Just as we expect “D” to follow “A, B and C,” we have expectations for the patterns of people’s behavior.
As shown in the recent Super Bowl ad “Like a Girl,” being a girl means being feminine as defined by a lack of strength and force. The same can be seen in gender repression for men as they are told to “rub some dirt in it” and to “stop crying and be a man.”
Social norms are explicit patterns that society has deemed acceptable to follow. A violator is reproached with an awkward silence, whispered comments or a stern “…No.” This social slap in the face maintains the strict character categories we have constructed, lines we dare not color out of.
Abiding by social norms is just another everyday task that comes before, during and after those readings, papers and exams. We are pushed into a specific someone that fits these standards.
Embrace the uniqueness that is you. Identity should not be a hardened mold; tolerance towards self-expression is integral in cultivating a compassionate community here at DU.
If you’re nice, you can never get mad; if you’re in a sorority, you have to be fun; if you’re an athlete, you are your sport. The complexity of human individuality is compressed into some dos and don’ts that make you translatable to other people. We like predictability and we like patterns. We see and copy how Hollywood is always neatly wrapping actors and characters into boxes. How about those anomalies?
Swap out baseball for hiking, playing video games for making toothpaste, chili fries for kale chips and beer for clay water and you’ve just about defined the unconventional “Cool Girl” of Hollywood: Shailene Woodley. Clearly there is more than one way to be “like a girl.”
Woodley defies the already atypical image of “Cool Girl,” a term given to other female celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence and Mila Kunis. Annie Helen Petersen writes in her Buzzfeed article “Jennifer Lawrence and The History of Cool Girls,” “We love them because they seem to offer an alternative to the polished, performative femininity visible in both our stars and our peers.”
Their defiance of the celebrity cookie cutter brings reality to the arena of perfection that we can identify with. They sometimes trip, wear slouchy shirts and make weird faces — society finds them irrepressibly appealing. Through their uninhibited banter, casual gestures and ability to coolly catch you off guard, they remain ever impressively chill.
Hollywood’s Cool Girl craze took off in the era of flapper girls with actresses like Carole Lombard. Carole was sophisticated, yet anything but standard as she could whoop her own husbands butt at tennis and skeet shooting. She helped outline many of the “codes” that construct today’s concept of Cool Girl. One of the main principles (besides that you don’t often abide by such stuffy things as “principles”) is spelled out in three simple statements taken from a piece written by Petersen.
“Act like a dude, but look like a supermodel.”
“Don’t give a s**t: but be hot.”
“Perfectly balance the progressive and the regressive.”
Even being different has its rules, restrictions and expectations. We see a collection of similar traits or characteristics and we categorize. By assigning people certain classifications we limit our view of them, their view of themselves and the mobility of individuals among social groups. The lunch-table map of “Mean Girls” might be a bit of an exaggeration, but there is certainly an element of clique culture that never quite goes away.
Woodley demonstrates how to be radically true to yourself, your passions and your beliefs. She doesn’t just talk the weird, she walks the weird. Though both celebrated and criticized for it, she embraces doing her own thing. Woodley represents all the people who are “cool,” but don’t quite fit society’s mold.
Though it may be a regular Hollywood release and a box office hit, she really does fit the title of her new film: “Divergent.” Divergent: diverging, differing, deviating. She IS divergent, both on screen and off and I’m pretty sure “Divergent” should be the new “Cool”.
Be “like a girl,” whatever that means. Be your own “Divergent.” Walk your own weird. Hold back that judgmental eye roll and let’s rock the boat that is our nicely settled DU community.
