HW 37 Cool Paper Done Draft

The "cool" people are the temporary elite of a group that people tend to look up to. It is often you find many people are looking to be "cool," trying to follow the complex and nearly impossible steps to being cool. Coolness is a delusional tragic trap that convinces people it will solve problems of meaning and significance but only worsens them.

Paradoxes and contradictions to the general idea of what cool prevents us from having a clear understanding of how to attempt being cool and does not allow us to attain coolness. One paradox is that if you are cool, you cannot look like you are trying to be cool; it has to be an authentic coolness. An excerpt from the show, The Simpson’s, is used as an example to show this paradox.

"Lisa: That song is so lame. /Homer: So lame that it's... cool? / Bart+Lisa: No. / Marge: Am I cool, kids? / Bart+Lisa: No. / Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring, right? / Bart+Lisa: No. / Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here. / Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to be told you're cool. / Bart: Well, sure you do. /
Lisa: How else would you know?"

It seems as though if you admit you're cool you are not because being cool is not caring. But if you're uncool, admitting that is acceptable--the song can be so lame that it's cool. But then how can you know if you're cool without asking and sounding like you're trying too hard? We all seem like we try so hard, trying different tactics of attaining coolness to get others to like you and according to the paradox, it leaves us uncool for trying too hard. This paradox of cool is a trap to make us think that reaching coolness will make us feel more significant.

Another paradox of cool is that being cool is being "real" and authentic. But especially as teens, we are all going through the struggle of finding ourselves so how can we be our authentic selves if we do not know what that is. In class we read an excerpt of Our Town by Thornton Wilder where two of the main characters, Emily and George were having a conversation about their feelings for each other, in this scene, the two characters were being sincere because they were not playing the "cool" role. We then compared this to the movie, Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean who was an icon of cool. In this movie, the group of cool kids at the high school are constantly being ironic and trying to be funny and making jokes so they will be accepted by the others. In this comparison, the group of kids who are clearly trying to be funny are seen as the cool ones and the sincere couple are seen as just average teens. "We trap ourselves in this paradox where being a bad ass is cooler than being sincere," (Esther Dionisio 1/21/10) even though authenticity is a trait of coolness. This is another paradox as a trap to coolness.

On a website titled "How to Be Cool" there are several steps in attaining coolness. Number one is not caring what others think. Being indifferent, but still having a general view of how others perceive you. You have to be confident, be different, say what you think, laugh at yourself. Individualism is also an important aspect, be relaxed, and be social without coming on to strong to other people. There seems to be many regulations in being cool. One must be a unique individual, but unique isn’t always "cool", someone you can call unique can also be seen as weird in a negative way. And in one of my interviews, a girl is considered cool but she was not unique because she dressed like everyone else. There does not seem to be a clear way to differentiate the two, trying to be cool has many contradictions that prevent one from being cool; people feel disappointed and insignificant as a result of being rejected by coolness.

Capitalism influences competition and consuming commodities, it is a way of presenting what cool is and is a trap to make us run in circles following the trends spending money. The film, Merchants of Cool, portrays the message that the corporations manipulate teens because they are vulnerable. They take advantage of teens as an easy target for their profits. Capitalists find the easiest way to make the most profit, even if that means creating these roles and norms for teenagers and influencing them to be cool highly affecting their lives. Media holds huge role in our lifestyles, "the average teen in 2001 sees 3000 advertisements a day," so we fall into the trap that the newest item to purchase is cool because it is one of our main resources. We get caught in the trap of buying things that we think will make us cooler.

Capitalism convincing us to be cool for our money tells us to be a leader, not a follower. Being a leader according to capitalism is being able to get a large amount of people to like what you like and buy what you buy. Without followers there would be no leaders. If everyone wants to be the cool leader, the majority of them will not be able to reach coolness because only a select amount of people can be temporarily cool. Coolness is a trap that deludes people into believing anyone can reach coolness and become someone of importance but in reality only a select amount can.

Based on Friedman's lecture on the Psychology of Cool (12/8/09), giving others the power to determine your coolness makes you vulnerable, because teens are influenced by the idea of being cool, the vast majority of teens are insecure. Corporate companies take advantage of this and use it as a technique to target teenagers, "Teens are like Africa" (Merchants of Cool) they colonize our consciousness. We all want to be valued so the marketing companies use that and flatter the chosen audience (teens) to get their attention.

Running after coolness despite the traps of paradoxes and competition, allows you to fall under the larger trap of emptiness. We feel emptiness because we are always looking for happiness and significance and coolness so we are disappointed when we are faced with unhappiness. "Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalized boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany depression, loneliness, [or] despair. “As Matt Fried says, humans are built with the ability to feel negative emotions as well as positive ones. We can't expect other people to determine our emotions when we give them the power to decide whether we are "cool," or not. Our insecurities lead us to wonder if we are accepted by others. Cool allows us to fall into the trap of emptiness when we are faced with negative emotions if we are not accepted in society.

Also relating to Ralph Ellison's, Invisible Man, the main character goes through a similar routine of cool and emptiness. He joins a brotherhood and feels a sense of importance, being "Introduced as a kind of hero"(358) that people care about. Over time he realizes that they were only using him as a tool, "a material, a natural resource to be used."(508) for their group and he says "I felt suddenly empty...Up to now I had felt a wholeness...wholeness that guaranteed that it would change the course of history."(406). He thought he would be a significant figure in the world filling/covering up his emptiness but lost that cover up over time. The connection between emptiness and cool in this case is being cool does not last for as long as you would want it to because things change and people move on and this leaves you with a feeling of emptiness.

In trying to being cool, we often look for a sense of importance to make us feel better about ourselves. We try to find our meaning in the world and we aggrandize ourselves to prove this meaning but often times the positive attention we want to receive is not always given to us. For example, tattoos can be seen as an addition or an extra part of someone's role they perform. It is a representation or imitation of part of their identity. Girls get small tattoos on their ankle, showing their gender (the ankle being seen as a feminine body part) or the tough guy getting a tattoo on their tri-cep (shown as masculinity). It is part of the costume of their performance. They adjust what they wear to show off their tattoo so it can be shown as apart of their character. Almost like a more permanent accessory, like the thick chain for boys and the thin for girls. Accessories of a character's costume are designed as signifiers to show gender, character and personality. Tattoos can be seen as a tactic to attract people into questioning their character. Trying to get people's attention and approval of "coolness," but even is someone is seen as "cool" because of the way one might aggrandize the self, it only lasts for a short period of time.

Trying to fit into the archetypes that best fit ourselves leaves us feeling empty when we cannot completely fulfill that role. For example in the movie The Breakfast Club, all of the general stereotypes are stuck in detention together, each of them playing the role that they fit into, "a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal...". They eventually become friends with each other despite the expectations of not associating with people outside of their social group.

This film showed the dominant views of the cool kids in a typical high school, the jock, the princess, and the rebel, and the uncool kids, the geek and the basket case (unique but uncool?). Each character fulfilled their archetype. In the beginning, "the princess," "the criminal" and "the athlete" think they are better than the others, "the brain" obediently sitting at his desk and "the basket case" in the back kind of just doing whatever she wants. Throughout the movie they escape these norms by admitting that they don't fit them.

The Brain:
I can't have an F, I can't have it
and I know my parents can't have it!
Even if I aced the rest of the
semester, I'm still only a B. And
everything's ruined for me!

He is struggling to fulfill expectations he and his parents have for him to be "the brain" that has straight A's.

The Princess:
I hate having to go
along with everything my friends say!...
You know, you just don't understand
the pressure that they can put on
you!

Although she does not always agree with what her friends say or do, she feels like she has to go along with them anyway in order to perform her part in their high school. She defies her norm by saying she does not like the pressure her friends put on her.

The Athlete:
it's all because of me and
my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him!...
"Andrew, you've got to be number one! I
won't tolerate any losers in this
family... Win. Win! WIN!!!"...
sometimes, I wish... he
could forget all about me...

He cannot take the pressure he receives from his father who expects him to be a winner because he fears that he cannot fill that expectation.

The Basket Case:
My home life is un...satisfying...
[my parents] ignore me...

Although throughout the movie she comes off as a loner who does her own thing, she lacks attention from her parents that she wishes she had. She does not fill her archetype of the basket case by being independent because she wants attention from her parents.

The Criminal:
(as his father)
Stupid, worthless, no good, God
damned, freeloading, son of a bitch,
retarded, bigmouth, know it all,
asshole, jerk!
(as his mother)
You forgot ugly, lazy and
disrespectful.

As the criminal, he also has to fill the image of the loner who does whatever he wants but he wants his parent’s approval which is not part of his archetype. All five of these character fall under the trap of trying to be something because they are unable to fill those roles completely.

They all come to the conclusion that,” we’re all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." We all have problems and being "cool" or trying to be, is just a way of pretending that we are happy and avoiding/denying the fact that our lives are not perfect and our lives do not hold as much of a significance in the world as we would like them to. Each character in this film has felt some sort of emptiness because they feel that they were unsuitable for the "box" or the label they are in. No one can always be accepted by everyone, people are deluded to expect this so people fall under the trap of trying to be cool and not being able to reach it and thus feeling sadness or emptiness.

Overall we all look for the approval of others because of our insecurities and our own perspective of ourselves are not enough. It is a struggle we all go through trying not to listen to the opinions other people have of us. We place our trust in other peoples' judgments of ourselves and are faced with feeling empty and insignificant because we will not always hear positive feedback about our character or identity. Coolness is a tragic trap that convinces people being cool will make you important. Or maybe it isn't a trap for everyone. It is possible there is a group of people who try to be cool and just are, they are well liked and they fit their role because they adapt to it and they are happy. I would argue against this that happiness does not last forever so even if you attain coolness, there are still challenges and struggles that cool people have to make.

Personally, I believe that I have fallen into the trap of coolness. I fill my role in society as the smart nice girl but I am not always satisfied with this role, and I believe the archetype does not capture everything. The brain is more than just a nerd and the criminal is more than just a badass (or at least I'd like not think so). One's identity is covered and defied by the expectations and the norms. We are being labeled (by ourselves or others) before we can even really be sure of our own identities or who we want to be. Once you are in the trap it is not very easy to get out, it is a struggle to change your maps or change your boxes. How do we change the views of ourselves without looking like a poser? Does it matter what people think of us anyway? What do we do now?




Works Cited:
"Albert Camus." Wikipedia. 13 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009. .

Dionisio, Esther. "Comments." People These Days. Blogger, 21 Jan 2010. Web. 24 Jan 2010. .

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Second Vintage International Edition, 1980. Print.

"Emptiness." Wikipedia. 29 Nov 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009. .

"Existentialism." Wikipedia. 17 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009. .

Fried, Matt. "Psychology of Cool." Social Studies Class. 127 e 22nd, New York. 08 Dec 2009. Lecture.

Goodman, Barak, Dir. Merchants of Cool. PBS: 2001, Film.

"How To Be Cool ." iloveindia.com. Web. 7 Dec 2009. .

Hughes, John. "The Breakfast Club." awesomefilm.com. 1985. WDBG@AOL.COM, Web. 7 Dec 2009. .

Ray, Nicholas, Dir. Rebel Without a Cause . Warner Brothers: 1955, Film.

"Theories of cool." wikipedia.org. 2000. Web. 7 Dec 2009. .

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. New York, NY: 1938. Print.

HW 36- Triangle Partner Help

Esther-
I got that your main idea was that we are puppets and we allow the idea of cool to control the way we present ourselves. I would rephrase this, as, we are puppets of coolness allowing it to control our presentation of self. I'm not sure if that is the best way to word your thesis, but is it another possible idea for you to work with.

We allow what we perceive as cool to control the way we identify ourselves to then apply that to how we present our character. We try to give off the right signals so people will see us in the way we want to be seen. For example, in the James Dean movie, Rebel Without a Cause, the main character was presented with what was cool at the beginning. Being ironic, making jokes, and presenting masculinity was cool to him. He allowed this perception of cool to control the way he began to act at his school. He sends off signals of cool and masculine by smoking cigarettes, and competing with the other cool masculine character. He sent off these signals because he wanted people to see him as a cool guy.

When you say "We do this to fill this emptiness in ourselves. Some sort of hole is created from our lives and to fill this we strive to make ourselves feel much better about ourselves." It might be interesting to include where this emptiness comes from to begin with.

I like the connection you made to the Fefe Dobson song but I think it would make your arument stronger if you analyzed the lyrics a little more and connected that back to your thesis.

Finally, just conclude everything and summarize all your arguments and maybe include some of your own final thoughts, you suggested I do that in my previous essay and I think it worked out pretty well so I think you should try it out too.

This is a good rough draft!
-Sandy


Omar- I would rewrite your thesis as: Cool is an unstoppable addiction to personal connections.

People seem to be so caught up in aggrandizing themeselves they are deluded by the real reason they try to make themselves look a certain way. Most people say "I do it because I like it" or "I do it for me" when people ask why they do something to present themselves a certain way. In reality, people aggrandize their self to send off signals and clues to allow people to see their identity. For examples, girls may swing their hips while they walk so people will see their feminity and understand clearly that that person is a girl. Whereas a boy might walk more stifly to express masculinity so people understand that the boy is a boy. People are so addicted and identified with their presentation of cool, the are deluded by the reality of their performance.

You have lots of great arguments but I think you just need to include some evidence to back up those arguements.
you say, "We go to great lengths and put ourselves through extreme circumstances to connect with others. We are willing to pierce our skin and have tattoos drawn on our skin. We are willing to dye our hair, burn our hair, wear fake hair just to impress and connect with others. We even have surgery to change our appearance so that we can feel more accepted and connected to others."
you could use evidence from Fanning, Matt Fried, some of the internet sources Andy provided when we had to do the tattoo post, and from the Hair chapter in The Body Social.

I also think it would be helpful if you organized your arguments to easily include the evidence to the arguments.

This is a good start!
-Sandy

Cool Paper- Rough Draft

The "cool" people are the temporary elite of a group that people tend to look up to. It is often you find many people are looking to be "cool." Trying to follow the complex and nearly impossible steps to being cool. Coolness is a delusional tragic trap that convinces people it will solve problems of meaning and significance but only worsens them.

Paradoxes and contradictions to the general idea of what cool prevents us from having a clear understanding of how to attempt being cool and does not allow us to attain coolness. One paradox is that if you are cool, you cannot look like you are trying to be cool, it has to be an authentic coolness. An excerpt from the show, The Simpsons, is used as an example to show this paradox.

"Lisa: That song is so lame. /Homer: So lame that it's... cool? / Bart+Lisa: No./ Marge: Am I cool, kids?/ Bart+Lisa: No./ Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring,right? / Bart+Lisa: No./ Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here. / Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to be told you're cool./ Bart: Well, sure you do./
Lisa: How else would you know?"

It seems as though if you admit you're cool you are uncool because being cool is not caring. But if you're uncool, admitting that is cool--the song can be so lame that it's cool. But then how can you know if you're cool without asking and sounding like you're trying too hard? We all seem like we try so hard, trying different tactics of attaining coolness to get others to like you and according to the paradox, it leaves us uncool for trying too hard. This paradox of cool is a trap to make us think that reaching coolness will make us feel more significant thus a happier person but the reaching coolness is unattainable.

Another paradox of cool is that being cool is being "real" and authentic. But especially as teens, we are all going through the struggle of finding ourselves so how can we be our authentic selves if we do not know what that is. In class we read an excerpt of Our Town by Thornton Wilder where two of the main characters, Emily and George were having a conversation about their feelings for each other, in this scene, the two characters were being sincere because they were not playing the "cool" role. We then compared this to the moie Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean who was an icon of cool. In this movie, the group of cool kids at the high school are constantly being ironic and trying to be funny and making jokes so they will be accepted by the others. In this comparison, the group of kids who are clearly trying to be funny are seen as the cool ones and the sincere couple are seen as just average teens. This is another paradox as a trap to coolness.

On a wesite titled "How To Be Cool" there are several steps in attaining coolness. Number one is not caring what others think. Being indifferent, but still having a general view of how others percieve you. You have to be confident, be different, say what you think, laugh at yourself. Individualism is also an important aspect, be relaxed, and be social without coming on to strong to other people. There seems to be many regulations in being cool. One must be a unique individual, but unique isnt always "cool", someone you can call unique can also be seen as weird in a negative way. And in one of my interviews, a girl is considerd cool but she was not unique. There does not seem to be a clear way to differenciate the two, trying to be cool has many contradictions that prevent coolness leaving people feeling disappointed and insignificant because they were unable to become a cool person.

Capitalism influences competition and consuming commodities, it is a way of presenting what cool is and is a trap to make us run in circles following the trends spending money. The film, Merchants of Cool, portrays the message that the corporations manipulate teens because they are vulnerable. They take advantage of teens as an easy target for their profits. Capitalists find the easiest way to make the most profit, even if that means creating these roles and norms for teenagers and influencing them to be cool highly affecting their lives. Media holds huge role in our lifestyles, "the average teen in 2001 sees 3000 advertisements a day," so we fall into the trap that the newest item to purchase is cool because it is one of our main resources.

Capitalism convincing us to be cool for our money tells us to be a leader, not a follower. Being a leader according to capitalism is being able to get a large amount of people to like what you like and buy what you buy. Without followers there would be no leaders. If everyone wants to be the cool leader, the majority of them will not be able to reach coolness because only a select amount of people can be temporarily cool. Coolness is a trap that deludes people into believing anyone can reach coolness and become someone of importance but in reality only a select amount can.

Based on Friedman's lecture on the Psychology of Cool (12/8/09), giving others the power to determine your coolness makes you vulnerable, because teens are influenced by the idea of being cool, the vast majority of teens are insecure. Corporate companies take advantage of this and use it as a technique to target teenagers, "Teens are like Africa" (Merchants of Cool) they colonize our consciousness. We all want to be valued so the marketing companies use that and flatter the chosen audience (teens) to get their attention.

Running after coolness despite the traps of paradoxes and competition, it leaves you falling under the larger trap of emptiness. In life we try to make sense out of everything, like what happens after death and why the world is unjust. We make excuses for the world to make ourselves believe that life has a sensible value for us. But according to Camus, there are things in this world that simply don't make sense. The world is unjust, there is love and hate and peace and war and all of it doesn't exactly fit together. This is the idea of absurd; the world does not make sense.

We feel emptiness because we are always looking for happiness and significance and coolness so we are disappointed when we are faced with unhappiness. "Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalised boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany depression, loneliness, [or] despair. " As Matt Fried says, humans are built with the ability to feel negative emotions as well as positive ones. We can't expect other people to determine our emotions when we give them the power to decide whether we are "cool," or not. Our insecurities lead us to wonder if we are accepted by others. Fried says we should find this happiness from within ourselves because we can rely on ourselves. Relating to Camus, we need to accept the dualisms in our lives but not delude ourselves with the paradoxes of cool.

Also relating to Ralph Ellison's, Invisible Man, the main character goes through a similar routine of cool and emptiness. He joins a brotherhood and feels a sense of importance, being "Introduced as a kind of hero"(358) that people care about. Over time he realizes that they were only using him as a tool, "a material, a natural resource to be used."(508) for their group and he says "I felt suddenly empty...Up to now I had felt a wholeness...wholeness that guaranteed that it would change the course of history."(406). He thought he would be a significant figure in the world filling/covering up his emptiness but lost that cover up over time. The connection between emptiness and cool in this case is being cool does not last for as long as you would want it to because things change and people move on and this leaves you with a feeling of emptiness.

Trying to be cool is looking for confidence from other people because we are so insecure with ourselves we have to convince ourselves we are "cool" from what other people say and as a response to the absurd, trying to make sense of things instead of our own opinions and realities, but because external sources are not always reliable, they do not last forever, and absurdities exist we often find ourselves feeling "empty" when the people we depend on to make us feel better about ourselves are not there anymore or when things simply do not make sense. Trying to be cool and failing at that attempt leaves us in the trap of emptiness. We try to be cool to feel important and cool but it only makes us feel unhappy and insignificant when we realize coolness is unattainable.

We try to find our meaning in the world and we aggrandize ourselves to prove this meaning but often times the positive attention we want to recieve is not always given to us. For example, tattoos can be seen as an addition or an extra part of someone's role they perform. It is a representation or immitation of part of their identity. Girls get small tattoos on their ankle, showing their gender (the ankle being seen as a feminine body part I guess) or the tough guy getting a tattoo on their tri-cep. It is part of the costume of their perfomance. They adjust what they wear to show off their tattoo so it can be shown as apart of their character. Almost like a more permanent accessory, like the thick chain for boys and the thin for girls. Accessories of a character's costume are designed as signifiers to show gender, character and personality. Tattos can be seen as a tactic to attract people into questioning their character. Trying to get people's attention and approval of "coolness," but even is someone is seen as "cool" because of the way one might aggrandize the self, it only lasts for a short period of time and when that period of time ends it often times leads to emptiness.

Trying to fit into the archetypes that best fit ourselves leaves us feeling empty when we cannot completely fufill that role. For example in the movie The Breakfast Club, all of the general stereotypes are stuck in detention together, each of them playing the role that they fit into, "a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal...". They eventually become friends with each other despite the expectations of not associating with people outside of their social group.

This film showed the dominant views of what is cool in a typical high school, the jock, the princess, and the rebel, and what is uncool, the geek and the basket case. Each character fulfilled their archetype. In the beginning, "the princess," "the criminal" and "the athlete" think they are better than the others, "the brain" obediently sitting at his desk and "the basket case" in the back kind of just doing whatever she wants. Throughout the movie they escape these norms by admitting that they don't fit them.

The Brain:
I can't have an F, I can't have it
and I know my parents can't have it!
Even if I aced the rest of the
semester, I'm still only a B. And
everything's ruined for me!

The Princess:
I hate having to go
along with everything my friends say!...
You know, you just don't understand
the pressure that they can put on
you!

The Athlete:
it's all because of me and
my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him!...
"Andrew, you've got to be number one! I
won't tolerate any losers in this
family... Win. Win! WIN!!!"...
sometimes, I wish... he
could forget all about me...

The Basket Case:
My home life is un...satisfying...
[my parents] ignore me...

The Criminal:
(as his father)
Stupid, worthless, no good, God
damned, freeloading, son of a bitch,
retarded, bigmouth, know it all,
asshole, jerk!
(as his mother)
You forgot ugly, lazy and
disrespectful.

They all come to the conclusion that,"we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." We all have problems and being "cool" or trying to be, is just a way of pretending that we are happy and avoiding/denying the fact that our lives are not perfect and we our lives do not hold as much of a significance in the world as we would like them to. Each character in this film has felt some sort of emptiness because they feel that they were unsuitable for the "box" or the label they are in. No one can always be accepted by everyone, people are deluded ot expect this so people fall under the trap of trying to be cool and not being able to reach it and thus feeling sadness or emptiness.

Overall we all look for the approval of others because of we are insecurities and our own perspective of ourselves are not enough. We place our trust in other peoples' judgements of ourselves and are faced with feeling empty and insignificant because we will not always hear positive feedback about our character or identity. Coolness is a tragic trap that convinces people being cool will make you important.

HW 34 - The Cool Pose and Various Approaches to Life Rooted in Class, Race, Gender, Age, etc.

"We real cool. We/ Left school. We/ Lurk late. We/ Strike straight. We/ Sing sin. We/ Thin gin. We/ Jazz June. We/ Die soon." (Brooks)

According to this, people try hard to make an image of themselves that their peers approve of. They have this edgy image that they do what they want becuase life is short. It seems as though the reason certain races are statistically not as successful as others is becuase they are not willing to give up their image that they worked hard for.Patterson says "the "cool-pose culture" of young black men was simply too gratifying to give up... it was almost like a drug, hanging out on the street after school, shopping and dressing sharply, sexual conquests, party drugs, hip-hop music and culture, the fact that almost all the superstar athletes and a great many of the nation's best entertainers were black." They earn the respect they get from their peers and they do not want to lose that respect by disappointing them if that means trying to get a good education to be "successful," if they do well they are "acting white" and that is looked down upon as unauthentic.

Continuing to discuss the "cool" pose and the choice for success, Patterson says,"Nor have studies explained why, if someone cannot get a job, he turns to crime and drug abuse. One does not imply the other. Joblessness is rampant in Latin America and India, but the mass of the populations does not turn to crime." This makes me think that because America is "the land of the free" and the hope for opportunity, everyone who comes here or lives here has this predetermined expectation that they will become something important. I think that this expectation is an influence to the way teenagers want to be cool. They want some sort of social status, especially the minorities because they are the ones marginalized against so they feel the need to work harder to feel important and accepted even if that means turning to crime. It seems that there is more pressure in America to be something than in other countries.

So who is to blame for this? The American way of life? Is it the parents? or their peers? society?, "cultural explanations inherently blame the victim; that they focus on internal behavioral factors and, as such, hold people responsible for their poverty, rather than putting the onus on their deprived environment." People are first to blame the victim because they should have done better for themselves there are more factors to take into account. The influences they grew up with, the people they look up to, the environment they grew up in all affects the choices they make and defines the frame of their map.

I believe that people make their decisions based on how they were raised and what people expect of them. They themselves may agree with these decisions because the way they were raised determines their map, but over time, one might begin to see the reality of their decisions and their "map." They may want to change their "map" but as we discussed in class today(1/12/10) it is harder for us to change ourselves than for something to happen to us to change us. So we may realize this change but because we are so stuck in our old habits, we wait around for something to happen to us for this change to occur. Is this an effective way of changing maps or should we try to change ourselves and face a high chance of failure?

Cool Paper Outline:

Thesis: Coolness is a tragic trap that appears to solve problems of meaning and significance but only worses them as demonstrated by the media and self experience.

-Argument 1: Paradoxes and contradictions to the general idea of what cool is prevent us from having a clear understanding of how to attempt being cool and leaves us falling into the traps of unattainablity of cool based on these paradoxes.
-Trying to be cool doesn't make you cool (Simpsons)
-Cool is being real but we don't know what that is (sincerity vs irony Our Town and James Dean Movie)

-Argument 2: Capitalism influences competition and consuming commodities, it is a way of presenting what cool is and is a trap to make us run in circles following the trends spending money.
-Competing to have the next cool thing while what is cool varies quickly so consumers are forced to try and keep up with it (merchants of cool)
-Be a leader not a follower, if everyone is competing to be cool, not everyone can be a leader.

-Argument 3: Running after coolness despite the traps of paradoxes and competition, it leaves you falling under the larger trap of emptiness.
-we try to find meaning and we aggrandize ourselves to prove this meaning but often times it leads us to emptiness.
-Trying to fit into the archetypes that best fit ourselves leaves us feeling empty when we cannot completely fufill that role (informal research, from interviews and Breakfast Club)

HW 32: Tattoos and The Presentation of Self

I think a tattoo is seen as sort of heroic kind of rite of passage. Like a "I will go through pain to express my identity" kind of thing. Like, now I know who I am and I can handle the pain to prove it. How Mr. Fanning explained it as an accomplishment, going through the painful proccess that is worth the meaning behind it. He also talked about his tattoos being a document of events throughout his life. Used almost like a photo ablum but you can't lose it. It is not something you can hold or store away, it is imprinted on your skin so you will always see it or be aware of it (depending on the placement of the tattoo).

I look at tattoos as an addition or an extra part of someone's role they perform. It is a representation or immitation of part of their identity. Girls get small tattoos on their ankle, showing their gender (the ankle being seen as a feminine body part I guess) or the tough guy getting a tattoo on their tri-cep. I guess it would not be too common to see a guy get a tattoo on their lower back or a girl getting one on her tricep. I think it is part of the costume of their perfomance. They adjust what they wear to show off their tattoo so it can be shown as apart of their character. Almost like a more permanent accessory, like the thick chain for boys and the thin for girls. Accessories of a character's costume are designed as signifiers to show gender, character and personality.

Personally, I have gotten those henna tattoos that are temporary of cute little things like flowers or hearts or stars because I like those things, and what you like tends to be seen as a representative of who you are. Although it is a tattoo, it does not really show that I am a "badass" because it is temporary, but even so, there are tattoos that are very feminine but are still seen as "badass" just for the sake of it being tattoo and the extreme vibe to it. The pain and the permanance make people believe that something must be really important to someone to have needles poked at you for it and have it inked on you throughout your life time.

In addition to a tattoo being an accessory used to portray a person's character, I do also believe it is also tactic to attract people into questioning their character. Trying to get people's attention, it gives people a reason to talk to them or get to know them. Although some tattoos are pretty self explanitory (zodiac signs) people still try to put something that others don't know to make it more interesting and mysterious.

For example, my cousin, Kathy has "Virgo" on her lower back with the initials "A.D.P" of her other cousin who shares the same zodiac sign as her. So when people see it, it is not just that she is a virgo but there are these initials that leave you wondering what they mean. So her tattoo being an accessory as a representative of her identity showing that the analysis of a "virgo" is fitting to her identity and she believes that family is an important aspect of her life, or more specifically, her cousin.

Another reason for a tattoo is a to simply rebel because they know they can. For example my cousin Amanda, got her belly button pierced, not quite the same as a tattoo but is similar in that it is a method of aggrandizing the self. She knew she could get it without her mother's permission. Even though she knew her mother would not approve, she decided to get it anyways and hide it from her. Adding to her character of being the risky rebellious badass who just wants to have fun. Tattoos and piercings look like you are a "badass" because of the pain you had to go through and perhaps that you went against an authority figure.