Animal speak
Creative and engaging, these riddles made way for animals to be further characterized and used in our vernacular. Eventually, some sayings and proverbs that feature animals also surfaced:
The sayings are obviously twopronged: They have surface meaning and intended meaning.
The second saying is brief but it quickly brings knife to the heart. Like in the first proverb, the quote is not at all directed at snakes. But the characteristics of both the jungle and the snakes are used to drive another point: that vile, poisonous creatures live in the unruly wilderness.
I can only imagine how the first person to say this thought of this expression. Was he thinking of a sloppy neighbor? A deceitful person who lives with other unlikeable people? Whereas a city is a civilized place for decent people, a jungle, in contrast, can be seen as the complete opposite – an uncivilized place, filled with animals who cannot be taught to act human.
At this point, you might be saying, “So, what?”
Who cares if we use not-so-animal-friendly phrases a few times a week? Where is the harm in that? We don’t actually bully puppies in real life whenever we equate blind followers to them. In fact, what we see as a likable quality in puppies only turns sour when applied to a human being. What’s the worry?
As tools in society, language and rhetoric not only reflect our worldview, but also shape it. It is a vicious cycle if we use language that is divisive, discriminatory, and demeaning. When we say, “Our Congress is teeming with crocodiles in barong tagalogs,” we are not only providing critique of the legislature, but also reinforcing the idea that crocodiles are greedy creatures. And this idea isn’t at all true!
For our 411, crocodiles only eat once to thrice a week, and consume only what their body needs. Unlike human beings who consciously take more than what they need or what isn’t rightfully theirs (big oof), animals, such as crocs, do not succumb to this ironically very human tendency.
In a very similar way, equating a person who is lacking in either intelligence or courage to a chicken (“He’s got chicken brain!” and “Can’t do it? What a chicken!”) paints actual chickens as brainless and cowardly, which further perpetuates cruelty and violence against them.
Likewise, when we see pigs as squalid beasts who eat garbage rather than intelligent creatures (even smarter than dogs) who can think, feel, and remember, it makes it easier for many of us to treat them badly. Whom we don’t see as individuals like us, we can, without hesitation, see as inferior – beings who do not deserve the same consideration and respect we give to our own species.