Sunday, December 21, 2008

"Beating around the bush" or: The linguistics of menstruation.



As a copywriter who oftentimes has to squeeze the most complex information in a three word headline, I'm always curious about how other people deal with limited space. One of the most interesting subjects to me are the signs in public ladies' restrooms (or "women's toilets"?). Most of them favor political correctness over clarity and thus really beat around the bush. "All feminine products" – does that include lipstick, high heels and hair ties? The term "foreign materials" makes me think of biohazard and sounds as martial as "feminine protection". Please send in the special forces to take care of those alien subjects. I wonder if sign writers are all male and find using the expressions "tampon" or "sanitary napkin" embarrassing. Let's be crazy. Let's break a taboo! TAMPON, TAMPON, TAMPON! Isn't that amazingly accurate? I say: There is no such thing as a bad word. Period.