This essay is about the online K-pop community and how they contributed to the death of a K-pop idol named Sulli. I think I would give this essay a 90% overall rating. I feel as though the author did a good enough job but I had some minor issues with certain things. I feel as though they didn’t provide enough background context to really give the reader a deeper understanding of the Kpop community. For example, they only mentioned the “Hallyu Wave” in the beginning but did not bother to explain what this is. That said though, I think they did a good job with the overall structure and development of the essay. I feel like each paragraph has a separate idea that is still connected to the main idea, and it makes the essay, easy to read.

The author Zack Beauchamp goes into great detail describing the demographic that the incel community is composed of. What I find interesting is that many of the people in the incel community are not monsters that commit acts of violence (although of course there are very much examples of that) but rather lonely, young, and frustated men. It is very sad to see these young men begin their journey down a very dark path. I think the incel community breeds an attitude of hopelessness, and hatred, but again these men aren’t all villains, they just have very small (if any) support networks and thus these incel communities are the only place where they can find some sort of social support. Unfortunately, seeking these communities out as support networks instills the bad mentalities onto these young men and thus the misogynistic attitudes are spread.

Besides that though, I think that the patterns shown here help to enhance our understanding of the insider experience  in many ways. The author helps us learn just what kind of people are in this incel community and I think it is good that they actually interview some members of this community so we can get a better understanding of them. As stated above, the demographic is primarily frustrated, lonely, young men who seem to want validation of how they feel, they seem to want to find others who are like them, and who have gone through what they have.

The authors analysis of this community shows how the misogynistic attitudes can spread through these communities and why these young men in particular are so vulnerable to adopting these particular misogynistic mindsets that the incel community has.

I usually don’t think about the privileges I have but there are some things in my life that I suppose give me privilege. One of these things is my family. There are many people out there who don’t have parents or have to live on their own for various circumstances. My family provides me with financial and emotional support and gives me a safe environment to live in. Although my family is not the wealthiest, this is still a big privilege and I think it has made a huge difference in my life.

Another privilege I think I have is the country I grew up in. The United States is a first world country with access to a lot of things that I think many of us take for granted or don’t really think about the privileges we have here. Like for example, all the technology many of us have access to. In this Coronavirus situation we are going through, internet access is absolutely vital to have, but there are many people in the world who don’t have access to either the computers or laptops to use the internet or the electrical power, or the internet service itself and whatnot. All this technology I have access to has made a huge difference in my life. From letting me have access to vasts amounts of knowledge at the push of my fingertips to simply having a means of “escape” whenever I may be feeling down (This “escape” could be anything – like having the technology to play a video game or watch a movie or something). Something like that seems so simple to us, and yet its something many people in the world may not have access to.

This ties into the online community that I chose to observe – which is the online Fighting Game Community. I use technology a lot in my life and of course I grew up exposed to video games a lot and played a lot of fighting games as a kid. So naturally, why not observe a community that ties into something I enjoy ?

Elise Wu starts her essay by introducing us to her “mental condition” in which she fakes and/or exaggerates illness in order to receive medical care and attention. From here, she then mentions how she found an online forum for people who also share her condition called “Factitious Disorder” while searching up her condition on the internet. What I found interesting was that the community was called ““Factitious Disorder, Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, and Malingering Discussion and Survivor’s Forum” In particular survivor is a word that stands out here. Elise begins to describe that many of the accounts she read from people posting on the online community and she mentions how the “survivors” were people dealing with other people that exhibit her condition, NOT people with her condition. She also adds to her portrait of the community by mentioning how the doctor who linked the website, didn’t seem to offer much help to posters seeking his advice as well. Reading this part, makes it seem a bit hopeless for people who are dealing with this condition in their life and want advice. Elise Wu also triangulates her findings by checking other websites for people with her condition such as a yahoo group community she found. In this yahoo community, she found it was the opposite of the first community she found. This community may have been a lot more helpful to her as it was people who actually have her condition posting. Elise uses footnotes in this section of her essay to describe how the community members she observes had stopped posting, and because of this she chooses not to participate in this community. In the end, I think Elise chooses the best option though and she decides to actually come out to her therapist. I feel like this was probably the most concrete course of action that will likely have the most helpful effect on helping her manage her condition as it involves her actually interacting with someone in real life, discussing her condition.

Today I decided to observe the City College NAC center. In particular I observed the rotunda area above the escalator entrance, one of City College’s busiest areas. What I noticed is that a lot of students were still going about their usual business. The usual hussle and bussle could still be found (at least during the time I spent observing the area) in the area. People still had set up stands and were doing informational events using their set up desks. There was even a free food stand still despite the recent events with the Corona Virus. I found this very interesting in particular, cause I figured people would be too paranoid to eat free public food out of worry of the virus spreading. I considered getting a free donut myself, but I held out on it. Admittedly, I’ve began taking some precautions while going to class such as bringing a hand sanitizer bottle with me, and decided to pass on the free food… just in case. Besides that though, I did of course overhear a lot of talk about the Corona Virus itself. It seemed overall that City College students were still willing to go and do what they had to do, (which today would’ve been to show up on campus and attend their classes) even despite the virus. Now this has all changed given the update today, but I still found the spirit of the students to be pretty admirable. It shows that even despite the public mood being uncertain and uneasy, many of us CUNY students were still willing to give it our all.

This article tells a really interesting story about a woman’s rise to the “top”. Roselyn Keo (known as “Rosie”) starts off from a humble beginning working at a diner to help her grandparents to making hundreds of thousand of dollars off rich men at the Scores Gentleman’s club. There’s a lot of cultural information present in this article related to things like beauty and the glitz of high value items. The article author, Jessica Pressler makes sure to include brands like Gucci, Chanel and Cadillac (their Escalade model) to paint a picture of the kind of lifestyle Rosie had attained with her new “profession”. She also uses examples of real and fictional feminine beauty icons such as Jessica Rabbit, Angelina Jolie, and Cleopatra to show the reader that these women were very attractive and could use their beauty  as an asset to help them lure in clients. Pressler includes a good deal of background information pertaining to Rosie’s upbringing. This helps the reader to understand the story better by giving the reader an idea of why Rosie became attracted to such a lifestyle. Rosie had came from a poorer background having been left with her grandparents after her mother and father left to Atlantic city, and was attracted to the idea of making money to help supplement income for her grandparents. Pressler describes her informants in a very “colorful” way showing the reader that Rosie was very capable, smart, and was basically the mastermind of the operation. To achieve this effect Pressler describes Rosie as “business-savvy”, and having “legendary organizational skills” among other things. This kind of language idealizes Rosie as a “genius” and makes it very entertaining to read. Ultimately, the article does a good job of being both informative and entertaining in its execution.

1. There is a lot of cultural information present in James Baldwin’s essay. The usage of the N-word in the essay is symbolic of the brutal systems of racism present at the time and a system of which the effects can still be seen today. Baldwin also goes into great depths to explain how the police (and by extension the law system) works as an enemy of African American people in America. This creates a lot of resentment between the people and the law. Some people took it upon themselves to speak out against the police for the unjust treatment they faced but as Baldwin goes to great detail to describe, they were treated horribly, and in many cases beaten brutally by the police forces.

2. Some questions a fieldworker may ask are:

To people: Do you feel the police are against you? What kind of unjust treatment have you personally witnessed or have been affected by? Do you think people of color still experience this brutal, unfair treatment today? How can you survive in a system that is working to keep you down?

3. I think other sources of information a field worker can use are asking people who have lived in Harlem during the time period. Asking them questions such as “How their experience was like during the time period. the things they witnessed etc.” Even people who were not around then, but are currently living in Harlem would likely provide valuable information. In addition, simply living in Harlem for a time would be useful to get information on insider culture.