HW 34 - The Cool Pose and Various Approaches to Life Rooted in Class, Race, Gender, Age, etc.

I feel that all of these patterns that people follow are solely based on what social atmosphere is around them. In other words what the people around you do to be cool in their own perspectives the person growing up with these people tends to follow and do the exact same technique to try to be accepted by the rest. You can't deny it because it's true for every culture in society, black, white, spanish, asian etc. Every society has an image of cool that is known to the masses of the society some images positive and some negative. It just depends on the choices the person makes that will define what he or she is gonna do in their lives follow the norm or go down their own path, (their own path being a different image of cool that isn't the image that their culture has pressed upon them).

In my own experience I guess I'm following my own white cultural image of cool. Me being a typical italian kid who plays sports gets good enough grades and follows what his family has taught to him to do in his future. What I mean by this is that my father in his younger years was a marine and when I was a little kid I always dreamed of being just like my father as a kid. As well as I got older my perspective changed a little to words what my brother did, a lacrosse player just as my brother was. So to basically sum it all up my own experiences are a great example of how people follow an image of what they believe to be cool. But as well as people progress in their own lives their images of cool constantly change depending on the people that they are surrounded by and chose to be influenced by. 

 Now the reasoning to support that the fact that people follow what they believe is to be cool from a young age and their own image of cool constantly changes based on the people they chose to be surrounded by is simple. Just look at young people in general and all of these stupid trends that they follow through out their lives, thats a great example. the reason being is that these kids jump back and fourth between old and new trends which they feel is cool at the time being. Then the next month or however long the kids will change their own out look of cool based on the other kids choices of cool that are around them in society. It's an ever changing cycle that will never change, these are my thoughts on the subject of cool which is also an ever changing topic.

HW 33-Cool Paper Outline

Introduction:Introduce my thesis. Then describe definition of coolness and I plan on elaboration on the meaning of cool deeply for the entire intro  as well as to introduce my arguments supporting my thesis. (I still am working on a thesis).

5 Body Paragraphs:Next I plan on writing 5 big paragraphs on discussing the arguments with 5 examples that support my thesis in each paragraph. I plan on using examples form the Hair resource, using the poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, Goffman, and my own life.

Conclusion:I plan on restating my thesis and wrapping up my paper with my arguments as well as restating my own thoughts on cool, and ending the conclusion with a witty sentence about  the role of coolness in our lives.

HW 32 Tattoos & The Presentation of the Self

Tattoos are all instances of cool some people simply chose to resist from this so called trend and some chose to embrace it deeply through out their lives. To me tattoo's signify many different meanings like love, pride, being religious, reckless or even just trying to be a bas ass. I personally have many friends that have tattoos, one of them was trying to get closer to his religious roots in his family and got his name, (Bilal) tattooed on his arm in arabic. He I feel in fact was doing it for the sole purpose of trying to be different from everybody else, trying to basically be "cool".

 In some situations he benefitted from having the writing on his skin like when I was at a party with an few of my friends and him ask he was talking to some girls he was trying to get with he was succeeding in doing getting their numbers because he seemed interesting to the girls. One big sign I'm sure of them thinking he was interesting enough to hook up with on a prior ocassion was his tattoo. Now another situation he went through that didn't turn out so well was a job interview that he went to to work  a public libary. When he went to the interview he covered up the tattoo with a jacket and a sweatshirt but as the interview progressed to to words the end of the interview he was asked if he had any tattoos or body piercings. So they told him to show his forearms and shoulders because they would be pretty much the only visible part of his body that would be exposed to customer so he didn't get the job. Now I'm one hundred percent sure that he didn't get the job because of him having the tattoo because why else would he not get it he's a smart kid. Because of him getting his tattoo there was both a positive and negative effect that his tattoo had on people in different atmospheres , he seemed to achieve what he wanted in his social aspects but not the professional aspects of his life.

So i guess is Bilal's mind he thought that it was cool to get in touch with this religious roots by getting a tattoo but I think that he really didn't think about it before he got it. Before he got it he was telling me that he was planning on getting one and the day before he got it I was trying to tell him to think about it for another day and not to get it on your fore arm but he didn't listen to me. Not yet I bet he regrets getting it but as he gets older I'm sure he will think back and see just how uncool and stupid it was to a tattoo on your forearm for the world to see. After witnessing and hearing about him going through those positive and negative situations I personally learned from his actions enough to at least get a tattoo somewhere else where people can't see it. Right now in my life I'm not sure if I would even want to get a tattoo of my owe because my definition of tattoo's being "cool" is not yet clear to me. Maybe one day I will get one maybe I won't, only time will tell and change my perception of cool in the future.