User:Queenfeline/Projectproposal

proposed proposals
Graduate proposal guidelines

potential card game

What do you want to make?

I want to make a card game. It will be a box with cards in them. There is two sets of cards. One set contains random words. The other set contains catcalls / situations or maybe questions that makes the person share an experience. There will be an introduction that comes with a trigger warning. The game will work in the following way: One person pulls one card from the experience pile and shares a story or an experience where they felt they were treated unfairly. With the help of the others and by pulling a random word the group has to come up with a response (that contains the random word) to the explained situation.

How do you plan to make it?

My plan on developing this project is to gather experiences or questions, that leads the person to share an experience and random words. I will print them on paper and cut them into cards. I will write a description on how to play this game. So to say, I will print a prototype and try to „play“ it with my friends and/or classmates. I will ask them to take notes while or after playing and give me their feedback and opinions.

Why do you want to make it?

But why do I want to make this card game? I got this idea while reading about the importance on linguistics in the feminist movement. Deborah Cameron wrote in her book "Feminism and Linguistic Theory" about the act of consciousness raising. Groups of women gathered to simply talk about their experiences as women* walking this earth. It is a moment where women* uncover the roots and precise nature of their oppression. So the act of speaking about experiences, as in naming it or only putting it into words, sharing them and then getting others to acknowledge it, is an integral part of the feminist movement. With this card game I want to open a space where women* can share their experiences and raise consciousness on their oppression and leave with a feeling of togetherness and understanding. I hope that as a side effect, the players will become quick-witted in such situations in real life or leave them with a feeling of being stronger than the world makes them believe and more able to react when such situations happen in real life. Now this seems to be made only for women* of course this game can also be "played" by men*, as speaking about experiences in this world will leave everyone with a greater understanding for the others, no matter the gender. So I think raising consciousness in a safer space will be beneficial for everybody (also across generations).

Who can help you and how?

My friends and classmates can help me find out if this first of all actually works.

My family could also help me figure out if it is indeed an intergenerational thing.

Everybody who is willing to talk to me about it is helping me to fine-tune the game and clarify my idea.

Relation to previous practice

It relates to previous practices in a sense that it is about feminism and using our language in a good and helpful way. It is also my interest to raise consciousness not only in the feminist movement but everywhere.

Relation to a larger context

It relates to the second wave feminist movement and brings practices they came up with in our time and context. It continues the fight against sexism.

References/bibliography

Deborah Cameron – "Feminism and Linguistic Theory"

potential thesis

What do you WANT to write? (what will the text
be about? What do you want to explore?
Be clear about HOW you want to tell your story.

Outline 3 key issues you want to explore:
1. The power that language holds
2. how sexist language is and how it shapes the way we live
3. The power of reclaiming words as an activist act

I want to write an analytical essay. I want to dive into the sociolinguistics and uncover how sexist and man-made our vernacular is and how we can take a step into changing that. Language is about representation. Who you speak about and how, directly affects that groups position in society and their experience in this world. I want to write about the phenomenon that female words get devalued over time and why that is. Adding to that i want to write about the active work of reclaiming these words to reclaim power (for ourselves and ultimately how we're seen and treated in society)

Chapter outline (what do i expect to find?)

1. The power language holds

Here i want to show how the words we use literally create the world around us. Language gives names to our experiences. It reflects and reinforces our believes, the existing power structures and structures of oppression. Language is strategically used to exclude certain groups from the societal discourse (e.g. in form of linguistic alienation).

Furthermore i want to write about the phenomenon that words who get connected to females, experience an devaluation over time. What seems like happens by accident is a reflection on the sexist society we find ourselves in. In comparison to that, 'male' words almost always experience an revaluation. Why is that?

2. How sexist language shapes our lives

I want to uncover fields of everyday life that hold more sexism then we expect or are aware of. From address terms to curse words. Understanding that language itself is not sexist but the way we use it.

3. The powerful act of reclaiming language

This chapter is gonna contain how the reclaiming of a 'female' word needs active work to experience an revaluation.

holy shit is is all still way to broad...

Uh maybe i do all this on the example of one word! (e.g diva/bitch...) Then the structure would more likely look like that:

1. The etymology of the word

So to say a glimpse in the history of the word. How is has been used throughout the years and how the dictionary defined then and now.

2. De- and revaluation

De- and revaluation of words in general. So how and why does that happen? Then more specifically on the example on the word. How and why did it happen in this case?

3. The act of reclaiming a word for oneself and the societal consequences

Transitioning into: How 'female' words need active reclaiming in order to experience a revaluation. What reclaiming is and how it works (on the example on language).

TO–DO – specify what i mean with 'female' word (wordslut) –