Introduction
Being called fake is probably one of the biggest insults known to teenagers. It is a term used to imply that someone is not being someone you are not, or in other words you are not being "your true self". I have used my share of this statement before our exploration of cool. For instance I have told a friend to be herself when she was nervous about meeting a guy, looking back on all the moments I have sad "be yourself" I come to think; what does that even mean exactly? Who is your true self or what is it?There is no explanation of what this "true self" is. According to Goffman, we all are performers that play a character in certain situations. The concept of being "our true self" is an incorrect concept which is seen as the same level as being cool but it is a way for us to subconsciously cover up our empty feeling from acknowledgment of mortality. In reality we all just play roles and perform to fit what we call/ or want to call "our true self" to receive attention.
The Emptiness(Where it May come From)
Human beings have this feeling of emptiness, it is not sure where it is located but this feeling can branch out to many things, I think it depends on the person. It can be a feeling of loneliness, sadness, anger, melancholy, disappointment, un-importance, or a mixture. It can also depend on the social situation and people a person is surrounded with. For example is the idea that was brought up in class of "face", based on our cool status we are either credited or discredited during social interaction which can directly affect a persons coolness and dignity. Being able to identify that this emptiness exist does not thoroughly explain what it is, to get closer to what it is can be found by exploring where it comes from and/or why.
If you really thought about our significance, we are all just specks in this huge world, out of around 6 billion people thinking for yourself you are just one tiny speck that will probably never be famous/recognized by the masses out of 6 billion or have any importance. Shrinking this idea down to high school size, even in a high school of 400 teenagers you are just 1 of 400. This can make someone feel vulnerable and worthless, along side with not knowing the meaning of one's life or ones identity, this is when we generate a identity depending on certain situation thus calling it "true selves". We all are basically looking for our hero's journey which is the idea of being a main character and venturing out to seek "fabulous forces" and returning with wisdom and power. This idea of a hero's journey can also be identified with Joseph Campbell's term "Monomyth." This making one reason to why we may thrive for being cool, we generate identities for ourselves that are comfortable enough to wear and everyone is seem in their own perspective as the hero on their journey. Creating a character will give us some sort of recognition out of the large mass of people. Giving a feeling as if the hallow space of emptiness is being filled by a speckle of matter.
The second reason from which this emptiness comes from is from Becker's Theory of acknowledgment of death. If everyone was asked if they wanted to do something significant before they die they would most likely answer "yes". Everyone has to feel as if they are doing something important before they die, whether it is fulfilling a long thriving goal or feel significant to others. Everyone wants to fulfill some sort of important roll or do something that seems worth living for before they die. This can be caused of actually realizing that one day we are going to die. Thus making great new shows such as the Buried Life on MTV about 4 guys traveling the world to fulfill their '100 things do do before you die' list and helping others fulfill their choice as well(http://www.theburiedlife.com/about/). Knowing that we are just temporary make us feel insignificant which causes us to have "lists" or "accomplishments" or it makes us see ourselves as the main character struggle in this vast world trying to find their "hero's journey" before we die which is what causes us to want to be cool. Being able to be cool is a sense of fulfilling something on our list before we die. We cover up being scared of death with coolness.
Role Play
As we are the main character in our hero's journey to make our life meaningful before death, we create certain roles that fit our overall preferred character. Some of these roles can commonly be seen or related to fairytale stories or cheesy teenage television shows. For example the overall cool person to Alicia Proto is a caring guy, the sweet hearted ambitions kind of characters in her cool story. Or maybe the radical character from ali jo's story. Some other roles played in real life at SOF for example is the comedian which Conor plays well, Stephanie; the cool girl, or Victor; the video game nerd. We develop these roles which at times is expected from us. In Goffman's Presentation in Everyday Life shows the idea of how when someone walks into a room they instinctively analyze what the people around him/her are doing and immediately develop a persona or play a role that fits with what the others are doing. It is basically like we ourselves develop a own script and according to Goffman we choose our own props, costume, and play it for specific audiences. And if we play different for different audiences, which role are you playing is really you? Or what are you like when you take of the costume and stop acting? This is why the the idea of being our true self is incorrect, if we have so many different roles that we act out to different audiences then there is no such thing as true self. We would all technically be two faced, or have many faces.
There are many props we use in our acting career to project the role we are playing. The most common prop we may be using especially for teenagers is clothing, piercings and tattoos. More popular this year is tattoos. Getting a tattoo can give the person getting the tattoo a feeling of coolness and they are able to show certain ideas or experiences that may be cool to others. For example Mr. Fanning (who is actually pretty cool to me) states how when he got his first tattoos it was mainly for a rebel image he was trying to portray in a very conservative lifestyle. It was also as if it was some type of right of passage, becoming a man. His tattoos gave him the feeling of accomplishment as getting a tattoo is a long and painful process. His tattoos also show the experiences he has been through such as his experience on the operating table. They are like reminder to him of what role he plays or what roles he has played in the past. And with every tattoo there is always some sort of cool story behind it. In my own opinion I thought Mr.Fanning's story was quite cool.
Almost done......
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Comments
Conor:
1.Hey Conor, I like where you are going with your paper. I think it is a tiny bit similar to mine. I would suggest that in your thesis to state maybe why we humans have a need to feel important and memorable. I am not sure if the idea of "the wrong things" is your reason why people have a need to feel important or the empty feeling inside us? I am not a great editor or good and giving feedback and it was a little confusing but maybe you would want to write: We concentrate on the wrong things such as our desire to dress, appear, and react certain ways, which is a way to be cool to fill our feeling of emptiness inside.
2. I agree with our need to obtain attention. Although many of us try to pretend as if obtaining attention is the last thing on our minds. In high school there is a good type of attention and a bad type. You want to get the type of attention that makes you seem "cool", meaning you being recognized by a large population of teenagers in high school as well as being admired. And there is gaining the type of attention that is looked down upon such as "people talking smack" (I think thats how it is said) or gaining attention in a "fake" way by not being "real", whatever that really means. This type of attention is seen as uncool. Also there is a need for attention among families as well. Gaining attention is like a competition. Many of the youngest kids in the family gain the most attention from their parents because they are more innocent, cute, and more likely to not be a "lost cause". At least that in the majority families that I have seen, my family is the perfect example. Just between my brother and I, I manage to gain the attention of my parents the most because I did what they expected me to do, go to school, graduate (not yet), be social.
3. You might want to split up your arguments into bits:
-Role Playing (We all are writing our own scripts)
-The Cool Rules, Anatomy of an Attitude (One of the articles we read in class)
-Tattoos (Mr. Fanning, you and write about how we use tattoos as a way to gain attention)
-Becker's Theory of death (emptiness)
-Separation from the mother theory (emptiness)
-Whatever emptiness feeling theories you might agree with. I like Becker's Theory the most.
Good Luck :)
To Jin:
I hope you don't mind that I comment you because my other triangle partner failed to do her rough draft yet and you did yours most recently. :)
I am a little bit confused about your thesis, I feel like it cuts off a little but maybe it is just me. Are you trying to say that our need to be cool affects us mentally and physically? Maybe thats how I would have wrote it; our strong need to be cool affects how we act physically and mentally.
In the first paragraph, I think I see where you are getting at. You might want to include our need to be "unique" and "different" but not too different or it would be seen as uncool and weird. We take this idea and we formulate a character, when we have choosen a character we play the roles that this character would play out, kind of like a script. For example Stephanie Adames in our class plays the popular girl, Conor plays the comedian, I play the "who cares" role. The cowboy hat dude who you interviewed wanted to play the role of maybe a badass. In doing so he comes of conceided, being well aware that he is "obviously cool" and smoking a cigar. In result he is able to portray this badass cowboy image. I like that you put the little part about the effects of smoking. It kind of shows how his result of trying to come off so cool maybe not be very healthy for him, the results may not be good.
List of stuff you may want to include:
-Peoples stories (you can talk about the roles of different people and compare them, what really cool. What is "fake" cool.)
-Maybe talk about why Mr. Fanning got the Tattoos- trying to fill a certain role he was playing.
-How may these roles help us or not help us?
-Self Presentation- The Presentation of Self in Every Day Life (An article Andy passed out in class, this would fit well in your paper I think)
Keep it up, semesters almost over. ;)
1.Hey Conor, I like where you are going with your paper. I think it is a tiny bit similar to mine. I would suggest that in your thesis to state maybe why we humans have a need to feel important and memorable. I am not sure if the idea of "the wrong things" is your reason why people have a need to feel important or the empty feeling inside us? I am not a great editor or good and giving feedback and it was a little confusing but maybe you would want to write: We concentrate on the wrong things such as our desire to dress, appear, and react certain ways, which is a way to be cool to fill our feeling of emptiness inside.
2. I agree with our need to obtain attention. Although many of us try to pretend as if obtaining attention is the last thing on our minds. In high school there is a good type of attention and a bad type. You want to get the type of attention that makes you seem "cool", meaning you being recognized by a large population of teenagers in high school as well as being admired. And there is gaining the type of attention that is looked down upon such as "people talking smack" (I think thats how it is said) or gaining attention in a "fake" way by not being "real", whatever that really means. This type of attention is seen as uncool. Also there is a need for attention among families as well. Gaining attention is like a competition. Many of the youngest kids in the family gain the most attention from their parents because they are more innocent, cute, and more likely to not be a "lost cause". At least that in the majority families that I have seen, my family is the perfect example. Just between my brother and I, I manage to gain the attention of my parents the most because I did what they expected me to do, go to school, graduate (not yet), be social.
3. You might want to split up your arguments into bits:
-Role Playing (We all are writing our own scripts)
-The Cool Rules, Anatomy of an Attitude (One of the articles we read in class)
-Tattoos (Mr. Fanning, you and write about how we use tattoos as a way to gain attention)
-Becker's Theory of death (emptiness)
-Separation from the mother theory (emptiness)
-Whatever emptiness feeling theories you might agree with. I like Becker's Theory the most.
Good Luck :)
To Jin:
I hope you don't mind that I comment you because my other triangle partner failed to do her rough draft yet and you did yours most recently. :)
I am a little bit confused about your thesis, I feel like it cuts off a little but maybe it is just me. Are you trying to say that our need to be cool affects us mentally and physically? Maybe thats how I would have wrote it; our strong need to be cool affects how we act physically and mentally.
In the first paragraph, I think I see where you are getting at. You might want to include our need to be "unique" and "different" but not too different or it would be seen as uncool and weird. We take this idea and we formulate a character, when we have choosen a character we play the roles that this character would play out, kind of like a script. For example Stephanie Adames in our class plays the popular girl, Conor plays the comedian, I play the "who cares" role. The cowboy hat dude who you interviewed wanted to play the role of maybe a badass. In doing so he comes of conceided, being well aware that he is "obviously cool" and smoking a cigar. In result he is able to portray this badass cowboy image. I like that you put the little part about the effects of smoking. It kind of shows how his result of trying to come off so cool maybe not be very healthy for him, the results may not be good.
List of stuff you may want to include:
-Peoples stories (you can talk about the roles of different people and compare them, what really cool. What is "fake" cool.)
-Maybe talk about why Mr. Fanning got the Tattoos- trying to fill a certain role he was playing.
-How may these roles help us or not help us?
-Self Presentation- The Presentation of Self in Every Day Life (An article Andy passed out in class, this would fit well in your paper I think)
Keep it up, semesters almost over. ;)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Super Draft!!
Introducción(Trying to up my Spanish skills so that my boyfriend thinks I'm cool by trying because he's Spanish. Translations may not to accurate, don't make fun of me...)
Being called fake is probably one of the biggest insults known to teenagers. It is a term used to imply that someone is not being someone you are not, or in other words you are not being "your true self". I have used my share of this statement before our exploration of cool. For instance I have told a friend to be herself when she was nervous about meeting a guy, looking back on all the moments I have sad "be yourself" I come to think; what does that even mean exactly? Who is your true self or what is it?There is no explanation of what this "true self" is. The concept of being "our true self" is an incorrect concept which is seen as the same level as being cool but it is a way for us to subconsciously cover up our empty feeling from acknowledgment of mortality. In reality we all just play roles to fit what we call "our true self."
Vacuidad
Human beings have this feeling of emptiness, it is not sure where it is located but this feeling can branch out to many things, I think it depends on the person. It can be a feeling of loneliness, sadness, anger, melancholy, disappointment, un-importance, or a mixture. It can also depend on the social situation and people a person is surrounded with. Being able to identify that this emptiness exist does not thoroughly explain what it is, to get closer to what it is can be found by exploring where it comes from and/or why.
If you really thought about our significance, we are all just specks in this huge world, out of around 6 billion people thinking for yourself you are just one tiny speck that will probably never be famous/recognized by the masses out of 6 billion or have any importance. Shrinking this idea down to high school size, even in a high school of 400 teenagers you are just 1 of 400. This can make someone feel vulnerable and worthless, along side with not knowing the meaning of one's life or ones identity, this is when we generate a identity depending on certain situation thus calling it "true selves". This making one reason to why we may thrive for being cool, we generate identities for ourselves that are comfortable enough to wear and will give us some sort of recognition out of the large mass of people. Giving a feeling as if the hallow space of emptiness is being filled by a speckle of matter.
The second reason from which this emptiness comes from is from Becker's Theory of acknowledgment of death. If everyone was asked if they wanted to do something significant before they die they would most likely answer "yes". Everyone has to feel as if they are doing something important before they die, whether it is fulfilling a long thriving goal or feel significant to others. Everyone wants to fulfill some sort of important roll or do something that seems worth living for before you die. This can be caused of actually realizing that one day we are going to die. Thus making great new shows such as the Buried Life on MTV about 4 guys traveling the world to fulfill their '100 things do do before you die' list and helping others fulfill their choice as well(http://www.theburiedlife.com/about/). Knowing that we are just temporary make us feel insignificant which causes us to have "lists" or "accomplishments" before we die which is what causes us to want to be cool. Being able to be cool is a sense of fulfilling something on our list before we die. We cover up being scared of death with coolness.
NO HA TERMINADO
Being called fake is probably one of the biggest insults known to teenagers. It is a term used to imply that someone is not being someone you are not, or in other words you are not being "your true self". I have used my share of this statement before our exploration of cool. For instance I have told a friend to be herself when she was nervous about meeting a guy, looking back on all the moments I have sad "be yourself" I come to think; what does that even mean exactly? Who is your true self or what is it?There is no explanation of what this "true self" is. The concept of being "our true self" is an incorrect concept which is seen as the same level as being cool but it is a way for us to subconsciously cover up our empty feeling from acknowledgment of mortality. In reality we all just play roles to fit what we call "our true self."
Vacuidad
Human beings have this feeling of emptiness, it is not sure where it is located but this feeling can branch out to many things, I think it depends on the person. It can be a feeling of loneliness, sadness, anger, melancholy, disappointment, un-importance, or a mixture. It can also depend on the social situation and people a person is surrounded with. Being able to identify that this emptiness exist does not thoroughly explain what it is, to get closer to what it is can be found by exploring where it comes from and/or why.
If you really thought about our significance, we are all just specks in this huge world, out of around 6 billion people thinking for yourself you are just one tiny speck that will probably never be famous/recognized by the masses out of 6 billion or have any importance. Shrinking this idea down to high school size, even in a high school of 400 teenagers you are just 1 of 400. This can make someone feel vulnerable and worthless, along side with not knowing the meaning of one's life or ones identity, this is when we generate a identity depending on certain situation thus calling it "true selves". This making one reason to why we may thrive for being cool, we generate identities for ourselves that are comfortable enough to wear and will give us some sort of recognition out of the large mass of people. Giving a feeling as if the hallow space of emptiness is being filled by a speckle of matter.
The second reason from which this emptiness comes from is from Becker's Theory of acknowledgment of death. If everyone was asked if they wanted to do something significant before they die they would most likely answer "yes". Everyone has to feel as if they are doing something important before they die, whether it is fulfilling a long thriving goal or feel significant to others. Everyone wants to fulfill some sort of important roll or do something that seems worth living for before you die. This can be caused of actually realizing that one day we are going to die. Thus making great new shows such as the Buried Life on MTV about 4 guys traveling the world to fulfill their '100 things do do before you die' list and helping others fulfill their choice as well(http://www.theburiedlife.com/about/). Knowing that we are just temporary make us feel insignificant which causes us to have "lists" or "accomplishments" before we die which is what causes us to want to be cool. Being able to be cool is a sense of fulfilling something on our list before we die. We cover up being scared of death with coolness.
NO HA TERMINADO
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Cool Pose
Everyone grows up in a certain lifestyle and within this lifestyle or "map" they are given a set of options. Some options may seem more noticeable then others. But what is it about these options that make one more assessable than the others? Why is it that for example a black kid is more likely found doing drugs or continuing on the path of poverty in their lifestyle or neighborhood and is most likely unable to change? It contemplates whether it is just genetic, personal choice, or just the development of their lifestyle growing up in certain situations. There need to be cool and "skip school" appears to be far greater then a white teenager. And it does not appear that they find whats cool completely different so whats the deal?
Unlike a white teenager/person who is most likely more wealthy then a black teenager will probably go off to college, do good in school and have more present and future success? Or the Chinese people in china town who can relate to black people on poverty, most Chinese families seen in Chinatown live in poverty or public housing just like black people but are not similar in things like work habits or attitude. Although every teenagers probably finds the same things in trying to be cool.
When talking about the Chinese people in china town and how their kids grow up to be doctors and lawyers despite their living environment, conditions, or their interest in being cool. The first thing I thought of during this discussion, is not my brother but my brother's friends. Although social awkward, unlike me who has like only 3 close friends including my boyfriend, my brother had many friend. I would estimate maybe 16 friends, they would come over to my house whenever my dad went on vacation. As I usually would hide in my room because for some reason I just don't fit in with them because for reasons that I think is because 1. they are older and 2. I am not Chinese enough as my boyfriend isn't Chinese and neither is non of my friends.
My brother was not racist but he only liked being friends with other Chinese people, but they were not all stereotypical Chinese kids who usually are seen wearing jeans and a t-shirt and are quite and shy. His friends are all kind of "ghetto" I guess you can call it. They would come over and drink, order Chinese food, smoke pot, and play poker. And although they seemed to be doing things that would seem to lead them to a life of being unsuccessful they surprisingly are really great students, in college, some graduated with bachelor degrees in engineering and so on so forth. So how come it my brothers friends are able to go on a life of being what is known as successful in our society but still are able to do the cool pose?
This whole thing kinda confuzzles me because unlike my brother's friends who live in queens mainly, we live in upper east side. My brother when he lived here although being so extremely intelligent, sadly, he is a complete "loss" as my dad calls it. My brother is probably 10 times smarter then all his friends and didn't exactly grow up in any housing projects or smoke pot like his friends but he happen to just slither by high school, completely bomb college and drop out twice and ended up getting a job a family friend has so graciously provided him in Hong Kong which he just recently decided to quit!! Now thats a handful of stuff that can be looked down upon that many black people are looked down upon as well. So how come my brother who grew up in a comparably more wealthy lifestyle with way more opportunities on his map(I mean he did get into two colleges) and even with influences from his successful pot head friends, why did he take such a unsuspected route? I mean was my brother thinking; unlike my friends I'm going to be unique and totally go the opposite direction even with a lot of routes on my map, of course not.
Although I do not think anyone can understand my brother's thought process on his choices because he is like a robot so I can only hypothesize that maybe he read his map incorrectly. Maybe he figured that his lifestyle compared to black kids or his friends who lived in queens and not Manhattan seemed better and thus making everything fall into place automatically. Who ever know, maybe my brother himself doesn't even know.
Unlike a white teenager/person who is most likely more wealthy then a black teenager will probably go off to college, do good in school and have more present and future success? Or the Chinese people in china town who can relate to black people on poverty, most Chinese families seen in Chinatown live in poverty or public housing just like black people but are not similar in things like work habits or attitude. Although every teenagers probably finds the same things in trying to be cool.
When talking about the Chinese people in china town and how their kids grow up to be doctors and lawyers despite their living environment, conditions, or their interest in being cool. The first thing I thought of during this discussion, is not my brother but my brother's friends. Although social awkward, unlike me who has like only 3 close friends including my boyfriend, my brother had many friend. I would estimate maybe 16 friends, they would come over to my house whenever my dad went on vacation. As I usually would hide in my room because for some reason I just don't fit in with them because for reasons that I think is because 1. they are older and 2. I am not Chinese enough as my boyfriend isn't Chinese and neither is non of my friends.
My brother was not racist but he only liked being friends with other Chinese people, but they were not all stereotypical Chinese kids who usually are seen wearing jeans and a t-shirt and are quite and shy. His friends are all kind of "ghetto" I guess you can call it. They would come over and drink, order Chinese food, smoke pot, and play poker. And although they seemed to be doing things that would seem to lead them to a life of being unsuccessful they surprisingly are really great students, in college, some graduated with bachelor degrees in engineering and so on so forth. So how come it my brothers friends are able to go on a life of being what is known as successful in our society but still are able to do the cool pose?
This whole thing kinda confuzzles me because unlike my brother's friends who live in queens mainly, we live in upper east side. My brother when he lived here although being so extremely intelligent, sadly, he is a complete "loss" as my dad calls it. My brother is probably 10 times smarter then all his friends and didn't exactly grow up in any housing projects or smoke pot like his friends but he happen to just slither by high school, completely bomb college and drop out twice and ended up getting a job a family friend has so graciously provided him in Hong Kong which he just recently decided to quit!! Now thats a handful of stuff that can be looked down upon that many black people are looked down upon as well. So how come my brother who grew up in a comparably more wealthy lifestyle with way more opportunities on his map(I mean he did get into two colleges) and even with influences from his successful pot head friends, why did he take such a unsuspected route? I mean was my brother thinking; unlike my friends I'm going to be unique and totally go the opposite direction even with a lot of routes on my map, of course not.
Although I do not think anyone can understand my brother's thought process on his choices because he is like a robot so I can only hypothesize that maybe he read his map incorrectly. Maybe he figured that his lifestyle compared to black kids or his friends who lived in queens and not Manhattan seemed better and thus making everything fall into place automatically. Who ever know, maybe my brother himself doesn't even know.
33Paper Outline
Introduction:Being cool is a way for people to feel more significance and have a sense of importance due to our acknowledgment of mortality,filling a hidden emptiness within with artificial happiness.
Cool a artificial happiness to fill the empty feeling within
(Something along those lines....)
1. The Emptiness
-What is the emptiness? The feeling?
-There is no sense of knowing the meaning of your own life and identity.
2. Where does it come from/What does it do?
-Becker's Theory of acknowledgment of mortality
-Competition among those who may be taking our emptiness
-The need to be needy
1. The Artificial Replacement
a. Role playing
-List of certain roles
-People's Stories
-Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude
b. Aggrandizing
-Tattoos
-Interviews
Cool a artificial happiness to fill the empty feeling within
(Something along those lines....)
1. The Emptiness
-What is the emptiness? The feeling?
-There is no sense of knowing the meaning of your own life and identity.
2. Where does it come from/What does it do?
-Becker's Theory of acknowledgment of mortality
-Competition among those who may be taking our emptiness
-The need to be needy
1. The Artificial Replacement
a. Role playing
-List of certain roles
-People's Stories
-Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude
b. Aggrandizing
-Tattoos
-Interviews
Monday, January 11, 2010
My Grandma has her eyebrows TATTOOED
So whenever I think about tattoos or when someone shows me or talks to me about tattoos I think or say "Im going to get my tattoo as soon as I get the money." So I see why I may say this for certain reasons, one reason is that it is I finically am not able to afford a tattoo as they are actually quite expensive. And second is because tattoos are the new trend, its the new "cool" thing to get. It shows off how cool you are as you were able to sit through the billions of stabs in your pores. It is another way of showing a meaning or an image of who you are and what you experienced. There are the people who are brave enough to get a tattoo and feel the accomplishment of sitting through the session and being able to brag about it later. And there are the people like me who want to be a part of the whole tattoo trend to be cool so I say things like "i'll get a tattoo soon" and use the excuse of not having the money.
Saying how badly I want a tattoo and how I will get it sooner or later would still let me be part of the cool tattoo trend without actually getting the tattoo and without actually admitting that I will most likely end up never getting one. My initial idea of a tattoo is to get my chinese name tattooed. If I were to get this tattoo and people asked me what it represented since it would be in chinese I would tell them that it was my chinese name. There is no story behind it but it would be projecting a part of me, showing how I am aware of my chinese culture. In reality though, even though I speak Cantonese (chinese) I actually do not know how to read or write. I do not know how to write my chinese name, only say it in chinese. So would this make me a fake chinese? If I were to get a tattoo of my chinese name (which for those of you who do not know, it is not just "Chloe" translated to chinese. There is no such thing as this), would I just be flaking my chinese culture.
I think tattoos represent a different meaning to every person and gives a different feeling to every person. Ali Jo gets tattoos which gives her a feeling of bravery and accomplishment while filling her need for attention yet she mentions how her tattoos initially have no thought put into them. As Mr. Fanning has his tattoos that kind of show a timeline of his life. It is a reminder to him of his accomplishments or his experiences to this very day, like the japanese word for "bravery" tattooed which represented his time in the operating room. His tattoos act as an armor to him, giving him the sense of who he is and no one can change that. A big FU to the conservative people. My grandma has her eyebrows tattooed, my mother and aunt their eyeliner tattooed (tattooed there eyelids. I know this sounds weird but it doesn't not as weird as it sounds, you can hardly notice it) as it was the latest trend when they were younger. They all went to get it together which makes me think it was kind of like a right of passage thing like Mr. Fanning's first tattoo or something that enabled them to bond as they all shared this moment of courage and accomplishment.
So as everyone else is fulfilling their feeling of accomplishment and bravery and getting permanently reminders of something or sometime in their lives, I will most likely be a total chicken and just keep saying that I will get my tattoo some day soon when I get the money. And although I have do not have tattoos I use to have a crap load of piercing, so maybe a small reason for not getting tattoos is that I have already felt that accomplishment and bravery feeling from piercing but I am not sure if they count or have the same sort of representation or feeling. I guess I wouldn't know until I actually get a tattoo which I plan on getting...soon........yeah right.
Saying how badly I want a tattoo and how I will get it sooner or later would still let me be part of the cool tattoo trend without actually getting the tattoo and without actually admitting that I will most likely end up never getting one. My initial idea of a tattoo is to get my chinese name tattooed. If I were to get this tattoo and people asked me what it represented since it would be in chinese I would tell them that it was my chinese name. There is no story behind it but it would be projecting a part of me, showing how I am aware of my chinese culture. In reality though, even though I speak Cantonese (chinese) I actually do not know how to read or write. I do not know how to write my chinese name, only say it in chinese. So would this make me a fake chinese? If I were to get a tattoo of my chinese name (which for those of you who do not know, it is not just "Chloe" translated to chinese. There is no such thing as this), would I just be flaking my chinese culture.
I think tattoos represent a different meaning to every person and gives a different feeling to every person. Ali Jo gets tattoos which gives her a feeling of bravery and accomplishment while filling her need for attention yet she mentions how her tattoos initially have no thought put into them. As Mr. Fanning has his tattoos that kind of show a timeline of his life. It is a reminder to him of his accomplishments or his experiences to this very day, like the japanese word for "bravery" tattooed which represented his time in the operating room. His tattoos act as an armor to him, giving him the sense of who he is and no one can change that. A big FU to the conservative people. My grandma has her eyebrows tattooed, my mother and aunt their eyeliner tattooed (tattooed there eyelids. I know this sounds weird but it doesn't not as weird as it sounds, you can hardly notice it) as it was the latest trend when they were younger. They all went to get it together which makes me think it was kind of like a right of passage thing like Mr. Fanning's first tattoo or something that enabled them to bond as they all shared this moment of courage and accomplishment.
So as everyone else is fulfilling their feeling of accomplishment and bravery and getting permanently reminders of something or sometime in their lives, I will most likely be a total chicken and just keep saying that I will get my tattoo some day soon when I get the money. And although I have do not have tattoos I use to have a crap load of piercing, so maybe a small reason for not getting tattoos is that I have already felt that accomplishment and bravery feeling from piercing but I am not sure if they count or have the same sort of representation or feeling. I guess I wouldn't know until I actually get a tattoo which I plan on getting...soon........yeah right.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
HW31 Aggrandizing
Part A-
So I decided to ask my boyfriend because I know he would not/ cannot get offended plus I can mostly tell if he is totally bullshitting or not. I asked him a little bit about the video games he played. He uses his world around video games to aggrandize himself. Mainly the video game known as Call of Duty: Modern Wafare. A war game that is mostly played online with random people who also play the game. It involves shooting, running around, bombs, killing, teams, etc. He explains when split up into two teams, when killing people from the other team you gain points, you can get points for different things that I am not going to go into detail on. "I try to stay number one which I am. I am always high on the rank when at the end of the game it shows everyone's scores and achievements and how good they are." When he screams at the television screen as if he has stereotypical tourettes its apparently his own way of aggrandizing. He feels important if he stays number one on this online game, it makes him feel important to the other players that play online.
He also mention a physical attribute about himself that makes him feel more significant or bigger then others, mentally and physically. "Another thing is that I am tall. I'm 6'2 and in our society as men are suppose to be masculine. Men are supposedly expected to be tall, at least especially to be taller then women. And since I have the advantage of already being tall since its not exactly something I am doing and I just happened to grow up tall I feel more important and bigger compared to guys who are shorter." Although not exactly something that he is trying to do to aggrandize himself like get tattoos or wear shoes that make himself taller, his physical attribute makes him feel lucky, being able to be tall naturally make him feel as if he is seen as better then some other men.
Part B-
There are several ways I have or am still aggrandizing myself. The first way is how I use to have piercing. I did it because I felt it was edgy, it was the "cool" thing to do as it wasn't as common as it is now. It showed how I would go to extreme measures of piercing my flesh which showed how extreme and "cool" I was. It was what I thought was unique or different from so I though. As time went on piercing started to become more common as everyone started to get piercing as if it was another accessory like a hat or a bracelet. Which is when I realize how I did not want my piercing anymore. Plus I really thought about what the point was. Obviously I was not getting piercing because they felt good or made me feel good, I was doing it to impress people, impress friends, show people how edgy I was. Which relates to the emptiness feeling that we all get. No matter how much I pierced my body there is no real filling of the emptiness. It only made me feel a little more important and "cooler" then other people because it was something nobody dared to get. Or so I thought.
Another way that everyone relates to is clothing. Someone who says "I buy these clothing for myself, because I like it. Makes me feel good" is a complete lie. Just like when Juliette stated that she bought and wore the shoes that she had one because she simply liked it and wore them for her own enjoyment (sorry for singleing you out Juliette). We all buy clothing to impress. Dress to impress as people say. I buy certain clothes to fulfill the need to impress certain people like friends, boyfriend, people who are seem more "cooler" then others. Compared to someone who wears a T-shirt and and jeans, I can feel and seem more important because I am more "fashionable". Compared to someone who doesn't dress to impress, they may have a more outspoken personality, I on the other hand am more timid and quiet and in order to match that I dress and wear things that can be noticed. This probably can be known as fishing out compliments, the most common thing someone buys something new is to feel the importance and to feel special in that first few moments when everyone compliments the new item or article of clothing. This compels people to always feel the need to buy new clothes, that at times is the intention in buying new clothes as well.
So I decided to ask my boyfriend because I know he would not/ cannot get offended plus I can mostly tell if he is totally bullshitting or not. I asked him a little bit about the video games he played. He uses his world around video games to aggrandize himself. Mainly the video game known as Call of Duty: Modern Wafare. A war game that is mostly played online with random people who also play the game. It involves shooting, running around, bombs, killing, teams, etc. He explains when split up into two teams, when killing people from the other team you gain points, you can get points for different things that I am not going to go into detail on. "I try to stay number one which I am. I am always high on the rank when at the end of the game it shows everyone's scores and achievements and how good they are." When he screams at the television screen as if he has stereotypical tourettes its apparently his own way of aggrandizing. He feels important if he stays number one on this online game, it makes him feel important to the other players that play online.
He also mention a physical attribute about himself that makes him feel more significant or bigger then others, mentally and physically. "Another thing is that I am tall. I'm 6'2 and in our society as men are suppose to be masculine. Men are supposedly expected to be tall, at least especially to be taller then women. And since I have the advantage of already being tall since its not exactly something I am doing and I just happened to grow up tall I feel more important and bigger compared to guys who are shorter." Although not exactly something that he is trying to do to aggrandize himself like get tattoos or wear shoes that make himself taller, his physical attribute makes him feel lucky, being able to be tall naturally make him feel as if he is seen as better then some other men.
Part B-
There are several ways I have or am still aggrandizing myself. The first way is how I use to have piercing. I did it because I felt it was edgy, it was the "cool" thing to do as it wasn't as common as it is now. It showed how I would go to extreme measures of piercing my flesh which showed how extreme and "cool" I was. It was what I thought was unique or different from so I though. As time went on piercing started to become more common as everyone started to get piercing as if it was another accessory like a hat or a bracelet. Which is when I realize how I did not want my piercing anymore. Plus I really thought about what the point was. Obviously I was not getting piercing because they felt good or made me feel good, I was doing it to impress people, impress friends, show people how edgy I was. Which relates to the emptiness feeling that we all get. No matter how much I pierced my body there is no real filling of the emptiness. It only made me feel a little more important and "cooler" then other people because it was something nobody dared to get. Or so I thought.
Another way that everyone relates to is clothing. Someone who says "I buy these clothing for myself, because I like it. Makes me feel good" is a complete lie. Just like when Juliette stated that she bought and wore the shoes that she had one because she simply liked it and wore them for her own enjoyment (sorry for singleing you out Juliette). We all buy clothing to impress. Dress to impress as people say. I buy certain clothes to fulfill the need to impress certain people like friends, boyfriend, people who are seem more "cooler" then others. Compared to someone who wears a T-shirt and and jeans, I can feel and seem more important because I am more "fashionable". Compared to someone who doesn't dress to impress, they may have a more outspoken personality, I on the other hand am more timid and quiet and in order to match that I dress and wear things that can be noticed. This probably can be known as fishing out compliments, the most common thing someone buys something new is to feel the importance and to feel special in that first few moments when everyone compliments the new item or article of clothing. This compels people to always feel the need to buy new clothes, that at times is the intention in buying new clothes as well.
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