28 Informal Research

1)http://www.wholefamily.com/aboutteensnow/relationships_peers/friends/wyatt_history.html
This kid explores the history of cool. That what its basically called. He gives a bunch of scenarios of being cool. One is of a cute caveman story. He talks a little bit about style and how where all the cavemen are wearing mammoth fur one very unique caveman decides to wear leopard fur. This is the clothing aspect of being cool. There is a need for originality to be cool. Everybody wants to be able to say "I was the one who did that first". So besides from a uniqueness of being cool there is a originality aspect of being cool although everyone always seems to think they are the first or original person to be cool or unique.
Another point he brings up is that you must open yourself to all kinds of cool. If you only stick with one group of friends and are cool with them, outside your group of friends you would not be considered cool to others. He connects popularity with the idea of being cool. In order to be cool you have to be found cool, interesting, able to relate to all types of people and all types of cool. Not just being well known but a large amount of people but be admired as well.

2)Cosmopolitan
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/
Cosmopolwitan is a magazine mainly talking or teaching women how to have sex. Or how to have sex the "right way". Its a pretty degrading magazine for women, if you opening up any of the magazines you can always find articles like "how to give your man a good time" or "how to have sexual body language" or some crap like that. Everything mostly in the magazine you can find on their website. There fashion section is a significant idea of coolness. It shows different fashion sense of what uncool and what is cool, they even let you vote on celebrities outfits on "love it!" or "leave it". Basically whether there outfit is cool or uncool. They also apparently give "life advice" which have articles such as "How to have the hottest holiday season ever?", "How to be Hot, Rich, and Famous?", "14 people you should follow on twitter?", "5 signs your boss is hitting on you." I mean what kind of life advice is that?
Unfortunately this is what they try to catch women's attention as it is seem as cool to be sexual or be found as sexually attractive. A lot of this magazine indicates that women have to be "sexy" to other beings and know how to "please" partners sexually in order to be accepted. This is a perfect example: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/advice/tips/how-to-be-rich-sexy-and-famous
Sex is a big part of being cool. But why? Why must women flaunt their bodies to be cool? This article shows how to make a "sexy vibe" at a party basically: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/advice/tips/feel-so-freakin-sexy-0709 It basically sounds like a mating ritual or how to plan a mating ritual which really too sexual and too weird. Sexuality is a big part of being cool, we even have magazines and articles like this to help us apparently because women its as if women can't be sexy by just being there selves.


3)http://www.pualife.net/begin-the-game/the-essence-of-being-cool.html
This seems to be showing on how to be "cool" with the ladies. This is generally more targeting towards men readers. The writer uses the idea of Adam from Adam and Eve and a forbidden fruit idea. Wanting a women or being attractive towards a women is being cool if you are a guy. That is what this article is basically saying of course. It shows an idea of the fact that your mind always wants what you know you are particularly unable to have. So men wanting women must pretend like they are not attractive to them and pretend like they do want want to do sex with them. Not just sex but whether just wanting sex or forming a relationship. But on a deeper level it brings up the idea of confidence and how comfortable a person is. Being seen as confident and comfortable as themselves is a common factor of what can be seen as cool to many people. Having the "I don't care" attitude as the article says to pretend to do when dealing with women is another common factor of being cool. Not giving a crap and not having any care in the world for anything is a common factor for being cool.

4)http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108296/sun-maid-girl-makeover-sparks-controversy.html?mod=family-love_money
Im not sure if this directly connects or says anything about cool but I feel it may show how company's market their product by making it seem "cool" to target the youth. This article basically talks about the Sun Maid Girl on the Sun Maid Raisin box. They talk about how the Sun Maid girl on television was made to look like a brunette Barbie, with larger breast, a perfect straight white smile, and perfect brown curls in her hair. They use this new animate character to target the more modern generation of people by using a modern looking girl. Rather then a Sun Maid girl that looks like she is from a years 90 years in the past she looks more like "as if Julia Roberts decided to don a red bonnet and start picking grapes," which can be find more appealing to some targeted groups.

I think what this has to do with cool is how companies portray their "icon" or "mascot" as cool to be able to target more customers by making them look more "barbie" girl perfect. This is what is cool to our modern generation, at least its the fashion/appearance aspect of cool. The girl is not fat as if she was fat she would not be as appealing since fat people are not generally seen as cool in our society. This feature would be only featured on product advertisements and not directly on the product itself. Instead of having her be in the vine yards and "kicking up her heels out in the vineyard" which apparently is not cool to the modern women, the company would rather made her "do what is appropriate for her to do, based on her history but also being a contemporary person living in the 21st century." Basically saying following the mainstream of 21st century is being cool and is more appealing to the youth and more customers in general.