Katie Nuttall Language Usage #17-20

The Bachelorette and the power of language:

I was watching the Bachorlette this week. It was the “men tell all” edition. This episode is usually a wasted week. BUT it is a LINGUISTIC DREAM! It is always a mixed bag of nuts! But, it provided ample examples of language. Everyone is different from each other and a definite product of their environment.

One of my favorite moments of the show was watching a neologism in the making. To understand its meaning you would of have to have watched last season. Last season, the Bachelor was named Jason Mesnick. The last episode featured him making his final decision of who to marry. He was distraught over his decision. After he dumped the final girl and walked her out, he proceeded to go over to a balcony railing and hang his head and cry. Knowing that, makes you appreciate this part of the show:

Contestant A: I think the last moment you really pulled a “mesnick.” Let me just clarify what a mesnick is: it is when a grown man leans over a hotel railing and cries. Because I heard that in ya. That’s really what that was. Pulling a mesnic. PULLING A MESNICK EVERYBODY!

Host: On a scale, though... of like zero to mesnick...How did he do?

Contestant A: He was like a mesnick. He was...like straight. Up. Mesnick. Being a 10! He was right there.

Contestant B: That’s the problem. When you tell people all the time that you are perfect…You came across like it’s so canned like you came off of a like soap opera. It is the whole nine yards.

This was beautiful! From the “mesnic” to the “being canned like a soap opera.” I thoroughly enjoyed this moment!

Next, the big part of the episode was discussing “man code.” One of the more aggressive guys made this comment: “It’s man code that you don’t break, and when you do it is just disrespectful.” The host even commented on how a lot has been made of this “man code” and sought a definition, which I was interested in knowing as well. “Man code is an unspoken rule…set of rules, that men…don’t have to talk about.” It was even more fun to listen to this guy give an example of how you don’t hook up with your best friends girl and to how essentially they were breaking “man code” already by being on the show, because they were “fishing in the same pool.” This got others to define what their definition of “man code.” Another said it was more about respecting women, being an adult. It seemed the men themselves couldn’t quite agree on what “man code” was and spent a lot of the discussion going around in circles. I never got a clear understanding, but may be someone else can enlighten me?

Also, one of the other guys made this comment, “I prepared to go on the show, I prepared to meet Jill, I prepared to meet some guys, but what I didn’t prepare for was…having to defend myself.” I have noticed that the rule of three is everywhere we talk: from words, to phrases, to even sentences. We tend to need that beginning, middle, and end in our speech.

The conversation got more and more intense as the episode moves forward. It heated up. The swear words started to fly. It was pure drama that I would usually associate in a “cat fight.” I think one of the contestants summed up this entire shows theme, when he said, “Why waste all this energy on all this whole Alpha male banter stuff. Where’s Jillian?” That was what this part of the show thrives on: the craziness of personalities mixing.

The best thing is you can ALL watch this on abc.com over and over and over again. Then you can see the Alpha Male banter for yourself.