ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

    Yesterday, I mentioned that I found a pretty interesting website, and that the author is somewhat like me, full of sarcasm and good at throwing shade. 

    So, what exactly is throwing shade?  It’s actually an art of sidelong insult.  An insult that is not blatantly direct to someone; rather, it is a subtle and indirect way to ridicule someone verbally or nonverbally, and at its most refined, it should have an element of plausible deniability.    

    So, what is plausible deniability? The ability to deny blame because evidence does not exist to confirm responsibility for an action. The lack of evidence makes the denial credible. The use of the tactic implies foresight, which could be to intentionally set up conditions to conceivably avoid responsibilities.

    With the ability to deny plausibly, it makes throwing shade even more gratifying.  However, there could be instances where some people don’t get that they are being shaded.  In that case, you might be casting pearls before swine (對牛彈琴)

Written by Elisa English

On October 3, 2019 in Minneapolis