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.
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