Framing. As seen in Nudge and our world
Framing and reframing works in the same way one would display art on their wall. A stick figure drawing half-hazardly stuck on a fridge will be interpreted differently than that same drawing in a gold frame hanging in a prestigious art museum. Framing is this idea of displaying an idea in a way that is able to promote a certain mindset about that idea. For example, when a news media outlet says that hundreds of illegal aliens are being locked up, it paints a specific image in the viewer’s mind, and dictates how to feel about the situation. Using words like ‘illegal’ and ‘alien’ paints a more negative view. If that outlet had instead said that hundreds of families are being detained, that reframing works to humanize the people involved, and may make the viewer feel more empathy than they would have towards these ‘aliens’.
It’s all about context and word choice. Whether you see the glass as half full or half empty doesn’t change the contents of the glass. Just your perception of it. The book Nudge discusses framing and reframing as a tool for persuasion. Presenting your commodity or idea in a positive, attractive light will convince more people to engage with you. This is used in advertising all the time. Presenting a random homemade craft as an artisanal hand crafted creation is more likely to get your pile of junk sold and out of your house.
I tend to personally use reframing a lot for self motivation. Instead of saying “oh my god I can’t believe there’s an hour left in this class”, breaking it down into only 5 chunks of 20 minutes makes it more palatable. Or instead of telling myself that staying in bed all day and not being productive is detrimental towards my goals, it becomes self care, which I can justify. It can be used to self motivate, or excuse our actions.
In order to tackle this big picture issue of women of color having negative experiences with healthcare professionals, a reframe might be necessary. Unfortunately, this is the case a lot of the time when it comes to POC or minority issues. White people a lot of the time need these issues to be more palatable or relate to them in order for them to pay attention. Otherwise it is hard to create that empathy. For instance, pointing out these disparities in healthcare as a black issue or a women’s issue makes it okay for the people in charge and the institution to turn a blind eye. It becomes not their issue. However, reframing this as something that the institutions need to change structurally shifts responsibility and may assist in enacting real change. It is the same issue, just framed around the institutional pitfalls as opposed to focussing on the victims.
There was a lot of that reframing happening during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protesting. All of a sudden we were able to see this shift from talking about not being racist to this idea of anti-racism, and reframing the conversation to focus on what active steps could be taken by white allies. I think this reframe and call out began to get more people involved.
