Metaphor / Euphemism

Question

"kind of like the dumpy, middle-aged southern housewife who was never got onto the cheerleading team, and then obsessively pushes her own kids to pursue the life she never had."

'bad metaphor' is a euphemism here...

I understand the first paragraph but I don't understand the meaning of

'bad metaphor' is a euphemism here...

From the dictionary:

Metaphor: One thing conceived as representing another;

Euphemism: The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive.

Thanks.

Kilimanjaro · Accepted Answer

Yh2665
"kind of like the dumpy, middle-aged southern housewife who was never got onto the cheerleading team, and then obsessively pushes her own kids to pursue the life she never had."

'bad metaphor' is a euphemism here...

I understand the first paragraph but I don't understand the meaning of

'bad metaphor' is a euphemism here...

From the dictionary:

Metaphor: One thing conceived as representing another;

Euphemism: The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive.

Thanks.

"Dumpy" : resembling a garbage dump . My presumption: " the woman mentioned in the sentence is likened to a *****." And the writer seems to be mediating between a sense of humiliation and praise for her (Perhaps he has pity for her; probably because of her long sought but unfulfilled desire to be a cheerleader) . It is a mediocre description of her. In that case it is the least humiliating definition of a woman who is immoral or ill-repute"

Mind you! I am not a native speaker!!

BarbaraPA · Answer

Kilimanjaro
"Dumpy" : resembling a garbage dump . My presumption: " the woman mentioned in the sentence is likened to a *****." And the writer seems to be mediating between a sense of humiliation and praise for her (Perhaps he has pity for her; probably because of her long sought but unfulfilled desire to be a cheerleader) . It is a mediocre description of her. In that case it is the least humiliating definition of a woman who is immoral or ill-repute"

No no! Dumpy is used to to describe a woman is who plump, perhaps even fat, who doesn't dress at all stylishly, who doesn't really attend to her appearance...it does not at ALL mean that she is a prostitute.

But I'm sorry, I don't know what the writer meant about the bad metaphor. An archtype, perhaps, but not a metaphor.

Likeguslee · Answer

This seems to be the comment of one writer about a written paragraph penned by another.

The critic probably objected to the metaphor used “like XXXXX….”, and so in his opinion, even if he said that was a bad metaphor, he was still kind to the first writer. This is because his criticism, couched in the bland criticism “bad metaphor here” is still considered as a “euphemism”.

CalifJim · Answer

I don't think you have given us enough of the preceding material for us to understand it either.

In itself, however, the final sentence means that to call the preceding words (... kind of like the dumpy, ...) an example of a bad metaphor would be too charitable to the one who wrote them; it is in fact an atrocious metaphor (whatever it is -- not enough text is given to know).

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

To me, the words "'bad metaphor' is a euphemism here..." in the above quote would better convey the author's intention if rephrased as follows:

"to say that this metaphor is bad is to give it too much credit"

- in other words, so as not to appear "harsh, blunt or offensive", he refers to the awful metaphor as merely bad - obviously still a strong criticism which can only make the reader speculate as to what he REALLY thinks of it!

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