“We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.” (Gwendolyn) Cool, such a simple word yet so many meanings and secrets hidden deep within it. What is so cool about being cool? Nobody has the answer to this but attempt to achieve the same thing, yet so many people get hurt in the process. What are we trying to prove here? Why are so many people taking so many risks to earn this small, or big for many title? What good will it cause them in the future. To be cool, many people say that you need to be unique and different; yet so many individuals out there follow others to gain insights on what cool really is. Nobody is cool because they are unique or their own person, that’s an excuse we all use. The society or some other form of influence causes everything we do. We are all stealing ideas from each other and adjusting them to our own needs; this will make others think that we were the ones that came up with the idea at first. The real deal here is that we are afraid to let others know that we took these ideas from them. If all these individuals figure this out then we are done, our whole attempt to be considered cool is down the drain. While being the observer at first we are observed in the process while we are taking looks and ideas from others that surround us. We adapt them and make them our own and try to hide this fact, if someone figures this out then we are forced to take a fall from the “cool” ladder and try to get back on the top again.
First Impressions
We all make a “first impression” based on what we wear, how we speak, etc… we become the one being observed and it depends on what the observer wants to steal away from us. When a new kid comes to school or if someone walks in to an interview, the first thing the viewer looks at is the outside of the individual. How he or she presents themselves. One way some people like to represent them self is with permanent markings on the skin. Tattoos have become increasingly popular in many societies, in some cases it’s considered weird if you don’t have one; for example basketball players are usually covered with tattoos, without them it would be considered as if they are not following all the norms to be on such a team; to be honest that is the way I feel when I see Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns playing with his team mates. He seems to stand out physically, when playing with all the other players on his team because he doesn’t have his body covered with pricey art. Tattoos can tell many experiences and be considered as “armor” for some. Mr. Fanning, the high school principal at School of the Future has his arms covered with tattoos. As a principal it may raise some eyebrows (even mine, if I hadn’t known much about him) when they find out what field he is associated in, but he says he doesn’t regret having these tattoos. Each tattoo on his arm symbolizes something that he loves or a memory that he wants to keep with him forever. Tattoos are a way to represent who you are from the inside.
Another way to have a “cool” approach is by following the “latest” trend out there. Taking a risk to be considered higher on the cool hierarchy is by starting a trend yourself, but is this possible? “It would be impossible to start a trend because chances are, some body has started that trend already. So technically we are following them even if we don’t know about them at all.”(Hunter, Charles) Many of us have a hard time to create a new trend because we have no where to start, we usually roam around and pick up on what the others are doing. Most individuals have a strong desire to be known as or be associated with something cool. A good example for this would be young individuals like teenagers; playing the cool role in school is what many of these kids want to be a part of these days. Many students are in the search for something that is “cool”, this caused the website WikiHow to have a page titled “How to be cool at school”. This article compiles rules you should follow to be considered “cool” in school. Standing out by being independent and treating others the way you would want to be treated is what the people at WikiHow think will help one be “cool” in school. You want to be smooth with everything to be considered “cool” you don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings in the process. These twelve steps will help you become “cooler” in school because you want yourself to at least fit in with the other students but stand out amongst others in some way. You don’t want to be obvious; you want to make others to look at you as if you are a natural pro at this. If you make it obvious then you are being what they call desperate; that is definitely not considered “cool”. “Be who you really are DO NOT TRY SO HARD people notice.”("WikiHow”)
So many people have an obsession to be considered cool because they want others to look up to them. They want all the eyes on themselves, so that they can be the star, but this isn’t easily possible when so many others out there are trying to do the same thing. Celebrities are a big part on what is considered cool and what isn’t. They are the ones that are used to promote new products and make something ordinary be considered cool just because a certain person is wearing it. This is an example of how so many of us seem to steal these ideas from others and make others look at us as if we were the ones who came up with it first. For example the “my touch” phone commercial from T mobile, they show certain celebrities using these phones and making them their own by adding their “unique” touches. This causes the viewers to go out and buy the same product to make it seem as if they have their own customized phone. We create our “own” looks by taking away bits and pieces from other peoples ideas and creating them to match our own needs.
Cool and Emptiness
We try to ignore what we truly are and try to replace it by the pressure caused by others surrounding us. Now a days we take everything we have for granted. There is always something wrong with what we already have and we need to change it. For example, adding “ornaments” to ourselves or customizing ourselves shows that we do not appreciate what we have with us already. We always want to make certain aspects of ourselves better because the society wants us to do so. For example in latest celebrity news, reality TV star Heidi Pratt had 10 plastic surgery procedures done on her at the same time. This shows how much she hated the way she appeared to be before. She wanted to make herself seem more attractive and got pressured by what others had to say about her: “I was made fun of when I was younger, and so I had insecurities, especially after I moved to L.A. People said I had a "Jay Leno chin"; they'd circle it on blogs and say nasty things. It bothered me. And when I watched myself on The Hills, my ears would be sticking out like Dumbo! I just wanted to feel more confident and look in the mirror and be like, "Whoa! That's me!" I was an ugly duckling before.” ("Huffington Post") Because other people said she looked a certain way, she went out and had surgery done just because of what they had to say about her exterior features. There are so many young girls out there that look up to celebrities like Heidi Pratt. What they don’t know is that they are looking up to someone that is having other people make decisions for her.
Once we are able to “fit in” we want to be in charge. There are many levels to obtain the cool you want, because everybody has different interpretations of cool. The path to being cool is filled with many risks; for example in the movie Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean plays the new student at a school which is tough for him to fit in at first. He has no idea where to start off to be cool; on a school trip he decides to act the same way the cool crowd does. By doing so he risks himself into getting hurt because this so called cool crowd does not like him following them around. Later on the head bully and James Dean have a one on one face-off with each other; they hold knives and try to get each other hurt. After the “cool” group learns that this new kid (James Dean) is pretty tough, they have no problems as for him to be an addition to the group. The leader of the group invites him to a gathering they have outside of school. They play a game of “Chickie Run” where they have to race cars near a cliff; towards the end of the scene the bully gets killed because his sleeve gets caught on the car door. We assume that James Dean is able to replace the cool leader spot because he has shown the others that he is one tough kid. Even though he had to take many risks to fit into this role, he was able to survive at the end.
We usually do not like to admit being “cool” or trying to fit in with others because that’s not considered cool; yet we all do the same thing. We all have a sense of meaninglessness within ourselves and have no way to express it. What we do to fill this space up is try to distract this feeling by making our self-feel important and for others to care about us. This is where the “cool” aspect comes in; we try to be something that we naturally aren’t just so this tingling feeling can go away. We will do anything it takes for it to go away; even if puts our life in jeopardy.
Masking Our self
“No one is truly original because everything around us influences us in some way or another. We are always trying to set up the situations we are in so that we make ourselves look good or cool. Cool gives us the attention we crave. We try to get people to recognize us. Which makes us feel special in return. We become obsessed with presenting ourselves to our audience, whether it be real or fake.” (Grant, Larche) We are all trying to create an identity to cover up our real self; by being fake, some people are able to pass through this aspect of being cool. We are all literally covering ourselves up with artificial materials that are not necessary to obtain a normal life. I will walk into the bathroom being greeted by girls hovered around the mirror just so they can get a glimpse of what they look like, and if they are not satisfied they will pull out their make up kits. Guys always want to smell good so that others (girls in particular) won’t think they are dirty. We always want to hide these things that we do not like about ourselves. Each society has norms that each individual needs to follow, if they don’t then they are automatically out of the “cool” game everybody is trying to take a part of. These days, societies have made custom boxes for each gender to fit into to take place of a cool role. For the girls it’s usually being skinny, having long hair, piercing on the ears, and applying makeup. For the guys it’s having a muscular body, short hair, tattoos, and smelling good. We all try to hide who we are, and accessorize our self to make us standout. We want to get the most attention we can, yet when there are so many others out there trying to do the same thing, it’s hard to have all the attention. It is possible for someone to get more attention then another individual but no one can get all the attention. And even if someone is able to get a fraction of all the attention, then it puts more pressure on them. When most of the eyes are on them, everyone is watching all their moves, if something goes wrong then they are out of the game.
Celebrities are exactly like this, but they ask for it; why else would they have such a career? They are the ones everybody knows about and are in the “latest news”. They are the ones that guide us into what’s in and what’s out, for example before the society usually wanted the females to have a petite figure; now a days it’s different. Many young women are trying to get a curvier body because that’s what the society asks for. Many will do anything to reach this goal, even if it means to have surgery. If these young women do not follow what the society asks of them, then the others in the society (men) will not pay them much attention.
In the Merchants of cool, People from different companies go out in a search for a meaning of cool, so that they can come out with products that everyone (teenagers) would want to buy. Many companies out there are running their businesses off of “cool”. If they come out with something that everyone likes then they will be creating a profit. If they don’t well they will have to try again or they would be in lose. We are all spread out into a hierarchy, all-striving to be the one on the top. When so many of us are competing to be the best at one thing where there is no elimination like on those TV shows, there can be more than one person on the top. There are sets of rules we all have to follow and it all depends on you and how you follow those rules to see where you will end up.
Conclusion
While being the observer at first we are observed in the process while we are taking looks and ideas from others that surround us. We adapt them and make them our own and try to hide this fact, if someone figures this out then we are forced to take a fall from the “cool” ladder and try to get back on the top again. Stealing ideas from others to create our meaning of cool shows that we use each other to create this look of cool. Without everyone helping us out, there would be no cool. We all dress ourselves up from the inside out to be someone that we are naturally aren’t. We do this so we can “fit in” and at least have a chance of being considered cool. It’s the human code in many societies; there are many different ways to decode it. How hard are you willing to figure it all out? This all depends on you.
MLA Citations
Websites:
"Heidi Montag's 10 Plastic Surgery Procedures: Before & After PHOTOS." Huffington Post (2010): n. pag. Web. 24 Jan 2010.
Gwendolyn , Brooks . "We Real Cool ." Harpers n. pag. Web. 24 Jan 2010.
"How to Be Cool at School." WikiHow. 24/1/1010. Web. 24 Jan 2010.
Media:
James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause
Merchants of Cool
Mytouch Phone
Personal Interviews:
Mr. Fanning
Larche Grant
Charles Hunter
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