I keep seeing news stories about people being "shamed". Mom-shamed, fat-shamed, everything-under-the-sun-shamed. Setting aside issues with so-called journalists using this type of informal language, I want to address a certain subset of these stories. The ones in which the person is "shamed" but then they "clap back" and triumph.
If I try to kill someone and they fight me off, I don't get arrested for murder. I get arrested for attempted murder. These headlines should say "XXXX shuts down attempted shaming" instead of "XXXX gets mom-shamed and claps back". Not only is that accurate, it's more concise.
I suppose I can forgive the casual language in human interest stories, but this one makes me giggle every time. Maybe I'm being pedantic. I should be glad they aren't spreading exaggerations of what politicians did or said. But instead, I'm reporter-shaming. I wonder if any of them will clap back.
