WHEN WOMEN TRY TO DECIPHER MEN’S TEXTS: HERMENEUTICS

Ellie Anderson, an assistant professor of philosophy at Pomona College in Claremont, California, started thinking about all the time she and her friends had wasted poring over conversations and texts they’d received from men they’d dated. They talked about the stress and confusion of trying to figure out what a man actually meant by what he said. They worried about responding – coming on too strong, not strong enough, wondering if the guy would call back, wondering why he ignored them for a day… This forces women to spend a lot of time trying to guess at men’s feelings because the men themselves were unwilling or unable to fully express themselves. So Anderson coined the phrase “hermeneutic labor” to describe the emotional work that goes into trying to decipher men’s confusing communication. Hermeneutics is the study of the interpretation of language.
* The men were unwilling or unable to fully express themselves? Have these women never heard of sodium pentothal?
* Sure, they can’t figure out what we mean, but we’re not allowed to mansplain it to them.
* God knows we need another dating word because ‘submarining’ or ‘breadcrumbing’ or ‘soft launch’ or or ‘kittenfishing’ or ‘rizz’ isn’t enough. So, yeah, ‘hermeneutics.’ Catchy.
* We have a word for when women spend too much time deciphering men’s responses. That word is ‘desperate.’
* Ladies, if texts from your guy drive you crazy because they’re stupid and undecipherable… that’s called ‘marriage.’