Blog #19

Introduction

SDS (ranked by popularity)	Human vs Human	Human vs Non-Human	Human vs Nature	Absurdity	Gun Violence	Direct violence	Indirect Violence	Natural Disaster	No Violence	No victims or perpetrators of violence
#1 Panda	-	X	-	X	X	X	-	-	-
#2 Friars	X	-	-	X	-	X	-	-	-
#3 Nate	-	-	X	X	-	-	X	X	-
#4 Chess	-	-	-		-	-	-	-	X	X
#5 Friday	-	-	-	X	-	-	-	-	X	X

Violence is present in even the most innocuous forms of entertainment. We are introduced very early on to the concept of violence through cartoons and children’s story books. Fictional violence is normalized, and we are unfazed when a cartoon cat accidentally eats a bomb in the guise of a pie and explodes on the screen, or when an animated Disney character is hit on the head with a ten-ton hammer. So it’s not simply fictional violence that we accept, it is the caricature of it. So when we come across violence in jokes and stories, we are not disturbed nor are we disgusted when a bear eats a person whole in what is otherwise a gruesome image. And there are several forms of violence that we not only find acceptable, we find it to be funny. That said, I plan on examining what forms of violence are shown in shaggy dog stories, who is involved, and how that relates to the popularity of the story. What I believe to be revealed in the data is that the more absurd, comical, and graphic the violence is, the more popular it must be.

                Shaggy dog stories are one of the many forms of humor, often presented following a distinct pattern or ending with a sentence that is a play on words related to the story as well as a common phrase in culture. The success of these stories is often based on the familiarity of these phrases in order for them to be witty and clever. But a lot of the success, it would seem, also stems from the portrayal of violence within a shaggy dog story. And the success of the humor found in that violence is based on exactly who (or what) is the perpetrator of violence, and who the victim happens to be. There is a wide variety of types of violence that can be found in shaggy dog stories. And in most forms, they have an element of absurdity involved as well. The basic absurd forms of violence that I found are as follows: gun violence, “natural disaster” type violence, direct physical violence, indirect violence, as well as the element of absurdity that can be found within some if not all of these types. There is also a variety of victim-perpetrator relationships as well: animal vs. nature, human vs. nature, human vs. non-human and human vs. human.

                The element of absurdity in the set of shaggy dog stories is often set in violence, and that element of absurdity is often a large piece of the key to success. For example, the humanization of an animal falls under this element. And often, the perpetrators of the shaggy dog story are animals. An example of a situation where the perpetrator was non-human and the victims were human, is the Giant Panda shaggy dog story, a story that features gun violence. It was a story in which a panda with the ability to talk shoots several human patrons using a gun in a restaurant and leaves.  That sentence alone isn’t inherently humorous for most; in fact it’s rather morbid. However, within the frame of a shaggy dog story, it was incredibly successful in its delivery.

                Human vs. Human conflicts were also found to be popular. In the story about friars, the friars are attempting to raise money by selling flowers. Their business becomes so successful that the other flower shop resorts to hiring a hit man to beat the friars until they stop selling flowers. Again, we have direct physical violence that, in real life, would make headlines. And yet for some reason, most people really liked the story. They laughed and chuckled at it in class. I think the fact that it’s fictional makes it safe for people to laugh, but there is also the fact that the rival flower shop’s efforts to stop the friars were so over-the-top that it was comical.

                Shaggy dog stories sometimes make a joke of “natural disasters”, forms of violence in which neither human nor animal are involved in the perpetration of violence. In “ Nate the Snake”, another popular story, the element of violence comes not from a living thing, but a freak boulder on the verge of squashing the snake, who has taken it upon himself to guard a lever within a desert that has the ability to destroy the world if moved. In the end, the boulder does not push the lever, for the body of Nate the snake had run it off its course. Explaining the story plainly and without the pattern or build-up of a shaggy dog story, this tale isn't very funny. It is out of the ordinary, just as many shaggy dog stories are, and yet  if I told someone the story the way I just told it, I am almost positive they wouldn't so much as giggle. So there is more than just violence that a shaggy dog story needs for it to be successful. The comical exaggeration of violence works in cartoons due to the visual effects. In a shaggy dog story, it takes the entire rhythm of the story for it to work.

                I found that among these popular shaggy dog stories, it isn’t the element of violence alone that makes it a success. The forms of violence, in the real world, would be considered tragic.  But in the frame of the shaggy dog story, it is somehow entertaining and even hilarious to some people. Part of it is due to the unrealistic characters (i.e. talking animals) but even in conflicts among humans, where it might be plausible for it to happen in real life (even the smallest chance), the story was popular and received high scores from many of the people who read it. Absurdity is an important part of shaggy dog stories, and of many jokes in general, and a lot of that revolves around violence in some shape or form. But it isn’t simply violence that the success relies on. It’s the type of violence that we’re so accustomed to, that we grew up watching for years, it’s our common sense that stops us from finishing any of these stories and saying, “Wow that was horrific, what did I just read?” In the end, it is the caricature of violence that we appreciate, not violence in and of itself.

Blog #17

Interview Protocol (Draft)

Basics:

 - name, age, race, sex, gender, ethnicity, occupation, sexual orientation (if comfortable), religion

 - family: siblings? single parent? children? ages, income level, education levels


 - do you fluently speak any other languages other than English?



 - where did you grow up?

 - where did your parents/siblings grow up?


Background History (race/ethnicity/gender):


 - tell me about your family situation (income, culture......tbc)


 - what was it like being a Latin@ growing up in a community that does not have many Latin@s?

 - what was it like being a girl growing up in that same community?

 - was there ever a time or a moment in your life where you were ever "aware" of your race/ethnicity/gender?

 - can you recall a time where you felt ostracized for being a Latin@ or a cisfemale?

 - have you ever traveled to your parents' home country/countries? what was that experience like?

 - how would you compare the experience of going there to the experience of living here?

Background History (feminism):

 - how did you come to discover feminism?

 - what compelled you to the feminist movement?

 - was there any one person or people who encouraged your interest? were they the person/people who got you interested in the first place?

Current Thoughts:

 - do you feel as if your race/ethnicity has defined you in some way?

 - do you feel as if your gender has defined you in some way?

 - do you think life would be different if you weren't (insert race/ethnicity/gender here)

 - what value do you place on the role of feminism in society?

 - how important is feminism to you?

 - do you have any ideas as to why there is so much opposition to feminism?


 - how important is intersectionality in the success of feminism?

 - are you very involved in the feminist community?

 - how would you describe your experience being a part of this community? (positive? negative? both?)

 - is there anything you think could be better regarding the inclusion of other people? (trans*, queer, POC, WOC, etc..)

TO BE CONTINUED...

Blog #16

During a conference last week, Dr. Chandler and I went over how the short analysis projects are going to be graded, and when I started "grading" my own paper, I found a lot of points that were lacking and it was really helpful that we did that because along with smaller mistakes like forgetting to mention a few things in the introduction that I mentioned during the body of the paper, I realized that I should also make my research question clearer and more visible, plus I could add a chart that will further emphasize my points. I think the visual aid will help a lot with my conclusion in wrapping up my findings into a nice, neat image. I am also going to work on my conclusion to make it stronger.

Blog #15

Research Question: Is intersectionality essential to the success of feminism? And if it is, then why don't more feminists incorporate that intersectionality into their feminist ideologies?

My interviewee is a friend of mine who is a feminist herself and has, for a number of years, been involved in learning more about feminism and the institution of sexism. The kind of information I'm looking to get from her is some insight into the feminist community, as well as her personal experiences with racism, sexism, classism, etc. and how she fits into the matrix of intersectional feminism, being a lower-middle class, bisexual ciswoman of color. I want to get an idea of how she identifies herself and get a measure of the weight of its importance. And from that, I think that that, along with my research, can help me draw a few conclusions on whether intersectionality is important, and that information will help me to determine reasons why I don't see a better number of feminists including that idea into their theories, as well as what type of people they might be.

Blog #13 & #14

               

Violence is present in even the most innocuous forms of entertainment. We are introduced very early on to the concept of violence through cartoons and children’s story books. Fictional violence is normalized, and we are unfazed when a cartoon cat accidentally eats a bomb in the guise of a pie and explodes on the screen, or when an animated Disney character is hit on the head with a ten-ton hammer. So it’s not simply fictional violence that we accept, it is the caricature of it. So when we come across violence in jokes and stories, we are not disturbed nor are we disgusted when a bear eats a person whole in what is otherwise a gruesome image. That said, there are several forms of violence that we not only find acceptable, we find it to be funny.

                Shaggy dog stories are one of the many forms of humor, often presented following a distinct pattern or ending with a sentence that is a play on words related to the story as well as a common phrase in culture. The success of these stories is often based on the familiarity of these phrases in order for them to be witty and clever. But a lot of the success, it would seem, also stems from the portrayal of violence within a shaggy dog story. And the success of the humor found in that violence is based on exactly who (or what) is the perpetrator of violence, and who the victim happens to be. There is a wide variety of types of violence that can be found in shaggy dog stories. The ones I found are as follows: gun violence, “natural disaster” type violence, and indirect violence. There are also a variety of victim-perpetrator relationships as well: animal vs. nature, human vs. nature, human vs. non-human.

                The element of absurdity in the set of shaggy dog stories is often set in violence, and that element of absurdity is often a large piece of the key to success. For example, the humanization of an animal falls under this element. And often, the perpetrators of the shaggy dog story are animals. An example of a situation where the perpetrator was non-human and the victims were human, is the Giant Panda shaggy dog story. It was a story in which a panda with the ability to talk and use a gun shoots several human patrons in a restaurant and leaves.  That sentence alone isn’t inherently humorous for most; in fact it’s rather morbid. However, within the frame of a shaggy dog story, it was incredibly successful in its delivery.

                Human vs. Human conflicts were also found to be popular. In the story about friars, the friars are attempting to raise money by selling flowers. Their business becomes so successful that the other flower shop resorts to hiring a hit man to beat the friars until they stop selling flowers. Again, we have violence that, in real life, would make headlines. And yet for some reason, most people really liked the story. They laughed and chuckled at it. I think the fact that it’s fictional makes it safe for people to laugh, but there is also the fact that the rival flower shop’s efforts to stop the friars were so over-the-top that it was comical.

                Shaggy dog stories sometimes make a joke of “natural disasters”, forms of violence in which neither human nor animal are involved in the perpetration of violence. In “ Nate the Snake”, another popular story, the element of violence comes not from a living thing, but a freak boulder on the verge of squashing the snake, who has taken it upon himself to guard a lever within a desert that has the ability to destroy the world if moved. In the end, the boulder does not push the lever, for the body of Nate the snake had run it off its course. Explaining the story plainly and without the pattern or build-up of a shaggy dog story, this tale isn’t very funny. It is out of the ordinary, just as many shaggy dog stories are, and yet  if I told someone the story the way I just told it, I am almost positive they wouldn’t even giggle. So there is more than just violence that a shaggy dog story needs for it to be successful. The comical exaggeration of violence works in cartoons due to the visual effects. In a shaggy dog story, it takes the entire rhythm of the story for it to work.

                I found that among these popular shaggy dog stories, it isn’t the element of violence alone that makes it a success. The forms of violence, in the real world, would be considered tragic.  But in the frame of the shaggy dog story, it is somehow entertaining and even hilarious to some people. Part of it is due to the unrealistic characters (i.e. talking animals) but even in conflicts among humans, where it might be plausible for it to happen in real life (even the smallest chance), the story was popular and received high scores from many of the people who read it. Absurdity is an important part of shaggy dog stories, and of many jokes in general, and a lot of that revolves around violence in some shape or form. But it isn’t simply violence that the success relies on. It’s the type of violence that we’re so accustomed to, that we grew up watching for years, it’s our common sense that stops us from finishing any of these stories and saying, “Wow that was horrific, what did I just read?” In the end, it is the caricature of violence that we appreciate, not violence in and of itself.

Blog #12

I am going to examine the shaggy dog stories for my short analysis essay and I plan on asking and finding answers for the following questions: What types of violence are used in a "successful" shaggy dog story and why? I am going to do some examining for each shaggy dog story available on the blog that has some form of violence and take all the notes available from class and hopefully draw a conclusion. I will also consider the overall popularity of each story. Is the violence bloody? Or is it unrealistic, like a cartoon? And who is the victim here? What kind of character is the perpetrator? These are a few subquestions that will help me answer the main question.

Blog #10

I have yet to take out of the library or buy/rent most books for my topic but I am most definitely sticking with intersectional feminism and building a list of all of the sources that I'm planning on using. This is a long shot but my goal is to read the majority of the books but I'll probably end up just looking through them using the index to find what I need.

I was given even more sources after the meeting which is always a good thing, and then hopefully I can interview at least one woman in my family. The more I think about it the more I think that it's a good idea to pick someone from my family cus except for me, everyone was born and raised in a different country and so coming here, there's a good chance that they have a much more vivid recollection of the way they were treated and the behaviors of those around them. And being not only women but women of color I think I'll be able to get a lot of insight as to how this all relates back to intersectionality. Hopefully from that I'll be able to draw some conclusions about just how necessary the theory is in order for feminism to be a success. And I always have truckload of articles that I've already read through. All I need to do is take notes.

Fortunately for this project, my family is big and I have a number of subjects to choose from so hopefully I'll have at least one or two interviews for primary data and a whole load of secondary sources but I don't think more general collections of data like surveys would properly serve my purpose but I'm looking for very subjective answers and personal experiences that cannot be properly conveyed through questionnaires but I could be wrong. We'll see.