Origins of Lipstick on Pig

Posted in: Lipstick by weddingcometrue | June 12th 2009 | no comments

The expression “Lipstick on Pig” is a colloquialism that tends to disguise the true nature of a product by changing it in superficial ways. The Origins of the expression date from around the 20th century. The first time the two word, lipstick and pig, were put together was in 1926 when Charles F. Lummis in the Los Angeles Times wrote that “Most of us know as much of history as a pig does of lipsticks”. However, the expression putting Lipstick on Pig and its real meaning was discovered much later. The actual phrase was reported in 1985 when “The Washington Post” quoted a San Francisco radio host while remarking: "That would be like putting lipstick on a pig" in reference to the plans of refurbish Candlestick Park rather than constructing a new stadium for the San Francisco Giants.

The Origins of Lipstick on Pig were used by Victoria Clarke, who was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under Donald Rumsfeld, who published a book about spin in politics and titled it: “Lipstick on a Pig: Winning In the No Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game”. The book discussed upon the fact that the spin does not work in an age of transparency because the truth will come up anyway: “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig” she stated.

In the recent years the phrase has been used in political discourses in order to insinuate and criticize a political opponent who tries to reuse established policies and even present them as being new. The Lipstick on Pig expression has been used by many US politicians including the Democratic nominee Barack Obama and the Republican nominee John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Elections.

“Lipstick on Pig” expression is used to reveal the truth from any statement and because in political argues it means to repack established policies and then present them as new, one can think that is almost ironical due to the fact that politicians constantly renew their promises every four years in order to be reelected. Such expressions make the beauty of speech and people tend to like more a discourse if it is written in their colloquial language.

Either is used for political discourses or for making a statement, “Lipstick on Pig” has more and more popularity nowadays maybe because an expression can be interpreted as wanted and some public persons do not have the courage to say the exact words they want to say because they do not want to be bad interpreted. In order to be understood but not judged for their discourses, some adopt a language full of retorical expressions because they are the perfect getaway if things tend to complicate and the media to exaggerate.