Otter Jung-Allen

Annotated Bibliography, Capstone Project

Ameer, Justice. Queer of Faith. N.p.: WusGood Magazine, n.d. Print.

Before the initial Capstone research process began, Mr. Kay gave this book as a gift from a feature he attended in October. Justice Ameer, the author, is a non binary Black trans person who writes prolifically concerning their gender and the way in which their body’s presentation, appearance, and sense of constant change interact with the world and people around them. This book improved the chapbook being constructed for this Capstone because its language, imagery, and consequent impacts on its reader gave this chapbook a better sense of minimality and emotional honesty. Finding similarities between the experiences and feelings of Ameer’s poetry and that of the poetry involved in this project, it was a learning experience to annotate the book in order to learn from it.

Browne, Mahogany L. Smudge. Minneapolis, MN: Button Poetry/Exploding Pinecone Press, 2015. Print.

This book of poetry represents a different style of writing than the chapbooks that are commonly published by American media. Mahogany L. Browne is known for her storytelling nature and understandable language onstage, but Smudge reflects these qualities along with frequent utilization of abnormal sentence structure, punctuation, and spacing choices. When annotating this chapbook in pencil, this Capstone project will cherry pick the best options made in Browne’s writing in order to experiment further with the design and language of its poetry. Risks are made to be taken within art, and this chapbook reflects better than any other how effective, impactful, and unique it can be when an author takes them without hesitation or reserve.

Davis, Kai. Music & Marrow. Philadelphia, PA: 2 Pens & Lint, 2012. Print.

Kai Davis is an American poet who has won many various accolades for their poetry and performative art, and both their stage presence and literary expertise has driven the backbone of this Capstone’s chapbook project. This particular work describes love, relationships, and depression from the point of view of a queer woman. The writing exercises simplicity and straightforwardness in order to cut right to the reader’s emotional boundaries. The personal, and often political, tone of the chapbook gave this Capstone project some insight into how an author picks apart feelings in order to make the experiences of having them both relatable and non condescending. Davis speaks to a large, general audience. Her poetry connects to not only those who understand, but also those who earn an understanding through reading her work. This is the tone that this Capstone chapbook is working toward.

Hartley, Marsden. “The Business of Poetry.” Poetry, vol. 15, no. 3, 1919, pp. 152–158.

www.jstor.org/stable/20572400.

This source directly connects the poetry aspect to business and how they connect in mass media. This concludes how art overall can affect business to change in order for art to assimilate into the field. This also dissects which types of poetry do best in business with humor, personal story, or shame. By weighing out what poems are most personal, most humorous, and most experimental, the book will be an outlier in what is needed in the industry. This reveals what will do better in business and in the world of poetry. It also compares how the business side of poetry may be different from history and the present. This concludes with predictions about the future of poetry and business.

"Home." Philly Youth Poetry Movement. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2017. <http://pypmphilly.org/>.

Philly Youth Poetry Movement helped with leading youth poets in weekly slams to ensure that they get used to writing and writing better. Workshops target certain aspects of writing tools to build on to the poets abilities. By using the weekly workshops, each poet can build on what it takes to become a better writer and performer, all in all, becoming a better slam poet. This site helps organize a timeline of when and where each event takes place in order to navigate a more communicative process for poets. This has made it possible for all Philadelphia poets to come to this safe space in order to become an overall better person.

Kaur, Rupi. Milk and honey. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2015. Print.

The book's layout shows how creative a best selling book can look. To get a more unique book, the anthology will include a similar or a different type of creative layout to show a variety of ways poems can be displayed in a book. This book is different from the other sources because this source will be used to show how a popular book differentiates from other conventional books. This can be used in the project to find different outlets of formatting the book. The book itself can combine different outlets of art while also focusing on poetry by making it a combination and making the art connect to the poetry instead of letting it be its own dynamic.

Kay, Sarah, and Sophia Janowitz. No Matter the Wreckage: Poems. Austin, TX: Write Bloody Publishing, America's Independent Press, 2014. Print.

Sarah Kay is an American poet who created this debut chapbook of poems near the beginning of her career. Her poetry contains a wide range of exploring who Kat is as a girlfriend, lover, and friend, and how her relationships with both her religion and her partners affect her mental well being and the rest of her life. Many of her poems are cautionary or hypothetical, speaking directly in open letter format to future boyfriends or friends. She speaks to her readers in order for them to relate to her. It is raw in the sense of opening up to the world. This Capstone project needs to be similarly vulnerable and real to its audience just as Sarah Kay.

NEW-GENERATION AFRICAN POETS: a chapbook box set. Place of publication not identified: AKASHIC, 2017. Print.

New Generation African Poets is a box set of chapbooks, compiling the individual works of eight African poets. The set gives an introduction to each poet and what they have created and contributed to the anthology. They tell the story of the wonders of different countries and cultures within the continent of Africa and bring the poetry in Africa into the commonplace world literature of today. The Voices of the East Coast Anthology being created in this Capstone will include a diverse tone from many different voices from many different places, just like the ones in this box set. Poetry should be always encompass a well rounded amount of perspectives, and the anthology being compiled for this Capstone will use this box set as an exemplary model for that purpose.

Penmanship Books RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2017. <http://penmanshipbooks.com/>.

This website is an organized publishing service to ensure people can publish all types of books for all types of people. This is the service that will publish The Voices of The East Coast anthology. In order for all of the cities to contribute poets and poems, this service will ensure all publishing rights in order for this anthology to be made. This company was made because of the idea that poets have problem with publishing rights. The creator, Mahogany L. Browne, intended on making this to help any and all poets. This project will be published by Penmanship Books to ensure that people know more about both Penmanship Books and Youth Poet Laureate Otter Jung Allen.

Waheed, Nayyirah. Salt. San Bernardino, CA: Nayyirah Waheed, 2013. Print.

Nayyirah Waheed is a well known page poet because of her frequently posted poetry excerpts on social media, particularly Instagram. She is a safe and non controversial poet because of her dedication to bite size pieces of art, usually concerning love, relationships, and sex, that can be shared easily. This chapbook is one of her most popular books, unlike the other chapbooks listed, which are more underground or socially shared by word of mouth instead of online or by businesses. This chapbook’s immediate marketability is a skill needed by this Capstone project’s chapbook because without a certain amount of mass attention, it will not be able to share its art with the rest of the world or raise money for future artistic or poetic endeavours to follow.

In The Taming of the Shrew, the plot revolves around Petruchio “taming” wild and angry Katharine to be a proper and decent wife as part of a challenge. Pat in Silver Linings Playbook does the same to Tiffany unintentionally by falling in love with her.

Though the methods that the two men use may seem different, the end result and the stereotypes the pieces carry out are very similar. Both men see possession over the women in their lives that they wish to date/marry, and both men end their journeys with a docile partner as a result of their actions, whether intentional or unintentional. The idea that women need to be fixed by a partner is perpetuated by both literature and media that portrays men as the changing force of a “troubled” woman’s life. He uses his tools of strength and affection to sedate her ways and convince her to act “normal”. Even though the movie has some more egalitarian themes because it is a more modern piece of work, both The Taming of the Shrew and Silver Linings Playbook show us that outspoken women are seen as something to be loved or taught how to be loved when they are incapable of doing so.

“I will be master of what is mine own./She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,/My household stuff, my field, my barn,/My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything./And here she stands, touch her whoever dare.” Act 3, Scene 2 (235-239)

In Shrew, Petruchio is a suitor from another land who arrives to purposefully tame and marry infamously untameable and always single Katharine. In this particular scene, Petruchio is announcing to a crowd the power that he has over Katharine, the woman who, as made clear to us, does not wish to marry him. Petruchio acts as if he deserves to own Katharine as both his wife and property. He demeans her by comparing her to objects and animals. He implies how obedient and inanimate she can be under his care. Here, Katharine is shown as something to be taught how to love because she is so “wild” she was previously incapable of doing so. The idea that a loud or rude woman is presented as an inanimate thing waiting to be taught love is sexist by nature.

The man in this scene is named Pat, and the woman Tiffany. They both have ambiguous mental illnesses and violent mood swings, and because of this they do not get along at first. But after meeting through a mutual friend and then establishing a complicated friendship, they manage to find some common ground through their honesty. Pat was imprisoned because he beat up a man that he caught his wife with. In this particular scene, he has recently been released a few days before and is out on a job when he runs into Tiffany. Here, he is explaining to Tiffany why it will work out when he meets up with his past wife, Nikki, again.

“Okay, yeah, we wanna change each other, but that's normal, couples wanna do that. I want her to stop dressing like she dresses, I want her to stop acting so superior to me, okay? And she wanted me to lose weight and stop my mood swings, which both I've done. I mean, people fight. Couples fight. We would fight, we wouldn't talk for a couple weeks. That's normal. She always wanted the best for me … our love's gonna be f---ing amazing.”

Pat acts as if he deserves to win back Nikki and that she should accept his advances, even after their separation was because of an explosion caused by his possession over her body. He sees Nikki as something that he must teach how to love. He implies she was incapable of loving him before he “improved” himself and vice versa. Though this may seem like a more egalitarian way of considering love (both partners must improve for the other), Pat still presents it as if the only reason they will ever be happy together in the future is because they both changed they way they looked/acted.

“Katharine the curst,/A title for a maid of all titles the worst.”

Act 1, Scene 2 (130-131)

In this particular scene, Grumio is speaking to Hortensio about Katharine, and how mad and difficult she actually is to handle. The implication that Katharine already had this nickname assigned to her in the past, since mentioning it is a point of humor. Katharine is obviously seen as a woman who does not fit the societal standards of female obedience, and therefore is labelled as “curst” and “the worst”. But we are shown later in the play that Katharine has always continued to act this way because of the contrast between her and her docile sister, Bianca. She even criticizes her father for not favoring her and instead giving Bianca all of the affection and good marriages. Katharine is a real person acting on real emotions, not a madwoman like she is made out to be.

In this scene, Tiffany has just finished opening up to Pat about her depressive sexual behavior after her husband died. Then, Pat is discussing the dinner they had with a mutual friend and whether his behavior there would impress Nikki if Nikki had been there. They are speaking about the opinion of the actual woman who held the dinner, Tiffany’s sister. Tiffany is telling Pat what her sister said about him.

“She said you were cool, but … you know.”

“No, I don’t know.”

“Sort of like, how you are … sort of like me.”

“Sort of like you? I hope to God she didn’t tell Nikki that.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s just not right. Lumping you and I together, I mean, it’s just wrong, and Nikki wouldn’t like that. Especially after all the sh-t you just told me.”

“You think I’m crazier than you.”

“Because … I mean, well, we’re different.”

Tiffany is shamed by Pat because Tiffany does not meet the societal standards for female sexual activity. Therefore, Pat treats her as if she is a mad person and unable to be seen as anything acceptable. This is especially true because the purpose of the conversation is for Pat to woo Nikki again, and he condemns Tiffany’s behavior as not something that would attract a partner. Again, we return to the standards set for single women who do not want to marry.

It is made clear that Tiffany is a real person acting on real emotions, not a madwoman like she is made out to be.

Pat is Petruchio and Tiffany is Katharine. Both Tiffany and Katharine are labelled as onry and untamed. Except in Playbook as opposed to Shrew, both Pat and Tiffany are tamed by each other instead of the man taming the woman on purpose. Pat makes that clear when he says, “The only way to beat my crazy was to do something even crazier. Thank you. I love you.” Still, there are underlying implications of Pat taming Tiffany by loving her, and by the end of both the movie and the book (Shrew), both women are passive. Both Tiffany and Katharine are shown as people who need to be loved, and then are taught how to love once it is obvious that they are “unable” to. These portrayals show us that society’s attitudes toward heteronormative courtship/dating are largely skewed. Women are not seen as equals in the relationship in relation to men. Instead, they are first seen as something to be edited in order to fit patriarchal expectations. The moment they express themselves, outspoken women are seen as something to be loved or taught how to be loved when they are incapable of doing so.

Article:

Janet Mock is one of the largest names in transgender activism today. When you Google her, the first examples to appear are ones describing her popular accomplishments. Her recent New York Times bestselling autobiography, Redefining Realness, is one example. Another is her being listed as part of various lists of influential people in oppressed communities, such as the OUT 100 and Trans 100. But these results do not give you the full picture of Mock: a fierce and determined activist with a lot of personability and patience.

Mock was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a black father and native Hawaiian mother. She began her transition in high school and funded her medical transition by being a sex worker in her teens. She has a Bachelor in Fashion Merchandising and a Masters in Journalism. Growing up, she was assigned male and addressed as such, but started to explore her gender identity further at 12, despite her father’s strict gender policing. Since then, she has grown into a passionate activist for the black, transgender, and women movements. Mock is the host of So POPular! -- a weekly MSNBC digital series about modern culture, and is the founder of #GirlsLikeUs, a social media project that empowers trans* women. TIME called Mock “one of the 12 new faces of black leadership” and “one of the most influential people on the Internet”, while Fast Company named her one of 2015’s “most creative people in business”. Mock is also an editor for Marie Claire magazine and a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. But what is there to Mock besides her accomplishments?
As a trans* writer, watching Janet Mock is both an amazing and frustrating experience for me personally. When Mock is interviewed by cisgender hosts who are not careful with the language they use surrounding her past, it is personally uncomfortable for me to witness. As Laverne Cox, another black transgender woman activist, said: “Calling a trans woman a man is an act of violence.” One example of this insensitivity is a segment with Piers Morgan, in which he repeatedly gave his superficial understanding of what being transgender feels like, instead of respectfully learning about her life, which was his job.

The kind of blatant and tactless dissection and sensationalization of trans* people’s bodies in the media is one that has been a focal point of Mock’s movement. For instance, the Piers Morgan segment was captioned by, “Was a boy until 18” (the age Mock underwent sex reassignment surgery) and “How would you feel if the woman you are dating was formerly a man?” Mock has written countless critiques of this kind of wording, explaining that these statements are invasive and assumptive, pointing toward Mock’s gender like an accusation and an entertainment point. A more respectful way to phrase these subtitles would be, “Janet Mock: Transgender Activist and Writer.” This is the difference between treating a guest like a professional instead of a sideshow. Yet Janet Mock was criticized and attacked for her “immature” reaction, assuming that Mock would be grateful to even get the chance to speak on a major television outlet. Despite it all, she has remained an unbattered and fearless advocate for her cause.

One of the most impressive aspects of Mock’s activism is her consistent acknowledge of privilege, even her own. In her book Redefining Realness, she says: “I have been held up consistently as a token, as the “right” kind of trans woman (educated, able-bodied, attractive, articulate, heteronormative). It promotes the delusion that because I “made it”, that level of success if easily accessible to all young trans women. Let’s be clear: It is not.” This activism is one that not only inspires but engages all people on the issue of trans* rights and respect, and empowers trans* youth, especially young women. By maintaining both a self righteous air in order to gain respect and a selfless love for her community, Janet Mock has successfully built a dynasty of empowered youth and challenged allies in her wake. I am here for it.

Citations:

1. Hess, Amanda. "Piers Morgan’s Interview with Janet Mock Was Not a Failure of Sensitivity. It Was a Failure of Reporting." Slate.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016 http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/02/07/_piers_morgan_s_janet_mock_interview_why_journalists_get_coverage_of_the.html

2. "Janet Mock Quotes." Janet Mock Quotes (Author of Redefining Realness). N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5388148.Janet_Mock

3. "About." Janet Mock. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. http://janetmock.com/bio/

Timeline:

March 10, 1983: Janet Mock is born in Honolulu, Hawaii.

2001: Mock undergoes sex reassignment surgery in Thailand at 18.

2006: Before this date, Mock graduates the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Merchandising, and in 2006, graduates NYU with a Master of Arts in Journalism.

2011: Janet Mock comes out as publicly transgender in a problematic Marie Claire article written by Kierna Mayo from Mock’s point of view. Becomes an editor at Marie Claire despite her critique of the piece. Submits a video for the It Gets Better project. Mock is featured in a 2011 documentary called Dressed.

2012: Mock’s first book, Redefining Realness, is signed by Atria Books. Mock starts a Twitter hashtag (#GirlsLikeUs) to empower transgender women. Mock gives the Lavender Commencement keynote speech honoring LGBT students at the University of Southern California. Mock serves as co-chair, nominee and presenter at the 2012 GLAAD Media Awards.:

November 2012: Mock receives her Sylvia Rivera Activist Award from the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

June 27, 2013: Janet Mock is featured in an LGBT community called The OUT List. Mock joins the board of directors of the Arcus Foundation.

February, 2014: Redefining Realness is released.

2014: Mock leaves job at People.com and hosts Take Part Live, So POPular! (her own weekly digital series), the Global Citizen Festival, guest hosts the Melissa Harris-Perry show, covers the White House Correspondents Dinner’s red carpet for Shift, and is a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. Featured on the fifth anniversary cover of CANDY magazine.

Following the conviction of Monica Jones, a trans woman of color, Mock joins a campaign against a law in Pheonix that targets Black and Latina transgender women (“manifesting prostitution”).

2015: Mock delivers the commencement address for Pitzer College. In April, Mock makes a guest appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday for a segment called Becoming Your Most Authentic Self. In September, she makes another appearance where she discusses Embracing the Otherness.

March 2016: Mock cancels a speech at Brown University after students protested the invitation by Hillel, a Jewish organization.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off passes the Bechdel Test, but just barely. The movie revolves around a high school senior named Ferris Bueller and his circle of friends. The plot shows us that Bueller has perfected the faked sick day, and the movie begins by him fooling his parents into letting him stay home. As soon as his mother and father leave for work, he goes on a series of wild adventures throughout the city with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron. The Bechdel Test is utilized in one of the final scenes, when he is racing home to beat his parents and sister (Jeanie) there. Jeanie was given a ticket for speeding while out searching for Ferris, and she is driving back from the police station with their mother in the passenger seat. The car ride consists of their mother nagging and lecturing Jeanie for her behavior, and the scene is interspliced with Ferris and his father travelling back home as well. Technically, this scene would qualify as a pass for the Bechdel Test because there are two women who have a conversation about something other than a man. But this interaction is extremely short, is not an isolated scene, and the dialogue is ultimately unimportant to the plot. Furthermore, many renditions of the Bechdel Test require both women to have names, while in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris’ mother does not have a specified name. The Jung-Allen Test requires the following things: two named women, at least one of color, that have an interaction about something other than a man for a full, uninterrupted thirty seconds. This would mean that Ferris Bueller would definitely lose this test. It is not as low a bar as the actual Bechdel Test, but it is still a relatively low bar that I can only think of one movie of the top of my head that would pass this test (The Help). As a reminder, both the Bechdel and Jung-Allen Test do not measure anything about the movie except for its amount of representation. It does not measure whether the movie is feminist or not, and does not grade its actual quality. But the Jung-Allen Test will do a better job of performing the aforementioned tasks. The racial component encourages racial representation (however low), and the uninterrupted thirty second rules encourages the idea that the conversation will have actual relevance to the plot.

I’ve never been good at being honest. My apologies are harsh, and my confessions are quick. Often, I smirk when I’m discussing something serious about myself, as if my memories are some sort of misunderstood inside joke. I’m stingy with the punchlines. I cut and choose the amount of myself I give away very carefully. I remember my pain purposefully and privately. And worst of all, I write about it.

When I was eleven, I began a planned endeavour into depression. I started self harming routinely. Originally, I wanted attention. Or maybe help I didn’t know I needed. Isolation was closer to me than I liked to pretend. Ideally, my friends would see that my unhappiness was enough of a project to pay attention to. So I rolled up sleeves for easier visibility. Hurt myself a room away from someone in the hopes they would walk in. None of them ever did. I wasn’t disappointed, because I didn’t really understand what I wanted to happen. Emotional reflection and analysis is not a privilege afforded to sixth graders.

One day in July, I stripped next to the pool and two of my friends caught sight of my wrists. They spent the next two hours in the water twisting, pulling, grabbing, and scratching at them, giggling like maniacs. It wasn’t the reaction I expected. Technically it was attention. And technically it scared the shit out of me. Things spiraled. Friends saw, friends laughed, and friends always, always left. I stopped being able to tell the difference between boredom and numbness. Emotions started to make me feel pathetic. My mother found out, and I hated myself for exhausting her. So I told myself I had attempted an experiment and had failed. That all this nighttime would end and I’d be happy in the morning. It didn’t work. I underestimated addiction and its ability to stalk. Depression was quiet and dogged and dark and at fifteen I started writing it down.

When I came to high school and discovered slam poetry, I got jealous. A beginning poet is the most natural form of envy. I went to slams and saw these beautiful, emotional people giving themselves to crowds who reached back and shouted, We hear you! We love you! Give us more! The act of being received like that is a lonely teenager’s dream. So in freshman year, poetry became my newest and most accessible way to self destruct. I followed suit with what I had seen, and glamorized my own mental illnesses. I wrote poems about hurting myself, about my mother, about my father, about being sad, about crying, about suicide, etc. The audience responded the way I had hoped. I got support. I got more hugs than I could count. But it made me feel absolutely nothing. There was no clarity. No emotion. No resurfacing. No therapy. It was recitation of trauma. And I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working. I think now I do.

Poetry is often known as a way of emotional expression and translation. But to me, its actual purpose has always been clear: to make grief pretty. Writing dormant pain back into existence is praised. Digging into oneself is rewarded. A large audience has no agenda for the performer because they are anonymous. So applause is conducive to how easy the story is to respond to. Writing about myself is an act of separation. Heart from body. Mind from thought. Joy from smile. I objectify my experiences to the point where I’m convinced I didn’t have them. Once the experience does not sound like yours anymore, you are ready to begin.

This phenomenon is not isolated to poetry or depression. O’Brien mentions his experience with it in The Things They Carried. “The act of writing had led me through a swirl of memories that might otherwise have ended in paralysis or worse. By telling stories, you objectify your own experiences. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened...and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain.” (158) He believes that trying to explain the war encourages him to falsify memories for easier delivery.

The exact same thing happened to my poetry. I created new incidents. They may have never actually happened, but they assist in making the pain seem more attractive and sensical. Being understable convinces the listener that the poet understands themselves enough to recover alone. And if not alone, then the most they’ll need is a few hugs and I love you texts. Writing about pain can make the conviction that there is only pride in steady recovery. Often the self fakes their own growth through their writing to reassure themselves and those around them that they no longer need help. A slam poet shouts, Look at what I’ve been through! Don’t you all feel something for me? The easier the trauma is to receive, the more support is given. And the more the changing world seems to accept the self, no matter how false the presentation of the self is, the more the self feels validated and, to a sense, normal. It’s the most seemingly honest way to seek attention.

Then something happens when the poet is no longer shy of the spotlight. When tearing yourself open becomes a paid pastime and the only familiar way to garner support, the microphone becomes just another addiction. You become dependent on the attention you receive. Many assume that writing is catharsis, but regurgitating trauma always comes with the price of acid reflux. Of course, the act of sharing can shake memories out of us that may otherwise have rotted in paralysis or dysfunctionality. But really it just hurts. And making it into an artform just makes it a procedural hurt. Therefore, we become jealous that other poets might utilize the pain that we worked so hard to get our bodies used to feeling. Slam poetry teaches children to fingerpaint with our trauma and the unhappiness of a poet is our only antecedent of paint. We’re swollen with heartache. And the pen’s only purpose is to prick.

In the same vein, I still feel reluctant to use the word trauma to describe that which I write about, because it has become such a foreign concept to me. What is trauma? I hurt myself, sure, but how valuable is that? Ongoing self harm doesn’t have enough balance between relatability and good endings to be appealing. Scars are artistic. Fresh wounds are not. Therefore, writing about scars is easy. But writing about the act of creating them is impossible. Clarity doesn’t always come with hindsight. Even this essay feels like a pitiful and futile reach for empathy where there is none. I can write poem after poem about tears and sadness and whatever, and never came close to honesty. Which, honestly, is what I did. And I was fine with that. Lying to the audience. To myself. It was familiar to say everything and speak nothing.

But of course, this facade catches up. It may take hours. It may take years. But the process of rebirthing yourself as someone you are not is always inevitably undone. In a way, my personal undoing is an ongoing process. Part of it is writing with brutal honesty. To not apologize to myself for how I have written about myself in the past, but to continue without doing so. This essay is a prime example. I did not lie once in what you’ve just read. And I won’t again.

Cultural appropriation is when people borrow practices and appearances that belong to a separate culture and use them as their own for the sake of fashion and trend. To many people this seems an innocent or superficial practice, like white women wearing Bindis at Coachella or cornrows at the beach. But, more specifically, it is when a dominant culture borrows from a systematically oppressed culture. America has turned a blind eye to the problem, going so far as to poke fun at certain outlets that describe the real, pressing issues behind it. Even those who do not support the practice are often confused by why it is shown in such a negative light by these outlets. Ultimately, the practice of cultural appropriation damages said appropriated culture in ways unseen by the larger American population.

For clarification, cultural appropriation is not the same as assimilation or cultural exchange, because the power imbalance is very different between these three examples. Assimilation is when people from the systematically oppressed culture adopt parts of the dominant culture in order to fit in within that dominant culture. Cultural exchange is when cultures on the same level mutually share their practices and appearances. Neither of these are the same as cultural appropriation because in assimilation, it is a survival tactic, and in cultural exchange, the cultural power balance is equal.

Cultural appropriation spreads misinformation about the culture that it is appropriating in the first place. Many people who support or defend cultural appropriation believe that it is supposed to help the dominant culture learn, but that is not the case. One example that expands on this from modern culture is the story of Pocahontas. In the American Disney movie, this woman is a strong, yet kind girl in a Native American tribe that is approached by an Englishman and eventually falls in love with him. Pocahontas’ real name was Motoaka, and her story is much more grim than many Americans would suspect. She was abducted as a teen on a ship to Jamestown, given to an Englishman, Christened Rebecca, and used as a racist propaganda tool before she died at 21. The culture that Moataka belonged to represented years of diverse culture and important history, but in a sense it seems apparent that the racist propaganda she was subjected to never quite ended. This is because most of the stories that we hear of Pocahontas depict the land as savages, passive, or nonexistent, not to mention an entirely sugarcoated depiction of the real event. Because the dominant culture never represents the real stories of subjugated cultures in popular media, the American population never recognizes that the stories are trivializing and rampant with appropriation to make the dominant culture more comfortable with the gruesome story.  

In the United States, The dominant culture when speaking about cultural appropriation is white people, and one of the largest problems with their appropriation is the fact that when these white people wear or do something that belongs to another culture, it is seen as trendy, hip, or even progressive and inclusive. But when people of color, especially those that belong to the particular culture, do the same thing, they are seen as ‘too ethnic’ and ‘stuck in the past’. This double standard pressures black women to conform especially. When Zendaya wore faux locs at the 2015 Oscars, Fashion Police host and E! red carpet host Giuliana Rancic commented that she “feels like she smells like patchouli oil or weed”. But when Kylie Jenner wore the same faux locs in an a cover story photo shoot in Teen Vogue, attempting a “desert rebel” look, she is praised and described as raw, groundbreaking, fresh, and edgy. Zendaya responded, saying: “There is already harsh criticism of African American hair in society without the help of others who choose to judge others based on the curl of their hair. [I wanted to] showcase [locs] in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough.” Not to mention its repercussions outside of praise or insult. In March 2014, AR 670-1 was released by the U.S. Army, a list of policies for the appearance of the soldiers. This list banned braids, locks, and twists with a diameter of a quarter of an inch. It also slandered unauthorized hairstyles by calling them unkempt and matted. The message this sends to the appropriated black community is that black women who wear their hair naturally in styles such as locs are not deserving of praise, acceptance, or even respect in the eyes of white people. It enforces the harmful lie that black natural beauty is not appealing to the general white, American population, and is only attractive when worn by white women. This message is not only being sent to adults struggling to find jobs, but children struggling to find confidence.

Not only does this practice of accepting cultural appropriation miseducate the majority population, it trivializes violence and oppression. The NFL team, the Washington Redsk*ns, have been criticized for the name, but the terms have been largely defended by its fans and owners. The argument is made that the name “keeps to tradition”, and “honors Indians”. It has been taken even further by telling the Indigenous activist groups that have called them out on the name’s racial connotations that they are “being too sensitive”. But for Native people, redsk*n means a barbaric colonialist practice in which governments would brutally scalp and murder Native Americans and use their “redsk*ns”, or scalps as proof of their kill. When violence targets one specific section of people through genocide, the trauma will last throughout subsequent generations. Therefore, it makes said trauma seem ridiculous, funny, and even playful when using it carelessly in everyday life. Media reinforces this by upholding and encouraging these false stereotypes and misinforming the general public.

Cultural appropriation is one of the most widespread issues within white, American fashion today, and deserves ample recognition and rectification. Yet we, as a nation still dismiss it as trivial. Education is the first step to showing exactly how many problems this phenomenon causes for minorities in America. This is especially true for those whose ethnic features and traditions are thought beautiful, but their actual well-being not as much. Not only this, but people of color as constantly seen through the lense of these stereotypes that cultural appropriation perpetuates and popularizes. As a result, it creates barriers of disrespect and dismission within the real world.

Works Cited:

1. United States. National Park Service. "Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend."National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 04 Oct. 2015. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

2. "Despite The Natural Hair Movement, Black Women Still Face Pressure To Conform." Despite The Natural Hair Movement, Black Women Still Face Pressure To Conform. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

3. "Zendaya Rips E! Red Carpet Host Giuliana Rancic for 'Ignorant' Dreadlocks Comment." TheWrap. N.p., 23 Feb. 2015. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

4. "Kylie Jenner Rocks Dreadlocks On Instagram." StyleBlazer. N.p., 10 Feb. 2015. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

Calamity Rose Jung-Allen

January 15, 2015

English 2: Silver Stream, A Band

Literary Structure Essay

In her novella Echo, author Francesca Lia Block spins a stunning realistic tale centered around the modern misadventures of a young girl whose name correlates to the book’s title. Our naieve protagonist ages throughout this piece from a child to a teenager to an adult, and her experiences are organized into multiple short stories that are weaved together expertly in a mix of magic and metaphor. Block uses a technique that employs quick transitions between subject and setting, fantasy and reality, and uncommon sensory reactions to invoke complex immersion in the reader.

The exposition of Echo explains the relationship that she and her mother share between the both of them. The latter is filling their home with rejuvenating crystals, plants, and her own natural brand of enchantment to create a spellbound atmosphere for her and her family. “The house was a mess of rainbows. Rainbows poured across the walls. The crystals reminded me of tiny cities with cathedrals and towers … Delicate watery music spilled through the house. The rooms smelled of lavender and aloe and eucalyptus.” (17) In this particular portion of the story, Block uses sensory reactions as her boldest point to create this ethereal mood. A tactic that is used extremely often in this author’s work is to describe objects, people, settings or feeling with adjectives that are not necessarily used to describe them in everyday life. This includes choosing to elaborate on something’s texture when it is almost always never touched, or a sound by its look. For example, music is not tangible and therefore has no consistency. It is very rarely used in the same sentence as a description that could be interchangeable with an object, but here it is labelled as watery. This adduces a clear feeling of uneasiness with the audience, in that they cannot possibly predict the next sentence or event. Consequently, they are further immersed in the story and its descriptions.

In this moment, Echo is observing her surroundings, making special note of the playing children, the tunes in the air and the colors that envelop her emotions in that second.  “In the smoggy violet of summer evenings they sat on the dilapidated porch playing guitar and singing. The children from the neighborhood came and hid behind the posts, peering out with dark eyes eyes, peering at the whiteness -- the flash of what looked like diamonds at Wendy’s and Suze’s throats and wrists and in Smoke’s ear, at their bleached hair.” (93) This chosen passages uses the quick transitions as its focal point, specializing in the bridge between fantasy and reality and making the tone both confusing and fascinating to the point of, again, immersion. One of the most obvious transitions it makes it between describing the actual setting of the children running around to the comparison to the white color describing Wendy and Suze’s throats and wrists and bleached hair. This quick switch creates a similar sense of unease that is surprisingly realistic when pertaining to one’s thoughts.

Here, Block illustrates a character’s appearance while utilizing this approach, giving us another insight into a different aspect of her descriptive style and the elements involved. When Echo meets a new man she may be interested in, her feelings and his appearance are described in minute, intertwining detail. “The veins in his arms had a thorny blue glow. He led her to the bar and grabbed a bottle of gin, pouring it, straight, into a paper cup. It flared electric in her head and he was watching her. His eyes were like full-blown poppies, like sleep.” (120) In this scene, Block is describing a person and not a setting, so, again, we receive a more in depth view into what she may see in a character’s vibes and total look, and how thought association may occur in that respect. She employs a similar tactic to the first example, where she uses uncommon and unusual adjectives and matches them with uncommon and unusual subjects. For instance, here we see that color does not have a shape nor texture, but she describes the hue of blue as thorny, which insinuates an unpredictable feeling to her writing.

In a published conversation with Interview Magazine, Francesca Lia Block commented on her use of metaphors to show magic in her writing. She said, “Metaphors are an interesting example of creating magic in prose. You can use a simile to say, "It felt like the house was on fire," or you can actually set the house on fire in the story. You can say, "He made me feel like roses were growing out of my heart," or you can actually have roses grow out of the character's heart. As writers we have the opportunity to make magic happen every day.” These quick transitions between reality and fantasy creates the atmosphere of magic she describes here. This further proves and explains her technique of skipping the formalities of similes and jumping straight into metaphors. It explains the unusual matches between adjectives and subjects, because she realizes that both of these techniques work together as a unit, and aid each other in producing the overall effect of her work.

The tone that contributes to the overall mood and atmosphere is so important because without it the story wouldn’t hold the same gravity or attitude. It is what makes the writing so interesting, and without it, a story may be dull. Often, a transition can occur unexplained when association occurs, but it is never explained. We never feel the need to explain ourselves. In that way, Block is such a captivating author, because she embodies the role of thoughts unable and unwilling to make sense of themselves. Or in other words, everyone’s minds. It plays to our deepest and more instinct drives as avid readers, and lets us be a part of the story instead of in the audience.

Works Cited:

1. "Francesca Lia Block's Elements of Style." Interview Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.

2. Block, Francesca Lia. Echo. New York: Joanna Cotler /HarperCollins, 2001. Print.

[sits cross-legged on a chair, then speaks as if answering someone]

What’s my name? My name is Sal-ba-tor-a Rivers and I am four and three quarters! I’m prac-ly five. And I said it slow ‘cause did you know that sometimes everybody messes my name? Sometimes not even my bestest friends. My big sister says my name means saver, which is when Superman saves the girl off of a [counting on her fingers] cliff, or a spaceship, or a building. He’ll fly around and save her right up! I’m not Superman. But guess what? Guess what, guess what, guess what? My sister is! I read a lot of big books and can say a lot of big words also, but my sister is way way bigger and she knows [holds arms out] everything!

[as if answering someone] What did you say? Yeah, she’s very very really very strong! I just told you she’s Superman! Even though her name doesn’t mean saver. Her name is Anna and that just means Anna, which can be kind of boring. But she is more of Superman that me! She is strong and cool and she is sooooooo pop-ler in her up school! [suddenly scared, she looks around her quickly] Please don’t tell her I said that, please and thank you! She thinks I don’t like her too much, but [whispers], she’s awesome. She is 17 and one quarter, which is really really big. I can’t even count that yet!

[as if answering someone] Yeah, she’s pop-ler! Why did you say was? I see her all the time on field trips to her up school from my daycare, and she’s as famous as Superman! Everyone pointed and whispered at her, which means that she’s famous, right? That’s what that means, right? They were prob-ly all talking about how cool she is! But sometimes she comes home from her up school with purple on her face.

[as if answering someone] Yes, yes, yes, sometimes she’s real sad. She can cry like babies do sometimes, like a lot sometimes. Especially when she looks in the mirror. And she looks in the mirror a lot. And she says her friends were mean, but that doesn’t make any sense! She’s a million bajillion kajillion hundred times than everyone else ever in the whole world! No one can be mean to her! No one can be mean to Superman! Superman will just make them into dust!

[as if answering someone] Yeah, I know where she is! Do you wanna see her? Oh, okay. Well, I know she got a new bed. It’s all black, like a big black box with a lid, too!  I was with Mom and Daddy when they picked it out. She must be really super happy about it, because now she sleeps all the time. I try to bring her cookies, because I want her to wake up, but Mom says she can’t eat. I get it, though. Even Superman needs sleep! I’m smarter than everyone thinks, I know when people are too tired they need some cookies! Mom doesn’t like Anna sleeping, she’s sad about it, but I know she’ll be up any second or minute! Because when the bad guys get Superman, he always gets back up! And Mom says that some people at school made Anna feel all bad so she decided to not get back up again. But Superman always gets back up! I don’t know why everyone’s so quiet! I know she’ll be here any second! I don’t why you’re asking me all these questions about her! What’s the big deal?

She’s never been asleep this long, but it’s okay. She should be up really soon. Then you can ask her the questions yourself.

You guys would like her. She’s just like Superman!

“This is beautiful,” my grandmother breathed. She stood in the front room with her arms around her children and her makeup immaculate. “And the kitchen installation is included?”

“Yes, of course,” said the real estate agent, but there was no happiness in her voice. She was white, and she eyed my grandmother’s Mexican family distastefully, all the way from their tea stained skin to their big brown eyes to their Spanish speaking tongues. My grandmother has always had a strong accent.

“How much?” she asked. There was a short pause.

“I don’t believe it’s in your price range,” said the agent.

“Excuse me?”

“I have some less expensive housing options I can offer you … ”

~

Ten years later, my grandmother leaned forward on her couch in California. Her big family of aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews were all gathered around, me included. It was last summer, and she was telling us one of her favorite stories from when she tried to buy a house down the hill.

“And what happened next?” I asked.

“Well, I told her exactly where she could put her less expensive housing options -- ”

“Grandma!”

“What? She was racist! She thought we were poor because we were Mexican! When she found out the house we were considering moving out of, she got all green. Because this is a nice house! We paid a lot for this house!”

I looked up at the ceiling, at the huge windows. It certainly was a nice house, a real gem of prime real estate. My mother had told me before that it could be worth millions.

My grandmother continued. “I let her know that we wouldn’t be needing her anymore, we were gonna stay where we were.”

The whole family laughed and twittered among each other, their voices canceling out hard r’s, tough j’s and double l’s, creating a magical cacophony of sounds I’ve always loved to be in the middle of. But my family has been stereotyped because of the way they sound throughout their lives.

Humans as a species prefer to simplify. We are programmed to organize our knowledge by creating their own representations of the reality that we are perceiving, displaying its most fundamental elements instead of minute details or objective characteristics. In this way, these basic principles of the world around us become our basis for opinions, emotion control, and social cognition. Our thoughts and actions are governed by these preconceived notions, and it can take a lot to overcome them. One type of fundament is that of stereotypes.

Elliot Aronson, an American psychologist, said, “stereotypes are used to attribute the identical features to each member of a certain group without taking the existing differences among the members into consideration.” They show the viewpoint from a specific group of people, and sometimes, when exposed relentlessly for long periods of time to these opinions, humans may adopt them as their own. They are internalized during socialization. Some influential sources are parents, friends, siblings, teachers, and media. Stereotypes do not present the full picture; instead, they put forth a warped, incomplete, subjective and often false image. They are usually negative, and usually based on a traditional mindset. It is most common that arguments defying stereotypes are treated as exceptions rather than counterexamples.

Language has always been one of the most popular stereotype creators, a deciding factor about one’s place on the power hierarchy. As soon as someone opens their mouth, a million assumptions are made about their background, their history, their lifestyle, their names, their friends, their family, their culture, their choices. All from a couple of words.

Here is an example from The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingstan. In this particular story, a mother is going to a very far extent in order for her daughter to be able to speak. Here, she is explaining to her daughter why she did it. “I cut [your tongue] so that you would not be tongue-tied. Your tongue would be able to move in any language. You’ll be able to speak languages that are completely different from one another. You’ll be able to pronounce anything.” Families take ridiculous measures to make sure that their children are prepared for a world ruled by the so-called, “standard English”. It teeters on the edge of insanity, but is not seen as unrealistic. As you can see, my grandmother faced the discrimination based on speech and race. In that moment, her power had been taken away from her and she had been assumed to be everything that she was not.

It is worth noting that race is a big factor in the stereotyping of language. Many people have preconceptions about how one may speak depending on their race, and if that person’s speech turns out to fit that stereotype, they may assume that all of their preconceived notions are correct and discriminate against them all the more.

Here is another example from Kingstan’s text. In this scene, Kingstan remembers drawing pictures of all black when she could not speak English in school, and her concerned teacher gave them to her parents. “My parents took the pictures home. I spread them out (so black and full of possibilities) and pretended the curtains were swinging open.”

The concept of language being a performance fascinates me. I don’t have an accent of language barrier myself, but it’s interesting to consider the dynamics of learning a new language and always having it feel strange in your mouth, as if you’re putting on a show for someone else that you can’t quite understand the point of. Especially if learning that language was not one of your original intentions, and it was for the sole purpose of communication.

a. What is one thing that your learned specifically that you did not know before?

One thing that I learned specifically that I did not know before was the subject of orthagonal lines. I did not know about orthagonal lines or how they could portray a third dimension.

b. How did leaning this thing make your drawings better?

Learning about orthagonal lines made my drawings better by helping me with realism. For example, with edges of furniture or windows, I did not know how to make it seem as if they were a real object and not just a drawing. Now I know that you can connect orthagonal lines from the edges of the object to the vanishing point and turn it into a three dimensional drawing! It makes everything more realistic!

c. If you did this assignment again, what would you do differently?

If I did this assignment again, the thing I would do different would definitely be keep better care of my paper. Though I made sure I didn’t rip it severely or sit on it, or put it in my bag, I rolled it the wrong way multiple times, which put the drawings on the outside which made a lot of dirt marks, and ripped it on the edges, too. Though I cleaned and taped as best as possible, it would’ve been in my best interest to have taken better care of it.

d. What is your advice to someone who has never drawn a one point perspective drawing before?

My advice to someone who has never drawn a one point perspective drawing before would be to understand how simple it is. As long as they are focused and can draw a straight line, they should have no problems making it look great! There are only three lines after all -- horizontal, vertical and orthagonal. It’s really that easy.

e. What resource helped you the most and why?

The resource that helped me the most was the step-by-step tutorial on drawing a room, because it was very specific to what I was having trouble with. But more informally, the other best resource at a close second were my classmates, because they knew what I was having trouble with and how to explain and help by being engaging, unlike the website.