want to cut down on our use (or overuse) of gun-based metaphors. However, absolutists would say useful expressions like “shooting fish in a barrel,” “silver bullet” (cause they’re killing our precious werewolves), “bulletproof,” and “I shot myself in the foot,” should be canceled too. Frequency matters as well. If you’re wondering, “Do I use too much gun/sword/knife-based imagery around the office?” you might want to track your “body count” and dial it back the “trigger happy” or “firing squad” references.

?Too Important to Lose

In recent years more people have decided to interpret metaphors literally and choose to take offense. Yes, we could bend to this strident minority and choose weaker forms of communication, but metaphors just take up too much space in our linguistic toolbox to let them fade away. We use them because they work.

?Of course, context matters, but so does the mindset of the recipient. Metaphors can sometimes be inappropriate or excessive. (There are certainly better phrases than “He held a gun to my head,” unless you’re actually in debt to the mob).

?However, many of them are powerful tools when users want to frame complex ideas simply. And in a world of miscommunication, we need them.

?Looking at both sides of his issue, as listeners, we have to take some responsibility when discerning intent, without going out of our way to find malice. A great cultural norm for organizations is for all of us to try to separate metaphor from offense and understand that metaphors are mental models that allow for more effective communication.?

?Offense is about the intent of the speaker, not the unintended impact of the metaphor. Yes, there are boundaries, and there are metaphors that are off-limits, but if we assume good intent, we will all get along better.??

I tackled this topic from a different angle in an opinion piece published in Forbes in September and more lightly on LinkedIn, discussing language and the bias crisis at tone-deaf LuluLemon .? For a deeper dive into the cognitive science of metaphors, check out George Lakoff’s Frontiers in Human Neuroscience article “Mapping the brain's metaphor circuitry: metaphorical thought in everyday reason.”