It has a language.
I'm not kidding here. I'm deadly serious. It took me days to figure out what the hell anyone was saying in forums and blogs. For the most part this language is constructed from a nearly endless line of acronyms.
I have no problem with acronyms, or sub-culture languages. I really don't. Sometimes they create an in-group/out-group dynamic that can be good or bad. But hey, that's fine too. Having a language allows people with shared experiences the ability to readily identify others who 'speak the language'. Good or bad, that's reality.
But why acronyms? I know for a damn fact my wife has never (and oh God, I hope never will) referred to me as "dear husband". A term I'm just not a fan of. Don't ask why, I don't know, I just don't like it. It's like broccoli (don't over think that analogy).
I work in education. Public schools have a language made up of acronyms too. Dozens and Dozens of them (I capped that twice so you know I am serious).
I want so bad for this to be a 'girl' thing. Education is largely dominated by women and the infertility culture is mostly female too. But you know what...it's not a girl thing. You know who does acronyms more than both cultures combined (and then doubled).
The Military. Seriously. Talk to a member of the armed forces about acronyms. It's just stupid. They make crap up so it will have a cool acronym. Hell, the stupid acronyms they make become household words.
Don't believe me? HMMWV.
So it's a human thing, or at least and English thing. Maybe other languages have them and use them more, I don't know. But, fair warning, if you start any infertility, learn the lingo or someone might say (using a whole different cultural language):
"STFU newb. u r pwned"**
*American Association Against Acronym And Abbreviation Abuse.
** if you know what that means, you are l33t.
Someone on one of the RP sites I was on once did a study of our lingo for a linguistics assignment. And back in the day when I was cruising theknot.com I actually had to look up a glossary to figure out what FMIL or FFIL meant. At least those made sense.
ReplyDeleteI bet Mo starts calling you Dear Husband any day now just to mess with you.
At my work everything is an acronym. Some acronyms are short for other sets of acronyms. Some things share an acronym, and the only way to tell the difference is context. The hardest part of my job is just keeping up with all the acronyms. It's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteIT is bad for acronyms too... so it definitely isn't a woman thing... there are women in IT, but it seems to be more of a male dominated area.
ReplyDelete