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The Olympics of Euphemisms for "Groin" (#MakeoverMonday)



As part of the #MakeoverMonday series, I reworked a FiveThirtyEight study on what words and phrases different media types use when they are trying (or failing) to avoid saying "groin." For some reason, this is a mild taboo in broadcasting, even though everyone who has ever played sports at any level has gotten hit in the groin at least once.

I decided to use an Olympic theme, because we're almost to the kickoff of the Rio Summer Games, and because it gave me the chance to make little "event" icons for each euphemism, as though every different circumlocution were its own competition. I gave each media type medals based on total uses of the euphemism and percentage of uses (that is, if they used 20 total euphemisms, how often did they lean on any one particular one).


It's no surprise that the new media went blue, with "junk," "dick," and "balls" solidly in the Deadspin/Bleacher Report/SB Nation camp. Meanwhile, "private area," "nether region," and "below the belt" were favorites of CBS Sports and old media (newspapers and the like).

I was disappointed that the study skewed so American; I was looking forward to some British euphemisms like "meat and two veg," "plums," "twig and berries," or "gentlemen's tackle;" alas, they were nowhere to be found.

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