Whinging, Stressed Friends And Difficult Exams

Living in a university college, I've come to recognise that some people can become overly stressed in regards to things like assignments and exams, and one way in which people choose to cope with this stress is not to get on and do the assignments, or study, but rather have a good, old whinge. As Daly et al. (2004, p953) describe them, whinges provide “a means of off-loading negative feelings in a safe environment, and since they typically elicit sympathy, they function to build rapport with others”.  Essentially, a good whinge can make someone feel better about themself, the situation they are in, and if vocalised in an appropriate setting, provide an opportunity for the fostering of camaraderie from similarities of thought.

On one particular occasion, a friend received a low mark in an exam that she hadn’t studied for. Instead of blaming herself, she chose to blame the exam paper instead, explaining to me that it was too difficult and poorly structured. This situation followed the notion set out by Edwards that a whinge “locates the reason for the complaint not in its object, but in the complainer” (Edwards 2005, p20). Instead of recognising that she had caused her own problem, she chose the exam as an outlet to vent her frustration. Whilst all these events unfolded, the only thing I could do was appear to agree with her views and be as sympathetic as I could, in an attempt to prevent her from losing face and experiencing embarrassment.

I really found the topic of whinging interesting. As with most topics in SOC250, it occurs so commonly but a focus is never really placed upon it. Daly et al. (2004) cover the topic of whinging well, with the examples used not only explaining the concept well, but also addressing the use of expletives in conjunction with whining.

Daly, N, Holmes, J, Newton, J and Stubbe, M 2004, “Expletives as solidarity signals in FTAs on the factory floor”, Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 36, no.5, pp.945-964, http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0378216604000396/1-s2.0-S0378216604000396-main.pdf?_tid=e6281a4e-13a0-11e2-97df-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1349959435_e9253b83f76210c13290f660ffdbc488

Edwards, D 2005, “Moaning, whinging and laughing: the subjective side of complaints”, Discourse Studies, vol.7, no.5, pp.5-29, http://dis.sagepub.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/content/7/1/5.full.pdf+html