literallyshookblog

[literallyshookblog]

Late to the Party

Growing up I was definitely sheltered from the majority of pop culture. By no means was my family reclusive or Duggar levels of oppressive. My parents carefully curated what kind of media I consumed. In retrospect, it makes sense why I was not allowed to listen to any Britney Spears besides the first two albums. Eight year old me had no business listening to “I’m a Slave 4 U”-- let alone seeing the music video. So generally the guidelines became that if the artist did not first come from Disney Channel or American Idol I was not allowed to listen to them. The one time I tried to break those rules as a kid was shortly after Hitch came out and I bought “Yeah!” by Usher. Naturally, my older sister tattled on me and I lost access to my pink ipod mini, my most prized possession at the time, for two weeks. After that incident, I adhered to the rules until college.

In high school, I used a different tactic. I went through high school amidst the craze of the Twilight franchise and my peers, besides thirsty Mormons moms, were the target demographic. All of the people who I wanted to be friends with loved the series. When you are a sophomore in high school with literally no friends, study hall presents a special challenge. You can be the weird kid that actually does their homework, or you can be a part of the group and engage in whatever your classmates are talking about. At this point I had not read a page of the books and the movie had not yet come out, but both were already labeled off limits at home. However, I wanted to be a part of the discussion. After my homework was finished each night, the next assignment I gave myself was scouring the internet for details for all things Twilight. I read the plot summaries of the books. I read each and every Entertainment Weekly article pertaining to the movies, which if any of y’all remember that period of time was A LOT. I read fan forums and when it got closer to the press period, I found every photo shoot and interview clip of the whole cast. Every day in Study hall, I had something about Twilight to share with the other girls in my class. I was their hook-up for all the details, but did it get them to invite me to sit with them at lunch? Nope.  As the pop-culture trends changed, so did my research topics. Twilight moved on to Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl, etc. and all of my efforts bore the same result.

Most images of the college experience perpetuated by film and television often show young people exploring their newfound freedom by throwing massive parties and drinking like they are in a John Mulaney bit. While hyperbolic and an overgeneralization of each person’s individual experience, there is a kernel of truth in the stereotype. It is human nature, upon no longer having the boundaries set by parents and other authority figures, to indulge and test the limits of how much one was missing out before. My binging and boundary pushing did not involve red plastic cups and dancing on tabletops; however, there was dancing involved. Now in my freshman year, all of a sudden I am on my own for the first time and I have over a decade of pop music to catch up on.

To this day, I am still the type that becomes singularly obsessed with one song before moving onto the next one. I still remember at one points finally understanding the pop culture reference of “hips don’t lie” by discovering the song of the same name. I remember the night when one of my roommates was at volleyball practice and the other was off with some boy, I had a dance party of one in my dorm room of mid-00s pop from Shakira to JLo to Beyoncé and more. Discovering these songs gave me so much joy and I had no outlet to share it with. Normal people had heard these songs for years and they had moved on to newer trends. Bringing up the new songs I had discovered, an R-rated movie I hadn’t seen before, or a TV show that I had just binged did not suddenly make me one of the cool kids. It had just pronounced my otherness. I was Steve Rogers gleefully stating that he understood a reference for once and the people I was hoping would include me were all Tony Stark in the back of the room rolling his eyes.

However, my binging continued because I had still created a brand for myself of being the pop culture obsessive that could talk with anyone about their favorite television show. The best friendship I have to this day began around this period of my life because an at-the-time acquaintance expressed interest in watching Arrow and I crafted a detailed PowerPoint presentation on how to best binge it and other shows I recommended.  I had caught up quickly to the present, but by that point I was deep in the golden age of television which continues to this day. At one point in my junior year of college, I noticed that I was watching TWENTY-FIVE television shows regularly. Was I also enormously depressed during that period of time and using such high levels of media consumption as distraction to my ever present aching loneliness? You betcha. However, that’s an essay topic for another time (specifically this September.) At this point, I was becoming numb to even enjoying the shows I was watching because it was just work I had given myself to bring something to table in order for people to like me.

One would think that after the years have gone by and I have grown into myself as an adult and developed fulfilling and wonderful friendships that this feeling would go away, but it doesn’t. In the words of one of my favorite songs from Smash, “I thought the race was over, but they just keep moving the line.” I may have grown so much in the past decade since I was researching Robsten photoshoots to show my peers in study hall, but nonetheless I still feel like that kid that’s late to the party. We are still in the “Age of Peak Television” with and endless array of things to watch and consume. Now that I’ve gone through the joyful experience of sharing a TV show, movie, or song that you love with your friends who also enjoy the thing, that desire to not always be late to the party in regards to pop culture has transformed into a fear of missing out on sharing something awesome with my friends.

For example, I’ve seen clips and gifsets here and there of Mike Schur comedies but I had other pop culture stuff on my plate when they started. I know from what I’ve sampled that I would absolutely love them, and some of my favorite people in the world watch these. However, I did the math and to catch up on all episode of Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place; I’d have to watch five hundred and seventy-nine episodes of television. That’s around three and half weeks straight for perspective. I wholeheartedly want to watch these shows but those kind of numbers are daunting.

However, that kind of statistic is comforting in a sense. There’s no realistic way to catch up at this point. The market is so saturated that there is physically no way to truly watch and enjoy all of the television and movies out there and still lead a healthy and abundant life. It has helped relieve some of the pressure. There is literally no way to see it all, so now there are so many more people late to the party. Earlier this week I came across a twitter thread of someone watching the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes “Surprise” and “Innocence” for the first time, and the best part was all of the longtime fans who were delighted to be there for the person tweeting as she went through the emotional rollercoaster of those two episode. Those who had seen those episodes decades ago and had re-watched countless times since then got to see something they love through the eyes of someone experiencing it for the first time again. For once, social media has actually been helpful. People are so often experiencing television shows, in particular, out of sync from their actual air dates. No matter when you watch now there is always a community of fans ready to enjoy it with you. So while I had no one to share my delight of discovering “Hips Don’t Lie” seven years after it was first released, if I catch up to a new show or movie, I can share the joy of discovery with others through Twitter. I may still be late to the party, but now I have a community to enjoy the festivities with.

[literallyshookblog]

Start of Something New

Hi, y’all! First off, I’m Maddie.

via GIPHY

So this is a new and exciting thing that I’m doing, and I am simultaneously super pumped as well as beyond nervous about doing this. Y’all may ask…

What is this?

Besides an oh-so-witty pun on my last name, “Literally Shook” is a blog that will consist of personal essays regarding the TV and movies that have me shook.

While I’ve only been involved with online fandom for just around five years now, I have been obsessed with the art of storytelling through the mediums of film and TV for as long as I can remember. As I’m just now starting to get the hang of this whole “being an adult” thing, I’ve noticed how much the media I have consumed has shaped my personality and worldview. Stories are so intricately woven with personal identity. It shapes how we view characters and storylines and how a piece of media makes us feel.

While there are certainly downsides, one of the things I love about online fandom is the shared community based upon a story is able to bring about a strong reaction in people who come from vastly different backgrounds. What I truly hope for this blog is that sharing how my life experiences and how my personal story intertwines with those created by screenwriters, readers hopefully to gain something new in their perspective on these shows and films.

What are you going to write about?

I plan on writing a blend of personal introspection, critical analysis, and fangirl squeeing. I have a very varied palette on what media I enjoy. For a teaser of upcoming posts (while also being a shameless ploy to get this featured in different tags to get my blog noticed), I have essays planned on Olicity/Arrow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, romantic comedies of the early to mid-00s, The Nanny, the MCU, and several Disney and Pixar animated movies.

Why now?

The answer is two-fold. Firstly, I just moved in with my sister and I know if I keep rambling about Steve Rogers, Felicity Smoak, the dichotomy between art and commercialism in the Disney Renaissance, etc.-- I will drive her absolutely insane and we may get a revival of that incident when she threw a shoe at me when were kids. 

Secondly, I have all these thoughts swirling in my head and I have been debating whether to channel this into a podcast or blog for a while. I’m now at a place in my life where I decently have things together enough to be able to finally give the necessary attention to the creative side of my brain.

How often will you post?

My goal is at least bi-weekly. This is entirely a labor of love, and I’m going to really push myself to stay motivated and write consistently. I’m an introvert that works a full-time job in retail where I interact with people all day; so a lot of the times I’m nearly completely drained by the time I get home. We shall see how it goes further down the line whether I want to post more or less than that.

Where else can I follow you?

I am most active on Twitter (@lipstickandwifi). My instagram is linked on the menu but I don’t really post all that often.