Ethnography Paper

Well, it had to come some time. Yay, research paper. Alright, well the main discourse community I’ve been tossing around in my head is the drag community, namely the one here in San Diego that ranges from the smaller, less polished community here on campus to the more professional, cleaned up drag bar community. I love drag and I love drag queens; it’s a world that I have come to admire and respect and I want to know more. I want to give them the respect and notoriety they deserve while deepening my own knowledge of their world as well. Drag has always intrigued me, especially really well done drag. Some of these men are absolutely beautiful! And the nice thing about drag is that it’s always done with a huge amount of respect for women; they understand the price of beauty and all the scrutiny women are put under and celebrate what makes women special. I know a fair amount about the drag community, although there are a few things I could stand to learn about. Most drag queens, especially some of the queens who’ve been doing drag for a long time, look up to queens like RuPaul and Divine because they paved the way for modern queens to be more prevalent in movies, on TV, and in mainstream media. Queens also pull form famous divas like Liza Minelli, Whitney Houston, Madonna, etc. as well as cult classic movies like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Too Wong Foo, and Showgirls. I know that drag queens are usually gay men who consider dressing up as women an art form and spend most of their lives perfecting it. Some are dancers, some are comedians, some are master seamstresses/ makeup artists, some are pageant girls, the list goes on. They have their own language, slang, and other communicative practices that my friends and I use on a daily basis. If you’ve ever heard anybody say, “YAAAAAAAAASSSS QUEEN!” that’s a drag thing. I’m headed toward providing a deeper understanding of the drag world and sharing that with my classmates. I will research some of the movies, the origins of drag, and the current drag scene. I’ve also been considering maybe the world of RPGs (role-playing games), such as Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. Why? Well my boyfriend was really into it for a while and I tried to play a few times but didn’t really understand it much. However, creating storylines for quests and stuff I found to be pretty cool and I know there’s still a pretty large community of people who still play on a weekly basis. RPG communities definitely have their own language and communicative practices that I’m actually eager to learn about. I’ve always been interested in wizards, magic, mythical creatures, all that jazz; I love Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings which is basically just a really long D&D quest. RPGs are kind of like live action video games and they can teach one how to strategize. I also like that you can create your own character and give it its own little personality and you can have magic and all that good stuff. I was an elf the last time I played and the entire time I was picturing Legolas just kicking orc ass and taking names. I know that most RPG-ers are young men (usually single unless you’re my boyfriend) that enjoy spending time creating imaginary worlds, playing video games, and things of that nature. RPGs take up a whole day and sometimes the quest will take a whole week or longer to complete. Each character has certain levels of magic, strength, charisma, etc. that change as the game goes on. There’s a dungeon master who creates the quest and decides what happens and what other players can and can’t do. There are usually a variety of dice used to decide on the success of a turn or an element of a character or whatever else the DM deems necessary. Sometimes players draw their course out and mark their characters with figurines, like a board game. I’m also headed for a better understanding of the games, how they actually work, and the effort that goes into making quests. I will research the origins of the game as well as the people who still play it and how it’s changed over the years.

Working in the Theatre

One thing I’ve learned being in the theatre here at SDSU is that you have to be a professional at all times. You can still make friends, goof around, and have fun, but it’s still a job and you’re expected to act like an adult when the situation calls for it. I was an assistant stage manager for a musical here on campus back in 2015 and it was probably one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had to do and that’s coming from someone who worked at a Starbucks next to a high school. I had many responsibilities and my stage manager relied on me to accomplish these tasks in a prompt and timely matter. We did a musical that took place in a Florida trailer park so we had two trailers on stage that could rotate to reveal an interior with the help of automation. However, the set designers decided to try out a new automation technique on one of the trailers and of course, during one of the shows, it broke down. And of course it was the trailer on my side of the stage! So what ended up happening was I had to wait for the automation cue and conduct two stage crew members to turn the trailer at the right time, in the right direction.  It was probably the most stressed I’d ever been in my life and I screwed the call up a few times, which only made it worse. In that moment, I wasn’t very professional and I lost my cool a little bit, but I learned that from then on, I had to keep a level head and take things as they come. I’ve also learned that working behind the scenes on a show is usually a lot of tedious, thankless work and you just gotta trudge on and act like it doesn’t bother you. I mean, I don’t need anyone to kiss my ass, but a “Thank you for all your hard work” would’ve been nice to hear once and a while instead of being ignored and having all the focus be on the actors. On the acting side of this career I’ve chosen for myself, you still need to be professional, but you also need to stay humble; you don’t know everything there is to know about acting and you never will so don’t act like you do. It’s so important to have a good attitude; it could mean the difference in whether or not you’ll get the part. If you’re an okay actor and a nice person, the director may pick you over the talented jerk. When I’m acting, I’m an eager student willing to learn more about this person whose life I’m now stepping into. Directors like actors who are willing to delve into the world of the play and are willing to go to places inside themselves that they may not have visited before. I’m also aware that this part of the job usually involves a lot of rejection and as an actor you have to be able to handle rejection; this is something I myself still really struggle with. In this business, as well as in life, there’s always going to be someone who is better than you and the best thing you can do is respect that person’s talent and continue working on yours and hope it’ll be right for the next job. Jealousy will get you nowhere and it just makes you look bitter. It also helps to know your theatre history in this business; you should know the classics as well as what’s new and exciting. Works allude to each other all the time and it’s important to know what they mean. Personally, I should read up on some of the more contemporary plays and there’s a few Shakespeare plays I haven’t read yet that I need to. You also have to learn to be very in touch with your emotions and be able to sift through them in order to find the right one for your role. Be warned, you might cry, but that’s ok, you gotta get that emotion out somehow. I picked a career that is difficult to get into, but I love it and I can’t see myself doing anything else. I know what I’m up against and I know what I need to do to be better.

The Making of Me

One thing that’s always been true about me is that I’ve always been true to who I am and have never tried to change my entire personality to please others. However, I’ve changed parts of it in order to adapt to the many social situations I encounter on a daily basis. For example, when I first became interested in theater I didn’t know very many plays or musicals, so in order to fit in with and understand the theater community I began listening to certain songs and reading more plays and started to understand what everybody was talking about. Now when I introduce myself, part of my identity kit is my love for theater. I’m still not fully versed in everything that’s ever been onstage but I know a lot more now than I did then. Another part of my identity kit, as you may have seen in my introductory blog, is my love of classic rock music, like the Beatles. That came from being raised by children of the sixties. Both of my parents were born around the time of the British Invasion and my mother was an aerobics instructor in the eighties so there was always some kind of vintage music playing around me as I grew up. I developed a very eclectic taste in music, being exposed to music from the past as well as music that’s popular now. My Spotify playlist is a hodgepodge of music from all eras in recent musical history, for instance, right now as I’m writing this I’m listening to “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel and up next is “Halfway Gone” by Lifehouse. This early exposure to classic rock turned into another element of my forming identity kit and is now a part of who I am. This summer, I applied for my first job, so I had to create a whole new identity kit in order to seem like the hiring kind. I had to present myself in a professional manner and convince my future employer that I was a trustworthy, hard-working individual that was right for this job. I really had to be a big kid and really be in charge of everything because I was entering a very adult part of life and I knew no one was gonna hold my hand through this. There was a lot expected of me and I was expected to act like a professional so I did and I made through the summer and made some pretty good money. I’m trying to think of an instance when I mushfaked, but you know the deal – it like when someone asks you to pick a song to play in the car, suddenly you forget every song you’ve ever known. I really can’t think of an exact moment in my life where I’ve had to work with less because I didn’t have everything I needed. I literally cannot think of anything. Well based on what Gee says, I guess it’s more like pretending you know stuff when you really don’t and I guess we’ve all done that. When my friends talk about musicals I haven’t seen or heard of I just kinda nod a long and smile, trying to hide the fact that I have no clue what’s going on. However, I’ll usually go home and research so when I come back to that conversation, I can actually have something to contribute rather than just an awkward smile. Like for example, I still don’t know that much about the musical Hamilton, but I know the basic plot, a few songs, and some of the actors so now I’m not completely lost when people talk about it. I have no idea how to adult but I pretend like I do so it looks like I have all my sh*t together when really I’m kind of a hot mess. Usually on these blogs when I run out of things to say I just say what’s on my mind so it looks like I have more to say on the subject of the blog. Oh no you’ve discovered my secret! Shhh, don’t tell anyone. Oh look I’m doing it now. You are witnessing live action mushfaking. You’re welcome.    

Fitting In

Ok, so before I get started on this, I just want to say that I thought Blog #5 was the one we could decide whether or not to do and that’s the reason I didn’t do it. And when did I realize this? Tuesday evening. Score one for me -_- Anyway, let’s get to this blog. Let’s talk about the different personalities we take on depending on where we are. I’ll start about how I am at home; home is where I know I’m safe and I can just be me and not have to worry about impressing anybody. At home, I “need” to be a good kid for my folks by being respectful and nice to them, but I also “get” to be myself and be comfortable knowing I’m home. When I’m at home, I’m also in my parents’ house, who provide for me and make sure I have everything I need, so I do my best to respect them and their wishes. This has gotten me a lot of flack from my friends, because I still ask their permission for things, I’m home when they ask me to be, and I try to follow their rules. My friends don’t really understand why I still sometimes behave like I’m still in high school when it comes to my parents because their situation is different from mine. My parents actually let me do a lot and they recognize that I am an adult now and really for the most part just let me do my own thing. However since they do so much for me, it’s the least I can do to do the little things they ask of me. At school, I’m among my peers so I’m a little more aware of my actions and try my best to seem l like I have all my stuff together (HA good one). We all want to have friends so we do different things and behave certain ways to attract potential friends. My first attempt is usually to appear funny because I really respect people who know their way around a joke. At school, I “need” to be chill and maybe a little funny, but also I need to focus on my schoolwork so I can graduate on time. I sound a little desperate for friends, but I assure you I do have friends and don’t have to worry about being “cool” or whatever around them. They accept me for who I am and I accept them. It’s not too much to navigate between these two worlds; it’s not like I’m a completely different person when I’m at home then when I’m at school. At school I am a bit more eager to try things that maybe the folks wouldn’t agree with because I’m away from them and they don’t really need to know anyway. I’m not breaking the law I promise I’m just talking about maybe getting a new piercing or coloring my hair, you know just having a little more fun. When I was a freshman, I wasn’t used to having so much freedom and being away from my parents. I had never had more than a sip of alcohol before college and now sometimes memories of nights out are a little foggy. I do know to reel it in a bit when I’m home because I’m back under my parents’ roof and I have THE WORST GUILTY CONSCIENE EVER. OH MY GOD I AM THE WORST LIAR EVER AND I FESS UP TO JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING. I guess that’s a good thing, but it has gotten me in so much trouble sometimes. I don’t know if my behavior at these two places is out of necessity, it feels more like it’s how I was taught and it’s worked so far so I’ve stuck with it. It’s more like it’s just my personality now: I’m comfortable and respectful at home and a little more independent and eager to meet new people at school. I don’t really feel I need to be a certain way at school. I’m just me and some people like it and some don’t and that’s their thing. It’s been like that ever since I was little. I was always pretty secure in myself and wasn’t concerned about being “cool” or whatever and that threatened some people so they tried to make themselves feel better by taking me down. Unfortunately, that’s still the case sometimes, but like I said I have people now who like me for me and I don’t need to be anything other than myself.

JSTOR v. Op/Ed

Great. More reading. Did anybody read the “Liberals Are the Sort of People Who…” article? Don’t. It’ll kill valuable brain cells. We’re in college we need those. Anyway, I don’t know, it’s hard for me to read anything that doesn’t involve things I’m interested in. Like I don’t even watch “Stranger Things” so that article had no draw for me really. Alright so I guess I should probably talk about the two different types of articles now. Yaaaaay. One thing I will say though is that I find opinion pieces easier to read and they’re more enjoyable if it’s an opinion I share. That’s why I hated the “Liberals” one because it was an opinion that I find completely wrong and stupid so it just made me angry. The op/eds feel more like newspaper articles and read as such. They feel more like a regular person wrote them, not a scholar or a researcher in the field that the article is about. The information presented seems a bit more subjective because the author usually finds evidence that supports their opinion and morals rather than presenting both sides of the story. Each op/ed piece has a title that sounds like it could be a headline on the front page of a newspaper or a news website. They seem to focus on current events and popular culture that appeal to a wider range of people rather than a specialized area. These articles appeal to ethos in that they sensationalize issues and question their morals. It feels like they’re constantly asking “Would YOU let this horrible thing continue to happen?” or “Look at this dumb thing Donald Trump said. How are we gonna deal with it?” along with several other questions that sound like a PSA from the 50s. In an opinion piece, the author tries to seem like the end-all, be-all wealth of knowledge on the subject so as to seem the most trustworthy and gain supporters on their side. The author tries very hard to seem believable by including facts and evidence from reliable sources, using specially crafted language that will speak to the reader, and sometimes providing a solution to the “problem” at hand; sort of an “everything will be alright if you just do this with me” thing. We see logos in the hard facts and evidence the author has gathered, plus they make their argument seem like the obvious choice, like “duh why wouldn’t you pick this? It’s only logical, Captain.” Little Star Trek humor for you. This genre is different from others in that it appeals to the common man; it uses easily understood language, sometimes has videos or pictures, it doesn’t look like such an undertaking to read the way a scholarly journal article does. If you ask me, I’d rather read an editorial article that that godforsaken Devitt article again. This type of article reinforces the expression of opinions, but in so doing, limits the reader’s ability to think freely. It attempts to sway the reader one way or another while making it seem like they’re thinking for themselves and making a conscience choice. This genre can sometimes cause people who read them to question their morals and feelings in a way that can either side with or against the author. The author might feel like they’re bettering society by putting this information out there and are helping people “see the light” or whatever. JSTORs, on the other hand, read more like scholarly pieces. They are more for a specialized audience and people who are really interested in the subject matter tend to follow up on them. The have hard facts researched by the author and sound incredibly professional, even if they are talking about something like “Stranger Things.” It reinforces using hard facts and presenting a more objective, but still opinionated, argument. It minimizes the ability to relate to the common man. Average Joe would probably pick up his newspaper and read an editorial column rather than look up a scholarly journal. Alright I’ve reached my mental capacity. It’s like 10:30 at night, I’ve been busy all day and I have written about 668 words that are relevant to the topic of interest. That’s all you get for now. Hopefully I’ve provided enough information for you to judge me in the comments about. Half the time I feel like I’m rambling, but hopefully you can find something in here. I pray the next blog will allow me to write a coherent blog with decent subject matter.   

My Thoughts on Genre

Genres indeed are everywhere. Even the way we speak is tailored to whom we are addressing. Even that last sentence I just wrote is a completely different genre than this one. And this one. You get it. At school, especially at the collegiate level, we are expected to write in an academic genre and are expected to sound professional in our writing. Boooooring. If I may speak freely for a moment, I quite like that I don’t have to be incredibly formal in this blog and can voice my opinion in a manner that doesn’t make me sound like a stuffy busybody (no offense to people who like sounding like that). I’ve only really had one job: I was a barista in a grocery store Starbucks. I was an employee of the grocery store, so I was expected to uphold their values in the way I addressed customers (an expectation that sometimes went out the window after a long day of serving Frappuccinos to snotty teenagers and cranky adults). I didn’t do much writing besides people’s names on their cups, but when I was applying for that job, again I had to sound professional and like I knew what I was doing (ha funny). Without sounding like I was pleading (low key I was), I had to convince my future employers I could be trusted to do a good job and that I would be an asset to their workplace. I have yet to have an internship, but when I do I’ll be sure to include that. My life consists of many genres. I speak and write very informally outside of school and work. I cuss, I use words that don’t exist, I’m lazy with my language, but I don’t really care. It’s my mouth, I’ll say what I want to (in the wise words of Miley Cyrus). However, when I write something like a Facebook post, I try to use full sentences and correct grammar so I don’t look like that much of an idiot. Each of these genres are unique in that each differs so vastly from the other. The way I speak and write naturally is so different from one of my essays, or my resume. In this aspect, I think genre is important; you don’t want to sound incompetent to a future employer or a professor and you still get to express yourself. Genres serve to provide variation in our writing. Can you imagine if we all wrote the same way? Harry Potter would be awfully boring, that’s for sure. It’s designed to allow different forms of expression among different writers. J.K. Rowling can write in a completely different way from Stephanie Meyer (meaning she can write something that doesn’t sound like a love struck teenager wrote it. Sorry if anyone still likes Twilight, but Stephanie would be better off writing fan fiction. At least she’d be able to be less PC about a sex scene. Anyway, I digress). Devitt believes genre awareness is important because it generates a kind of rhetorical awareness which produces critical awareness and more deliberate action. It helps to know what makes one genre different from another because you learn to pick and choose when and where to use them in order to, I guess, in a sense, make yourself sound better and fit in with that community. When Devitt writes that "When writers take up a genre, they take up that genre's ideology" (339), she means that we as writers adapt to that style’s “personality” and write the rest our paper or whatever it is we’re writing in that vernacular. A genre’s ideology is the area of thought it sits in and the so-called “rules” that go with it. If you’re writing something like a blog, the genre is informal and doesn’t really follow any set of rules other than the author’s personal style. Harry Potter and Twilight are fantasies and are written as such, with elements of the supernatural and mystical. An academic paper is structured as a professional piece of work meant to be taken seriously and it is written as such. Alight, I’m gonna be honest, I’ve reached my limit with this genre nonsense. This word count tis killing me and I have just about run out of things to say on this subject so now I’m just gonna write for a little bit. Genres are cool; they give us a wide range of different things to read and write and are a great source of creativity.

Hello, friends. My name is Alexandria Kathleen DeMarco, but sweet Jesus, that's a mouthful. You can just call me Alex; it will make your life much easier, trust me. I'm 21 years old and I'm a Theatre Arts major embarking on her senior year. Yikes. Alright, got all the boring stuff outta the way. Let's look at some pictures, shall we? Makes sense, right? I'm a theater major, I deal with visual a lot; you get it.

First thing you should know is I love the Beatles. I have been to Liverpool, I have been inside the Cavern Club, I saw John, Paul, and Ringo's childhood home, I have visited Abbey Road Studios and walked across Abbey Road. Needless to say, it was magical.

See? Proof.

I also wrote on the wall in front of the studio. If you can't read my scrawl, it says my name, the year and my favorite Beatles quote: "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Another thing you should know is that I also love One Direction. Judge me if you will, I've heard all the jokes. No, I don't want to talk about Zayn, I'm not over it yet. Unfortunately, I haven't visited any 1D landmarks, but I have seen them twice in concert, and that too was magical.

This was their most recent tour and this too was post-Zayn.

This is my boyfriend, Keegan. I've been with him for almost 2 and a half years and not only the love of my life, but he's also my best friend. I think it's really important to have that kind of connection with your significant other; it makes spending time together much more fun. But I won't get all mushy on ya, I just wanted to include him, cuz look how freaking cute he is. Sorry, moving on...

My favorite movie of all time is The Sandlot. If you haven't seen it, you need to. It's hilarious, almost as quotable as Mean Girls, and has such a great story about friendship and coming into one's own. YOU'RE KILLING ME, SMALLS!

Also, in my top 3 favorites is Star Wars and The Goonies. If you can already tell, I love movies with a ragtag group of friends going on adventures together that bond them closer by the end and make them better people.

Another important thing to know is that I love Disney. I grew up with Disney and I've always loved it. Pretty much all my Disney movies are on VHS, that's how OG I am. Yes, that is me with Elsa at Disneyland. I dressed up as her and she was a beautiful human. YES I KNOW IT'S AN ACTOR DON'T RUIN THE MAGIC.

My favorite Disney movie is The Lion King, so much so that I drew it on my dorm room door freshman year (pictured). I can sing every song by heart and I can quote that entire movie to you, although I doubt you'd want me to. Also, as you can see, I do dabble in a little bit of art. I'm no Michelangelo, but I like to doodle. I actually did a whole series of these "Disney Doors" as I called them, and not just on my door.

Some more of my work on doors. I had a lot of fun with this.

Here's some stuff I did on other mediums. The first picture is a drawing I did when I was in high school of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas (another one of my favorites; I'm a huge Tim Burton fan). I used to doodle a lot in class; I have old notebooks just filled with pictures I drew. I even had a specific notebook just for drawing. The next picture is one I painted my sophomore year here at SDSU of Totoro from Hayao Miazaki's My Neighbor Totoro (another director I absolutely love. His work is absolutely brilliant). This was a random Arts Alive event supporting art classes and I figured as a student of the arts, I should participate. The last picture is of my friend and I on the Day of the Dead freshman year. I designed the sugar skull makeup on both of us and it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. This I did just for fun; I'm really interested in makeup and I'd like to learn more about it.

Well, that's a pretty good summary of who I am. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the rest of you and I'll see you in class!