Keep your eye on those balls

By Ruth Wajnryb
February 12, 2005
(The Sydney Morning Herald)

The simple truth is that we're consumed by our bodies. In our obsession with appearance, with the appeal of veneer, we now have airbrushed beauty, fashionable thinness, extreme makeovers. That we have soaring rates of obesity, as well as anorexia, certainly bespeaks the pathology.

But the body thing is not new. Michelangelo's David had not a skerrick of clothing. The impassioned Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People has one breast hanging out and no one called that "wardrobe malfunction". Manet's Olympia has even less inhibition. And neither Gauguin's nor Picasso's women kept their clothes on for long.

If art bears witness to an enduring fascination with the body, so, too, does language. A close analysis reveals how deeply notions of the body have permeated the metaphoric structure of everyday English. For example, we say the heart of the city, the foot of the mountain, the mouth of a cave, the nose of a plane. We lend a hand, head up a team, have a good nose for a story, have a sweet tooth and a green thumb, keep our eye on the ball and our ear to the ground. We've got a weight on our shoulders, but lack the stomach for action. We speak of broadening the mind, costing an arm and a leg, being a pain in the neck and, rather oddly, making it by the skin of our teeth.

Body metaphors can be starkly, even harshly, direct, creating unambiguous meanings and perspectives. Perhaps for this reason they find a natural home in the political lexicon. Politicians are accused of short-sightedness, being deaf to the constituency, having skin-deep compassion, or their hand in the till. An election can be neck and neck, and the winner can make it by a nose. Voters have the wool pulled over their eyes, or they give the pollies the thumbs up or down. They can stand firm and give voice to their convictions or back down.

Because of their embedded emotion and their universality, body metaphors are instantly recognisable. We use tear-jerking to suggest sadness, stomach-churning to suggest apprehension, knee-jerking to suggest an automatic reaction. We relate to these because we've all cried from sadness, felt fear in our stomach, and reacted on reflex.

But the body metaphors don't stop there. Consider the following, and their related associations: chin-wagging (gossip), beard-stroking (wisdom), jaw-dropping (shock), back-breaking (hard), leg-slapping (joy), foot-stamping (applause/protest), arm-flapping (hysteria), eyebrow-raising (disapproval), head-scratching (figuring out), heart-breaking (emotionally painful), heart-wrenching (tragic), finger-licking (delicious), tummy-tickling (giggly), side-splitting (hilarious), hair-raising (frightening), brow-knitting (displeasure), brow-beating (nagging), elbow-greasing (hard yakka), palm-greasing (bribing), lip-smacking (tasty), gob-smacking (surprise), neck-breaking (dangerous), spine-chilling (terrifying), spleen-venting ( anger release), wrist-slapping (rebuke).

Sometimes the metaphor is transparent and entirely consistent, as when we say head of the company, head of the table, head of the class, head of the queue. Others, such as face, pick up on a range of different nuances. We have straight-faced, poker-faced, red-faced, two-faced, blue in the face, long face, brave face. And verb phrases galore: to face up to your problems, get egg on your face, get a slap in the face, blow up in someone's face, do an about-face, fall flat on your face, put your best face on, show your face, wipe the smile off someone's face, among others.

But it's puzzling, given the range of available body metaphors in English, that to compliment a woman's courage and tenacity many would say she's "got balls".

posted by Husky @ 2/14/2005 03:33:00 PM  |