My paper is late, but I'm writing it anyways.
I guess we'll see if you grade it.
Will be up by tonight- if not then tomorrow morning.
BIG PAPER- Big Paper- Big Paper - Big Paper- Big Paper
Introducation:
Ask any person and something they'd say they'd want most out of life is happiness. Who wouldn't want to be happy, I doubt people set out for misery. But at times its hard to imagine everyone being happy. There would have to be a lot of unhappiness to really grasp appreciation for happiness. Even once we've found that thing that makes us happy, we'd have do whatever we can to maintain it, hold on to that magnificant thing that makes us all warm inside before it dissapears forever. Typically its a person whom we fall in love with. Maybe its a hobby or sport. Unfortunately such ambition to be blissfully happy isn't always as easy to come by like it was when we were young and "ignorant". Its been said that as we get older, it becomes increasingly harder for being to feel satisfied because we've learned by now that life isn't as pure and simple as we once thought. The concept of ignorance is bliss can no longer play into the lives of those who've been exposed to the hardship and cruelty that comes with growing up. That's when people may reconsider how they live their life, and are sent down paths that make it easier to get through the day without breaking down. We as human beings are born with a sense of emptiness that we attempt in filling with sources of meaning so that we can then achieve life's universal goal; happiness. It takes becoming adults and the process of growing up to really understand that the universe doesn't automatically give you what you may or may not deserve. We mostly have to decide what kind of people we to be, and a huge factor that comes along with this decision is the option of being cool. But what is cool, really? Happiness?
Argument 1: Birth coincides with need.
Its inevitable that the day we are born we are needy. How can we not, we have the competance of a fish, completely clueless as to what the hell we're supposed to do but cry and whine and wait for comfort. Its unfortunately to see how some people never shook this brat mentality, but for the average person independence comes with age. But first we must all start at the same square one. Our birthdates are out entry into the world, out introduction to our families and time to absorb all the attention we can hold to with out tiny little fingers and adorable little heads.
Its funny hot people "ohhh" and "awwww" very how irresistible babies are, smiling when they smile, laughing when they laugh. But doesn't it ever seem like adults are making fun or babies? Sure they are cute no matter what, but it seem that the moe babies mess up the more enjoyable it is for the adult. As if they're subconsciously mocking the kid for being clueless of the works of the human body. Not that this is a major point towards my thesis, I just think its ironic how we start out as little comedians to entertain the amusement of our elders.
From age one, life becomes a serie of trials and errors. In the beginning its much simpler.
Argument 2: How society shapes us in between.
Major Point: Appearance and Costumes
At some point in our youth, appearance becomes apart of the package. It never really mattered in the beginning because, franky, we didn't give a shit if we were naked, cloted or wrapped in a garbage bag. Our clothed bodies really only appealed to our warmth and the amusement of our parents (perhaps if we were dressed in a obnoxious getup bought by a wacky grandmother.) Reguardless, children don't really care about what they wear until they are put in a room with other kids. From the first day of preschool, when a kid see's another they start to compare. They compare anything from clothes, to shoes to toys. Merchandise becomes a popularity contest, and whoever has the best whatever was the coolest kid on the playground. "Oh I have the new Hannah Montana back pack, Its the only one in sparkly pink, my mommy ordered it from CHINA!"
Major point- Misconception
Once we are exposed to the real world, flying from the nest to venture into new territory like school, sports and social outings coordinated my our parents, we are molded into an identity of our suroundings. Sometimes I think the expression "two faced" is misinterpreted 1) because we everyone can be two faced, so why do we constantly single people out for it and 2) there aren't exaclty two faces a person can portray, but multible. We're never EXACTLY the same in every settings, and even if we try there are always characteristics about ourselves altered to easily accommodate with the people in such suroundings. Its just a way of life.
But just because someone puts on a different pose doesn't mean their not being sincere. It may be the case in some situations, while in more common situations, onlookers may misjudge or jump to the conclusion that a person Is being "fake". In many scenario's the fake demeanor can be mistaken for a failed attempt of cool.
Pause: Let me take a moment to redefine my definition of cool. As cool as being a universal goal, a reach that people work towards, for instance a high paying job, sleeping with the model or winning a fist right. We all work to achieve these goals, and when they fail we work harder to get them. So just because someone's aspiration may bluntly be to "be cool" then who are we to smash their dreams? Although we may not SINCERELY think they're cool, wouldn't it be nice if people could PURPOSELY do a little role playing to make someone else's life a bit more enjoyable? Just a thought, not that I believe anyone would actually do this.
Sometimes I believe the smartest people are the ones who know how to play people, and when I say play I mean fool. Like what Andy told us about the book "Speak Very Little" that discussed the techniwque of landing any job simply by asking questions in the interview, and while letting the interviewer speak, acting engaged and enthused by their speech. Perhaps the author made a break through into the mind of employers, but reguardless its all an act to get what you want. So if we want to be cool, is it ok to sacrefice out true personalities. Or do we become who we pretend to be?
Argument 3- Once we're done growing, who have we become?
(A) Maj point- Outcasts
I fathom nobody dreams of being an outcast.
"What would you like to be when you grow up, son?"
"Oh I've always wished to become that looked down upon lunatic hobo that lives on the street, in which people will always have a 12 foot radius of me as I sing spice girls songs with my tangled hair waving in the wind along with my horrific odor!"
No.
In society, people who are different are seen as outcasts, generally rebellions or FAILURES. But what is a failure? A person who doesn't meet the expectations set by our adored government? Someone who gave up on perusing the "American dream?" What kind of ambitions are we given to choose from? Sometimes I think we've got our morals in a twist and don't even realize it due to all the entertainment and distractions nicely packaged by the media through television, rock & roll and the big one DRUGS AND ALCOHOL (as seen on Gossip Girl).
I'm getting a little bit off the topic I was aiming for, but basically I think:
The concept of an outcast SUCKS. We all know what its like to be the odd one out of SOME sort of situation. Incapable of meeting the cutoff, "sorry you have promise but your just not worthy (when I say this I mean in a social sense) of being included in the clique." Didn't get picked for dodge ball, not pretty enough to be asked to slow dance at the winter formal, or having no one to eat lunch with. Its heart breaking when you see someone who just doesn't fit in. The person who is avoided and ignored for being different. It all plays into the perception of cool because in some shape of form there is always that person we think we're better then. And there are always people who think they are better then us. When really, we're all just people trying to SURVIVE. Trying not to get too depressed as a means of bearing to continue this unpredictable and fragile life.
I imagine its hard just being born different. I admit, I have thought to myself before that I got it kind of easy being born into a nice Jewish middle class family with a three bedroom apartment and beach house at the shore. I could have been born into a much harder life, and yet I got this one.
But what is it like for the homosexual kid born into a orthodox christian family in Alabama. Or the Haitian who just lost his home and half his family in the earth quake. Or a little girl who was a crack baby and forced to go from foster home to foster home. Hardship does exist, but I have been lucky enough to not have to witness or experience it on a daily basis.
Instead, I cry over a boy not liking me or my sister teasing me on acne or my dad refusing to give me money because I didn't do enough chores. Who the fuck am I? And who the fuck are we to complain about this economy when there are far worse places to live, where there aren't only any jobs or health care, but no food or water to go around.
WHO THE FUCK ARE WE TO COMPLAIN?
Does outcasts exist in third world countries? Are there room for outcasts, or is it just survival of the fittest?
I catch myself having moments where I want to cry, but I can't form the tears. Its frustrating, because I have that heavy weight on my chest and lump in my throat and think out scenario's of advocating my "struggle" (if you could call it that) to others, and in my fantasy they always understand and commend me for my bold way of seeing life differently.
(this is another image of cool I like, having radical original thought when really its been thought a million times over before)
I think its dumb how some of us walk down the street with out heard held high claiming to be good people, complimenting ourselves for out hard work and good deeds when really I think America, and New York in particular wouldn't know a hard days work if they were required to work a double shift.
Are we all doing the best we can, being the best we can?
grrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I am getting off topic again. Lets call this the Outcast and survival point.
But first, back to outcasts. I just feel we should stop out casting one another. We are all just people trying to survive. Its as simple as that.
Maj Point numero dose:Layers
FUCK! I snuck a peek at Ali Jo's blog and saw the picture of an onion, which started of a firestorm of idea's reffering back to the concept of cool and now I am practically stealing her brilliant point. So Andy, consider her one the very wise philosophers I am quoting in my paper.
Onions. A vegtable consisting of layers. Shreck got it right when he described himself as an onion because, really, we all have multiple personalities that suite us best in differing settings.
Who we are today may not be who we are tomorrow and CERTAINLY wasn't who we were yesterday.
At our best, we are flowers, blossoming... and then losing out pedals. We have a time of sheer beauty where we are at the PEEK of our existence, and then its gone -faded away- and we have to rely on our PERSONALITIES to gain companions.
Perhaps onions are more suitable for this point, because really we're not all beautiful flowers. If I'm keeping the same theme as my last point, we are actually pretty cynical. Best described by me as egotistical morons who can seem pretty smelly and ugly that makes G-d want to cry.
People have layers. Starting from birth to the day they die. Our true layers take time to reveal themselves, having to go through the process of growing up.
Major Point 3: Paying it forward. Paid off?
Does anything we did when we were alive really matter all that much when we're dead? There has been billions of billion of billions of people that came before us, that exist with us right now, and that will come after us. Thinking about the universe and all the matter that exists in the world can shutter a person to the bone. We are so horribly tiny, so blaintanly insignificant compared to the massive existence of planets and oceans and movie stars. Most of our neighbors, best friends and closest aquatences aren't anyone famous, brilliant or talented. They average people leading an average life that they were born into. Although no one can really say how boring or average that life is except the person who lived it. But reguardless, is it all worth all the effort when we're all going to die anyways? Whats the point, to leave you mark on this world to be remembered by future.
Sometimes I think g-d or whever created this world was a mastermind, a brilliant evil genius who created some of the most beautiful things imagineable. And then that same creator created to concept of cool. The thing that traps and holds people back, an image that corrupts the mind and wounds the soul.
Cool is just expectations embedded on the stupid to keep them obedient in order to please and fulfill the power of the smart.
To be continued...
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Hw 36: Big paper Triangle Partner Help
Evan-
Great start. The introduction was well written and engaging, you listed your major points perfectly and it didn't seem to wordy like come of your previous work. Although I really liked your introduction, its a bit unclear what specifically is your thesis statement. I'm not saying anything is confusing, persay. But maybe you want to emphasize one sentence or two as your overall main idea, rather then having a paragraph at a sum up of your paper. Just a thought.
I like the topic, you are really exploring the trial and errors of attempting to be cool and how many people go about accomplishing this goal of high social status.
I like how you started off your first argument, although the wording is a bit confusing. Your stating the contradiction between being a heroic archetype and being cool, but could you elaborate a bit more on why its impossible to be two archetypes at once.
Although I LOVED your Mr. fanning quote where he referenced belonging to a tribe. That sums up your point so well, I couldn't have said it better myself.
You might want to look back and revise some of the statistical statements you make, for instance saying "most of us try and fail drastically" or "99% of us blah blah blah". I don't think its that severe. I think many of us don't try quite as hard as we can (like James Dean had) because we're scared of the judgment that will be placed on us, considering trying too hard is looks down upon. Although you go more into this nicely in your next argument, so lemme stop there.
Good segue into signifier and how we use our bodies as canvas's to express our roles. I loved your argument about how we are all performing the roles we chose and we use places like school and work as a stage. But what happens when the spotlight isn't on us? How do we alter our characters when we THINK no ones looking?
Again GREAT segue into your next argument of exploring the sources of emptiness that we fill my an agenda of becoming cool. Interesting reference to Native American tribes, I remember Fanning mentioning that in his speech to punk rock acceptance.
DAMN then you go into the points I practically basing my WHOLE paper around... the transition of emptiness from infancy to adulthood. The attention we're given is altered as we grow up, and t each stage we must adjust to new environments and new treatments. Eventually we realize we may be in more control of our fate then before, but changing people's perception may be harder then desired. This is all neccessary though to function in our delegate society and ever wish of achieving "normalcy".
Add to your conclusion and end with something a bit more interesting then just restating your previous points.
Promising start (as Andy would say). I'm looking forward to reading what else you come up with.
:)
- Alicia
Brit-
Basically what Andy said. If you use his outline as a guide, you will probably have an easier time writing."
- Alicia
Great start. The introduction was well written and engaging, you listed your major points perfectly and it didn't seem to wordy like come of your previous work. Although I really liked your introduction, its a bit unclear what specifically is your thesis statement. I'm not saying anything is confusing, persay. But maybe you want to emphasize one sentence or two as your overall main idea, rather then having a paragraph at a sum up of your paper. Just a thought.
I like the topic, you are really exploring the trial and errors of attempting to be cool and how many people go about accomplishing this goal of high social status.
I like how you started off your first argument, although the wording is a bit confusing. Your stating the contradiction between being a heroic archetype and being cool, but could you elaborate a bit more on why its impossible to be two archetypes at once.
Although I LOVED your Mr. fanning quote where he referenced belonging to a tribe. That sums up your point so well, I couldn't have said it better myself.
You might want to look back and revise some of the statistical statements you make, for instance saying "most of us try and fail drastically" or "99% of us blah blah blah". I don't think its that severe. I think many of us don't try quite as hard as we can (like James Dean had) because we're scared of the judgment that will be placed on us, considering trying too hard is looks down upon. Although you go more into this nicely in your next argument, so lemme stop there.
Good segue into signifier and how we use our bodies as canvas's to express our roles. I loved your argument about how we are all performing the roles we chose and we use places like school and work as a stage. But what happens when the spotlight isn't on us? How do we alter our characters when we THINK no ones looking?
Again GREAT segue into your next argument of exploring the sources of emptiness that we fill my an agenda of becoming cool. Interesting reference to Native American tribes, I remember Fanning mentioning that in his speech to punk rock acceptance.
DAMN then you go into the points I practically basing my WHOLE paper around... the transition of emptiness from infancy to adulthood. The attention we're given is altered as we grow up, and t each stage we must adjust to new environments and new treatments. Eventually we realize we may be in more control of our fate then before, but changing people's perception may be harder then desired. This is all neccessary though to function in our delegate society and ever wish of achieving "normalcy".
Add to your conclusion and end with something a bit more interesting then just restating your previous points.
Promising start (as Andy would say). I'm looking forward to reading what else you come up with.
:)
- Alicia
Brit-
Basically what Andy said. If you use his outline as a guide, you will probably have an easier time writing."
- Alicia
Monday, January 11, 2010
Hw 34: The Cool Pose
Cultural background and the neighborhood a person grows up in has such a huge impact on their interpretations of cool. Just like everyone has different opinions on matters pertaining to their lives, they also have different perceptions of what they consider to be cool. The hippest, trendiest most confident person at one School could be considered a total tool at another. It all depends to the environment and how well you can fit into it to really determine how much social status a person has.
And its more then just status, being cool also gives you a set of values and responsibilities to live up to. Its been said in T.V. shows and movies before that "being cool isn't easy".
It seems that once you choose a pose to wear, you must not only keep renewing it in order to continue staying in that pose, but you must also pretest and defend it against people who dislike you for it or may want to change the pose you posses.
That's why there are always two ways to be cool, to rebel and do your own thing OR to follow the crowd and work a popular style the best to your ability. It seems though, in any situation there is always pressure to be a certain way. Everyone around us has an expectation of the way they want others to act. Our parents want us to be respectable successful people, our teachers and bosses want us to be obedient, and our friends want us to want the same things they want.
Sometimes I fear its all so you can fit nicely into the system, so that we don't disrupt the nice structure of our society. But are we really being ourselves when we do things for the amusement and satisfaction of others? And where do we draw the line in order to truly be who we want?
Is being cool so imperative to survive, or are we just raised to want certain things and act a certain way? And how might this effect the ways we deal with change?
For instance, what we consider cool as a teenager will most likely be a lot different from what we find cool in college or as young adults. Its because we are constantly changing our surroundings, adjusting and morphing into different people as the environment changes, according to me. And if I'm right then I wonder if we're ever really being true to ourselves. Shouldn't we stay the same no matter where we are?
Then again, we can't all live n the past and act as we did when we were 16 years old or else our delegate little society may resort to a bunch of video game playing, party hopping, shopaholic assholes.
So we all have to change. And we all have to grow up. Usually, our backgrounds effect us as kids, but not necessarily as adults. So this cool pose may just be temporary. Unfortunately who we are in the beginning sets us on paths to continue our pose. If we're involved in a gang as children where we become accustomed to violence and vulgar acts, that may carry out into their behavior as adults. Its just because of the values offered to them in the neighborhood they grew up in.
We're all born as clean plates, relying on our parents and teachers to mold and guide us into good people. Or, into the little clones they want us to be. It takes a good ten years for us to start realizing that our superiors aren't necessarily as smart as we thought, and may not always be right. Then we have to look to new places for guidance, whether from ourselves or out surroundings.
The human body is like a canvas for the soul, a way for personalities to be expressed from the outside without having to open our mouths. Almost everything about our bodies can be altered to fit into a certain criteria of cool. We can change out outfit, hair, stance and freshness. What I mean by freshness is that we can tattoo, pierce and cover up with makeup almost anywhere on our clear clean bodies. People change their original looks either to fit into a group more easily, or to stand out in the crowd.
Many different titles require different demeanor, for instance a professional style requires neatly combed hair, not too much skin revealed and a nicely fitted suit.
But a style required for an artist may be a polar opposite. We must decide on the inside how we want to look on the outside.
I think people who change up their looks the most often are the ones who really know what they like the best, because they've gone through stages to get where they are.
There was a time where I assumed Samantha Kaplan would die her hair every shade of the rainbow, but now she settles on platinum blond because its what looks best for her.
Andy may have had a Mohawk once to be original, but now he tries to convince us that he doesn't care about the style of his hair, even though he's always running his hand through it.
If we're so ignorant then I think the only way to try and redeem ourselves is to stop having boundaries for our looks and just venture into the unknown. Experiment. Fail. Start all over again.
It may not be as easy for those who are expected to look one way, as to blend more easily into their culture of their neighborhood. But if we live in fear how can we ever embrace the unexpected change of the world?
We have to be in control of our maps, but not hold on to them too tightly as a way of preparing ourselves for when our maps may be smashed and completely altered.
And its more then just status, being cool also gives you a set of values and responsibilities to live up to. Its been said in T.V. shows and movies before that "being cool isn't easy".
It seems that once you choose a pose to wear, you must not only keep renewing it in order to continue staying in that pose, but you must also pretest and defend it against people who dislike you for it or may want to change the pose you posses.
That's why there are always two ways to be cool, to rebel and do your own thing OR to follow the crowd and work a popular style the best to your ability. It seems though, in any situation there is always pressure to be a certain way. Everyone around us has an expectation of the way they want others to act. Our parents want us to be respectable successful people, our teachers and bosses want us to be obedient, and our friends want us to want the same things they want.
Sometimes I fear its all so you can fit nicely into the system, so that we don't disrupt the nice structure of our society. But are we really being ourselves when we do things for the amusement and satisfaction of others? And where do we draw the line in order to truly be who we want?
Is being cool so imperative to survive, or are we just raised to want certain things and act a certain way? And how might this effect the ways we deal with change?
For instance, what we consider cool as a teenager will most likely be a lot different from what we find cool in college or as young adults. Its because we are constantly changing our surroundings, adjusting and morphing into different people as the environment changes, according to me. And if I'm right then I wonder if we're ever really being true to ourselves. Shouldn't we stay the same no matter where we are?
Then again, we can't all live n the past and act as we did when we were 16 years old or else our delegate little society may resort to a bunch of video game playing, party hopping, shopaholic assholes.
So we all have to change. And we all have to grow up. Usually, our backgrounds effect us as kids, but not necessarily as adults. So this cool pose may just be temporary. Unfortunately who we are in the beginning sets us on paths to continue our pose. If we're involved in a gang as children where we become accustomed to violence and vulgar acts, that may carry out into their behavior as adults. Its just because of the values offered to them in the neighborhood they grew up in.
We're all born as clean plates, relying on our parents and teachers to mold and guide us into good people. Or, into the little clones they want us to be. It takes a good ten years for us to start realizing that our superiors aren't necessarily as smart as we thought, and may not always be right. Then we have to look to new places for guidance, whether from ourselves or out surroundings.
The human body is like a canvas for the soul, a way for personalities to be expressed from the outside without having to open our mouths. Almost everything about our bodies can be altered to fit into a certain criteria of cool. We can change out outfit, hair, stance and freshness. What I mean by freshness is that we can tattoo, pierce and cover up with makeup almost anywhere on our clear clean bodies. People change their original looks either to fit into a group more easily, or to stand out in the crowd.
Many different titles require different demeanor, for instance a professional style requires neatly combed hair, not too much skin revealed and a nicely fitted suit.
But a style required for an artist may be a polar opposite. We must decide on the inside how we want to look on the outside.
I think people who change up their looks the most often are the ones who really know what they like the best, because they've gone through stages to get where they are.
There was a time where I assumed Samantha Kaplan would die her hair every shade of the rainbow, but now she settles on platinum blond because its what looks best for her.
Andy may have had a Mohawk once to be original, but now he tries to convince us that he doesn't care about the style of his hair, even though he's always running his hand through it.
If we're so ignorant then I think the only way to try and redeem ourselves is to stop having boundaries for our looks and just venture into the unknown. Experiment. Fail. Start all over again.
It may not be as easy for those who are expected to look one way, as to blend more easily into their culture of their neighborhood. But if we live in fear how can we ever embrace the unexpected change of the world?
We have to be in control of our maps, but not hold on to them too tightly as a way of preparing ourselves for when our maps may be smashed and completely altered.
Hw 33: Cool Paper Outline
Thesis Statement: We as human beings are born with a sense of emptiness that we try to fill with sources of meaning so we can then achieve life's universal goal; happiness.
Argument 1: We are embedded with social values from infancy and expected to live out the archetypes we're assigned by superiors.
Major Point 1-People are born as clean slates, raw of experiences of life; the good the bad and the ugly. They depend on their parents, teachers and role models to help mold them into people they want them to be. We're taught the common linguistics, signifier and social cues set in that society.
Argument 1: We are embedded with social values from infancy and expected to live out the archetypes we're assigned by superiors.
Major Point 1-People are born as clean slates, raw of experiences of life; the good the bad and the ugly. They depend on their parents, teachers and role models to help mold them into people they want them to be. We're taught the common linguistics, signifier and social cues set in that society.
Major Point 2-Children start off in the whom, and after birth they are gradually exposed to new aspects of life. They spend the first couple years of infancy at home, sheltered from the world until they are physically fully functioning where they are then placed in daycare to be taught some o the basics of how to function and socialize. Since each home environment it different, some kids are placed in significantly different situations that either makes or breaks their personalities.
Major Point 3-How ethnicity, culture and religion make us into the people we become.
Argument 2-Once we do become a part of the real world we look to archetypes to fulfill and images to fit.
At school, its so much easier to get along with people who have he same interests as yourself. I'd much rather play hopscotch then basketball, dolls over guns and dancing over wrestling.
It must be my gender role that encourages me and reassures me that my habits are suitable.
Argument 3- We trade failed poses for others.
Major Point 1- Isn't it the best feeling in the world to make a new friend. The excitement to relate to a new person, to have all new experiences and conversations you never had before. You can't have too many friends, a person who get you, who has your back no matter what. Friends are the families we choose, relationships that don't have to be perfect to continue forever and ever.
A problem I feel our society has is dissatisfaction with friendships.We associate friends with status, so naturally to be cool you have to have the friends who go along with the image. This is where I fear the true beauty of friendship is morphed into a competition, a business rather then an pleasure.
Take the movie mean girls, a perfect example of social influence.
The plastics recruited Kady into their clique and transformed her into an image the more easily flatters their expectations of popularity. Therefore she was expected to leave her old interests and habits behind for bigger and brighter things, in the process losing her true self.
Major Point 2-
These are the kinds of ways people can get their priorities messed up. Sure its natural to want to be cool, desire a glamorous life of reckless partying and attractive people, but where does the source of satisfaction really come from? When do we realize shot term happiness is so limited to our looks and youth? When then do we do when our skin frail, are hair looses its color and our momentum is no longer constant?
At school, its so much easier to get along with people who have he same interests as yourself. I'd much rather play hopscotch then basketball, dolls over guns and dancing over wrestling.
It must be my gender role that encourages me and reassures me that my habits are suitable.
Argument 3- We trade failed poses for others.
Major Point 1- Isn't it the best feeling in the world to make a new friend. The excitement to relate to a new person, to have all new experiences and conversations you never had before. You can't have too many friends, a person who get you, who has your back no matter what. Friends are the families we choose, relationships that don't have to be perfect to continue forever and ever.
A problem I feel our society has is dissatisfaction with friendships.We associate friends with status, so naturally to be cool you have to have the friends who go along with the image. This is where I fear the true beauty of friendship is morphed into a competition, a business rather then an pleasure.
Take the movie mean girls, a perfect example of social influence.
The plastics recruited Kady into their clique and transformed her into an image the more easily flatters their expectations of popularity. Therefore she was expected to leave her old interests and habits behind for bigger and brighter things, in the process losing her true self.
Major Point 2-
These are the kinds of ways people can get their priorities messed up. Sure its natural to want to be cool, desire a glamorous life of reckless partying and attractive people, but where does the source of satisfaction really come from? When do we realize shot term happiness is so limited to our looks and youth? When then do we do when our skin frail, are hair looses its color and our momentum is no longer constant?
Monday, January 4, 2010
Hw 32: Presentation of Self
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but each eye interprets beauty so much differently. This not only applies to beauty, but perspectives of cool as well. In the past decade (and much before) tattoos have been on an uprising consideration of cool, (depending of course on the form it takes and who it is intended to appeal to) and those bold enough to get stuck with a sharp inked needle indulge in them, along with crazy hair styles and outrageous piercing.
But tattoos, I believe, are a lot different from piercings. Piercings for me, aside from ear piercings, are a way to try and express off how indy, bad ass or trendy you can be. They are all for show and I can't come to understand what the meaning of putting additional holes in your face or body does but become a burden to take care of. Its just another accessory to add to an aspiring image and I already know I'd be too lazy to partake and try to keep up with such a trend. But I can only speak for myself.
Tattoo's on the other had, I am more prone to supporting. Its like art on the beautiful human body (for the most part). The right design can advocate the most moving message and I frankly love to hear the stories behind such tattoo's. It's a way to document the history of your life or record what you hope to achieve in the future. Your loveliest memories don't have to be forgotten, they can be revisited each time you glance in the mirror.
I was reading over Daniel Chandler's Semiotics web page, and he suggested things that I already knew but in a different way. He really summed it up nicely how we all just want meaning, in any shape or form we all strive to find purpose in all that we do, tattoo's especially.
There are two aspects to tattoo's, there's a signifier (signifiant); the form which the sign takes; and there's the signified (signifié) - the concept it represents.
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