Cara's Final Reflection

I am extremely happy that I decided to take this summer course. Don't get me wrong, there were times where I would have much rather been hanging out with my friends but instead I had to write a three page essay. But looking back, this class has effected me in numerous ways and provided me with self growth as a person and a student. I  can be a pretty nervous person, so with never taking a summer class before, and being somewhat uncomfortable with the online aspect of it, I was pretty anxious before beginning the class. But after completing it, I'm so glad and grateful that I was able to break through those nerves and complete this course. 

I improved on so many different aspects of myself while taking this class. One being my self confidence in writing. I mentioned this in my other blog post "Writing about Writing," but even aside the writing aspect of it, I've gained confidence as just a student in general. I've learned and improved on my communication skills with my Professor and even classmates during discussion. I've gained more organization skills throughout this class (which I struggled with during the fall and spring semester). I've become more vocal about my opinions. I've discovered different areas and work-spaces that I enjoy and work better in. I've learned that it is okay, and even common, to have a different and unique reaction than your other classmates. And it doesn't make you any less smart. I've learned how to write a blog post. I've gained confidence and more respect for myself as a women. I've learned that I do not need a man's approval to be successful and that some things are not going to end better if they go un-said. I've learned that not every professor is "mean" and "scary." I've become a huge fan of Amy Poehler and SNL, and even have my Grandma and Mom obsessed with Nanette. I wrote my first class unit for my hypothetical 11th grade English class. (They were great students by the way). I've learned that it is not only my Dad and Grandpa that use the phrase "lighten up."  And I'm sure I could go on and on with this list. However, my favorite thing that occurred during this class is the joy I felt while writing. 

With the hectic freshman year I had with adjusting to my classes and new professors, with basketball, with all new people and all new friends, all while being 3 hours away from home, it was hard for me to enjoy writing as much as I did in high school. I even began questioning my choice of major. But this class reminded me of why I chose my major in the first place and reassured me that I am capable of doing well in this career. I loved being introduced to women in humor and reading through Harris's Rewriting to improve my own writing in the future. One of my favorite things about this class were the blog posts. Not only writing them, but seeing all the ideas that my classmates came up with and how they interpreted their thoughts. Overall, I feel smarter. I think this class made me smarter as a person and as a student. 

Final Reflection: Confessions of an Angry Feminist

As we come to a close on English 372, one very important fact has become obvious to me: I am kind of an "angry feminist." Most of you are like, yeah what else is new? haha Okay, yes, I have made my views pretty open with you guys haven't I? Well believe it or not, I never really considered myself an angry feminist until I started researching what angry feminism really is. What it comes down to is that the term "angry feminist" is just a mythos set into place by the patriarchy to discredit feminism. It is a trope which is applied to feminists who are outspoken about their views, so that misogynistic people (usually men, but not always) can use this trope to delegitimize a feminist argument before the argument has even begun, to “put animosity— not argument— at the center of political discussions," as Barbara Tomlinson writes in Feminism and Affect at the Scene of Argument: Beyond the Trope of the Angry Feminist (Tomlinson 1). So when you think about it, the term "angry feminist" kind of applies to all feminists when it is employed by people whose goal (whether consciously or unconsciously as a result of conditioning from the patriarchy) is to discredit the work of feminism. So yes, I am an angry feminist. 

Another thing I've realized through my research into angry feminism is that there are so many different types and sub-genres of feminism! I have been openly and actively a feminist for about 6 years now and I knew about some of the different types of feminism, but I had no idea that there were so many. Further, my research made me realize that my feminist views fall under what some people even consider radical feminism! Now I know why my conservative British grandmother always gets so upset about my Facebook page! haha I've never really considered myself a radical feminist. I identify as an intersectional and a cultural feminist. I have just learned, over time, from research done on my own and from a lot of my studies in the English department at Shepherd, that there is a hierarchical power structure of rich white men who have made the rules for our society, otherwise known as the patriarchy. The patriarchy's main goal is to keep their status which often means the oppression of those viewed as "other" which includes women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People Of Colour), LGBTQ+ people, and disabled people. Apparently, this is a tenet of "radical feminism" to some folx. I don't buy into that either though, because I think that term "radical feminism", like the term "angry feminist" is "a convention, a plot trick, a setup, a narrative structure, a character type. Its incessant repetition constitutes part of a cultural training program that makes antifeminism and misogyny a routine element in everyday speech and written argument” (Tomlinson 1). 

But nonetheless, here's a pretty good video about the difference between real "radical feminism" and the idea of the patriarchy which I will definitely attest is a real concept that has affected my life and the lives of all of the women I know. I have also included a second video that includes a more modern view of patriarchy as a cultural structure, its social implications, and how the patriarchy is actually harmful for men and non-binary/genderfluid people, as well as women. I hope that my feminist arguments throughout this class have been somewhat educational and/or interesting to you, or that one or both of these videos clear up some of the more mystifying parts of feminism for those who don't know much about it.

I will say, I think I will miss writing these blog entries. I've gotten a lot of really good ideas for writing from posts I've written. Perhaps I should start a blog of my own!

Anyway, it's been a pleasure to be in class with you all no matter what your beliefs are. I've really enjoyed seeing all of you grow as the class progressed, and seeing this blog become more active and interesting (in every sense of the word) over time. We've all come a long way since the start of class, I think!

Enjoy the videos! (I sincerely hope you will take the time to watch them).

 

Chandler's Final Reflection

This class has truly broadened my worldview and taught me so much about a topic I had barely any prior knowledge of. I never paid much attention to comedy growing up, so most of the women we read/watched I had never seen or heard of. I thought I was somewhat familiar with the philosophy/ideology of feminism, but taking this class taught me that I really did not have much of a clue.

 

One of the first things we read was Frances Gray’s piece, Women and Laughter. This was one of the most insightful readings I read all class. She basically gave an overview with different specific insights to the history of women in comedy. Being a history major, this immediately sparked my interest. I was able to use her description of Marilyn Monroe’s comic genius in my final paper as well to show how far female comedy has come from.

 

My favorite selection was probably Tina Fey’s chapter in Bossypants titled, “All Girls Must Be Everything”. I thought this was such a powerful chapter because it both satirized, in a comic way, our sexist culture that objectifies women, but she also criticized this culture in a serious tone. She moved in and out of a serious and funny critique that made this both a really enjoyable and morally serious read. I will definitely be recommending this chapter to friends.

 

Not only have I learned a lot about feminism, but I hope I have become a better writer as well. I am not sure if I have ever written so much in a four week period of time. It was definitely a little stressful and high paced, but I think it challenged me as a writer, and hopefully helped me improve. Initially, I was a little skeptical of our writing textbook, but I gained many practical lessons from it that I had honestly never heard of.

 

All in all, I am extremely thankful I had the opportunity to take this class. Not only did I grow as a writer, but I think because of the subject matter, I grew as a person as well.

 

Chandler's Remix of Major Project

Do we live in a post-feminist society? Angela McRobbie defines this term by saying, “It understands post-feminism to refer to an active process by which feminist gains of the 1970s and 80s come to be undermined.” She expands, “It proposes that through an array of machinations, elements of contemporary popular culture are perniciously effective in regard to this undoing of feminism, while simultaneously appearing to be engaging in a well-informed and even well-intended response to feminism?”

 

Do shows like Parks and Recreation, who present women in an extremely feminist atmosphere distract us from the fact that we still live in a patriarchal society? I think that McRobbie would argue that these shows can definitely be counterproductive in the feminist movement because they might mislead the viewer into thinking that nothing else needs changed.

However, in reality, there are still so many systemic issues that need addressed and fixed.

Here in West Virginia there is still a backlog of rape test kits. http://www.endthebacklog.org/west-virginia

 

Like I argued in my paper, memoir’s like Amy Poehler's can be powerful and important in spreading feminist ideas, but only so long as they do not portray a world in which all feminist goals have already been achieved. There is still so much progress to be made, and it is important that we do not let how women are portrayed on TV or what celebrities say distract us from that.

 

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"Writing About Writing"

My Major Project is one of the hardest papers I have ever written. Coming into this class, I honestly did not have much prior knowledge of women in comedy/feminist humor. So when I glanced at the syllabus on the first day of class and realized I was going to have to do a research project on this subject by the end of the semester, I definitely got really nervous about doing this project.

Luckily enough, my project idea came pretty early on in the class after reading excerpts from Amy Poehler’s memoir. This definitely calmed some of my anxiety as I had figured out what I was going to write about. What drew me into her memoir at first was the way she used footnotes as both a conversational and metaphoric device. It was something I had never seen before and I thought it was brilliant!

What made this paper so hard for me is that I probably spent twice as much time researching as I did writing. That’s a lot of time considering I wrote an 8 ½ page paper, and I am not an English major ! Before I could write about how Amy Poehler helped diffuse a feminist message, I had to be truly acquainted with what feminism in 2020 looks like. I read respected academic scholars like Bell Hooks and Angela McRobbie thinking I could find a good overview of feminist ideals. Instead, I ended up going down deep rabbit holes where I found a more nuanced and scholarly debate about feminism and post-feminism that fascinated me, but didn’t necessarily apply to my paper. Most importantly, this piqued my interest in the philosophy and practical application of feminism today. And thankfully, I also was able to tie in McRobbie to my paper.

When I finally sat down to write my paper, I was able to write the majority of my draft in one sitting. Sometimes it is hard for me to get my ideas down on paper, but I think finding a genuine interest in my project helped me write more speedily. It certainly was not the cleanest draft, but sitting through a zoom meeting with Dr. Hanrahan and reading my peer review from Elisha helped me greatly in putting the final edition together.

I am usually a last minute kind of person, but I was able to turn my final paper in on the morning it was due, not at 4:59 PM! This paper definitely taught me how to prioritize preparation and research, and to value peer review as an invaluable resource. Although I was super anxious about this project at the beginning of the semester, I am glad that I had the opportunity to do it and gain invaluable writing lessons and a whole new breadth of knowledge when it comes to feminism.

Final Project Remix: Could You Be an Angry Feminist?

 Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an "angry feminist?" Look no further, I've got your comprehensive guide right here! Read on for the answer to your burning questions...

First things first, are you a woman?

If the answer is "no," then sorry, you can't be an angry Feminist. Good news though, you can still be a feminist! (Yes, men can be feminists too.) The bad news is: the preferred vernacular for you, especially among other men, would be "egalitarian." You can call yourself a feminist, but your credibility after that point will take a significant hit. If you go with the label of "egalitarian" then people will take you much more seriously because they don't know that "egalitarian" is just a fancy sounding word for believing in equal rights for everybody. What they really don't need to know is that "feminist" is just a dirty different word for believing in equal rights for everybody. Whoops, I let the cat out of the bag. Yes, egalitarianism and feminism are pretty much the same thing. Egalitarianism is just a more palatable word to use with people who are still influenced by the patriarchy enough to wince at the very thought of the word "feminist." Trust me men, your feminist beliefs will get a lot more traction when they're disguised by the label of egalitarianism.

Hmmm sounds so reasonable...

This sounds so familiar, but it's got the prefix "fem" in it: it must be an attack on men!

If the answer is "yes," then great! You're a great candidate for being an "angry feminist." See my next question to find out if you've got what it really takes.

Do you already consider yourself a feminist?

If your answer is yes:

Congratulations! You're an "angry feminist". The patriarch has already instilled the mythos of the "angry feminist" into a large portion of the population with which you will come into contact. The term "angry feminist" is an oppressive characterization of feminists which has been set into place by the patriarchy to discredit feminism and makes lots of people automatically assume you're an "angry feminist" if you speak up for things like equal pay, a woman's right to control what she does to her own body (or what she won't allow others to do to it), equal distribution of domestic chores between genders...woops, sorry, my angry feminism is showing. Let me just shove that back under the label of egalitarianism. Phew, that's better, huh?

If your answer is no:

Do you believe in equal rights for all people?

If the answer is yes: 
Congratulations! You're a feminist! Shhh, it's okay. Don't fight it. You're a feminist. Just accept it.

If the answer is "no," I don't really know what to do with you. Why are you even still reading this?

Now my last and most important question for you is:

Are you a woman who is outspoken and/or fed up enough to start defending your and or other women's right to equality? Further, are you "brave" enough to defend these rights for all people regardless of their race or ethnicity, how much money they have, or who they choose to love?

If your answer is yes:

Oof, I don't know how to tell you this but you're a shameful angry feminist. You should probably calm down. Have you tried yoga?

If your answer is no: Are you lost? How did you end up reading this far? Finally and most importantly, have you time-traveled here from the 1950's? Or perhaps you're a British woman from the 17th century and your corset has cut off the oxygen flow to your brain so that you just can't seem to think straight. I'll excuse you if this is the case because you just don't know any better yet.

However, if you don't have a good excuse (and misogynistic reasons are not good excuses) for not believing in equal human rights for all humans, I really only have one thing to say to you: "Pull your fuckin socks up!" (Nanette).

Remix of Major Project

I decided to choose the unit option for my Major Project, as if it was for a class of secondary school students. Considering I am an English Education major, and hope to be a secondary English teacher one day, I thought this prompt was appropriate and a good opportunity for me to become familiar with creating and putting together a unit of my own. 

In this week's unit, I will be focusing on my student's learning to comprehend Harris's methods of forwarding and countering. While doing this, the students will use texts that include women and humor as well, such as Yes Please by Amy Poehler. This unit will serve as an addition to a previous unit which would consist of reading through Poehler's book together as a class as well as analyzing and creating a better understanding of it. So the students will already be familiar with her writing and the text. I also include Tina Fey's Bossypants in this unit to introduce the students to more modern literature as well as another successful female author that uses humor. 

In the beginning of the week, the students will just becoming familiar with forwarding and countering. They will be provided with handouts and will participate in group work to fully grasp Harris's methods of forwarding and countering and their purposes. They will look at reviews from Yes Please and even some of their classmates' work and be asked to forward and counter them. For the final project, the students will have the option to choose from any text that was included within the unit and either forward or counter that text. The choice is completely theirs. I also made sure to include the state and national standards within this unit. 

At the end of each day, each student will fill out an "exit ticket." This will provide me with what the student's got from that day's lesson and what they feel confident on or not so confident on. It reflects my teaching from the day as well as informs me where the students stand with comprehension towards the topics we discussed that day. 

My goal for this unit is to introduce the student to more modern literature, to introduce them to women in humor, as well as being able to comprehend and perform Harris's forwarding and countering. I hope the students will be able to use all of these aspects to improve their writing and comprehension skills in the future. And of course I hope they are able to enjoy this learning process and have fun with the included humor and modern part of these texts. 

Writing about Writing

I'm not even sure where to begin with this one! I guess I'll start by saying that my writing has really improved throughout the course of this class, in my opinion. Not only did I learn how important your thesis and topic statements are within any writing, but I think my confidence improved more than anything else. Which is actually something I was lacking the most. Although "confidence" isn't exactly a writing technique, it definitely effects your writing one way or the other. For example, it was brought to my attention that in a lot, almost all of, my essays I would start each sentence with "I feel," or "I think." These statements advertised a lack of confidence and sureness in my knowledge. I've learned to be confident in my writing without trying to shadow it with "I feel" or "I think."

Struggling in confidence isn't something that I just stumbled upon recently. It's definitely been something that I've had trouble with in all different areas of my life. But school has always been the big one, and college definitely had its ways in enhancing that. With this class being a much smaller one, I felt much more comfortable and less-hesitant on putting myself out there with my blog posts/forum posts and even my comments to others posts. I'm usually the shy student in class that doesn't speak up often, so this class very much pushed me and allowed me to voice my opinion more and respond to other's opinions. 

In addition to that, this class introduced me to different formats for writing and some different ways to get your point across. I've never experienced any type of blogging, but I've come to find out that it's a form of writing that I really enjoy. It is very laid-back and comfortable atmosphere for me me to write in. In contrast to this relaxed writing format, I've learned and improved on how to properly and professionally answer questions and even feed off of others thoughts more, such as our forums. This was more of a serious atmosphere, but yet still very open to all ideas. It also allowed me to improve on my conversation skills with other classmates upon a certain topic or subject. And of course, the writing I'm most use to, the response papers, have improved as well. I have strengthened my writing techniques as well and my clarity and specificity in my writing. 

ENGL 372 Reflection

    When I think back on this class two things come to mind. The first and foremost thing that comes to mind is me thinking, "Wow... This class kicked my butt." There were many sleepless nights spent working on papers, blogs and forum posts for this class and a few time I thought about how there was no way to pass. So I really hope I did well so I don't have to take it again or else... 

    With that said there are also a lot of things I enjoyed about the class. I loved that I was able to find new comedians that I had never heard of before such as Notaro, Wong, Robinson, and Williams. In addition to reading work done by comedians I was already a fan of now seen through the context of an academic lens Such as Fey, Poehler, and Kaling. I also found myself more motivated to work on subjects, such as these, as I found them far more interesting than some texts and subjects in past classes. This really allowed me to go through this class with a lot more ease than if it was a subject I had no interest in. Plus I didn't procrastinate as much for this class so that's like a small win for me personally.

   

Looking back I am going to miss this class. It brought a lot of much needed laughs during a pretty serious time in our world. Yet similarly to a lot of the texts, videos, and audio we have seen and heard in the class. We too can use humor as way to deal with these real world issues. Whether that be through coping or making a point/ argument. So I'm not really sure how to end this so I guess... 

 

Writing About Writing: On Using Sources to Support my Argument

One very important thing which I have learned in other English classes, but have really brought home in this class, is efficiently using my sources to support my argument in a paper. This idea was introduced to me long ago, but I've always struggled with finding the right balance between my voice and the source's voice. I often would allow my sources to be the main voice in my argument, rather than my voice leading the conversation while my sources exist in my paper just to back that voice up. I'd always get very overwhelmed when looking for sources because I'd find journals or essays which made such excellent points which I'd like to make in my paper, but this always ended in me being overwhelmed because I couldn't find a way to use all of the wonderful sources I'd found. I'd even cite some sources that I never directly quoted in my paper just because they helped me to formulate my argument even if I didn't use them to support my argument. With my final project, and with many of the response papers I've written for this class, I think I finally found the right way to balance my voice with my sources. My voice is leading the argument in these papers, with the source just existing in the paper to support my voice.

 The most difficult part of accomplishing this was trying to figure out exactly what the focus of my argument actually was. I had an idea which was very inspirational to me, but figuring out how to get what was in my head onto the paper was a little bit difficult initially. This made it hard to give proper exposition to the quotes which I used in my paper, but I found that once I finally just got started, then my argument started to come together. The stronger my argument got, the easier it was to find supportive quotes for my paper and the exposition of them came to me easily once I found that I was simply supporting an argument which I have kind of been making in papers and blog comments since the beginning of this class.

I definitely think that my final project was a culmination of ideas I've had since about the second week of class that have only grown and become stronger through all of the materials we've read. I definitely owe much of my argument to many of our readings from this class. The argument I made was ultimately my idea and many of my main points came from things I've learned from my 6 years of being an "official" feminist, but the materials we've read throughout this class have only further cemented those ideas. I think this is apparent in my final paper. It has been very interesting to watch these ideas grow throughout this class and turn into piece of work of which I am very proud.

2 Dope Queens of Comedy

My major project was written on the most interesting source we looked at for this class in my opinion. I wrote my Major Project on the 2 Dope Queens podcast. What first grabbed my attention is Robinson and Willams attitudes and tones for each and every episode. Not a single episode of the podcast felt like a formal discussion. Rather, it was like hearing two good friends talk at a bar, something I miss in this post-Covid world. This light hearted tone would at times give way, yet never disregarded, to talk about serious issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and much much more. The 2 Dope Queens never lose sight of the humor in the show again making it seem like just a couple of friends talking about serious stuff at a bar, naturally in both examples it never stays serious for long allowing for the two comedians to touch on some serious topics yet never ruin the funny and light hearted tone they craft with each and every joke. 

      Another reason the podcast drew me in so much is the choice of guests they have on. Allowing for the comedic tone to stay yet shift the serious moments to different subjects. Best seen in the episode titled “White People Love Coyotes”. In which the guest, Alex English does a stand up performance yet also touches on serious topics unique to him. In his case that being homophobic remarks directed at him during a past performance. This unique point of view is only obtainable because of the variety in guests that the podcast is able to have on. Allowing the 2 Dope Queens podcast to present these differing points of view and still being successful as a comedy show.

Writing about MY writing

I have always taken pride in my writing, sure it isn’t the best out there but I am proud of most of my work. So for the past few semesters I had been doing my work. Reading it over and turning it in. What I would always be shocked by is the amount of times I was given feedback with marks up and down my paper, pointing out how many sentence fragments I had left in. This is a point of criticism I had never understood. I would read the sentences out loud and they would make perfect sense to me and anyone I would read them to. That leads us to this class. As it has taken me four years of college for someone to finally make me realize why I write like this. 

    It was during my meeting with professor Hanrahn that it all came together. She showed me several examples in my major project draft in which she called fragmented sentences. I was confused as I read them back in my head and it sounded completely normal. So out of pure confusion I finally asked what makes those examples fragment sentences specifically. After she had explained I was still confused as to what made me write like this. I had been writing academic essays for nearly six years now. You would think I would have learned by now. Yet I was utterly confused as to why I was doing this.

    Professor Hanrahn was the first person, after four years at Shepherd, to point out to me that I come from a communications major’s background, Film, TV, Radio to be more specific. I had been encouraged to write realistic dialogue for so long that I had forgotten how to write a proper formal essay. I was so focused on writing how I would say thing to a group of people that I had completely lost the context of the papers I had been writing, and I can’t believe it took a one sentence explanation for me to understand all of this. Of course it had to happen right when I was about to graduate. As I will more than like stop writing formal essays. At least I learned something new.

Normalize changing your opinion when presented with new information

Tina Fey's response to David Letterman stood out to me because not only is it a lesson on not needing men's approval, but it's also a lesson on learning and growing from mistakes. The sheet cake bit was one that wasn't met with rave reviews. It was a little tone deaf, and not her best skit. Instead of allowing this skit to be praised by Letterman or excused as being okay, she sticks to her guns and explains what was wrong with it. Instead of being stubborn and searching only for feedback that affirmed or praised the "chunked" skit, she acknowledged that it wasn't great and explained why that wouldn't stop her from learning from it and trying again.

When it comes to sensitive subject matter, or sociopolitical issues, we are all just learning as we go. Everyone is bound to make mistakes, but what leads to personal growth is acknowledging those mistakes, learning from those mistakes, and forming a new opinion about the subject matter after we have learned more about it. Fey was presented with new information, in the negative response she received for the skit, and instead of blindly standing up for the old way that she saw it, she developed a new opinion which she stood by. If we apply Burke's parlor analogy to this: Imagine you walk into the parlor where a heated discussion is taking place about an issue which you're not well educated on. You make a defense based on a snap judgement you make about the conversation that is met with large disapproval. Some may come to your defense, but most believe that your wrong. So let's say you leave and the conversation is still going and maybe continues on to the next day. You don't just decide to never go back and never contribute to the conversation again because your point was wrong or disagreed with, you educate yourself on the subject, learn new information, and change your perspective only to return to the conversation with a new view based on new information you have learned. This is a lot like life and something that I think Fey demonstrates well in her interview with Letterman.

Rap as a Form of Remixing

One of my favorite rappers, Dominique Jones, or more popularly known as, Lil Baby, just released a song titled, The Bigger Picture. This song is very timely, as its main theme addresses the issues of racism and police brutality in America.

First, I'd like to give a little background on Lil Baby. He was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, a city now regarded as the mecca of rap music in the 21st century. Raised by a single mother in one of the city's most impoverished neighborhood's referred to as "section 8", Lil Baby was in and out of trouble with the law throughout his adolescence. He uses his experience growing up in a southern city, which is still segregated to this day, to share a powerful critique of racism in America and offer an empowering anthem of hope as well.

  He begins the song with the chilling lines, "I find it crazy the police'll shoot you and know that you dead, but still tell you to freeze". Right off the bat this hits home in an emotional way. So often rap is viewed in the main stream as a "thug" form of music that only talks about drugs, sex, and money. This could not be further from the truth when it comes to Lil Baby's new song.  Yes, in some of his music, he talks about these things, which he says are prevalent in his community. This is where the remixing comes in. Lil Baby remixes his own story to show the systematic racism in his community and plead for a change in America. 

Lil Baby is extremely honest in this song. He writes, "I can't lie like I don't rap about killing and dope, but I'm telling my youngins to vote / I did what I did cause I didn't have no choice or no hope, I was forced to just jump in and go / This bullshit is all that we know." This is a theme expressed by other rappers as well that is often disregarded by the mainstream public as just thug music. Fellow Atlanta Rapper, who is also from Section 8, writes in his song, Letter 2 My Momma, "Times got hard started selling hard / Before I see you stressing, I'ma break the law." This is the same sentiment that Lil Baby is expressing - growing up in the environment that he did, he did not have much other choices than doing things like selling drugs as a means of survival. He is careful not to defend or promote this in his song, but he is telling the world that where he comes from, kids do this because sometimes they have no other ways of putting food on the table or taking care of their younger siblings. Breaking the law often serves as a means of survival in Lil Baby and 21 Savage's neighborhood.

By engaging with his past actions in a brutally honest way, Lil Baby is able to remix his message into one of hope and encouragement. He writes in his chorus, "It's bigger than black and white / It's a problem with the whole way of life / It can't change overnight / But we gotta start somewhere / Might as well go ahead and start here." By exposing the systematic forms of racism in place in his neighborhood and across the country in America, he sheds a light on America's darkest and ugliest sin. A sin that not only affected his ancestors, but that continues to affect his family and community today. He encourages his community to rise up against this and make a change, inviting not only black people, but people of all races as symbolized by the lines "It's bigger than black and white." This is a very enlightening and timely song that I think every American would benefit from listening to.


 Here is a link to the music video, where you see Lil Baby helping lead a peaceful protest in Atlanta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VDGysJGNoI

Here is also a link to an instagram post that describes the kind nature of the man who the world knows as Lil Baby: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBIc6prjpL9/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet 

Unit Six Post: Nanette Tweets Reaction

I had some trouble deciding on what I wanted to revolve this blog post around. Just because I genuinely enjoyed every reading and episode within this unit. I loved the "Amber says What" and "Jokes Seth Can't tell" as well as the empowering article by Loofbourow, "The End of Male Approval in Comedy." However, reflecting on all of the pieces assigned this week, I realized that the piece that spoke to me most, and what I related to most, had to be Guillaume's "28 Tweet About Nanette To Send To Your Friends Who Haven't Watched it Yet." I must admit before continuing this blog post that I am a Twitter addict. Twitter is probably my favorite social media app and is what I use most. So reading this article created a very comfortable atmosphere for me and made it easy to comprehend and enjoy. 

The tweets Guillaume includes provide both humor and sincerity towards Gadsby's work. While the tweets are very short compared to a thoughtful and elaborate critique on Nanette, they allow the readers and audience to view people's reaction in a different type of way and format. One of the tweets say, "If you're a straight white guy please take some time to just sit down shut up and listen. Listen to @Hannahgadsby and #Nanette Listen to the women you live with. Listen to the women you work with. Listen to the broken woman who's rebuilding herself. JUST LISTEN." This is obviously a more serious and powerful tweet and doesn't contain humor. I like how this "tweeter," (the one who made the tweet) (I also think I just made that term up) is demanding in this tweet, and directing his thoughts towards the same audience that Gadsby was directing hers towards. He is very serious about the topic, which is completely necessary. Yet, following this serious and empowering tweet, Guillaume includes this tweet. "New bio on Bumble: 'Do not fucking talk to me until you have seen #Nanette.'" This is obviously very different than the previous tweet I included. But this is why I enjoyed this article so much. Maybe because this is how Twitter is really like. One minute you will read a mini paragraph about politics and how our world is in danger, then the next you're reading a sentence about how Sally loves the new Netflix series, Outer Banks, and won't be friends with anyone until they've watched it. 

While those tweets differed in many different ways, they are still providing their outlook and opinion on Gadsby's Nanette. For "non-tweeters," you may not have found this article as enjoyable and relatable, and that's both okay and understandable. I personally enjoy this format of expressing your opinion, thought, beliefs etc. However, I can see how one would enjoy the more elaborate, well thought response to a segment or any piece of work. The fact that I have become slightly obsessed with Nanette may also have come into play with my interest and enjoyment from the tweets as well. I don't know, just maybe. 

**having trouble inserting pictures or links for this post.. but you can check out the link that Professor Hanrahan gave us on Sakai if you would like to revisit this article! 

I didn't ask for your Opinion

As I was reading, The End of Male Approval in Comedy, By Lili Loofbourow I really liked how Tina Fey didn’t miss a beat in her interview with David Letterman. The one-time late-night television host seemed to respect and even bond with Fey, comedian to comedian, during her interview.  However, once he started giving his forgiveness on a bit Fey did, she in fact, repeatedly rejects it.  As said in the article, “When Letterman raises Fey’s controversial August 'sheet-caking" bit and tries to declare it a success, she doesn’t let him, implicitly rejecting the authority he (just as implicitly) claims to pronounce her comedy good or bad.” 

 

It was amazing to see that Fey didn’t ask, need, or even want Letterman’s approval.  His approval wasn’t needed or necessary, she made that totally clear without being rude or confrontational.  Just a matter of fact.  Not only did Letterman attempt do give his approval once but then attempted again thinking she wasn’t understanding him.  Fey quickly dismisses Letterman and says, “Thank you kindly,” she says firmly. “Here’s what was wrong with it.” Not giving him the power to absolve her.  It was brilliant.  

Here is a clip of their interview on YouTube you can watch;

 

https://youtu.be/YpzHYwJxTZ0

As perfectly written in the article, “When Fey’s Bossypants came out, a lot of people thrilled to the story about Amy Poehler snapping at Jimmy Fallon  (who said he didn’t find a vulgar joke of hers “cute”) with “I don’t fucking care if you like it.” In this odd little faceoff with Letterman, Fey shows exactly how well she learned that lesson from Poehler. She doesn’t care if Letterman likes it—even if he’s deploying his authority in her defense. And there’s a weird power to that.”  Poehler wasn't being "Lady-Like" using the same four letter word that most men use on a daily basis at work. Not only that, Poehler didn't care if Fallon liked it or not because his opinion doesn't matter MORE than her's!  It does seem like there is this unspoken revolution happening with women in comedy. I'm proud to say that two of my favorite comedians, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are leading the way!

  

On embracing one's weirdness and being grateful for the mundane

Tig Notaro's stand up special Happy to Be Here was a joy to watch. Along with some seriously skilled deadpan humour, Notaro has a way of bringing positivity into her show that I really appreciated. She is unapologetically  herself and finds humour in the seemingly mundane aspects of normal life. I found out after watching the show that this probably has something to do with the fact that she's faced a lot of misfortune in her life all at one time: the loss of her mother, the ending of a long-term relationship and a diagnosis of breast cancer. It made me realize that Happy to Be Here has a much deeper meaning than one might initially realize. Happy to Be Here means happy to be alive.

Watching Notaro's special has made me a little bit more grateful for the mundane things in my life, and made me realize that there's a bright side and a bit of humour to these little mundane things. For a person who has been through so much struggle, Notaro takes a very humbled and grateful point of view on life from being grateful for the deep love she shares with her wife, to the simplest things like having a kitty conversation with Fluff for the first time. At first, I was a little disappointed to not see her be outspoken about social justice issues in her show since she's a lesbian, non-femme presenting, woman, but upon reflecting back on the show I have a different point of view. She's just happy to be there and she wants to share that with you. She just wants to make people laugh and there's a certain wholesomeness to that.

I really appreciated Notaro's bit on things she likes to do at parties, such as walking into a room full of people she doesn't know and announcing, "Hey, I'm going to bed in about 10 minutes," just to confuse the hell out of them, or pretending she's searching for an imaginary dog named Mitzi only to leave the party, dogless, just as everyone is deep into searching for this nonexistent dog. Notaro seems like the kind of person not to take anything too seriously, and after a track record of tragic, serious, life events this makes a lot of sense. In the grand scheme of things, what good does taking things too seriously do? In any case, Notaro teaches us to embrace our weirdness, to be grateful for the mundane, and to not take anything too seriously because we should all just be happy to be here.

PS: I was going to add a couple photos and some funny clips from Notaro, but for some reason the website isn't letting me upload anything. Sorry for the lack of visuals on this post!

Unit Five Post

Watching Ali Wong's Hard Knock Wife not only brought me laughter, but also educated me on what may be in my future. Of course, Wong isn't anything like the teachers I've had in the past, needless to say. I'm not gonna lie, Wong's detailed description on breast feeding kind of frightened me and made me a little nervous if I ever have to breastfeed my future kids! I'm sure Wong's intent wasn't to frighten any of her viewers, and it may not be the normal reaction, but it was definitely a feeling I experienced! When telling my mom my initial reaction, she laughed at me. I kind of laughed at myself. 

Despite becoming slightly frightened, Wong's act was very unique compared to any other comedy show I've watched. One characteristic being that Wong was both pregnant and a mother, as well as being very vocal about her experiences. Being a young woman watching Wong's show, besides noticing Wong's clever and blunt humor, it also opened my eyes up to many experiences I may experience in my future. Regarding career, marriage, and children. I actually find it impressive that Wong's stand-act was able to accomplish numerous things. Maybe even things that she didn't originally intend. 

I'm sure this show would give a completely different perspective to a current mother, or someone who has gave birth, or someone who has breast fed. You would for sure have a different reaction than I did. However, you can't deny that Wong was able to reach all different ages and genders through her show. A review from hipegalaxy.com stated that Wong got great feed back from not only women, but men as well! The author of the review, who was male, expressed how much enjoyment he personally received from the show, despite the feminine approaches and topics. 

Not only did I love the comedy act and her jokes, but I also loved the variety of audiences that she was able to pull in and intrigue with both her jokes and experiences. She even managed to educate someone who avoids talking about pregnancy or breastfeeding mostly at all costs (I'm talking about me). Overall, despite my unique and fearful reaction, I loved Ali Wong's Hard Knock Wife and definitely recommend it! 

F*** That!

Where do I start…..at first I thought this show was going to be completely about Trump.  Her jokes were spot on and I loved her impersonations of each Presentient she went on to talk about!!  You could definitely hear the anger in her voice as she “joked” about Trump.  It reminded me of Kevin Hart, every other word was F*** this, F*** that.  Felt like after she got that off her chest Sykes then went on about Race and Racism in America and how this will be our nation's downfall.  How in the past when America was at war, we would put our differences aside and come together as a country. Sykes spoke of another intence in America when we came together as a nation, but my mind immediately to 9/11.

Sykes then went on to talk about her family, her white wife and her white children.  She pointed out some differences that again I had never thought of, like how black families refer to “Playin” differently than white families (which I thought was hilarious).   Then continued with other black and white differences like drug abuse.  I found myself shaking my head YES! When she said, “Black people don’t get Opioids! They get Ibuprofen!”, then went on to say, “No one was kicking down doors at crack houses and asking if we could talk about their feelings”.  

Wow! That blew me away.  I never thought of that before but yet it was so true. Why weren’t we trying to help crackheads and trying to get them help and into rehab? However, once the opioid crisis (primarily a white person crisis) hit millions of government money went towards helping the stop of opioid addictions. To me that was the most powerful thing she said and it really stuck with me, I guess because my aunt was in a car accident and became addicted to pain meds.  I was thankful there were programs available to her to her the help she needed and is better now. 

If you yet to watch this special I highly recommend that you do!

Watch the trailer for Wanda Sykes Not Normal here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4YDUDhMcvM

Unit Four Response

Hannah Gadsby made exceptional points in her act Nanette, and vocalized ideas and thoughts that needed to be heard. She was extremely honest with her audience and very open with her feelings and experiences. This played a huge role in my enjoyment towards the segment and what I admired most about Gadsby. I found myself agreeing with a lot of what Gadsby said and being able to relate in some of the topics she introduced. She talks a lot about identity, and where she thinks she belongs in todays "norm." I feel as though a lot of people are guilty of this, including myself. So, it is important to vocalize this "uncomfortable" subject and speak it into existence to know that it's okay to be your own identity.

Gadsby speaks of these groups that we're placed in in today's society, and how we're expected to perfectly fit these stereotypes. So what happens if we don't fit these stereotypes? What are we? Where do we belong? Gadsby bringing up this subject really spoke to me personally and taught me a lot. It is OKAY to be different. You may not fit into any group at all. Maybe you have characteristics of all different types of "norms." Gadsby announces that she is her own identity. She's not changing herself to fit into one place or the other. This subject brought to my attention that if we let not one person effect our decisions or lifestyle, would anyone fit into any one specific "group"? Everyone would be completely their own person, with their own likings, their own characteristic, without anyone weighing in on their decisions.

I know some people have already come to terms with this powerful realization, however for me, Nanette served as a very eye-opening moment for me. I'm not saying that I am completely formed by the norms of society, but I would like to start worrying less about what is the "norm" and the "stereotypes" of today's society. I think it's a very important aspect to come to terms with and I feel if more people were vocal about this subject, rather than ignoring it, it would become more effective in everyone's lives.

Some Things Are Too Serious For Satire

Some things are too serious for satire

“I realize humor is subjective, but there is one categorically unfunny thing about Gadsby’s remonstrations against sexism, gender violence, and homophobia in Nannette. That she had to say it at all.” -Rebecca Krefting

Rebecca Krefting writes a brilliant review of Hannah Gadsby’s standup show on Netflix, Nannette. She notes how some people have critiqued the show because they think it might be too serious or too angry at times to be considered “true” stand up comedy. These critics, she claims, miss the point of Nannette.

She notes how satire, the comedy form used by stand-up comedians, is a limiting structure for promoting social change. By making jokes about serious things, the comedian is often able to bring light to serious matters that need to be discussed. But these matters are usually forgotten and not seriously dealt with because of the way the audience is supposed to laugh things off.

What is really neat about Hannah Gadsby is, that she uses satire in her show, to criticize the form of satire and stand-up comedy that does not actually bring about social change. It is pretty mind blowing in an inception (the movie) type way.

She skates the line of being both funny and serious, and because of that she is critiqued for being too serious or not actually being a comedian. Because of this, I think she succeeds in her attempt to promote social change. The style in which she uses draws so much interest and argument/debate that the message which she wants to pass on is heard over and over again.

Nanette is a captivating and inspiring show, and like its critics say, it definitely is not just a stand up comedy. It is way more than that.