Vulnerability vs Norm Violation

When does showing vulnerability constitute a norm violation? And what are the consequences?   Last week I was pondering if everyday people like you and me have the space to be publicly vulnerable, or if that was only the purview of people like Will Smith. I was referring to how Will was doing the talk…

The Influence of World Events on Popular Language

When I was a girl, boys had cooties. A friend’s daughter recently was warned by a fellow kindergartner not to touch or “you’ll get coronavirus.” In Boccaccio’s day you would have avoided someone “like the plague.”   Until 2013 “oh well, no one lost a limb” was a light way to brush-off something that didn’t…