I know the meaning of MMMBop

First of all, The Language War by Robin Lakoff is so much easier to understand and to read than Ramage's Rhetoric. (And I have to add that I feel sorry for anyone who pays $37.60 for this book... I'm sad that I paid $18.44 for it...) In all honesty, reading Ramage made me want to do bad things. (Ok.. I'm sorry; I'm horrible. No more Ramage talk.) Anyway, Lakoff is able to explain things in a way that I can understand. She keeps me engaged by using things I'm actually interested in as examples, such as movies like Thelma and Louise or The Godfather.

The only part of her book that I absolutely did not like AT ALL, was her introduction. While reading it, thoughts of Ramage came back, and I think I may have cried a little. However, I still decided to continue on to the first chapter (probably because I didn't want to fail this class) and was impressed. I knew what she was saying, and I wasn't bored!

The first thing I found intriguing was when she explained that apologies, and non-apologies, are also a part of language and can be interpreted in many different ways depending on what is said and how it is said. This brings me to the cat example that Lakoff uses. While each sentence is a form of apology, they progressively get worse and lay the blame on different people. Lakoff explains that politicians use a similar form of this "non-apology"--what they say may seem apologetic, but they either don't mean it or are only saying it to get people off their back. Public apologies are meant to make the person apologizing look good and seem sincere without degrading themselves.

The next part that I liked was "Meaning and Marking" in Chapter 2. We associate different words and phrases to mean different things. Lakoff uses the examples of the word "normal" to mean natural, simple, or expected.

"The baby cried.

The mother picked it up."

However, we find it very bizarre to read,

"The baby cried.

The mother ate a salami sandwich."

Immediately, thoughts form in our heads that this woman must be a horrible mother (No Wire Hangers!), even though we have no background information to the tale. Is the father tending to the child? Are we speaking of a different mother than that of THIS child? Or is the mother trying to break the child of an excessive crying habit? Once we hear a word or phrase that does not sound "normal" or "pleasing," we are so quick to reject it, and are even fast to deem it "abnormal" or "crazy."

This brings me to my own example. When many people from my generation hear the name Hanson, the word MMMBop almost immediately fills their mind. Then the moans and groans usually follow, along with a picture of 3 blond boys that "look and sound like girls." Because of these negative connotations that started NINE YEARS ago, many are still skeptical of the band and fail to give them half a chance. Although they don't sing songs like MMMBop anymore, and have cut their long blond hair off, and are now all married (to women, by the way), the meaning of the word "Hanson" to many people is still, "That stupid MMMBop song."

My example could also be used in "Making Words, Making Sense" in Chapter 3. Lakoff argues that definition is more ambiguous than it is neutral, and that it could be used or manipulated to help powerful people gain more power. Immediately, my mind trails to the phrase "death tax." While a death tax is the exact same as an estate tax, that one small change in the wording causes a freak out among some Americans who have no reason to be angry.

The last part of the reading that really grabbed my attention was in the beginning of Chapter 4 when Lakoff makes an example of Thelma and Louise. The last thing I ever thought of when watching the movie was if people were offended by the fact that these women are freakin' awesome. While I have no problem with any of the content of the movie, it was kind of shocking to learn that there were mixed feelings about it when it first came out. Lakoff says that most women who saw the movie cheered at how Thelma and Louise handled their different situations (and by handling, I mean shooting people and driving off a cliff), while most critics and men questioned whether it was appropriate to portray women to behave in a violent manner such as this. Not only that, but Lakoff mentions that, through the issue of sexual harassment in Thelma and Louise, the movie also brought up the fact that

"too many men treat women as

children, sex objects, or possessions."

Lakoff says that because of the popularity of the movie, it

"universalized the problem,

presenting it from a female perspective, and gave

us a language, visual and verbal, in which to discuss it."

The language of sexual harassment came about because of one movie... what a beautiful thing.

All in all, I do like Robin Lakoff's The Language War, and not just because it isn't Ramage. Lakoff does an excellent job in keeping her readers engaged, and in displaying her information in a way that is easy to understand and even easier to follow. I, for one, love any book that gives me a reason to use Hanson as an example... Although, maybe I'm just an obsessed psycho...