HW 37: Cool Paper Draft

Introduction

The word "Cool" is an odd word that everyone uses but nobody defines. It can be used to express approval towards a situation, as in "okay, thats cool" or towards a person or object its hard to label what kind of positive reaction "cool" fits the best. No one knows the exact meaning behind the word because it's such a widely used term that there are hundreds of definitions for it. The only common factor between each definition is the idea of approval, people who are cool are accepted and feel good about themselves.

Subconsciously being "cool" is about fitting into people's lives, each person is the hero in their own story and needs companions and "supporting characters". To be cool people try to fill roles in multiple lives and fill certain archetypes, this gives them a sense of value. Because this is all subconscious, no one is aware that they're playing roles or that they're altering their roles to fit more easily into the lives of the people around them.

Social Cool

The majority of Americans see Cool as a fashion contest. The way people dress defines how cool they are, not only do people, mostly teens, have to wear the right clothes, they have to wear them at the right time. Not only do they have to wear the right clothes at the right time, but also in the right group. For example a kid wearing expensive clothes with name-brand tags and logos will be accepted by most teens, but that same teen won't be accepted by the "alternative hippy" crowd. Cool is different to different people, everyone has their own standards for how people should dress, act and look to be cool.

What's Cool is partly defined by corporations, some people are dedicated enough to brand names to find anything that brand sells to be cool. People then associate things about those products to be so certain "traits" become cool by association. Certain companies have focus groups that find out what teens find cool and use that information to create new products that teens will find cool. These products are inspired by archetypical roles, for men there are products that give off a masculine vibe which fits the role of "hero" and men who assume this role are cool. For women however, their products are designed to give off a feminine vibe which fits the role of "princess" or "damsel in distress". A man can't assume a woman's role accurately and vice versa, because of these roles we're limited to wearing and buying certain things to be accepted in our culture.

Psychological Cool

People try to be "Cool" to feel a sense of value. We need to feel valued to have self esteem and function well as human beings. Instead of working hard at a skill and contributing to society, which would actually be valuable, most people try to look cool and assume the "cool pose" to be liked. However subconsciously we perceive "like" and "value" to mean the same thing which isn't always the case. Being stylish and trendy will get you liked but there's no real value to someone who doesn't have any skills or real qualities as a person.

The "Cool Pose" is a way to assume a certain role. The classic James Dean attitude of apathy and competence is closest to the "hero" role. The role of "The hero" can be assumed in many ways the "Cool Pose" is used to assume the rebel hero. James Dean's performance in "Rebel Without a Cause" conveyed just that, a rebel without a cause. Because he was a rebel he had a sense of mystery and his aloofness and apathy made him seem as though he was better than other people making him the main character which gave him attention which made him cool.

Mythic Cool

Being "Cool" or accepted relies on filling a role in someone's life. This role is a mythic role, to be accepted the person must fill the role of "side-kick" or "mentor" etc. As social creatures we try to surround ourselves with people who will benefit us in life, this can happen consciously or subconsciously. The way we become accepted is by tailoring our characters to fit the expectations of the people around us, and there are different expectations we have to meet to assume different roles, the standards one has to meet to be someone's mentor are much different than the standards they have to meet.

Conclusion

People will always be filling roles and there's no way around it. To be cool everyone vies for the role of the hero, everyone wants to be the main character, which is impossible. This is impossible because A-In the grand scheme of the universe there is no main character, everything just "is" and B-psychologically everyone is their own main character (unless they have self-esteem issues) so there's no pint trying to outshine them in their own life. "Cool" people may get attention but they don't have true friends because the role of "the friend" is a supporting role that few people actively try to assume. Instead we should all try to be our own hero's in our own lives but assume supportive roles in the lives of other people and accept that. There's no value in outshining the people around you, value comes from what you contribute to people and assuming a supporting role is the way to do that.

HW 36: Cool Paper Draft Comments

Jakob's blog

"We try to be successful but success is defined by the people around us and to be accepted we must conform to the dominant idea of success". This was the idea that I took away from your draft, I think relating the idea of success to the pursuit of "cool" can lead to many interesting ideas. I liked the evidence you used from Matt our readings and the quote from the Genome research Institute, you have all the pieces for a great paper but your thesis is a bit odd since it takes the idea of cool in a different direction (which will make the paper more interesting). Because your thesis is so different you have to keep connecting it to the idea of cool so the reader doesn't get confused, you can do this by explaining the relationship between "cool' and "success". I look forward to reading the finished product and as always I expect interesting thoughts and ideas from you.

Beatrice's blog

"Teens use their "cool" identities to try to control their worlds even though we all ultimately have no control due to our socially constructed cultural maps" This is the way I understand your thesis. I like the way you connected our study of cool to a deeper psychological level. The way you can make your paper better is to add bulk and evidence to it, Matt's lecture should be very useful for this idea. You can also connect your idea to the ones we've discussed in class, for example (since you're going the psychological route anyways) you can connect this idea of feeling control to value, are they connected? do they both come from being/acting cool?. You can also connect this to the "cool pose", all "cool poses" no matter what time period or culture you look at evokes a sense of control, examine the relationship there. You have a good start but I'd like to see you expand these ideas further and connect them to the ideas we've talked about in class or expand on them with more outside sources.

Hw 35: Cool Paper Rough Draft

Introduction

The word "Cool" is an odd word that everyone uses but nobody defines. It can be used to express approval towards a situation, as in "okay, thats cool" or towards a person or object its hard to label what kind of positive reaction "cool" fits the best. No one knows the exact meaning behind the word because it's such a widely used term that there are hundreds of definitions for it. The only common factor between each definition is the idea of approval, people who are cool are accepted and feel good about themselves.

Social Cool

The majority of Americans see Cool as a fashion contest. The way people dress defines how cool they are, not only do people, mostly teens, have to wear the right clothes, they have to wear them at the right time. Not only do they have to wear the right clothes at the right time, but also in the right group. For example a kid wearing expensive clothes with name-brand tags and logos will be accepted by most teens, but that same teen won't be accepted by the "alternative hippy" crowd. Cool is different to different people, everyone has their own standards for how people should dress, act and look to be cool.

What's Cool is partly defined by corporations, some people are dedicated enough to brand names to find anything that brand sells to be cool. People then associate things about those products to be so certain "traits" become cool by association. Certain companies have focus groups that find out what teens find cool and use that information to create new products that teens will find cool.

Psychological Cool

People try to be "Cool" to feel a sense of value. We need to feel valued to have self esteem and function well as human beings. Instead of working hard at a skill and contributing to society, which would actually be valuable, most people try to look cool and assume the "cool pose" to be liked. However subconsciously we perceive "like" and "value" to mean the same thing which isn't always the case. Being stylish and trendy will get you liked but there's no real value to someone who doesn't have any skills or real qualities as a person.

Mythic Cool

Being "Cool" or accepted relies on filling a role in someone's life. This role is a mythic role, to be accepted the person must fill the role of "side-kick" or "mentor" etc. As social creatures we try to surround ourselves with people who will benefit us in life, this can happen consciously or subconsciously. The way we become accepted is by tailoring our characters to fit the expectations of the people around us, and there are different expectations we have to meet to assume different roles, the standards one has to meet to be someone's mentor are much different than the standards they have to meet.

Conclusion

For people to truly be happy they have to be accepted and feel valued. Instead of following interchangeable fads people should develop the character they made for themselves. We're all assuming roles that we've made so we should take advantage of the fact that we're assuming roles and change who we are. If we can come to terms with the fact that we're playing roles we can change our role to fit who we want to be, and create characters that are valuable and have skills and interests that are interesting instead of just wearing the newest and coolest clothes.

HW 34: Race/Religion/Gender's effect on "Cool Pose"

The "Cool Pose" is a way for people to look cool without having to create an elaborate identity, this "pose" changes based on racial, ethnic and religious background as well as gender and physical appearance. Being cool requires someone to fill a pose, being cool as a certain ethnicity requires the person to fill a specific pose that's made to fit that ethnicity. These poses are dictated by society, or the subcultures that reject the standards of society (and substitute their own standards).

This limitation of "poses" we can assume further "boxes" us and traps us in our identities, not only are we viewed as "uncool" if we don't assume the pose, but if we don't assume the correct pose for our ethnicity and religion etc. we're still viewed as uncool. On top of that each group of people has a separate standard for how people should act, for instance, white people think black people should act a certain way to look cool and black people may think they should act another way to be cool. This conundrum further illustrates the idea that we all have to assume different identities to be accepted by different people, for them to accept us we have to fill a mythic role in their life. To fill this role we have to extend the "character" of our base features.

A person's character is pre-determined by their appearance, this character tells them which mythic role to play in the lives of the people around them and assuming that role will lead them to be accepted and feel valued. Someone who is tall and strong will be perceived as a hero, to be accepted that person must fulfill that role completely and must alter their personality to fit their appearance. In this way our physical appearance shapes the identity that we'll have.

HW 33: Cool Paper Outline

Intro: Discuss beginnings of cool, definition, facts and statistics from "Merchants of Cool", personal definition and experiences

Argument 1, Social Cool:

1-What cool looks like on the outside and what most people find cool,

2-How its marketed and dictated by corporations (more facts and evidence from Merchants of cool)

Argument 2, mythological cool:

1-How filling mythic roles and archetypes is subconsciously cool

2-How we try to fill certain roles and categorize people into to them and the effect this type of judgement has on the way we act (reference "Rebel Without a Cause", Foucault and personal experience)

Argument 3, Psychological cool:

1-How being Cool is a need to feel valued and the ways we try to feel valued

2-How we create identities for ourselves/ how identities are created for us

3-Our need to look cool/feel valued stems from our lack of a rite of passage (reference John Fanning's lecture on Tattoos)

Conclusion: What do all these conclusions mean? How should we act? And how do these discoveries effect our lives?

HW 32: Tattoos and Presentations of the Self

Tattoos have changed from something that showed violence and power to something that can express anything, people can have anything tattooed, and that tattoo will represent whatever they want and show that they have matured, serving as a right of passage. Tattoos are a valid form of expression but sadly they are permanent and many people who get tattoos regret getting them, the statement they want to make now with their tattoos may not be the same statement they want to make later in life.

Tattoos can be an interesting form of expression since there are tattoos that conform to certain standards, like for women to get tramp stamps, and there are tattoos that are unique and make people seem different. Tattoos are often seen as very cool because they show someone's individuality and commitment to their art or as very uncool because this "poser" is so committed to being a "poser" that they've permanently scarred their body to be cool, tattoos are either interesting or pathetic. This further enhances the point that nothing is universally cool, anything you try to do to be cool can be viewed as "fake" or "real" based on who's observing you.

Tattoos are interesting in the fact that sometimes just having the tattoo reveals more about the person who has it than what the tattoo symbolizes. It takes a certain kind of person to get a tattoo, the reason they have for getting the tattoo will reveal who they really are. People get tattoos to follow trends, to truly commit to their ideas and expressions and make them permanent, or try to and end up regretting their decision, or to remember experiences etc. Even though someone may try to seem artsy, their tattoo placement may reveal the true intentions behind it. For example, if a woman gets a tattoo of an interesting design that looks artsy and says its to "express herself artistically" but the tattoo is on her lower back, you can tell that person attempted to fill a certain role and failed at it, making them uncool.

This same method can be used to "decode" someone's identity, the way that they go about performing their identity will reveal who they are under their mask. However there will always be the conundrum of weather the person is truly being who they are, or being extremely committed to playing their role, just as it's hard to determine weather an actor has the same personality as a character they play or if they're just a good actor.

It will always be hard to see through the identities that we put up because we put so much energy into our identities to protect ourselves. Occasionally people mess up their identities and people see through them, but tattoos and other markings serve as "armor", as Mr Fanning called it, to protect the identity of the person who has it. Just like a wedding ring symbolizes someone's commitment to another person, a tattoo symbolizes someone's commitment to their identity and ideas.