Coordinated Management of Meaning Application
By: Angela Andrus
Pearce and Cronen suggest that people live their lives by the stories they tell or the stories they live. The stories people tell are how they want to achieve meaning throughout their lives. Stories lived is making similarities between our own lives and others. The movie Romy and Michele's High School Reunion emphasized the key points suggested by Pearce and Cronen.
Coherence-Stories Told
Summary
Romy and Michele are two best friends living together in Los Angeles. They just received an invitation to their ten-year high school reunion in Tusan. However, there is a conflict. The two ladies feel their lives are not adequate. They are single, living together and Michele is unemployed. They feel their lives do not reach the standards of their fellow classmates. Romy devises a plan to act as professional businesswomen and impress the classmates that rejected them ten years. Romy convinces Michele to follow her ingenious proposition. She tells Michele that no one will know the history of their lives because they live in LA and the rest in Tusan. Michele feels comfortable with Romy's decision and decides to commit.
Speech Acts
A speech act is the form of communication that occurs between people. The information initially intends to make contact with the receiver. The acceptor of the information is expected to respond to the material presented. Romy announced the two women should go on a diet. Michele is slouching on the couch eating Doritos. Michele agrees to her suggestion and continues eating. Romy reaches across Michele and removes the chip from her hand and places it into the bag. Michele responds by saying "like that one chip was really going to matter." Michele's role in the conversation played an important part in the communication process. When Romy suggested that the two should diet, she meant starting right now. Michele's perception of the conversation was different. Michele was thinking we'll start tomorrow. This shows how speech acts play a vital role in the channel of information. The receiver responds by how they interpret the message. Michele's initial response was to continue enjoying the chips. However, Romy clarified what she meant by taking the Dorito away from Michele.
Episode
The setting in which an interaction occurs is called the episode. The context of one situation could have a different interpretation in another. Heather Mooney was a valid teenage smoker in high school. She always made time to attempt to enjoy a cigarette between classes. However, a lighter was always missing in the equation. A young man wearing a cowboy hat would flick his enflamed cigarette butt in her direction. Mooney was agitated by his inconsideration, but always used his cigarette to ignite hers. At the ten-year reunion the same incident occurred between the two. When she intercepted the cigarette butt she replied by saying thank you. Heather Mooney and Clarence had an understanding of the situation. Others may think it was uncouth to flick a cigarette at another person, however, the offer was always accepted. The same incident could be applied in a different environment, but viewed in an opposing manner. Another scenario, a gentleman wearing a professional suit was standing on a sidewalk attempting to light a cigarette. He asks a walking pedestrian if they have a lighter he could borrow. The walker turns around and flicks a cigarette at the man. The man would not indicate this action as a source of lighting his cigarette. He would not drop to his hands and knees to pick up the used cigarette to ignite his own. In high school, Heather Mooney responded to this inflection as a way to light her cigarette. The same meaning of the flicked cigarette was used to assist the businessman in an attempt to solve his problem. The meaning of this action was not accepted in the same manner. The change in environment and personality between Heather and the businessman posed a difference in interpreting the meaning.
Relationship
During the movie the plan to impress their former classmates backfired and humiliated the two friends. A former student announced the two women were not ingenious inventors. Romy was hysterical and said they were worthless because their lives were nothing. The personalities of the two women were reversed in this situation. Michele was often sweet and submissive. She is bossed around by everyone and never once voices her opinion. Romy continued to complain and whine to Michele about how everyone from high school still thinks they are the same two "unpopular girls." In a stern voice Michele says "Romy, do you have to be such a baby!" Michele continues to tell Romy how it shouldn't matter what people think of them. She tells Romy they are going to go back to the reunion as themselves and have fun. Romy says "Michele I have never seen this side of you before, I like it." Michele is not opinionated at all. She never raises her voice towards anyone in an attempt to be liked by all. Michele is aggressive in this scene towards. Romy is her best friend and she felt comfortable using a strong voice with her. When the leader of the popular group in school humiliated the girls, Romy raised her voice to them and Michele silently watched. The close relationship that the two best friends have, encouraged Michele to change her voice. She felt comfortable talking to Romy in a stern way, but never assembled it on anyone else.
Self-Concept
The sender identifies their personality traits and incorporates the message in their own way. When the message is received the recipient interprets the meaning relating to the traits they possess. Romy insisted the two find a hot car to drive to the reunion. While Romy was getting the car, Michele was encouraged to participate in other activities. Romy was lent a red convertible from a repairman at her place of employment. When she returned with the car, Michele asked how she got such an incredible piece of machinery. Romy said she had to perform sexual favors on all the guys in the service department. Michele replies by saying well while you were doing that I made a tape of all our favorite high school songs. Romy's facial expression was that of confusion. She was kidding about the way she got to borrow the car. Romy is a humorous person and often expresses her voice by using funny tactics. Michele's personality is less humorous. She was basing her reaction on Romy's phrase and not by what she really meant. The difference in the two ladies self-concept describes the significance between the conversation.
Culture
"Compromise a 'culture' whose members recognize each other as insiders who believe that they share a common set of practices and values" (Griffin p.74). When Romy and Michele were still in high school their classmates looked down upon them. They saw themselves different than the other students. A group of girls called the A team recognized their deficiencies and constantly harassed the two. Michele was diagnosed with Scoleosis and was required to wear a back brace. The A team constantly harassed her by calling her "back brace girl" and placing magnets on the metal contraption. Romy and Michele viewed themselves as living in their own culture. They felt they were not compatible with the other groups of students at the high school. The A team also believed they were in a separate institution than the other students. They acted superior and demoted all people they belittled.
Romy and Michele were not in good economic standards. Michele was unemployed living off of Romy's small income. The ladies enjoyed making their own clothing. They were fashionable, however, inexpensive because they created the designs themselves. Romy suggested in order to impress their fellow students they should lie and say they were professional businesswomen. The two proceeded to the reunion wearing business suits. They went to a restaurant and asked the waitress if there was a lunch special specifically for businesswomen. They flaunted their attire at the restaurant emphasizing their importance in the community. Romy and Michele were trying to be something they were not. They thought if they dressed like businesswomen they would be viewed as working in the corporate world. This image was a shift in their culture.
Coordination-Stories Lived
According to W. Barnett Pearce, coordination is "the process by which persons collaborate in an attempt to bring into being their vision of what is necessary, noble, and good and to preclude the enactment of what they fear, hate or despise" (Griffin p.77). Although comical, the movie was filled with scenes of sadness. The movie emphasized that each group in high school had a negative effect on another. Each social group recognized the negative attributes of another, however, they were all oblivios to their own actions. Romy and Michele were considered loners and thought they didn't bother many. The A team was making Romy and Michele's life miserable. The team costantly harrasssed the two girls. Ten years later, Romy is still emotionally disturbed. A love triangle caused problems beginning in the past and proceding to the present. Sandy Frink, the Freakazoid, was madly in love with Michele. She didn't even acknowledge his existence. Heather Mooney interacted with Sandy in honor society projects. Her feelings for him were strong and sincere. Heather despises Michele because she holds Sandy's heart. Heather is not an approachable person. She makes rude comments and often uses vulgur language. A student named Toby was always the victim of this behavior. Toby's life was emotionally damaged by Heather's inability to respect her. We may ask ourselves what influences people to act in this manner? Pearce and Cronen suggest "any attempt to analyze a conversation must take into account the different logical force experienced by each participant" (Griffen p.75). Several people were disrespecting the feelings of other individuals. The A team was intentionally hurting Romy and Michele's feelings. The other students were not aware of the damage they caused to eachother. The way a person acts has a great impact on its peirs. Check out this site to view additional information on Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.
To check out a related web page on Symbolic Interaction click here. This page discusses, meanings come from the social interaction that people notice between eachother.
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>This page was last revised by Angela Andrus on March 15,2000