New Errands: The Undergraduate Journal of American Studies
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Women to be Remembered: A Comparative Study of Gladys Bentley and Buddy Kent
Full text linkGladys Bentley and Buddy Kent were memorable people, and they wanted to be remembered, but their stories were complex, and they wanted to control the narrative. Bentley, a black blues singer, already had fame that would link her to an era of music that inspired everything that came after it. Kent, a Jewish exotic dancer, told her interviewer she couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to hear her story. Yet, Bentley left only a memoir essay in Ebony magazine and an unpublished, lost autobiography, and Kent left two interviews with theLesbian Herstory Archives. What we have left of these two women’s stories are piecemeal evidence of their contributions in pushing American culture into new ideas of performance and gender expression
The Relationship Between Orientalism and the Disproportionate Rates of Filipino Nurse Deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S.
Full text linkToday in the United States we are seeing high rates of Filipino nurse deaths from Covid-19. Establishing the causality of this problem is very complex and yet events and ideologies of the past undoubtedly color human relations today. History and ideas from the past must be used to contextualize the death toll within this group of nurses. The imperialist theories espoused by authors such as the Earl of Cromer, Thomas Macaulay, Rudyard Kipling, and Max Weber encouraged Euro-Americans to colonize the rest of the world and impart their claimed superiority of language, industry, religion, and culture on the so-called barbarous regions on the world to “civilize” them, which in turn supported and spread the view that people dubbed “Orientals” were inherently inferior to Westerners. These prejudices – those held by some individuals and those which are a part of a systemic problem of privilege - continue to be carried by Americans of the twenty-first century and have manifested in the gatekeeping of higher-paid, flexible nursing jobs for American nurses and only lower-paid, more strenuous positions available for immigrant nurses. Orientalist structures and the legacy of American colonialism in the Philippines have made it so Filipino nurses only find positions in the U.S. with tougher conditions, which has made them particularly vulnerable to the risks of the coronavirus
Continuous “Conspicuous Consumption”? : Thorstein Veblen and American Expenditure Habits
Full text linkNear the end of the Gilded Age, a new class of Americans began to form, a class defined by its relative economic security and high-paying wages. Individuals in this developing middle class held a social stance that was not quite upper class but was considerably above lower-class standing. This intermediary position led middle-class individuals to be “other-directed,” meaning they took their social cues not from themselves, but from their observations of others. Middle-class other-directedness resulted in this group simultaneously living in fear of being perceived as lower class while striving to be perceived as upper class, making them prime targets for advertisers and the drivers of America’s oft-cited “conspicuous consumption”—the purchasing of unnecessary items purely for social status. In this essay, I make two claims. First, I argue that what was true in the late nineteenth century remains true today, as the middle class is still largely controlled by clever marketers and businesses who prey on their insecurities to keep them conspicuously consuming. Second, I question the inherent negativity of American partiality towards conspicuous consumption—is it indisputably bad that Americans seek products that enhance their social standing
Heroism Satirized, Subverted, Yet Static : The Epic Narrative of Jamaica Kincaid’s "See Now Then"
Full text linkIn the classically Kinaidian style of interwoven fact and fiction, See Now Then paints a vignette of the Sweet family, revealing familial truths and contradictions while telling a tale of domesticity. The self-proclaimed novel paints a temporally non-linear, thematically heroic story of the Sweet family, an eccentric unit of four whose colorful emotions and volatile relations juxtapose their textbook New England setting. Yet, littered with autobiographical truths and self-referential details, See Now Then begs the question: is the Sweet family merely Kincaid’s own
Better than Cheesecake: An Analysis of Pin-Up Drawings in Esquire Magazine from 1933 to 1953
Full text linkLike many others, I have long been fascinated by the beautiful, cartoonish drawings of women that find their way onto the sides of motorcycles, inked onto the arms of men and women, and posted on the walls of bars and billiard halls. Always gorgeous, these women laugh and wink at the viewer, revealing their legs, chest, or behind in a kind of staged, voyeuristic “accident” that they are clearly enjoying. I have often wondered where these images come from, why they are so popular, and how they are able to create a stronger sense of sexuality and playfulness than some of the more explicit material produced today. The answer, I believe, is connected to the nostalgia of their golden era: when the pin-up girl was not only a popular image collected by millions of Americans, (and plastered on the walls of numerous barracks, bedrooms, and bars) but an ideological figure who conveyed, within the curves of her impossibly perfect body, the nuanced anxieties regarding gender, sexuality, and consumerism embedded in American society
Healing the Mind When East Meets West: Using A Dual-Theoretic Strategy to Treat Comorbid Major Depressive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder In Military Veterans
Full text linkThe comorbidity of PTSD/MDD is a crucial concern for military veterans in the United States. Although there are several suggested approaches to the treatment of comorbid conditions, treating comorbid PTSD/MDD as a dual-diagnosed disorder calls for the recommendation of a feasible dual-theoretic treatment plan as the best strategic proposal when assisting mentally injured veterans diagnosed with MDD and PTSD. This new treatment strategy targets the unique psychological and neurological aspects of comorbid diagnoses. Due to the high congruent phases and the tandem relation of these conditions, it seems imperative that effective treatment is needed to address the duality of comorbid PTSD/MDD. This research is an argument for a well-defined strategic plan to treat the comorbidity of PTSD and MDD by using the Eastern philosophy of Mindfulness
Shopping the Status Quo: Barbie as a Pedagogical Tool to Propagate Cold War Ideals of White Heteronormative Femininity
Full text linkThe social and cultural significance of Barbie has been discussed in detail both in academic settings and casual conversations. Such discourse often talks about Barbie as a toy and a symbol for young women in the twenty-first century. Indeed, Barbie’s significance as a cultural artifact dates back to the doll’s inception during the Cold War in 1959. During this time period, Barbie functioned as a tool of hegemony that allowed parents to teach their children white, heteronormative femininity and enabled toy makers to communicate the values of consumership
Bob Dylan’s America: American Culture on “Desolation Row”
Full text linkThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License