Professor: Hi everyone. Welcome. It looks like a few people are yet to filter in but we’ve got a lot to cover today so let’s go ahead and get started. I hope you all saw my email where I clarified that, yes, your critical reading responses are due next class. While I know there is a lot of reading to cover in a short amount of time, I want you to focus on concision and on producing original ideas. I think this class will be a useful time to pinpoint moments in these texts where you feel you can pushback and perhaps present an equally compelling, contradictory idea. Most importantly, I want you all to remember to bring in examples to ground your argument. So who wants to start us off? 

A Student, Canada Goose draped over his wooden chair, Pret a Manger latte and breakfast sandwich on the table in front of him, Beats resting around his neck: Reading Kant’s outline of the categorical imperative made me think of my favorite presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders. And I guess well…I know a lot of people say that Deontology is really at odds with Utilitarianism, which I have read a lot about in high school. And I think the thing is, those people just don’t understand how someone like, well, someone like Bernie could, like, synergize both of those ideas in the socialist movement. 

Professor: That’s a really great example of something concrete—I’d love to hear that argument fleshed out in a paper.

Another Student, reading “The Skim” daily news update on his email as he speaks: Building off of…(gesturing to the other side of the room) his…idea about politicians and ethical systems, I guess it makes me wonder, like, what type of systems of ethical logic most speak to voters. Like I guess, one thing about Deontology is that, it takes a pretty high level of intellect to really understand its nuances, and that just seems like something voters aren’t willing to invest in today. So then it’s like, do we just settle for another system? For Chaos? 

Another Student, with 3 Glossier Stickers on her MacBook Pro: I actually explored this sort question in my political theory class. Like, what do we do, as lovers of democracy, when most people just can’t really understand what’s best for them, or more broadly, what’s best for society? I’m thinking of writing about voting, actually, and how maybe votes could be weighted on education about candidates and policy. I just think education is so important, and like, it would be best for everyone in the end. It seems like the best way to put a clearly superior candidate like Sanders or Yang or Warren in power.

Canada Goose boy: I mean, not to get too personal, but this is really what motivates me to get up in the morning. I really think, like, we need to be the change we want to see in society. And it can be super hard but I think, like, the thing that’s cool about socialism is it’s like, everyone is at a similar starting point and then…it’s like, you can have better dialogue. Like in an ideal society, we could all be reading the greats, you know, and like, it wouldn’t be a matter of us as leaders having to like, simplify these really nuanced important ideas into terms that an uneducated populace can understand. We wouldn’t be held back from intellectual progress by trying to catch everyone in our Democracy up. 

Process Notes

I struggled not to write a lot more with this assignment. I have so much experience in a discussion setting, especially one based around ideas—one that sometimes feels very insular and echo-chamer-y—that it felt like I could go on magnifying points of irony for a long time. Ideally, in the future, I’d like to write more in this setting, and then cut down to the parts that most emphasize the different ideas I want to present. Sabrina’s primary use of dialogue (outside of illustrations) to drive the narrative inspired my primary reliance on dialogue in this narrative. I think I could have done a better job to display the type of abstraction and assertion of half-baked ideas that often overlooks the everyday lives and opinions implicated in that discussion. I got sort of caught on displaying this indulgence in a feeling of intellectual superiority that often comes hand in hand with a veneration of intellect at a place like UChicago. 

Model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWYcobbgIU0 (It’s an SNL skit. I realize that someone else did a similar thing, but I swear there was no funny business here! SNL has a lot of really interesting content.

“Hey, I’m really not so sure about this. Like, I’m all for doing this skit or whatever, but I think it would be funnier if we were more honest here.” 

The brunette at the table’s corner spoke candidly after a long, frustrated sigh. They’d been in that room for far too long, writing a skit that the (arguably) most Southern person in the room found questionable at best. She stared down at her feet, brushing the nonexistent crumbs from the Pret croissant that she’d grabbed on the way to 30 Rockefeller Plaza that day from her sweatshirt. She usually agreed with the skits. Hell, she was usually the one cry-laughing as soon as it all came together onstage. This one, though, felt inaccurate in a strange way. The hair and the names and the accents were just spot on, but the key calling cards were nonexistent.

The man to her right shifted slightly, turning his head to face her. “Come on Keegan, it’s a caricature. It’s not really supposed to be completely honest.”

“Bill, I just…come on. Where’s the ‘bless your heart’ or the sweet tea? I mean, the box wine is pretty solid, but their issues? Someone needs to complain about their son butchering their crape myrtles. Someone needs to talk about the backstabbing bitch at their daughter’s cotillion. Like, come on. Caricature is valuable, sure, but I think that being specific to that area could also be really interesting. I get that bigger is better, but not at the expense of leaving a stereotype just half-done.”

Keegan gesticulated wildly as she spoke, quite nearly knocking her coffee directly into her lap. It was strange and almost eerie in a way, this process of going back to her own childhood. She could hear her mother now, screeching “good God” with her intense Alabama drawl. She knew that, if her aunts saw this, they wouldn’t be pleased. And it wasn’t really a question of crazy. They knew that they could be ridiculous. However, they also knew what made them ridiculous and it wasn’t losing a foot or stealing from the couch cushions. 

“We have to pander to everyone, not just the people that resemble the characters. Is it a spot-on characterization? No! But is it funny? That’s the question.”

Keegan sighed, rubbing her temples. “Good Lord…okay. Fine. It’s fine. The skit is fine. Just don’t change it. Don’t take it bigger. There’s a difference between a stereotype and an attack.”

And then, there was silence. At least for her. The meeting itself dragged on for a few more minutes at, at noon, they took their lunch breaks. As Keegan sauntered out of the room, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned quickly, her heart racing at the unexpected contact.

“Hey, it’s just me. Don’t worry,” Bill stated, letting his arm drop to his side. 

“Oh, hey. Sorry about that.”

“You’re good, really. I get it. I just noticed something while you were speaking. I didn’t realize that you had an accent.”

Keegan cocked an eyebrow, looking up at him curiously. “Huh. Really? When did I have an accent?”

“I’m not sure…I think it was the “Good Lord” that got me. I guess I forget that sometimes. You know, the whole Alabama thing. Maybe we can try a more “honest” skit someday? I think you had some good ideas there.”

Keegan shook her head and smiled softly, thinking. “Maybe. Can there be sweet tea?”

“There can always be sweet tea.”

Notes: I really enjoyed writing this piece. I definitely think that there’s a lot of work to be done if it is going to go into my end project, but I love writing narrative and this felt like it had a lot of opportunity. This skit is something that I find really interesting. Like Keegan, I don’t think that it’s entirely accurate per-sé, but it’s definitely putting forth some effort. I feel like it’s missing a lot, and I thought that writing from the perspective of a Southerner could be really interesting. If I had more space, I would probably try to focus a lot more on the narrative itself and a bit less on dialogue, but I felt that the dialogue was an important part of telling the story

Meme: https://memeguy.com/photo/335253/toxic-relationship

Writing Assignment:

As I looked at my reflection, I didn’t recognize the sickened girl before me. Her brown eyes now red and swollen, her soft skin now slick with sweat and dotted with hives, her stable hands once admired for their grace at the piano now trembling frenziedly.

I thought of him while I slept.

The words of affection framed by his charming smile. The spit flying from his roaring mouth.

The thoughtful flowers he gave me. The shattered vase he gave me.

The beautiful necklace he put around my neck. The violent hands he put around my neck.

Beauty. Violence.

Scientists say dreams are meant to help us sort through complicated feelings, but my brain couldn’t seem to do that when it considered him.

RING RING RING. I awoke from my confusion to the sound of my phone. Saved by the cell.

When I picked up, my friend’s troubled voice poured out from the other end as she tried to console me about the boy I thought I had loved but had now left.

“You know, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince” she concluded.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of middle school biology as I hung up, her words still settling in. I recalled our survival unit and the alluring images of vibrant, brilliantly patterned frogs, the ones most likely to attract you and to harm you.

He came to mind.

I recalled the images of individuals infected with their poison, swollen eyes, drenched in sweat, covered in bumps, and plagued by tremors.

The girl in my mirror came to mind.

Still exhausted from the night before, I fell back asleep.

I thought of him while I slept.

His welcoming bright white grin. The poison frog’s welcoming bright yellow skin.

My sickness from getting too close to him. The infection from getting too close to a dart frog.

The fairytale of the princess and the frog. The survival guide to toxic animals.

Scientists say dreams are meant to help us sort through complicated feelings.

As I awoke, I thought: if only I had been armed with something other than romanticized fairytales, with a survival guide to interacting with human and not just frogs.

I could have known which ones not to kiss.

I could have understood that some of the most entrancing ones are prepared to harm you.

I could have never been poisoned.

Process Notes:

The meme I picked made me consider the idea of how fairytales are largely the only medium that children interact with when learning about romantic relationships with others. In this meme there is a depiction of a princess gazing at a brightly colored frog, then kissing it, and ultimately collapsing as she has unknowingly been infected with its poison. The idea of a princess “picking the wrong frog” is never addressed in fairytales and while schools teach young children about interacting with dangerous animals in nature they tend to not teach about interacting with dangerous people. I wrote a narrative about someone who recently removed themselves from a toxic partner and is reflecting on the idea that if only they had been told about the potential for stories such as the one in this meme they could’ve avoided a great deal of pain. I thought it was interesting to show how this at first glance humorous meme could have serious undertones. Also, in thinking about the graphic novels from this week, I played with the idea of picking a few moments over the course of a few days, similar to panels, rather than writing out every moment over time to see how cohesively and completely I could represent time passing during this story in doing so. Following that, I considered the idea of whatever you are reading at the moment being “the present” in taking the same thought pattern at the beginning and end of the narrative with different conclusions being made about it later and the initial conclusions eventually becoming a part of the past.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/31/nordic-prime-ministers-troll-trumps-viral-orb-photograph

Nordic Prime Ministers Troll Trumps Viral Orb

Dear Diary,

I don’t think I’ve ever had a more brilliant idea. Today, at a conference of Nordic leaders I spearheaded a photo op mimicking the recent viral orb photograph featuring Trump, Sisi, and King Salman. At first, I sensed some hesitation to my proposal, but when Juha got on board, I knew the others would follow. The Finnish always seem to get their way.

I should not be that surprised at the lack of self-awareness displayed by Trump’s PR team who decided it was an OK idea to pose for a photo with a glowing orb next to two world leaders with questionable human rights records. Whoever it was, perhaps I will write them a thank you note because there is nothing like some provocative humor to get the diplomatic juices flowing! Cooperation amongst Nordic states is the best it has been in years.

Scandinavia has so far been left out of the tweet firestorm that is the American government today, and I am secretly hoping to get in on the action. But this isn’t about me. The Sustainable Development Goals featured on our orb deserve as much good press as they can get, because honestly, at this rate, we are as likely to meet our goals as Denmark is to acquiring a nuclear weapon. If I could promote the Sustainable Development Goals every day I would, so today was really a win-win all around!

Yours truly,

Erna Solberg

Prime Minister of Norway

https://twitter.com/ariasagirl/status/1123681771789389824?lang=en

“any female born after 1993 can’t cook… all they know is mcdonald’s, charge they phone, twerk, be bisexual, eat hot chip & lie”

The tweet was being passed around the dinner table as each boy’s reaction contributed to the growing sea of laughter. He passed the phone to me with the expectation that my reaction would do the same. Instead I looked to the only other girl in sight — we exchanged a look, “the” look.

“Chilllll, it’s just a joke. It’s just a joke!!” He couldn’t even stop laughing as he spoke. “I’m sORrY.” There wasn’t even an attempt to mask the sarcasm. I started running through the options in my head. 

1. “Laugh with them, maybe they’ll finally let you in.” 
2. “Stay quiet, they’ll only assume what you’re thinking and write it off as anal.”
3. “Call them out, it’ll only ostracize you further. Or maybe they would actually listen…” 

I let out a scoff.

I picked at my overcooked green beans and undercooked rice while contemplating how this place had changed me. This tweet had sent me into uncontrollable fits of laughter back home. I used to love it. What was different? Coming off of a week of being chuckled at when choosing to paint my nails in favor of our usual hangouts and my every whisper being labelled as “childish middle school girl shit,” I just couldn’t cough up a laugh. 

For the world around you to make you question who you are is one of the more isolating feelings I’ve experienced. Does it make me a hypocrite to allow the circumstances to color my reaction to the tweet? Does it have to be inherently wrong — universally wrong — for it to be wrong at all? 

“I need more girls in my life.” The thought has been plaguing me since the nail polish incident. People who can understand me, who’ve been taught how to empathize because of their place in this world. But when one of my best friends says he “needs more guys in his life,” I can immediately see that he’s looking for an echo chamber. He’s tired of being surrounded by people who point out his mistakes and he’s tired of having to think so hard about what he says. 

Again, my own hypocrisy is all I see when I look in the mirror. 

I constantly let the preservation of my reputation take precedent over speaking up for what’s right. This place has made me selfish. I constantly fear the inescapable box I’ll be trapped in if I’m not careful about choosing my battles. This place has made me weak. I constantly stay quiet because repetitive, futile conversations are unappealing in the same way that running around a monotonous track has always seemed. This place has made me tired.

I used to love that tweet.

Process notes:

My goal in this piece was to use what I’ve always thought of as a harmless (even funny) tweet to depict how microaggressions play a role in gender inequality. The character’s inner-conflict over the validity of her feelings and how they changed from one setting to another is meant to represent the impact of individually harmless acts of marginalization when they combine to create a greater culture of prejudice. I found it difficult to articulate my character’s analysis of the situation through action and dialogue rather than description. I wonder if finding more of a balance between the two could have made the piece more interesting in the form of “showing” rather than “telling.” I tried to alternate between depicting the narrator’s confidence and doubt in her own beliefs to represent how these issues aren’t always black and white and how they are given power by a long history of oppression that is difficult to dismantle. 

https://twitter.com/Vipe_R_18/status/1193051918072856576?s=09

(Image contains digital sexual assault)

“Yes, the sentencing of illegal filming cases is too lenient. It’s because there are just too many cases. Because it is so prevalent they [the courts] don’t take it seriously. And they don’t take it seriously because men do not experience it.” -Lawyer Ahn Seo-yeon

It all started from a simple accident. Apparently, someone from the Kookmin Graduate School of Education was not familiar with shortening URLs. Or maybe he or she did not check the link twice after copying and pasting the shortened link. In a message sent from Kookmin Graduate School of Education, the link which should have contained information about the recruitment of new students turned out a link for a naked fanart of the character ‘AN-94’ from the anime ‘Girls’ Frontline’ on twitter. This happened just because the link was missing a single ‘u’ at the end. Three minutes after sending the wrong message, Kookmin Graduate School of Education subsequently sent a new message containing the right link. The link for the fanart went viral around anime fans, and the person who drew the fanart later stated on twitter: “I heard about what happened with AN-94 through my Korean friends. I’m glad (about people seeing my fanart) but it should not harm other people.”

Then the incident took a strange turn- fans of ‘Girls’ Frontline’ started to call ‘AN-94’ the ‘Kookmin University goddess.’ Imagining AN-94 as a student of Kookmin University whose nude photographs were leaked on chatrooms with her university colleagues, fanart with this female character crying, embarrassed, or even listening to vulgar language (you slut!) started to spread on the Internet, especially in Internet communities that are predominantly male. This fanart with AN-94 trembling and crying because her photographs are leaked, and people are madly calling her (text on the phone says: Message- Oh my god answer the phone/ 132 calls from AN-12/ 7 calls from Student representative M4A1) is one of these examples.

Another post is perhaps more blatant in its desire to see a pretty girl ruined.

This dialogue is made with a program that allows you to make dialogues in Kakaotalk(a messenger app) style. In this fake chatroom snapshot, AN-94, a university student, accidentally uploads her nude photograph in a chatroom for her department colleagues.

The user uploaded this image under the title: “Someone screwed up in our college chatroom lol.” Here is the content of this post:

“There’s this super pretty girl in our freshmen this year. She’s nice and has this pure vibe and was really popular but she ended up dating with her handsome colleague in April. I was fxxking jealous of that guy.

And she uploaded the wrong picture in her chatroom lol she was probably gonna share that with her bf

Bitch acted as if she never knew about men and she turned out to be a fxxking slut.”

And I’m left here wondering what’s so funny.

“The Korean Women’s Development Institute interviewed more than 2,000 victims of illegal filming and other sexual crimes. Among them, 23% considered taking their own life, 16% even planned their suicide and 23 women actually attempted suicide.” -BBC News

Working notes:

I wrote this assignment as a non-fiction narrative because as the situation was so absurd, I felt that writing the narrative as it is would do justice to what I wanted to express. It honestly made me sick to see that some people enjoy imagining women traumatized because their sexual photographs are distributed. I guess this made me annoyed because this happened in 2019, when illegal filming and digital sexual assault was a big issue in Korea. Victims of digital sexual assault often commit suicide (because it is hard to track down the images or videos and erase every one of them), and the perpetrators are seldom punished harshly. Aside from the problem that digital sexual assault is not taken seriously, writing about this made me wonder about whether people should consider morality when they are creating fanart. Is displaying violence okay as long as it is done towards a fictional character? Or am I being hypersensitive about an anime fanart?