I don’t know if it’s just me, but modern language seems to be becoming more of a minefield to navigate every day.
I’m not talking about words that have become familiar since Chaucerian times; I’m referring to terms – since as recently as 2000 – that no longer mean what they used to.
Many have wept at the grave of cursive writing, and those same people no doubt wring their hands at the sight of sentences rife with acronyms. I’ve got the hang of most of the popular ones, but for some reason, GOAT just never seems to stick.
Anyway, it was only this week when my BFF Lynne casually asked over a dining table if I’d heard about this trend of passengers ‘rawdogging’ on planes. I gasped, looking furtively around for the proximity of young ears. If she meant what I thought she did, how could an act like that become a TikTok thing for air travel? Had the mile-high club been taken to the next level? I was practically reaching for my smelling salts.
Well, it turns out that making whoopee has nothing to do with it. Apparently, rawdogging (in this case) is referring to a super fun challenge where travellers spend entire flights sitting and staring. No films, no games, no sleep … not even a visit to the toilets. Honestly, how is this trending?
Google the term, and rather than the warnings of yesteryear about explicit content popping up, you’ll instead be greeted by a sea of catatonic faces hashtagging their boast over barely moving in an airline seat for nine hours. Erm … hurrah … ? Beyond the fact that I cannot fathom anything worse on a long-hauler, imagine being the person sitting next to them; like sharing a row with an extra from ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’.
As usual, the medical experts are weighing in on this latest ‘alarming’ idea, and they are not fans. Rumours have been bandied about that it may have started with the blameless Idris Elba and his role in the series ‘Hijacked’. His character is left sans basic creature comforts as he flies from Dubai to London. Ask Idris, the coolest of the cool, how much he would have enjoyed that, and the answer probably would have been #****off.
I went right down the rabbit hole on this one, and found influencers bragging about no water and no food – among the other amenities they had denied themselves – as they sat in the same restrictive chair for over 10 hours. They only allowed their eyes a long look at the safety card. I guess, in an emergency, at least one person on board could have stepped in like a pro.
Just as passengers are trying to find more ways to make hours on a plane bearable, this lot are countering all their ideas … on purpose. Actually, considering how the airlines seem to be slowly squeezing travellers – literally and figuratively – on almost every flight these days, one might wonder if they are behind this bonkers idea. “First we get them used to no drinks service, then we hit them with the #flyingintheoverheadbin challenge.”
I mean, hey, if rawdogging is how you want to spend hours in the sky, it’s up to you, but is risking severe dehydration really the way forward? If you desperately need to use the toilet, would you rather pee surreptitiously into a sick bag or bottle so as not to break the rules?
By the way, you can go all in with ‘rawdogging’ if you really want to – all the biscuits – because, as discovered on the wise web, the term can be used in many different ways. According to an article in The New York Times, it “has been adopted to describe almost any activity accomplished without the assistance of a buffer. Now, you can rawdog the flu by refusing medication; you can rawdog cooking by not using a recipe; you can even rawdog life, by being sober.” Dynamite.
I seriously wonder if I can keep up with these ever-changing words and phrases, lest I use one of them incorrectly in a sentence. It is insane how quickly these things can catch on and gain real traction, thanks to the reach of social media. I tell you, if ‘Clueless’ had existed in this day and age, Gretchen Wieners would definitely have been able to make ‘fetch’ happen, with or without Regina George’s approval.
Speaking of Wieners, I’ve made my decision as to whether I’ll try this whole notion of sitting on a plane motionless from takeoff to touchdown. I am not rawdogging it. I want my dog to be as cooked as possible. I want sleep, food, beverages, movies, and a direct path to the toilets.
I’m choosing to #hotdog it. Let the TikTok posts begin.
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