Phrases I Hate, Example #1

"Giving voice to the voiceless"

Why do I hate this?  Because it is denying that oppressed and marginalized people already have voices and opinions.  It is very, very paternalistic.  Rather than pointing out that these people are not being listened to, are not fairly being given access to platforms, are harassed when they speak, etc. it pretends that the people at issue have nothing to say for themselves and no opinions of themselves and need a privileged person to tell other privileged people what the oppressed people's needs are in order to "rescue" them.

This phrase is almost never appropriate, so I decided to try and think of times when it would not actually be used in a foolish privileged way:

1) Talking about non-human animals 

"Hey, everybody, I'm totally giving a voice to these voiceless bees!"

2) Fictional Characters

"The new writer gave that wizard a voice where before the series had made the character rather voiceless."

3) Autotune

"Autotune gives a good voice even to those who have no voice at all."

4) Hallucinations about inanimate objects

"That acid I was tripping on gave a voice to the voiceless stuffed animals."