For next Tuesday, please read/listen to the following:
- Read: Perry, Julie. “A Look at Urban Legends: the Gothic Outweighs the Enlightened”
- Listen to: Commentary: Living Urban Legends, NPR (National Public Radio)
Afterwards, choose your own urban legend to discuss (NOT one of the examples provided in the reading/NPR show). If you can’t think of one (and please provide the legend or its link), then you can visit any number of sites to find one, though this is a good one: http://www.snopes.com/. The reading also highlights numerous sources for urban legends at the bottom of the article.
Then, consider your chosen urban legend and discuss how it relates to any of the concepts, characteristics, or themes discussed in the reading. Here are some questions to get you started (and that illustrate how I want you to approach this assignment):
1. Perry suggests that urban legends usually “play to four main anxieties;” how so? And how does your legend speak to one or more of these anxieties? What is the effect? What does your legend suggest about culture or our cultural anxieties?
2. Perry also discusses the “theme of excess” that seems to thrive within urban legends. In what ways is your chosen urban legend excessive? What does this (or these) excesses potentially suggest about our contemporary culture, and why?
3. What role does gender play in urban legends, and how are those characteristics reflected within your chosen urban legend? Again, what might these types of urban legends suggest about culture or our attitudes? Elaborate on all of this using your own urban legend as an example.
* While some of what you discuss will certainly be your own suppositions or opinions, you MUST make reference to the reading and explain how some of the concepts discussed are relevant to your chosen urban legend.
Popular Culture Class Blog 
The urban i chosen was from the warhead and it is call the Speedy Divorce. It talk about how a wifeis telling her husband thatshe is cheating on him with another person and she love this person. Than was telling her husband about what she wanout of the divorce. Than she turn around and ask him what did he need out of the divorce. He say i have eveything i need. Than tell her the airbag is on his side. So that tell you that he was speedy 105mph and than have accident and she going to the one kill. So after she was kill he willhave everything that she say she wanted
In question number 2 the question say what way is choosen urban legend ecesssive? What i think is that some urban legend are myserty and some are deal with scary movies with mystery to solve and find out who killing who and why are they doing the killing. Than after you got to put the puzzle toghter to order to find out what going on in that urban legend.
In question number 1 the question say what are some anxnity in your legend and how it is deal with the culture? what think are the culture and anxeties is thing with the female sexual personlibity and deal with the culture of married people and how they feel about they married .
Gender plays and big role in Urban Legends. The text stated, “Women are often scene as vulnerable because they are smaller than men and weaker, the perfect victims. Men, on the other hand, are seen as strong, smarter and probably, the killer. The text says that only two instances where the woman[intended victim] basically outsmart the man[predator].
I’ve chosen an urban legend called “The Call.” There have been movies based on this urban legend like the Movie Called “when a Stranger calls.”
In the actual urban legend, a girl is at home alone watching her younger sisters and brothers when she starts getting repeating phone calls. Each phone call is saying, “I’m almost there…” “I’ll be there soon..”
The girl becomes afraid and calls the operator. The operator puts a tap on the phone line and tells her when the stranger calls again, she will trace the call and tell her exactly where the calls are being made.
Again, the stranger calls and the operator calls back immediately and tells the girl that the calls are coming from inside the house and that the girl should get out. The operator calls the police and the police come and search the house and find a young man in the attic, with a butcher knife, getting ready to come downstairs.
This urban legend seems like on that can happen in real life. It’s not an one where plants blow up and tiny spiders come out of it. It’s not one where the woman wants to dry her hair faster and sticks it in the microwave and cooks herself. This legend is something that could happen in everyday life. It instills fear in young girls, who could be babysitting alone. It’s something I would think about everytime I’m alone. I’ll wonder if someone is hiding in my closet. For example, it’s a bit of a superstition for me but since I stay alone, everytime I go home, I check all the closets to make sure no one is in there. Of course I know no one will be in there, but it gives me the comfort that I’m sure no one is in the closets.
This is the link if you want to check out the urban legend.
http://www.castleofspirits.com/thecall.html
The urban legend I choose was from warphead. It is the military category. My urban legend speak to the first theme it said that women equal victim. and that man are always the bad guys. It more believable, because they are more vulnerable in general; smaller size, less physical strength, and our society perceives them as helpless. Women cannot be the perpetrator and rough and tough aggressive males must be the evil ones. According to the reading. My legend is true. It speaks against this. It stares off like this. A marine wife is baking cookie, that marine had just recently gave to his squad mate. Then a man comes in and they start having sex. That end put the man sperm in the cookie mix. In this legend the female is obviously the bad guy or in this case the bad girl. This legend tells us that in our culture we be little women. They are capable of the same things a guy can do.
The link for my chosen urban legend is http://www.snopes.com/horrors/cannibal/cremains.asp.
This urban legend may not fit the scenario of a damsel in distress and a male-hero saving her, but it definitely fits Perry’s talk about boundaries (one of the four main anxieties). Perry says that boundaries aren’t always outer and that there are plenty of urban legends about inner boundaries being broken. This specific urban legend breaks this boundary (it’s not sexual but it’s about what we put in our bodies unknowingly) in a very disgusting way, which makes the story that much “better”.
The main goal of the story is to disgust us and make us a bit more aware (or anxious) about what we put in our mouths. By breaking such a simple (but important) boundary the story has done it’s job, it has reached its purpose.
I think that the urban legend that I chose relates a bit to the subject of food culture, in the sense that we sometimes eat (or drink) stuff way to easily, without bothering to find out what it is that we’re actually ingesting. Nobody wants to discover that they were stupid or simply not careful enough to put something like a person’s remains in their body! It’s one of the ultimate anxieties that we all share, and this story plays perfectly on that anxiety.
well i’m going to go with question set #3, and explore an urban legend my mother once told me when i was younger. my mother has worked in the same ER for 26 years and has acquired quite the collection of stories–some so strange, it seems it impossible for them to be true. one, however, that has always stood out in my mind is the one about the loud, pregnant black woman going into labor in the ER. already on her first round of meds, and being rushed to a delivery room in a wheel chair, the woman overhears the doctor saying to the nurse, “…her placenta is tearing.” the woman, far from sober-minded (and highly uneducated, i’m guessing) shouts out: “Placenta! Das a pretty name, ima name mah daughta Placenta!!”
and, when all was said and done, and the birth certificate was brought out and signed, she wrote her newly born daughter’s name right there in the center: Placenta.
fuzzily stored in the back of my mind’s memory banks all these years, i always figured, in recounting the story, that it was a sort of urban legend tossed around from wing to wing of the hospital by bored nurses and easily-amused medical staff. however, in telephoning my mother a few moments ago to confirm the details of said story, it turns out it actually is true, and my mother was there for it. it wasn’t something she just passed along to me one afternoon, it was something she told me one night after she had come home from work when asked how her day went.
though i’m not sure if urban legends are urban legends because they are nothing more than simply that–legends–i wonder if they sometimes begin with a truth, and simply evolve. however, if this story were not true, if it really were nothing more than a tale, i could most definitely see evidence of not only gender, but class stereotypes as well. i do agree that gender plays a role in myths and urban legends, just as they do in comic books, romantic comedies, and highly valued art. gender roles are everywhere, and they’re not necessarily terrible things. this story doesn’t tell me that women are stupid and make poor decisions when in labor, it tells me that i’m fortunate to have had a good enough education to know what the word “placenta” means and that no drug in this world would ever make me want to name my daughter that. it also draws humorous attention to the fact that–NO ONE GET OFFENDED HERE–many african-american children (particularly females) are given completely outlandish names these days. i’ll admit that if there is cultural, historical, reasoning behind it, i am completely ignorant to it, and for that i apologize. but i am not the first to bring light to this, or am i the last. i also don’t think that they are the only people who do so, i have a 100% caucasian friend back home, a big ol’ white girl, whose name is Cleopha. that’s right. it’s weird.
either way though, it is neither my life nor my name, and i have nothing to complain about. that’s really just about all i got. i hope i answered the questions thoroughly. =]
the legend i choose was of the la llorana, the story goes she married the man she was in love with but he left her but no one really knows why some say he left her for a younger women. she met a richer man and fell in love with and so she wanted to marry him but didn’t because she had kids. so she took them to the rio grande to take a bath and she drowned them and after she did that she ran home to tell her lover whaty she had done. he was disgusted by her actions and told her to leave his house and never return. she went back to river to wept and she stayed there and didn’t eat or sleep tile she died and now her soul walks the river looking for her sons.
what perry said about women in urban legend that women are portrayed as being sexually pure and in this case the reason the man didn’t want to marry her was becasue she had kid, saying she wasn’t pure. also he said stupid women bring bad situations unto themselves rectified by male authority figure, like in the story when she found out that he didn’t want to marry her becuase of her kids and so she went to the extreme of killing her sons so he could marry her. in culture women are seen was very sensitive and vulnerable and men are seen as dogs and cheaters and i thinks this legend show just that.
My Urban legend or contemporary one is an ambiguous one in nature and is thus gothic also.
“The standard range of human endeavors has already provided us with plenty of urban legends, and when we consider the arena of love we find fertile ground indeed. This powerful emotion provokes us to engage in some rather unusual activities as we pursue the objects of our romantic desires, and it leads us to the heights of creativity in finding ways to get back at those who have betrayed our affections.” That’s according to my urban legend.
But in trying to explain or illustrate this, I have come to a collusion, that such delusional notions of getting back at another are key to such fertile relationships and stupefied romanticism in our culture.
Perry Julie. “A Look at Urban Legends: the Gothic Outweighs the Enlightened” said “our anxiety is the backbone of urban legends” And such are Safety, boundaries, sexual, and commercial.
My urban legend is one on sexuality, because individuals and our cultural attitudes to love have become completely delusional. I.E- puppy love, calf love or over-early adolescent love, is one of the key causes to betrayed affections and fertile love. And as a result of that, people or culture some how expects the hurt individual to create a way in order to get back viciously at those who betrayed their affections and emotions.
The urban legend is very easy to understand, because we get a powerful emotion which we think is love, it then provokes us into falling for it and when the relationship breaks-up or someone in the relationship messes-up; culture now, I believe and know, expects individuals to get back at their former lovers, with that same powerful emotion which provoked them into the so-called love; Expects them to use that emotion in getting back at their former lovers with payback and revenge.
Several years ago, I was worked with a teenage girl named Ali. She was very sweet, but a bit naive. She would come to work at least once a week with crazy stories that she had heard from a friend who had heard the story from their friend who had heard it from their cousin and on and on. . .
I was aware of “urban legends,” and I’m a skeptical person anyway, so I tried to convince her that what she had heard were not true. She listened to me and believed me most of the time, but there was one story that she simply refused to disavow. Ali honestly, truly believed that KFC had changed its name from Kentucky Fried Chicken because the fast food chain used genetically modified animals that could no longer legally be referred to as “chickens.” She vowed to never eat there again, and did not accept my explanation of urban legends, and that these sensational and irrational claims were ridiculous.
The KFC story plays upon what Perry refers to as ,”. . . today’s growing commercial anxiety.” So much of what we consume in our culture is now mass-produced, and I think that this leads to more of these outrageous stories. We fear the unknown and the processes that exist now to get food and other goods to consumers are far from transparent. Since we don’t really know how fast food is produced/manufactured/developed, our fears are manifested in these stories.
I wonder, though, if the ends justify the means. That is, so what if these stories are false and ridiculous; if they’re preventing people from eating so much fats food, then maybe they’re more like public service annoucements than urban legends. I doubt it. Ali was eating McDonald’s while telling me her tale.
My favorite urban legend was told to me by my uncle and my neighbor’s sister. My uncle (who lives in Chicago) said, “There once was a couple who came home and saw that their grill had been moved. They opened it and found an envelope inside. Inside the envelope was a letter saying, ‘Sorry neighbors, we used your grill for a little while, but will like to offer you these tickets.’ The couple pulled a pair of Chicago Bulls tickets out of the envelope. The couple went out the night of the game and when they came home, they found that their house had been robbed.”
About a month later, my neighbor’s sister (who lives in New York City) said, “There once was a couple who came home and saw that their grill has been moved. They opened it and found an envelope inside. Inside the envelope was a letter saying, ‘Sorry neighbors, we used your grill for a little while, but will like to offer you these tickets.’ The couple pulled a pair of Phantom of The Opera tickets out of the envelope. The couple went the night of the play and when they came home, they found that their house had been robbed.”
Two people from two different cities tell the same story about a couple being robbed when out at a big event. Chicago Bulls tickets are a big event for the city of Chicago. Phantom of The Opera tickets is a big event for the city of New York. These people that are robbing the house know to get tickets for a big event. They know that the couple will be out of the house, which gives them time to rob it.
In the article, Julie Perry talks about how urban legends play to four main anxieties; safety/security, boundaries (of our bodies, personal space), sexual, and commercial. In this urban legend, it only pertains to two of the anxieties; safety/security and boundaries (of our bodies, personal space). The people that hear these stories feel a sudden need to always have their house secured or their things locked up, protected, and safe. They also think about their personal space and how others should stay out of it.
I chose an urban legend that I found on snopes.com and it’s the same legend I heard when I was much younger. A group of young women go to the movies and one of them contracts aids from a syringe on her seat. This legend is speaking to safety, boundaries, and sexuality. you would think going to the movies with a group of girls is safe and common but this legend is “warning” you that it’s not safe and you couldbe in grave, deadly danger because aids is a fatal std. her inner boundaries are affected too because she was unknowingly injected with aids. its a violation of this poor girl’s personal boundaries. even doing the most common, innocent activity with ppl she trusts she is still violated. her sexual boundaries are afflicted too because aids can be transmitted sexually so any future partners can now get this deadly std from her. not only that but if she ever has children they can be infected too. culturally the story of this horrible incident can stem back to the 80s. society became very aware of aids in the 80s. aids being so new and misunderstood the ppl with the std were severly misunderstood and picked on. then there were even urban legends of aids patients going to grocery stores licking fruit and passing on the std, which we now know isn’t how aids is spread. this story is kinda feeding on that same ignorance. it gives ppl who already look at aids victims as dirty and scum another reason to “hate” on them. it makes aids patients seem evil miserable ppl who want to make as many ppl as possible as miserable as them, which is so not true. my father had a friend who had aids and I only knew him as the nice old man across the street. the only reason i knew he had aids was because my dad told me. he was dirty or evil, or even miserable. and most aids patients aren’t
The urban legend that I decide to talk about is, actually it’s quiet popular with local news viewers. Basically it a normal school day as children are riding the school bus home, I am assuming it windy because the school bus was experiencing some turbulence and suddenly it was approaching some train tracks where this old bus couldn’t make across all of sudden fear strikes the children and driver knowing very well that the racing train was coming towards them, unfortunately the bus couldn’t make it as the train collided into the bus. This horrible tragedy claim no survivers. Ever since then, people have not been able to slow down or stop at the train tracks because many people believe that children from the accident are pushing the vechicles.
The way culture plays a role in contributing to anxiety is simply depending on whether the culture believe in ghost or spirts. For example in my culture it is entirely possible. The effect is believing in it.
My urban legend is excessive at the point where spirts can possibly prevent an accident.
http://www.snopes.com/love/revenge/ring.asp
Urban legends use anxieties very well because I know after reading some of the examples Perry wrote about, I am a little scared, especially seeing as it is night time and I’m alone, which I hate. Everyone is afraid of something and skeptical about others and usually urban legends hit the nail on the head. Like in the article I chose, it was about a girlfriend getting revenege on her lover for being married, what man isn’t afraid of something bad happening to his penis? It was very funny to me because I know that somebody probably would do this and a man would be totally embarassed because of it. This article touches on 3 of 4 of the anxieties; safety/security(a ring is stuck on a man’s penis and can become harmful), boundries (its a sensitve part of a male’s body), and sexuality (this happened after having sex with someone other than his wife.
The effect is that men want to avoid this from happening so ‘some’ would try to avoid the situation. Our culture mainly revolves around sex and lies and that usually causes people to do some rude and ignorant things and this is a perfect example. Instead of the girl waking the man up and confronting him, she decieds to humiliate him as though thats going to change the situation or make it better. Females do things like this all the time because it makes them feel better for a short amount of time and gives the male a lifetime of humiliation that she wont be able to see.
My Urban Myth comes from my raver days. At rave parties there is usually a lot of drugs, and a lot of people taking them. My myth talks a bout a man dealing acid, a lot of acid. He is trying to sell 200 hundred hits. He has them loose in his pocket. They are not protected by plastic, or paper. He starts to dance to the music, and sweats profusely. His sweat eventually makes the acid in his pocket wet. This in turn lets all the wet acid seep into his body. Now he has 200 hits of acid flowing through his blood stream. He is messed up. Because he is tripping so hard, the man thinks he is an orange. He starts to peel off his skin, like one would an orange. I cannot remember if the man dies, but I believe he does.
This urban legend plays to a few of human anxieties. It is a lesson in both selling and doing illicit drugs. If you should sell the drugs the fear is that you would pay the price. Playing on the safety issues. Or by ingesting a large amount of drugs it plays on ones body boundaries. It also plays on the body boundaries by talking about peeling of ones skin. This is both creepy, and hard to believe.
It is excessive because it deals with so much acid, and such an extreme case. I suppose on might have that much of any drug on them, so that could be true. But I am not sure about his reaction to the drugs. It is excessive because I do not think some one could peel themselves until they die. As a culture I think we are trying to scare younger generations to not ever sell or eat drugs.
I am not sure the role gender plays. I guess maybe it is easier to hear this story happening to a man rather than a woman. Because we believe women are weak and helpless anyway. We believe that no innocent woman would ever sell drugs.
i must first say that i’ve never believed in any urban legends, not to mention i never knew of many if any urban legends anyhow. so i did not know of any urban legends to speak on, which means i had to go to snopes.com and pick one. i did pick “the knock off pullover”, and i picked this at random simply because according to the article most urban legends pretty much takes on the same angles, and has the same floe(so to speak). in this urban legend a girl is on the highway on her way back to college just leaving her family from visiting them for christmas break. as she is driving she has a police car thats in front of her , and another unmarked car tries to pull her over from behind and she remembers that her parents told her not to pull over for unmarked cars, she also remebered that if you dial #77 from your phone it connects you straight to the poice dispatcher to make a long story short she called the dispatcher and they told her that is only one real cop on duty around her and called back up, surrounded the guy and tackled him down. she stopped the well known rapist in his tracks. now this to me illustrates (according to the article) anxiety, and of course the women bring the vulnerable being. because of the obvious. now gender plays a big role because this story would not have had the same affect if this had been a guy in this story. and just like many other stories, and situations it almost seems right if the woman is the vulnerable being in the story/urban legend. but once again i just ain’t with the whole urban legend thing it’s just something i have never, ever been interested in. but to each it’s own.
When I was about 12 years old, my mom told me an urban legend that I can’t remove from my mind. A woman had drunk some water with worms that were very difficult to be dead. (She didn’t know the water was with worms). Then, her scalp began to itch everyday after drinking the water. She didn’t know why her scalp itches. So, she washed her hair with hot water everyday after her husband went to work. Her neighbor told her husband that his wife cooked some good food after he went to work. One day, he returned from work and found her wife was washing her hair. He was angry because he thought his wife really cook good food at home. He hauled her hair and was ready to scold her. His wife’s hair came off and her brain was full of the worms. It was horrific to imagine the scene. The woman’s husband was scar and helped her to kill the worms. The legend tells us the worms we can’t see will cause health problem. I just guess the meaning of this legend. As I know, roundworms can live in human’s intestines, but they can live in our brain? It was suspectable. After all, legends are mostly unbelievable. But, if you heard that, you will think about it or recall it when you do something are similar with the legend. The four main anxieties: safety/security, boundaries (of our bodies, personal space), sexual, and commercial. I think the safety/security and boundaries are more suitable to explain my legend. May be I can’t think out any explanation that relate to sexual and commercial from the legend. This legend is “as simple as what we put into our bodies unknowingly, or both rolled into one disgusting story”. Although it is not about the semen, it still affects our desire to food or drink at some time. “We constantly worry about what goes in our bodies;” and “no matter what we do, we could still be the victims”. Therefore, our body space is not so safe because it always has microbes. The boundary of our body is destroyed by microbes or other stuffs at the same time. For example, when we are young, our “stomach” may have some roundworms that affect digesting food. On another hand, the neighbors of the woman have breached the boundary of her privacy. This is not moral no matter in what kind of society. In all, legend can affect our emotional feeling. Hopefully the people can explain the legend with science methods and help the victims of legend.
The role of gender playing is women. They says “we are weakness,vulnerability,innocence and ineffectiveness, but mens are either violent attracker or strong heroes come to save the damsel in distress. Recording to the reading, “Myths are sacred narratives explainning how the world and mankind came to be”, chosen a urban legend was easy for me. I chosen where women and children are innocence, weakness, and vulnerabiliyty, and ineffectiveness is crime. Crime plays a big role in our lives and culture because women and children are fighting each day to stay alive. They might suggest about culture is people are killing people for no reason. The women are being attrack for beauty and sexual feeling. The children who are girls also. Crime has affecting our community and culture for many children. They looks at different culture and judge them differently.
I think gender plays a role in urban legends (“Women equal the victims because the scenario is more believable. They are more vulnerable in general; smaller size. Less physical strength and our society perceive them as helpless.)
The urban legend I chose was the Speedy Divorce.
In this urban legend the woman basically wears the pants in the beginning saying she wants a divorce. The wife then makes her demands saying, “I want the house, kids, and summer house etc””. The husband as stated stayed silent as he drives speeding little by little.
I think that this urban legend suggests about culture & our attitudes are that this urban legend clearly isn’t real life. What woman do you know will get away with actually telling her husband that she is cheating on hum and wanting willing to leave, and also states she wants everything as if she is the victim? The husband then turns the scenario around by stating “I’ve got everything I need”, the wife asked what’s that and the husband says the airbag is on my side so in general he did win because he was going to try and kill her!!!
I happen to chose a legend from snoops.com. In this story a young girl at the age of 19 was told by her mother never to pull over to an unmarked police car. Or perhaps if she wasn’t sure to dial #67 on her sell phone to contact a police near by to see if thats the real deal. She did just as her mother told her and, saved herself from a rapist that goes though the neiborhood pulling these stunts often.
I feel as if this fit into the catorgory of a legend because, a three coded number save a life and, thats the whole reason they invented it. In-fact my legend was excessive because, he had a plan to do such harm to this young lady for some sick reason and, had she not use the method preached by her mother she would probly be dead. You can call it the cat in mouse. Thats what it appears to be! A men making plans to catch some innocent prey. So small ,weak and sort of clueless. The cultural attitude in this story can be scary. ‘Thinking that this is safty when its really death approaching you. Knowing in the back of your mind that legends serve there purpose helping us deal with these fears teaching us vicariously some what of warnings to help protect ourselves. Urban legends are off the wall in todays world; dealing with what is not possible or only theoretically so, we tend to lessen the represented anxieties by telling ourselves this would and could ever happen to us. When infact we stand to be the target.
what i believe perry suggested by the urban legends playing into our four main anxieties depends on the type of story it is. i believe most urban legends try to tap into our emotions to try and feel sympathy or either make us very paranoid at the end of the story.
the urban legend i told tells a tale of a teen couple on a motorcycle and the girlfriend is telling her boyfriend to slow down cuz she is scared so the boyfriend tells her to hug him and that he loves her, and also to put on his helmet because it bothers him. the story flashes forward a bit and the story is supposedly published on the newspaper saying that the bf realized that his breaks werent working so he needed to crash and stop so he sacrificed his life to save his gf.
although this story doesnt fall under the male being the bad guy it touches on alot of points perry suggested. one of them is the stereotype of women being vulnerable. (as in my story she was scared he was going fast). the other is how men seem to be more powerful. (as in my story the man showed no fear and he knew what was gonna happen, but stayed calm to not scare his gf.)
also some of the anxieties that it touches upon is the safety/security. i know i dont plan on buying a motorcycle after reading a story like this. the story will make people think twice of buying a motorcycle since their life can be put in danger. This urban legend is a very short and vague on detail of the couple. all we know is that its a boy and a girl leaving our imaginations to put the rest of the pieces together. like where, when, etc.
i believe the urban legend i chose just wanted to make the reader feel sympathy towards what happened. because now the girl has a bf who sacrificed his life for her. just the thought of that to a reader makes them think that the bf really loved her and it makes the reader feel at aww.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/traffic/helmet.asp
http://www.warphead.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1078
Here’s the link to my urban legend.
This story doesn’t fall under the male being the predator, but it reitterates the points about how women are sexually pure in the begining of the legend. This urban legend also makes out the woman as the “bad guy.” The woman in this story is murdered in this legend for straying her husband away from the church, but in actuallity it was more of his discision to leave than it is hers. So why is he spared but the woman and her child must be killed?
This legend plays on two anxietie; sexual and safety/security. Due to the sexual nature of this woman she lures a man into marrying her and away from his church that he has been with all of his life; safety is also an anxiety because the woman and her child had to pay the consequence of bodily harm for little reason…
Urban legends play to the four main anxieties (“safety/security, boundaries (of our bodies, personal space), sexual, and commercial.” Julie Perry) by using creative and vivid language to do so. This ensures that the reader has a clear image in their head (semen, bloody axe, roach egg, etc…). Another way that urban legends play to the four main anxieties is they use examples and ideas that are rooted deep in our subconscious fears. For safety and security anxiety, legends often use basic fears that we have had since childhood, such as fear of the unknown (“what was that sound?” or “what’s in the back seat?”), fear of being tricked (“the hitchhiker is actually a killer!”), or fear of stronger individuals (women often times being the victim, while men are most often the aggressor). For the boundaries anxiety, legends utilize the unknown (sperm in the food, roofies in the drink, etc…), as well as personal space boundaries (intruder in the house, man hiding in the car). When it comes to sexual anxieties, legends often times use them in combination with one or more other anxieties (the woman was drugged and raped, the woman was sick from eating food with semen in it, etc…). And for commercial anxieties, legends incorporate every day “normal” things to terrify us (bug eggs on an envelope, a tumor in the fast food burger, etc…).
The legend I chose, “Humans can lick too” (http://ghostland.homestead.com/GhostLandsUrbanLegends.html), speaks to three of these anxieties: Safety/Security, boundaries, and sexual. Safety is affected with the man at her bedside all along, boundaries are affected as he’s in her home, and sexuality is affected by the act of him licking her hand. The legend I chose speaks to our culture in three ways. The first is that we depend on others, in this case the dog, to feel safe and secure. The second is that we fear that there actually are people that are do deranged as to kill our dogs and lick our hands for the sole purpose of scaring us. And finally, that no matter how safe you may feel, there is never a time or place that you are truly 100% safe and out of the reach of danger.
Well one of my big urban legends people are still talking about is the alligators in the sewer system. This just gives a person something to fear about when they look down onto the sewer. This thinking just would give the chills tol anyone. like maybe a worker who might work on sewers. he could of been told the story and he would just ignore it and look at it as an urban legend. but then one night he was called to work because apparently something is clogging the sewers. then he realiizes what he was told before about down there. soon he realizes his body is shaking he has goosebumps ll over his body hes weak and powerless at this point. but nothing happens while he is down there. so he just laughs at the crazy story. but as soon as he starts climbing the stairs he is attacked and eaten by the alligator. this story can be really frightening if it was true. the victim could be the worker. the evil thing could be what lurks in the sewer system. but an interesting thing the person who told the storie could be the person who put it down there. by the way the link is http://snopes.com/critters/lurkers/gator.asp . many people are frightened by a gator its just natural. we grow up believing these things are true from when we are born till now. the makes us to b scared of many things.
this just goes to show how stories can change the way we look at things. My interesting question is What if something really is down there????
my comment is in regards to question #3.
urban legends for the most part are very much sexist and the role of gender is quite present and obvious. according to Perry, women in urban legends are portrayed as “powerless, weak, stupid, unaware”… overall the perfect victim, opposed to men who have the upperhand… they are physically stronger as well as smarter and tend to play the role of either the hero come to the rescue or the psychotic bad guy. Perry writes that there have only been very few occasions in which women had been given overall power of the situation. in most cases, it is the male figure who determines the outcome in a sense.
the urban legend that i selected is titled, the knockoff pullover. i found it on the website that was suggest, snopes.com.
this particular urban legend tells the story of a female college student who avoids a potential rapist by dialing #77 on her cell-phone. i have noticed that there are several stories that are quite similar to this one. the name has changed on several occasions the site points out, as well as minor details including the number the victim dialed as well as the location in which it took place. over all, the situation remains the same. there so happens to be a letter, that has cirrculated across the internet. this reminded me of those forwards you happen to see constanly either sent by friends via text message or on social web-sites such as myspace.com… “if you don’t forwards this message to 10 people you will…(fill in the blank)”… things like that. i myself have forwarded quite a few of these, just for fun of course.
going back to the legend… the victim just so happens to be a female. tapping into the role women are place in… weaker and unsuspecting of potential danger. this legend, reinforces this belief. the police officer that comes to the rescue of this damsel in distress, just so happen to be a male. go figure. men are given the role of the authority figure, and have just as much of a drive as the male who gets a drive from attacking his unsuspecting female victim, as the hero of the story. the sense of “i did this”… as perry mentions.
although the notion that women can do anything her counterpart can, these urban legends still thrive with the belief that women remain inferior in a sense to the ever so powerful male figure. our attitudes have definitely not changed at all… sure we may all agree that women have been granted far more opportunites they once were denied, they still remain the underdog of society. urban legends reinforce these stereotypes and because they are for the most part believeable and might actually contain some sense of truth… our culture will remain to hold these stereotypical roles of gender accountable.
The urban Legend i chose is the following:
A man and wife were driving late one night when they were flagged down by a woman that appeared to be hurt. She claimed she’d been in an accident and her baby was alive but trapped in the car. The man told her to wait with his wife and he’d see what he could do. He got to the car and found a couple obviously dead in the front seat but a baby crying in a carseat. He cut the baby loose and returned to his own car. When he got there his wife was alone, he asked her where the woman had went and she replied that she’d followed him to the wreck. He left the baby with his wife and went back to the car to find her. When he got there he realized the woman who’d been instantly killed in the front seat had been the one who’d flagged him down.
For this story i chose to answer question #3. the role of gender in this urban legend is an obvious one. When the couple see the woman flagging them down, it is the man that gets off to offer help. He is portrayed as the ‘hero’ of some sort. The guy tells his wife to “stay in the car.” this can imply that the man does the dirty work while the woman “portrayed as weak” stays in the car unable to help the other woman. It is the man that goes to the accident site and cuts the baby loose and brings it to her wife. The only thing i found a little strange is that in this urban legend, the mother that flags the car down is also playing the role of a “hero.” we discover at the end of the story that she had been dead, impying that her ghost was warning the couple that the baby was still alive.
A scenario like this one can almost been seen in a movie. Typically the man is driving and pulls over to offer help. I dont quite know how old this urban legend is but i’d imagine not too old. However, what this implies about our culture today is that for the most part it is the man’s job to offer security and well-being to the woman (in this case his wife). Men are seen as the protectors and in this instance the husband is the protector of his wife. On the other hand, the injured woman whom flagged the couple down is seen as a mother who is offering protection and security to her baby. Being as though she is already dead, it gives more to the story to know that her ghost was still able to care for the baby.
The urban legend that I decide to talk about is, actually popular for the people around were i live by it’s been a long time i was going to elemantery school i was like in 6th grade my classmates and i always talk about the school been hunted we sad that becuase in that school along time ago their was a ganeder that killed a little girl in the girls bathroom and he put the body in some hole that was cover in one of the bathroom and they were saying that the little girls soul was always around their walking around me and my classmates did somethings that we should’t never done we justo say the blarrymarry to see who come out we did it ones to a girl that girl was so scared she stood in the bathroom by her self we all got scared and run out of their, but eveybody new that that school is hunted even my little sister talk about it now they do the some thing i did wan i was in that school.
The way culture plays a role in contributing to anxiety is simply depending on whether the culture believe in ghost or spirts. For example in my culture it is entirely possible. The effect is believing in it.
My urban lagend is excessive that alot of students that want to that school they still come up with the storys we justo talk about.
I don’t know how to link the wedsite so here is the whole thing.
Its called, “Disguised Child”
A small child was abducted at Disneyworld. The distraught parents are taken to a surveillance room filled with monitors to look for the child. Almost at the point of giving up, the mother reconizes the childs shoes when a strange woman attempts to leave the park. The reason the shoes were all that were recognized is the childs hair had been cut and dyed, and she’d been dressed as a little boy.Often takes place at a supermarket or some other theme park.
Cheating exists in several ways such as friends and spouses deceive each other, and students cheat in an exam. Whatever the case, cheating makes anxiety for others who are cheated. For example, a student cheats on the exam. The exam result, the cheater student gets a better grade than other students. If other students find out a student’s cheating, they feel anxious and unfairness about the student because they work hard on the exam, but they got a lower grade than the cheater.
Here is another kind of cheating. It is not a cheating in classrooms or households. It is about a big business named CVS, and how they opened a new store in a location. We find when we see a Walgreens, we also see a CVS near the Walgreens. The reason for this is that Walgreens has a big study group and millions of dollars to spend each year for searching for another location, in addition to the ones they have already established. They have a land space business. For example, they buy property at a cheap price in a bad area, but they studied this area, believing it will become a good area maybe after 50 years. After 50 years, they sell the property for maybe 100 times or more than what they paid in the first place. Then they research another new area to open and keep continuously. Absolutely, Walgreens is doing a very good business.
However, CVS doesn’t have any research group to find a new location when they open a new branch. They just buy property near a Walgreens, because CVS knows that area is already studied by Walgreens and will increase in value in the future. That way CVS doesn’t work hard finding and spending a lot of time and money to establish a new location. The way of CVS’s working is a kind of cheating. Even it is legal when I hear the story from my friend, I felt bad about CVS. I really want to compare CVS with a cheating student. They both don’t work hard and get good results.
The reason I am calling this story an urban legend is because it may not necessarily be true or untrue, but urban legends are often distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized over time by a FOAF a “friend of a friend.” Also, the story must have the element of anxiety in order for it to be interesting. Anxiety in an urban legend is what creates wonder about whether or not the story is true.
Urban legends was something that always intrested me rather i believed it or thought it was just down right stupid. The urban legeng that i found was pretty interesting because i could believe something like this actually happend. Like any other UL it kind of sets off a warning and it takes a stab at safty/ security anxieties. I also see a form of gender because the women chose to take a girl and turn him into a boy, obviously becuase she knew it couldnt be done the other way around. What does this say about our culture? In my eyes, i simply see our knowlegde on working what they call the system. We constantly find ways to work around knew technology and surveillance.
Urban legends was something that i always found intresting rather i believed it or thought it was just stupid. The found my urban legend to be pretty interesting bacause i can believe something like this happend. Like any other UL it sets off a warning, and takes a stab at the saftey/ security anxieties. It also in a way have something to do with gender because the lady took a girl and made her into a boy, she obviously knew it couldn’ t be done the other way around. What does this say about our culture? In my opinion, it simply show our knowledge. We constantly find new ways to work what we call the system.
Upon deciding which urban legend to write about, I stumbled upon whether the doubt if I was writing about something that was actually true or not. This buys into what Perry was alluding to that even how crazy a storie might seem, it still scares some people into believing. Even though one might not believe in one, still there is that sense of doubt when approaching that specific urban legend. Even for the most brief second there is that doubt, but not only until one can come to terms that it is just absurd. With that said the urban legend that I chose is that of trick-o-treating. There has always been that story about these kids that got candy from a specific house and they became very sick afterwards because the candy had been tampered with. Referring back to Perry’s categorizing of anxiety, this urban legend can be labeled to that of the anxiety of safe/security. I know for a fact that as a kid, I was scared about eating some candy even though I had the biggest of sweet tooths…. To think that someone can tamper with candy may seem absurd, but even still plants doubt in our head that it can be possible. Motive for doing this lead me to believe that it could not be possible. Even still, like Perry mentions, urban legends in many instances are beneficial when referring to the anxiety. Many parents forced kids to look at candy and throw out any candy that was opened slightly or seemed suspicious. I know for a fact that my mom did. Even though urban legends could be stereotypical, they also are beneficial for the simple fact that it gives us awareness of what can really happen in this world.
The first thing that popped into my mind when asked to think of an urban legend of that one that was said on the NPR clip; drinking coke and mixing it with pop rocks will make your stomach explode/kill you. Any kid that grew up with pop rocks has either heard of that urban legend; the brave people of myth busters (an awesome show aired on the Discovery channel) have in fact busted that myth of being false. Another urban legend that I have heard was one from a friend that told me during one of my softball practices. It started off with that whole chain of people story, it was her brother’s friend. Her brother went to Arizona for a vacation and heard a horrible story that happened to one of his friends. She was at a bar and she started talking to the bartender. They hit it off and when he was done with his shift, they went back to her hotel room where she was staying at and had intercourse. Apparently the next morning, she woke up only to find her one night stand gone. She got up and looked around and came across the mirror in the room that had a message written on it with her lipstick that read “Welcome to the world of AIDS”. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is “oh my god, how could someone do that!”; maybe the more correct response would be, “are you serious?” I honestly don’t know the truth of this story, but either way, it’s a bad thought to think about anyway.
The thought that it in fact is not something that we wish to happen to any of us fits in with what Julie Perry wrote in A Look at Urban Legends: the Gothic outweighs the Enlightened. If this is a legend, it would fit under the category of a contemporary one; it crosses our personal boundaries with what our parents have told us since we were little with our lectures on stranger danger. This story feeds into our anxieties and fits in well to our society of meeting people (in some instances more personal than others) because we never do really know the people that we first meet (or in this case the people that we sleep with). Like Perry mentioned, women in urban legends are powerless, stupid, and weak while men are smarter and competent. In the story, the friend took a liking to the bartender whom I guessing had to be charming (or she was just that drunk) to invite him over later that night. The girl fits the female stereotype in an urban legend exactly, as Perry mentions in the reading, “in urban legends stupid women bring bad situations unto themselves”. After hearing this story, if you had second thoughts about having that one night stand, it did its’ job.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp
This urban legend claims that aspartame (artificial sweetener) is responsible for increasing cancer, brain tumors and multiple sclerosis. This is a perfect example of “commercial anxiety” and ”inner boundaries” as mentioned in the reading. I chose this legend because I have heard similar statements for years and I honestly did not know it was an urban legend. It is an example of inner boundaries because it states that we are not safe drinking an ice tea or cup of coffee; dangers are lurking in everything we consume. It represents commercial anxiety because so many things we purchase contains this product. Sometimes we do not realize it contains aspartame until we read the ingredients. The fact that I did not know it was an urban legend makes me think about how many other people out there are not aware of this either. This affects us personally but also affects the manufacturers of the product and businesses that use it.
In regards to the excess in this legend, the epidemic of cancer, brain tumors, and multiple sclerosis hits the nail on the head. The article about this legend goes on to talk about how many people have been affected and there is no reverse. It is terrifying to think that your ice tea might be a death sentence. The article states, “If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc.) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss – you probably have ASPARTAME DISEASE!” A bit much don’t you think? These symptoms could be hundreds of things, including something simple, like hunger!?!?!?
Gender in urban legends: Gender does not play a huge role in my chosen legend. You could probably argue it either way. Referring to the reading, however, gender plays a huge role in many of the examples given. I agree that women are most usually the victim, portrayed as helpless, innocent, damsel in distress, virgin, etc. It is how society sometimes views women in general, not only during a scary story. As a woman some of these stories have made me think twice about things, like checking my back seat, that is something I do often and probably because of the scary urban legends I have heard ever since I was a girl. It is also interesting that the man has two roles in urban legends: Attacker and hero. One could argue that society tells men that they can be anything but women have one role.
Many legends sound like they could actually be true, like my chosen aspartame urban legend. Referring to the NPR skit, if I would have heard about the speaker’s computer blowing up I never would have believed him. He made an excellent point when making us think about urban legends and their possible truth.