Word: metaphorization
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...time of growing sensitivity to racist and sexist language, no such caution governs the use of the vocabulary of mental illness, whether as a metaphor, a plot device or a put-down. "There is hardly a moment when we turn on television or read newspapers that we don't see violent stereotypes or hear bad jokes at the expense of the mentally ill," says Nora Weinerth, co-founder of the National Stigma Clearinghouse, which organizes protests against prejudicial images of mental illness in the media. "When children are told that a superhero will be killed by someone who is mentally...
Experts who work with the mentally ill are especially concerned about the misinformation spread by the jokes and casual use of medical terms. When TIME uses the word schizophrenic to describe internal conflict within the Republican Party, the metaphor perpetuates a misunderstanding, as does a New York Times article describing the hyena's laughlike calls as "psychotic in pitch." Schizophrenia, a brain disorder whose symptoms can include hearing voices, has nothing to do with multiple or "split" personalities. Psychotic refers to a period of severe, treatable and often terrifying disorientation...
Grasping at straws? No. Genuine pleasure. David and Goliath is not a relevant metaphor here. Harvard-MIT men's squash is like Godzilla taking on the family poodle...
...AIDS has defined American theater this past decade -- both in the ravaging of the creative community and in the flowering of dramas on the subject. There are angry plays (The Normal Heart), sweet plays (As Is), pageants (Angels in America) and musicals (Falsettos). Some soar into poignant metaphor. Prelude to a Kiss and Marvin's Room are really about responsibilities of marriage and family; the plays say that relationships of love or blood must be sustained even as the objects of our affection sink into confusion or decay. Love means always having to be there...
...photojournalist with a motherly interest in pop music. Or that Chelsea was working her video recorder at the Inaugural. What matters is that Clinton is a prime communicator, a beacon of middle-class charisma, a lover of being loved, a believer in the importance -- perhaps the primacy -- of image, metaphor, style. And an ace manipulator of media, selling his symbols directly to the people, on TV, without the interference of pesky journalists. It all makes for a wondrous '90s blend of show biz and politics, of Hollywood and Heartland...