Talking Back to "My Talk"

107.1 is a Twin Cities radio station that has consciously cultivated a middle-aged female audience. It recently rebranded itself as "My Talk 107.1."

This usage of "my" has bugged me for some time now. I first noticed it in the web address "mysap.com," which was regularly intoned during the sponsorship listings on NPR a decade or so ago. The advent of MySpace reinforced my dislike. (Although I have to admit I've never been fond of the name Facebook, either, for different reasons.)

I'm not completely sure why it gets under my skin the way it does. In a web context, it's clear shorthand for denoting a personalized version of a site. But that doesn't help me overcome my antipathy. Maybe it's because it seems like an attempt to make a virtue out of the worst aspect of toddlerhood.

Even worse than the My Talk name is the accompanying text: "my pop culture, my gossip, my radio station." Because, you know, women couldn't possibly be interested in somebody else's pop culture or gossip. Despite the fact that it's all mass-produced junk from the celebrity machine.
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Update: I just finished reading a terrific post on The Bike Garden on the subject of "me-ness," in which Susan Tomlinson writes: "By the way, have you ever noticed how close the spelling of 'me-ness' is to 'meanness?' Again, just sayin'."