Some helpful suggestions for Assignment #1 – Look at my F***ing Redneck Neighbor’s Red Baby Stroller: Taste, class, status and consumption
By now, you should hopefully be working on (or panicking to and cursing me about) assignment #1. If you are one of the parenthetical cases (panicking or cursing): relax, we got this. I’m here to help. Here are some suggestions. If you’re already at work on your paper and you have a path that’s working, keep going. These suggestions are only one route to a good paper.
I would first look at each episode separately. In fact, most of the rough drafts I have been asked to review have taken this approach. They’ve written three separate essays (one on each episode) and found a bunch of good connections to course content. I suggested to all of them to try and make it one essay about all three episodes. It can be done. It just requires a little abstraction (and working abstractly is one of the goals of this class).
Look at each episode separately and list out connections to concepts and ideas from classes in weeks 3, 4 and 5. If you’re really adventurous, concepts and ideas from weeks 1 and 2 can also be applied. For each episode, answer the following questions. Who are the players (what are the sides)? What’s the source of the conflict? How are the conflicts similar and, just as importantly, dissimilar? How do they collectively and separately connect to things we’ve encountered in this class?
EP1: redneck neighbor (RNN)
The players are: the author of the blog and his neighbor
The players are a little harder to discern in the DCurbanmom and Look at my f****ing red trousers episodes.
EP2: DCurbanmom (DC)
The players are: DC parents, aspiring newcomers, suburbanites.
EP3: Look at my f***ing red trousers (RT)
There are multiple sources of division, multiple ways of conceptualizing the ‘Us versus Them’ perspective here. The most popular conceptualization asserts the players are: original red trouser fans (ORTF), critics of the class that wears red trousers (ironic hipsters, perhaps?) and earnest social climbers (who were looking for any clue on things to do in order to advance in class status.
EP1: redneck neighbor (RNN)
Source of conflict: new neighbor doesn’t know rules, but tries to fit in (or tries to intentionally provoke). The author is a believer in the rules and an enforcer.
EP2: DCurbanmom (DC)
Source of conflict: DC parents don’t like newcomers and outsiders and try to distinguish themselves from them.
EP3: Look at my f***ing red trousers (RT)
Source of conflict: ORTF have worn the pants for years. The class critics hate them and the earnest social climbers want a shortcut to advance in class.
EP1: redneck neighbor (RNN)
The neighbor did X, this connects to idea Y by Fussell, Goffman, PLU:SCIA, Veblen, etc.
The author did X, this connects to point Y from Fussell, Cultural capital lecture, PLU:SCIA, Veblen, etc.
EP2: DCurbanmom (DC)
One side did X, this connects to idea Y by Fussell, Goffman, PLU:SCIA, Veblen, etc.
The other side did X, this connects to point Y from Fussell, Goffman, PLU:SCIA, Veblen, etc.
EP3: Look at my f***ing red trousers (RT)
One side did X, this connects to idea Y by Fussell, Goffman, PLU:SCIA, Veblen, etc.
The other side did X, this connects to point Y by Fussell, Goffman, PLU:SCIA, Veblen, etc.
After you have listed those ideas out, look for the connecting points, the intersections or (if you’re thinking in terms of Venn diagrams) the overlaps ~across~ the episodes. They’re there. Lots of them. This will answer the ‘How are the conflicts similar and dissimilar?’ question. This will illuminate the ‘what exactly is going on here?’ question. Some connections are stronger than others, some more obvious. There are some connections ~across all three episodes.~ There are also dyadic overlaps (overlaps between any two episodes).
Once you’ve done this, you should be able to tell a story that incorporates what you’ve already written out. Pretend you’re trying to explain the episodes and how they relate to what we do in class to a friend/neighbor/parent/sibling/romantic partner/arch nemesis. Imagine this person looked over your shoulder, read some of three episodes, saw the assignment prompt and said “what in the heck is going on ~there~?” (There being the three episodes of taste conflict, primarily, and the class secondarily.)
You want to aim for at least four or five solid, well-explained connections to course content.
