Truemors
Digg
del.icio.us
AddToAny
Write
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
What words do you hate?
by Rob Peters | May 20, 2008 at 04:47 pm | 510 views | 9 comments | 5 recommendations
by jordan
Art student Rebecca Lamarre asked people around Vancouver to list their most hated words for her graduating project at Emily Carr University. Among other discoveries, she found that many of us arbitrarily hate words describing female body parts--an observation ripe for analysis.
What words do you hate?
"I Don't Like the Word: An Investigation of Language Bias in Vancouver, British Columbia" is the Dadaist experiment the 21-year-old Lamarre devised for Emily Carr's annual undergraduate show. By placing envelopes at select locations around Vancouver, with an invitation for passersby to jot down their most reviled words, she hoped to prod respondents into clearing their linguistic detritus.
What Lamarre wasn't expecting was that, from South Granville to Commercial Drive, from tattoo parlours to acting schools, almost everyone hated the same words.
"It's all to do with female body parts," says Lamarre, "which I think is really shocking -- I live a very sheltered art school existence, so I don't even think that it's a problem, ever, and then I go out into the real world and I [realize], 'Oh, people still really have a lot of issues with this.'"
She discovered that words we do like include "horse," "mango," "chocolate" and "aurora."
Whether the words were positive or negative, some respondents related simply to their sound. Others focused more on meaning.
"The one that was the most distinct was the women's only gym," says Lamarre, "and it was all words like 'fat' and 'ugly' and 'stupid.' It was so depressing."
At a wellness centre on Commercial Drive, the word 'hate' showed up four times -- proof, says Lamarre, "that art is always political."
May 20, 2008 at 04:47 pm by Rob Peters, 510 views, 9 comments
Crowd Power
jordan
Toronto, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (9)
at 22:45 on May 20th, 2008
Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. I know she was looking for a Word Only, but comeon, what about phrases of non sensical Babbling by those, who love to use Bandwagon words. For instance I hate the phrase "Get the Butter" unless the Woman I am with has something else in mind, and of course there are so many words I hate, media sales cliches and political cliches, which political parties use in almost every sentence usually means the public is about to get screwed such as:
Words used by Real Estate Sale Morons such as:
Words The Public hear continually on a daily basis in this city
Restaurant Menu
Special Interest Groups with long sounding utterly friggin retarded and ridiculous handles such as:
"The Concerned Citizens Coalition of Sustainable Traffic Calming Initiatives for Eco Tourism Density Framework for Green Spaces. Or the "TCCCSTCIETDFGS"
I heard this group a few months back on CKNW, now you tell me WTF , TW+T for Brains Group thought that Jewel up? Sometimes ya just gotta say will you people just "Shut the **** Up.
Only in BC, the Land of the Ludicrous!
at 05:06 on May 21st, 2008
One of my least-favorite phrases is "please be patient". It always invokes the opposite response for me.
at 07:00 on May 21st, 2008
Any groups of words spoken to me by an automated system, instructing me to keep pressing numbers, trapping me in a cyber loop, until I'm right back where I started!
at 07:08 on May 21st, 2008
I. Totally? Agree. Automated. Voicemail menus? Annoy me.
(One time I was caught in an endless series of voice prompts and swore at the voice-bot, telling it to, uh, perform a physically impossible auto-erotic act... It replied, "I'm sorry, I cannot help you with that". Oh, how I laughed.
at 07:17 on May 21st, 2008
Oh, oh, my FAVORITE! After repeating myself, at least twice, as clearly and succinctly as possible, to no avail, then pressing '0' for an operator, the voice informs me I've made an incorrect entry, says goodbye and hangs up!
at 14:25 on May 21st, 2008
Okay Jordan, in my quest for one upmanship on the subject of voice recognition and automation, have you ever dialed 411. And gone through the automated voice response of "City and Province please", "Business or Personal"? , Please state the name of the business you wish to contact? So I say, Vancouver Police, the automated response interprets this and says I think you are saying " Grandmas Dentistry and Bacon Wraps" is this correct? I say NO!!!! then the automated voice says, "I'm sorry what was that name again?".
Frustrated "I yell into my cell phone, "You are a complete Idiot!!". The automated voice then says, "Premier Campbells Office" please hold, while I connect you.....
at 14:00 on May 21st, 2008
Oh God Karen, doesn't that just make you want to get a gun and shoot your cell phone?
All I want to hear is Hi, I'm not available, please leave a short message.
What I detest are for Urgent delivery press # * fish, stand on one foot, fart !!
Or the ones who think you are really, really brain dead and go into a long list of other options, such as if you want to leave a message press 1,2,3,4,5,6,76,y,u,i,o,op, if you want to leave a call back number press &(9P-+222#_)
Thanks Karen for getting me riled up again, hahaha
at 07:15 on May 21st, 2008
How about:
at 14:13 on May 21st, 2008
Well Tony, how about a letter stating, "You have been randomly selected from 32 million Canadians" unfortunately I have received this same letter 4 times in 8 years from Revenue Canada for an audit.
Apparently Revenue Canada feel it is unusual for a single father of 3 to have sole custody of his kids.
OOOHHHH, But wait, there's still more, " it slices, it dices, it Julianne fries" two years previous to receiving my
first 'You have been randomly selected letter" I was working for the Federal Minister of Revenue in the Minister's Office in Border Law Enforcement.
Now you tell me, How F+*ked up is that ?
Needless to say, all was resolved after a call to my counterparts in the Ministers office back in Ottawa, until I received another letter two years later and two years after that from some Twit from Surrey, BC at the Revenue Office.
In ending, how many people here have ever terrorized a Revenue Canada official with strangulation and repeated Bitch Slaps to the head for incompetence and walked out of the Surrey Revenue Canada office and not been arrested ? Just 1person ," ME!" Guess what this year is the 2nd anniversary of my last letter, guess what for some reason, I have not been randomly selected, even for Jury Duty, much less anything else governmenty !
Since, I felt the odds were 32 million to one I was selected, I hurried out and bought a whack load of lottery tickets, feeling I had the odds on my side after being repeatedly RANDOMLY selected out of 32 million Canadians so many times.
To Date, I am still working, those lottery bastards have not realised how Random I am.