MILF Goes Mainstream

CHICAGO (TNA) – Was there a time when MILFs didn’t roam the earth?

Mueredecine/flickr.com

Although the term 'MILF' wasn't coined until 1991, Vanity Fair recently declared Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson character from the 1967 film 'The Graduate' as 'the original MILF.'

The acronym that probably doesn’t need to be spelled out anymore – mom I’d like to fuck – is usually written in all caps (MILF), sometimes appears in lower case (milf), and continues to infiltrate the mainstream. This is quite an accomplishment for a fuck-containing word that appears in so many porn titles such as “Milfs Gone Anal” and “Mamasans: The Asian MILF Movie,” plus web sites like Naughty America’s own DiaryOfAMilf.com.

Highlights of MILF’s non-porn, pop-culture takeover include:

In last fall’s season debut of “30 Rock,” Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy announces one of NBC’s new shows as “MILF Island,” which he blurbed as “25 super-hot moms, 50 eighth grade boys, no rules.”

Tori Amos sang “I am a M-I-L-F / Don’t you forget / M-I-L-F / Don’t you forget” on her 2007 album “American Doll Posse.”

A 2007 story in “New York” magazine by sex writers Em & Lo mentioned, among other MILF-y observations, that Mary-Louise Parker is “the MILF’s MILF.”

Most recently, the March 2008 “Vanity Fair” described Anne Bancroft – for her unforgettable performance as Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate” – as the “original MILF.”

It’s always difficult to know when a word originated, but it’s usually easier to find when a word caught fire. The moment that propelled MILF into the mainstream occurred in 1999, during the pie-humping rite-of-passage comedy “American Pie.”

fycmovie/flickr.com

Jennifer Coolidge's portrayal of Stifler's Mom in the 1999 film, 'American Pie,' brought the term 'MILF' to the mass audience.

As for its pre-“American Pie” history, the word is at least eight years older. Ben Zimmer of Oxford University Press collected some anonymous comments from a member of the band Milf, which played in Buffalo, N.Y. in the early ’90s.

“My recollection is that we adopted the name for the band in January 1991,” said the drummer in an e-mail interview. “We heard the acronym/word from a friend who was a lifeguard in the Buffalo area, specifically Fort Niagara State Park [one of my ex-bandmates, also a lifeguard…confirmed that it was ‘a lifeguard term.’]

“I would not say it was common at that time – in fact, it being the first time we'd ever heard it is probably what led us to choose it as a band name. We probably intended it as a temporary name. However, as we started to play shows and release music, the name ended up sticking.”

So how does a variation of still-taboo “fuck” end up sticking so resiliently to mainstream culture? According to Erin McKean, editor of the “New Oxford American Dictionary,” it may be a matter of hiding in plain sight.

“I think that one of the attractions of MILF is that the F, like that in snafu and fubar, is hidden … ” McKean said. ”It makes people feel as if they've gotten away with something, wink wink, nod nod.”

Getting away with something has a creepy element too. Though moms such as Amos embrace their milfdom, others have mixed feelings.

DiaryOfAMilf.com

Porn celebs like Vicky Vette have made a career marketing themselves as 'MILFs.'

“On the one hand, MILF is another way for the patriarchy to reaffirm that all women, mothers included, are part of the “sex class” [as blogger Twisty Faster of I Hate The Patriarchy puts it] – evaluated solely on their worth as sexual objects for men, emphasis on the ‘object,’” McKean said.

“On the other, it does in a very, very, very small way reaffirm that women don't stop being sexual beings when they become mothers,” she said.

One of many signs that MILF is here to stay is the existence of variations. A “DILF” is a dad I’d like to fuck – or “FILF” (father I’d like to fuck), for the more formal. A “Maxim” article humorously mentioned the “FLILF” and “BILF” – for first ladies and burritos with a high fuckability index.

Other variations remain maternally focused: Googling turns up “milfitude,” “milfology,” “milfiness,” “non-milf,” “milflicious,” “milftastic,” “milftacular,” “milfapalooza,” and “ScandinaviMILF.”
 
MILF connoisseurs should watch out for one confusing, less arousing search result: the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is the world’s other MILF. Sources cannot confirm whether there are any MILFs in MILF.

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Mark Peters writes the Jabberwocky column for Babble and the blog Wordlustitude. His book, Yada Yada Doh! 111 Television Words That Made the Leap From the Screen to Society, will be published by Marion Street Press this year.