humanewashing
English edit
Etymology edit
humane + -wash + -ing, following the established pattern of greenwashing, pinkwashing, purplewashing, and similar forms (which came ultimately from the figurative-extension sense of whitewashing as "slapping a paintjob over the truth to hide it and to give a specious nice appearance"); this form also rhymes with brainwashing, as does sustainwashing.
Noun edit
humanewashing (uncountable)
- (gerund counterpart to, and coeval with, the present participial verb form) The humaneness (animal welfare) analogue of greenwashing.
- 2021 January 19, Lisa Held, “Are Some Animal Welfare Labels 'Humanewashing'?”, in Civil Eats[1], retrieved 2021-09-13:
- Now, a new report from the anti-factory farming group Farm Forward seeks to outline the differences between independent and industry animal welfare labels and expose what it calls “humanewashing” among both types of groups. Like the now widely recognized practice of “greenwashing,” Farm Forward says that companies use humanewashing to deceive consumers who care about animal rights, leading them to believe animals were raised according to their expectations of humane treatment even when they were not.
Verb edit
humanewashing
- present participle and gerund of humanewash