Despite what people may think, metaphors play major roles in the communications of ideas throughout everyday life. It plays a role in language and how ideas are conveyed to others using certain types of phrases and words. Metaphors are not just words that are used to compare things, rather it is used to convey the writer’s ideas by allowing readers to interpret and analyze the metaphor to convey the most meaning out of it. In writing, an author’s ideas are put into the metaphor so that the readers would get the same messages that the author was intending to express. Metaphors are concepts, which can be further explained in order to convey a certain idea. It can be found everywhere in life, as concepts are a common idea in almost every aspect of life. In “Arguments of War”, the concept can be interpreted in many ways depending on the context in which this text is analysed as. One interpretation could be about the wins and loses of arguments. On the other hand, it might not even be seen as an act of war, despite it having the word “war” in its name. The words “argument” and “war”, might convey a general idea to viewers, however, it can also be interpreted in many different ways while still having that general idea in those various interpretations. Another text is “Time is Money”, which can also be interpreted in many ways as well, with the main concept of the relation between time and money. People can interpret it as wasting time is wasting money, or in an example of wages that the more time you work the more money you would receive. This can be seen in everyday lives as the economy plays a role in lives every day, as money is a commodity for people. Metaphors play a big role in the interpretation of concepts that occur in everyday lives and are able to be interpreted in many different ways while still retaining a common concept.

In “The Egg and the Sperm”, the idea of feminism comes to mind when the article addresses the relationship of both the egg and sperm sex cells during the process of fertilization.  There are many ideas that are presented throughout the study of sexual reproduction, that can reflect on the relations between women and men in real life. In the article, a concept that stood out to me was the idea of who was the aggressor in terms of the fertilization of sex cells. Initially, sperm seems to be the candidate as it is the one that travels throughout the woman reproductive system in order to find contact with an egg. The article uses terms that might suggest this such as when describing how during ejaculation, sperm is propelled into the vagina, with great velocity, and as the sperm finds the egg it uses its energy to penetrate it. These terms might suggest that sperm has a lot of power and force when it comes to this relationship, however, the same could be the same as the egg. In a different model, the egg would choose its ideal sperm, by capturing the sperm with its tethers by stopping the sperms speed and guides it towards the egg’s nucleus. In this case, it would seem as the egg has the most control, and shows that they are the aggressive ones in this relationship. This can be connected to the ideas presented in”Metaphors We Live By”, with the acts committed between the egg and sperm as a metaphor of how feminists act towards men, as feminists are often portrayed as aggressive towards men. The article also uses the phrase “woman as a dangerous and aggressive threat”, which shows the concept of feminism is a threat towards men. It is an example of a metaphor that can be interpreted as an act of feminism, by showing that similar agression towards men, or in this case the egg being agressive towards the sperm.

Metaphors are used everywhere not only in text and “Metaphors We Live By,” by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson tells us why it is important for us to understand where they came from. The text explains that metaphors come from the very idea of concept. What we perceive is all part of concept and if our concepts are metaphorical then it is safe to say that whatever we think and do are all metaphorical. Examples of metaphorical concepts such as “Argument is War” and “Time is Money” are all metaphors that we use from an understanding of a concept. Arguments can be described with the concept of war and time can be compared with the concept of how we value money. However, metaphorical concept is structured to be partial and not total because one concept is not actually the same as the other concept not an understanding of the concept. For example, an argument is not actually war. It is just that the concept of war can be the same as the concept of an argument. Similarly, time is not actually money but the saying “time is money” comes from the understanding that time is just as valuable as money. Personally, this explanation of metaphors was confusing, however, since I already knew what metaphors were, it was easy to understand what the authors were trying to say or what message they were trying to convey.

In “The Egg and The Sperm” by Emily Martin, the author emphasizes how gender stereotypes are present when explaining the egg and the sperm. One example is shown when the author talks about one explanation of menstruation and spermatogenesis. While menstruation was seen as a failure, spermatogenesis was praised.  This showed a gender stereotype because menstruation is similar to spermatogenesis in terms of producing something. Yet, menstruation is seen as something bad while spermatogenesis is seen as something good. THe author also points out that in some texts, the women’s reproductive cycle is explained with pretty much the opposite of enthusiasm while the men’s reproductive cycle is explained with pride. As a person who believes in gender equality, this is not acceptable. Men are always being praised for such small things while women are always degraded for small things. I’m sure most authors described the egg and the sperm by incorporating gender roles for people to understand better but that doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do. This can be very offensive to some people and these authors really need to find another way to explain it without creating controversy.

The two texts “Metaphors We Live By” and “The Egg and The Sperm” have one thing in common. What they have in common is the use of metaphors. While “Metaphors We Live By” explains why metaphors are used and how we can analyze it, “The Egg and The Sperm” is an actual example the utilization of metaphors. In “The Egg and The Sperm” they compare the egg and the sperm to gender roles. Gender roles and the reproductive system of humans have similar concepts which allow them to be compared to each other. The author also writes “The theory of the human body is always a part of a fantasy.“ in the first sentence of the text which already shows a metaphor by comparing the theory of the human body to fantasy. This is interesting because the author uses metaphor so that the reader can relate and understand it better and when I read it, I did understand and relate to it better which shows that the tactic of using metaphors really work.

Summary and Response: Metaphors We Live By

The major concept of “Metaphors We Live By,” by Lakoff and Johnson, talks about how metaphors aren’t strictly in writing or interpretation. Metaphors have been integrated into our culture as metaphorical concepts. Some examples the text gave were, “Argument is War,” and “Time is Money.” The idea of a metaphorical concept is that it structures what we understand and how we use that in getting our ideas across. The text gives examples of both of the metaphorical concepts and how these metaphorical concepts are used. I thought the section on “Time is Money,” was especially interesting. The text talked about how we view time as a commodity and therefore give it a value. The text then talks about how this metaphorical concept is only looked at to be true in our culture and society. The text says, “This isn’t a necessary way for human beings to conceptualize time; it is tied to our culture.” That got me thinking into what other metaphors do we live by that are unique to our culture. I would like to look more into that and see some of what other cultures metaphorical concepts are, and how they dictate their society.

 

Summary and Response: The Egg and The Sperm

While reading “The Egg and The Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles,” Martin focuses on the idea that the discussion of the egg and sperm reflect closely the typical stereotypes of males and females. In almost all depictions, the lifetime and actions of the egg are looked at as passive. Martin says, ” It (the egg) does not move or journey, but passively is swept” This is in contrast to how sperm are depicted, having to do with force and strength. Martin could find only 1 text where the sperm is not portrayed as typically “male,” which is in a movie. Later in the reading, Martin talks about how new research gives the egg a bigger role, but at the expense of making it seem hostile. She then goes on to talk about how although the egg is now given a greater role, it is still described with female stereotypes. The egg has become “hostile” and “traps the sperm.” I found this especially interesting, that with all the new technology that comes with this society, the egg is still given female stereotypes. One would think in this day, the process could be better described than with the attributes of a female, just because it occurs in a female body. I also found it very interesting that Martin could only find 1 text that didn’t describe the sperm with male stereotypes. It just furthers the argument that there will always be bias and stereotypes in society, no matter the advancements.

Connections

In “The Egg and The Sperm,” Martin uses many metaphors to help get her point across. One metaphor that specifically stood out to me was the comparison of the egg to a Queen. The egg was described as needing rescuing and the Sperm being the King, rescues the “Queen.” In “Metaphors We Live By, ” Lakoff and Johnson talk about how we use metaphorical concepets to structure what we do and how we understand what were doing. After reading this, you can infer that Martin uses this metaphor to help the reader understand how the egg is being portrayed in science. This metaphor helps Martin get her point across and helps her build her argument.

 

 

 

“Metaphors We Live By,” by George Lakoff & Mark Johnson                                                                                                          Summary: Metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, or so we think. Metaphors influence how we perceive things we see, read, and hear. The examples of “argument is war” and “time is money” are staples of American culture. Pop culture has normalized the connotations of metaphors thus making it easy to throw into everyday life. Metaphors can be taken literally and figuratively making them seem pervasive but in reality they are limited by context. Context includes time, setting, and audience. In certain cases, the meaning can be explicitly stated and context doesn’t matter, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Response: Word choice and context go hand-in-hand when trying to convey a message. Everyone has to be able to understand and/or not get offended for a metaphor to work. For example, when translating english to spanish you’d have to be in the know of the culture to be able to give a proper translation. A literal word-for-word translation might make zero sense.

“The Egg and the Sperm,” by Emily Martin                                                                                                                                        Summary: The author wrote the article to shine a light on the gender stereotypes hidden within the scientific language of biology. No matter the role of the egg it seems like women just can’t win when it comes  to biology. In one explanation menstruation can be viewed as a failure. It can be argued that menstruation makes useless products. Whereas, man is glorified for the process of spermatogenesis, the normal human male may manufacture several hundred million sperm per day.” The author makes the argument that biologists are hypocritical. She asks why the male’s vast production of sperm is not seen as wasteful. She wrote “assuming that a man “produces” 100 million  sperm per day during an average reproductive life of sixty years, he would produce well over two trillion sperm in his lifetime.” In another explanation where the egg has a larger and more active role, the word choice invites another cultural stereotype where women are a dangerous and aggressive threat.

Response: Once again I have been made aware of something that was hidden in plain sight. Before reading “The Egg and the Sperm” I wasn’t really aware of the word choices used to describe the interactions between an egg and sperm. However, by incorporating gender roles in nature it makes it easier to understand or makes it relatable. Even if they are bias towards man our understanding of the interactions remains intact, slightly misguided but overall intact.

Connections: The sentence from “Metaphors We Live By” that reads “these examples show that the metaphorical concepts we have looked at provide us with a partial understanding of what communication, argument, and time are and that, in doing this, they hide other aspects of these concepts” best describes the connection between the two texts. In “The Egg and the Sperm” the argument of gender roles hidden in scientific language really only works if your culture, such as the one in the U.S., has the open-mindedness of seeing women equal to men. In other countries this still isn’t the case and women are repressed to a smaller role in society.

Summary of both passages:

Metaphors are seen to be difficult and for those who focus on poetic and rhetorical language. However, the way people conceptualize uses metaphors by relating unknown ideas to known ideas in order to get an understanding. The conceptual system allows us to perform every day tasks and live our lives. People are unaware of this system because it takes no though but, it is this system that is used to communicate with others which is a necessary action. Concept metaphors are reflected in society because they are paired with/followed by reactions or expressions that describe such metaphors and give it meaning. The conduit metaphor consists of ideas/objects being put into words/containers and sent to others to reveal. Concept metaphors are presented in The Egg and The Sperm when talking about menstruation, ovulation and, spermatogenesis. The passage tells of the textbooks and written works that highlight the fact that sperm is produced by the millions however, the female system is not as exciting and does not produce. The passage explains that because of these descriptions, people have predetermined notions of the two reproductive systems. Society portrays the female system as inferior to the male system because it is finished at birth. The passage also raises the question of why the eggs are wasteful but the vast array of sperm does not hold that label. All in all, it is the language that textbook authors and others use to describe the processes that put forth the reaction to the concept metaphors.

Response to Metaphors We Live By:

The conceptual system can be thought of as instinct and/or common sense. I see it this way because we use the conceptual system to perform everyday tasks and go about our lives. This system is also used to determine what we say and how we react to certain things based on their concept metaphors which have already been placed in society. The example used about Argument is war was very interesting to me because I never actually realized that the term argument was won or lost just as a war however, the concept argument can be both negative and positive. The concept metaphor, in this case, can be the colloquial meaning of the concept. The use of the example Time is Money is an eyeopener because the world that New Yorkers live in is built on time. There is never enough time in the day to get everything we need to get done. This is an eye opener because the metaphorical concept has been too far imbedded into the society that no one can stop and smell the roses. The conduit metaphor, I find very analytical because it is such a simple process that happens in seconds however, when analyzed in this way it can be easily controlled and the way people speak can be understood.

Response to The Egg and the Sperm:

The passage is about the enthusiasm of sperm and its production compared to that of menstruation and ovulation. When reading this I was actually surprised because I thought ovulation and the female reproduction system itself was astounding. To read that the male reproductive system was more exciting in textbooks and other written works made me have a different opinion on what is being taught in biology classes. I think the term ‘menstruation’ is a concept metaphor because it is known as being invaluable and as waste. Society gives this concept metaphor a negative reaction and repels the idea of it. However, ovulation is not the same as menstruation and should be as interesting as spermatogenesis. I agree it is fascinating that a males tubules can produce millions of sperm but from my perspective, the ovary is much more valuable because it is much more rare/scarce.

According to the reading, “Metaphors We Live By” by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, our conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. We may think metaphors are just elements within a poetic literature, but we also use it in our every day lives. In simple terms, metaphors are found in our way of thinking and acting which help us connect concepts to conceptual metaphors. The reading gives an example of concepts connecting to a conceptual metaphor, “Argument is War.” We do not physically go to war when we make arguments, but we can use our knowledge of war and relate it to arguments. This allows us to describe an argument in terms of war. However, when we describe concepts with expressions from our conceptual metaphors, it can keep us from focusing on other aspects of the concept that can be inconsistent with that metaphor. On the other hand, conduit metaphors are more precise metaphorical concepts that can hide an aspect of our experience. Instead of losing cooperative aspects of the concept, it is more difficult to even notice there is a metaphor there. Even though we can tie a metaphorical expression to a concept, it would not make any sense if there isn’t any context given. Like the example given, “Please sit in the apple-juice seat”, and we do not know what the apple-juice seat is until it is defined somewhere in the text. The reading concludes metaphorical concepts can be extended beyond the range of literal ways of thinking and talking.

The reading, “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles” by Emily Martin, begins with a familiar fact that the male or female reproductive organs produce eggs and sperm which is then prepared in a suitable environment for it to be fertilized, resulting in a baby. The author complains there is no enthusiasm for such a story. The author also calls the female cycle a productive enterprise and menstruation is seen as a failure. One of the texts sees menstruation as a failure, but when male physiology is evaluated, it is considered remarkable because of its ability to produce several hundred million sperms per day, whereas a female only produces one gamete each month. Martin expresses irony when she explains the mass production of sperm is not seen as wasteful, but when a woman “ripens” one of her eggs and it is not fertilized, it is a waste. Throughout the reading, Martin brings forth more microscopic activities these cells have and focuses majorly on the process when a sperm cell interacts with an egg.

From what I read from both of these readings, I noticed that in the “The Egg and the Sperm” reading, the author uses metaphors throughout the entire text. The metaphor that stood up the most to me was the linkage of an egg to a woman. According to the research conducted in the text, the egg is brought up as a cultural stereotypical: a woman as a dangerous and aggressive threat. Who would’ve thought that an egg is an aggressive sperm-catcher and is likened to a femme fatale? If an egg can be connected to a conceptual metaphor, I can be confident that many other concepts that can be linked to conceptual metaphors.