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.

HW 30: Psychological and philosophical theorizing of cool

We've established that the need to be cool comes from a need to feel value. As Andy put it, there's a hole in our hearts, but what shape is that hole and what fits in it? That hole is a "meaning" shaped hole. We want to have meaning in our lives so we try to look cool so other people will notice and appreciate us. To look cool we buy clothes and cool things, but in the end we're trying to fill a meaning shaped hole with clothes. "True cool" at its core has to do with purpose, confidence and attitude stem from that initial purpose.

Meaning comes from having goals and the completion of those goals. To have meaning is to achieve something, to make a difference in society. As teenagers we have little meaning since the majority of us don't accomplish much, we're at a weird point in our lives where we're expected to have done something with our lives when it's impossible to do much at our age. We're meant to find our purpose at this age, and as other people around us start to feel significant the rest of us realize we still may not have a purpose. This is why teens are so easy to sell to, we'll do anything to feel accepted at this age, we're at our most socially dependent age where we need to feel accepted and to do that the majority of us buy cool things instead of figuring out what they want to do in life.

People use products and "poses" to fill this hole because these products and poses might come with a fake purpose. For instance, if someone buys interesting artsy clothes and act interesting and insightful, they'll look interesting and artsy and they'll look like their purpose in life is to create art. This doesn't necessarily fill the hole because maybe that person isn't all that creative or can't draw/sculpt/paint etc. This person is mimicking a purpose and not actually fulfilling it. The main difference between faking a purpose and fulfilling it is the sincerity towards their purpose and their passion for it. Any one can fake a purpose but people who really want to do that in life put time and effort into it, someone who is that committed to what they love is a truly cool person.

The reason why people can't find their purpose in life is because we don't truly know who we are, we all put out these identities and pretend to be people. I'd argue that we have very little that predefines us, when you're born you have your body, family and heritage, aside from that you can be whoever you want. These initial traits limit what you can be, your body can limit what kind of person you can be. The male lion has a huge mane so it can't stalk prey, instead it uses its strength and power in the open to defend its cubs. The lion must assume the identity of the protector because that's what the lion is built for, but the lion can be a stoic protector of its cubs, a kind protective fatherly figure etc. it can assume multiple roles despite it's physical limitations. People are the same way, the way we look limits the way we can act, people can get plastic surgery, but someone who changes how they look is an identity itself, (as shown by hollywood actors who get excessive surgery done) and someone who got plastic surgery can't really assume a hippie or rebel identity because that conflicts with their ideals.

HW 29: Response to "Merchants of Cool"

It's nearly impossible to escape advertising, with all the places ads are put corporations hold the majority of people's time. With this large amount of space they occupy in people's minds they can sell to anyone. The majority of these ads are directed at teenagers, who spend 150 billion dollars a year. This presents an incredible opportunity to corporations, an incredibly rich and gullible demographic to make money on, obviously they'll advertise more to teens. To do this they focus on what's "cool", the documentary showed many ways that these corporations gained their information and they all involved taking a trend going on among teens and turning that into something they can sell. What this does is refine the natural "cool" that people invent out of creativity self expression and turn it into somethings that's accessible and profitable. Naturally they can't do this with everything, if it was really cool to tear off a company logo off of a shirt then the company couldn't do it without losing their name. This way of marketing limits the way this kind of expression is shown and turns any interesting "anti-marketing" trends into something that isn't cool.

On the other hand any "anti-marketing" trend that does get recognized and sold loses it's meaning. For instance, thrift store clothing may be cool since its cheap and says "I'm not a corporate puppet". The corporations would pick up on this trend and make thrift store shirts with company logos on them, people will spend money on these for their message, but in buying that kind of shirt they'll be defeating the purpose of it. This system of "selling cool" has confused teens. I myself am confused about what's cool anymore, most teens don't really care who says what's cool as they feel good about themselves, but the other group of teens mainly agrees that what corporations try to market as cool is un-cool. But the problem is that we don't know what comes from corporations and what we make ourselves, in a way everything influences each other so nobody can invent cool without building off of something else.

In the end this situation makes the line between genuine and fake blurred which makes cool and un-cool harder to identify and in this social chaos the corporations make money either way because people will do whatever they can to feel cool and they'll buy clothes and other products to feel cool. The problem with this situation is that people try to buy cool instead of make it, cool is traditionally something creative and new, but people who are insecure just buy cool things to be cool. To be genuinely cool these people could make friends or develop skills and interests that make them interesting people, but to be interesting and different there needs to be sense of security, that whatever happens someone will love and value you. The problem is that the people who buy into corporate cool don't have that sense of security can can't make their own cool.

Corporations end up making buying cool easier than making it. Naturally people will go for the easy solution but the more people buy into corporate cool, the more money they make and the less people will be different and interesting. There isn't much of a solution to this because this problem stems from a subconscious (or conscious) need to feel valued (Matt's Lecture) which will never go away unless someone feels valued, which only happens when they're cool, hence the desire to buy cool products. The only way to avoid this is for people to know that they're valued, and even if they really aren't for some reason then they should strive to be valued in an interesting way that will make people genuinely admire them.

HW 28: Other Media Research

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Cool

This is a link to "Wiki-How's" "How to be Cool" page. This page makes sense in a more sincere way and doesn't propagate the stereotypes of "cool" that we see everyday. This page mainly states that to be cool you have to be talkative and casual and try to stand out in your crowd, they give a loose enough definition that they aren't advertising to a certain clothing manufacturer but it's not clear enough to specify how different one should be, as Remy said "If someone dressed up as a frog with goggles, they'd be different but not cool".

http://www.askmen.com/money/how_to_250/252_how_to.html

This link offers a definition of cool in a more specific way. This guide maintains that to be cool (for a man) you must have a girlfriend and must act non-chalant, they even go so far as to say that you should call your friends less than they call you to seem independent and maintain their attention. In summation this article argues that to be cool one must have a sense of mystery and apathy but still have a girlfriend and show confidence, this is the typical "criminal" archetype, this person should have a sense of danger to them.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=cool

The definition of cool that we have as popular or interesting may come from the term "cool headed" which comes from temperature, naturally cool being the opposite of hot which resembles anger, by association cool temperature resembles a state of calmness which is where the term "cool headed" comes from. People with "cool heads" or a state of calmness that exudes confidence and power are considered "cool" therefore being "cool" by definition means maintaining confidence and a sense of calm.

HW: 27 Interviews

Anthony Interview (edited from aim text)

Q) What would you classify yourself as in terms of social roles?

A) I don't know dude I've always thought of that myself my grades are high enough that I'm top ten percentile of my grade and a 1930 on the SATs but I drink a little I play tons of sports and work out everyday, I don't really have a class

Q) Do you consider yourself "cool"?

A) Nah that's too concieted even for me I've been called cool but its of no interest to me I'm indifferent to the idea

Q) How do you define cool?

A) Everyone likes you everyone wants to be like you, diverse in interests adventurous

Q) Do you think people are born cool?

A) No

Q) Can anyone be cool?

A) I guess though usually potential is higher if you're also attractive being that we live in america

Henry's Interview ("")

Q) What is your social role?

A) The jester, whether I succeed or not is varied, but I try to lighten the mood

Q) Do you consider yourself cool?

A) It depends on what you call cool. I mean, I think I am a pretty well rounded person and "in the know" enough that I can be at least a little cool to a lot of people. But like, to the smoking, drinking, doing drugs crowd, I am a square, because I shove that to the side and think of it as lame, so therefore I'm lame to them too

Q) To paraphrase what you said to me i said "you're cool in your own way, but not the mainstream way?"

A) Yea, you could safely say that for the most part. Depending on your circles though in mainstream media, I could still be pretty cool I think. Not as naturally though

Q) What's your definition of cool?

A) Being true to yourself. It's the same for what I consider a meaningful life. I think that you have to know your true self and simply be that to be cool.

Q) Do you think anyone can be cool?

A) Yes,they just have to be themselves

Q) How does one one "be themself"?

A) They have to analyze themselves in a way, find out what their core elements are

like, for Superman, his are broken down as truth, justice, and the American way

that makes him cool, because he knows who he is

Q) Will this make you cool in everyone's eyes?

A) No, that's pretty hard to do. The only way to be cool for everybody is to earn their respect and have them admire you. That is the closest you can be to being cool to everybody. Like even Obama, at the peak of his popularity last year, wasn't cool in everybody's eyes, but he was cool in a lot, which is the most one can hope for

Stranger Interview

I saw a bearded man walking down the street in a grey trench coat, he exuded sense of calmness but he wasn't mainstream cool so I thought he'd be an interesting interview, and he was the one person out of a full crowd who wasn't on a phone or i-pod

Q) Are you cool?

A) I can be cool at times

Q) Can anyone be cool?

A) no, some people just aren't cool

Q) What social group are you in now?

A) I was a skateboarder growing up so I guess that's where I am now

Q) What social group would you want to be in?

A) I'm happy where I am now