Animals in the Vernacular
While driving to work one day, out of frustration I heard myself say aloud to another driver "you're driving like a turtle", "move along little doggie". It bothers me to drive slowly since there are many other places I prefer to be than in a car.
What bothered me more that day was that in one sentence I used animals as similies twice. It occurred to me how many times I have said: he works like a horse, who let the cat out of the bag, eats like a pig, like water off a duck's back, he's a little ham, scaredy cat, and feeling sheepish. Most of us have grown up with language that uses animals as analogies, similies and metaphors and have not given much notice to how demoralizing it is to use animals in a negative context.