A Linguistic Analysis Of Mads Vassar

Mads is flattered that Neal McFarland '12 thought that the phrase on our blog header ("Forget Brad...Tonight I'll gets totes cray and bellig") was worthy of a four page analysis for a linguistics class. Apparently the words are demonstrative of "the linguistic zeitgeist of our campus" and represent "a critique of ourselves." Here are selections from his essay.

"The statement [according to one student] expresses a universal college mentality of, 'getting drunk and living a life outside the world of her parents - a world where she can do what she wants.' The girl in the graphic expresses 'college' sentiments - but with a Vassar twist, of course."

"A friend of mine hypothesized that the girl represents a moment in our life experience where we can try to express the agency of an adult, but only through the adolescent vernacular of our peers. She sounds young and foolish in a way that we all fear we sound in our most unfiltered moments."

"She has been called, 'The modern "Vassar Girl",'—though perhaps facetiously...'I love that she’s rejecting this guy "Brad" in favor of a good time,' said another student, 'she’s just so f***ing sassy!'...The fact that this statement comes from a woman represents the core Vassar ideal of gender equality."

"Our tendency for abbreviation is part of why we imagine this statement to be such an apt critique of our Vassar speech...We abbreviate in text messaging and twitter for convenience...The girl in the graphic must use abbreviations because she is a critique of ourselves, and the use of abbreviation is something for which we feel we most deserve to be critiqued."