Week 2 - Post Structuralism

Post structuralism is a far less complicated topic in terms of understanding its origin and what it is governed by. In definition, Poststructuralism interrogates the way we think i.e. the structures of meaning and regulatory systems, regimes, institutions and logic that governs our self-perception, world views, narratives, genres and the ways we might make meaning from texts (SAE Dubai, 2020).

Pre Class

While reading the lesson and familiarizing myself with the content, one thing that stood out to me the most was about fan theories. Fan theories have been something I always indulged in because of how various viewpoints and "deconstructions of text" can sometimes help to develop a more renowned definition or meaning. In other words, the ideas influenced from a person's upbringing such as political, religious and environmental factors do help to shape a text's meaning if it is analyzed by a fan or consumer of the media. In addition, it is also pretty interesting when the creator/ producer of the media leaves their text open for interpretation - they aren't being forceful on what their message is and let their fans understand it the way they like.

During Class

The class, on the other hand, involved themselves in a very heavy discussion on what Post Structuralism is. It was far easier to understand, hence, students brought up various viewpoints. Some of the viewpoints discussed in class are as follows:

1. Flat earthers - Scientific evidence but people still believe the world is 'flat'

2. Fan theories - when the creators leave their work open for interpretation

3. How society and environment shapes your believes and you as a person

4. Covid 19 - a biological weapon or just a virus?

5. BLM movement, all lives matter

These are interesting theories because "there is no true worldview, there is no such thing as truth, only stories we continuously retell" ourselves to make us feel happy (SAE Dubai, 2020). This quote from the online lecture particularly struck me. It made us question our existence and why all we believe in has come to be. It really is interesting to think that we might have been fooled by the sources of our information from the past. An example would be - superstition - a topic that was discussed in class. People in the past were considered to be very superstitious because of what they were told by their ancestors, but we no longer choose to believe in these because we have the right to question the reliability of these facts. However, Kunjal (from class) brought to my attention that there was a reason for these to exist because people would scare their kids in order to avoid them from doing something harmful such as walking under a ladder only because there would be a possibility of getting hurt. This has since then been passed down to generations as a "superstition".

We also briefly discussed a topic on how society shapes the way you are as a person. Structuralism is the essence that you were born a certain way with a birth gender, or skills and talents inherited from your parents genes, and so you have to be a particular way because of that. Post structuralism questions this idea. It questions whether it is really true that if you were born from a mother and father who are doctors by profession, you too have to end up being a doctor or someone in a medical background. This got me thinking and so I carried out some research after class. Here are my findings.

Post class

I carried out a series of research to uncover the mysteries on how identical twins were raised apart with a completely different family, environment, society and social morals. A book written by Nancy Segal, the director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University-Fullerton, who had been conducting this research over a couple of decades, explains her findings and shares the wonderful encounter of these twins during reunion.

From her talk on Science & Cocktails (2016), something in particular that stood out to me is as follows:

Twins raised apart:

Why are twins so interesting to a lot of people?

It is because we are raised to think that every human has their own individuality with their own personality, looks, and interests. But when we come to see two people who look identical and even behave, dress and speak the same way - some might find it satisfying while others find it disturbing. However, it is definitely intriguing.

- Nancy Segal, 2016

Another research that listed the stories of "5 True Stories of Twins Separated at Birth" were conducted on the basis of nature vs. nurture. I find this particularly appealing to look at the findings of these researches and some of them don't even seem real because of the striking similarities and coincidences. The research concluded that nature plays a big role and that in "terms of personality, interests, and attitudes", twins separated at birth do live very similar lives apart. This finding also leads us to believe that the similarities between twins are due to genes, not environment. Given that the differences between twins reared apart must be due totally to the environment, and given that these twins are just as similar as twins reared together, it can be concluded that the environment, rather than making twins alike, makes them different (Donovan, 2020).

Conclusion

Therefore, this topic has been very informative and thought provoking. It is definitely a topic i would consider as a cultural lense for my assignments. We were given until Friday to choose a topic for our first assignment and I have chosen "Post structuralism in Fans and Fandoms in the topic of music". It will be interesting to do my research on this.

References

Donovan, J. (2020). 5 True Stories of Twins Separated at Birth [webpage article]. Retrieved from https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/5-true-stories-twins-separated-at-birth5.htm

SAE Dubai, (2020). Post structuralism [online lecture]. Retrieved from https://moodle-dubai.axis.navitas.com/mod/page/view.php?id=161631

Science & Cocktails, (2016, Jun 10). Twins reared apart from birth: the science behind the fascination with Nancy Segal [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1w5CvF_6WI