In The News

“Reframing” and what it has done for the Birth Control Debate

But, what’s in a name? How harmful can it really be?

Very.

As cognitive linguist George Lakoff noted in his book, Don’t Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, selective word-choice can be a seductive mind-game. Lakoff’s amusing example poses a scenario in which you are shown a picture of an elephant and then told to think of anything but one. That’s impossible, of course. Now take the term “birth control” and try not to think of birth. Or control. And whatever you do — don’t think of a baby!

Conservatives didn’t invent the term “birth control,” of course. That honor goes to legendary…..