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.