Metaphors We Live By
Metaphors are phrases we use to compare things and express ideas. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s “Metaphors We Live By” explain the importance and frequency of metaphors in our daily lives. We use metaphors all the time in everyday speech that a lot of us aren’t even aware of. A great example of a metaphor would be the phrase “Argument is War.” We know that a war is when people fight over something, using strategy to defeat others and win. We then take this idea of war and apply its principles to our definition of arguments. Another example would be the common phrase “time is money.” Everyone knows money has value, its a resource. This phrase tells us that time also holds a lot of value and is a useful resource. This proves why metaphors are so useful and common throughout everyday speech; they are great ways of quickly getting an idea across to others. The text then goes on to discuss what Michael Reddy calls the “conduit metaphor.” Reddy explains that linguistic expressions are the containers for ideas and “communication” is sending these containers to others. However, the conduit metaphor is not a perfect exlpanation as some metaphors do need prior context in order to make any sense or have actual meaning.
I never realized quite how common metaphors were in daily life. It would actually be difficult to go a day without using a metaphor. This reading also made me understand just how useful they are and how much they can affect us, especially when the phrase “argument is war” was brought up. If you know the aspects of one concept, a metaphor helps you bring those aspects over to another similar concept and create your own understanding of it. Metaphors can shape the way we think of things and provide the structure of our ideas and comprehension of something.
The Egg and the Sperm
“The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles” by Emily Martin discusses how stereotypical gender roles made their way into explanations of biology. There several times where the reproductive and biological processes of women are depicted as weaker or inferior to those of males. Certain word choices and phrasing put female reproductions in a more unfavorable portrayal and make male processes far more impressive. The first example would be the explanation of menstruation. The uterine lining is described as “debris”, dead tissue that needs to be expelled. It implies that the system has gone awry or expired. Menstruation is also explained to happen due to “failure” to get pregnant. The male reproductive system, however is described more to amaze and be viewed as something more impressive. Medical texts state that if seminiferous tubules were uncoiled, they would span one-third of a mile and also that males can produce millions of sperm everyday. Some texts also go on to describe some women’s organs as becoming “battered” and “worn” from ripening eggs every month. Later, Martin also brings up that female reproductive processes are also described as “wasteful” since women are born with millions of egg cells but only a few hundred ever end up being released. However, male processes are never expressed the same way, even though male processes are actually much more wasteful. Men are able to produce millions of sperm everyday, while only a few are ever used to impregnate throughout a lifetime. Sperm is also depicted in a masculine manner, described as “strong” and “efficiently powered” to find an egg and penetrate it, while the egg is described very passively, being “swept along” or “drifting” to the uterus.
I found this reading interesting because it pointed out things I wouldn’t normally notice. It is pretty odd that female reproductive processes is described to be so much more passive and overall negative than male processes. Stereotypes can appear and be reinforced in places you wouldn’t expect, and you also wouldn’t even notice. It was surprising to read as one would expect medical texts to be a lot more objective about this and not so strangely sexist when describing biological differences between men and women. The texts, however, do showcase the importance of metaphor and how they affects us. Martin’s text connects with Lakoff and Johnson’s this way. With simple word choices and phrasing, female reproduction is depicted in a far more negative light than male reproduction and has a subtle affect on the way we think of them.
