25th November

It's been an interesting week! We had our hand-in for our contextual review draft on the 24th, so I was mostly just knuckling down and getting on with finally writing that. No idea if what I've written is "good" or "counts as a contextual review and not just a regular essay", but I guess that's what the draft submission is for lol. I will say I feel like I do definitely have a much clearer idea now of what I need to do more research on - I found writing the section of my review on societal attitudes impacting media to be a real challenge, and it made me realise that the only real source I have for it at the moment is the Croteau and Hoynes book. The asexuality/aromanticism-specific stuff I actually have a lot of different sources for, so methinks it's time to go back to some more general queer theory/media studies stuff.

OTHER EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

• Seminar on design research methods with Christian! Nice to get reacquainted with the ol' double diamond again - I last saw that thing on my foundation year! While this seminar was more focused on design stuff, which is less relevant to me, it did get me thinking about the impact of my research project and what will happen to it after this year is over. Christian put a lot of emphasis on thinking about how you're going to share your research and how it could influence the wider context. This is particularly relevant to me since I'm working in a very new field! Ideally I would love it if my research could actually push the academic study of asexuality and aromanticism forward, and in my beautiful dream it would perhaps inspire further research on the topic. So what I'm saying is yes Christian is right and I do actually need to think about how I'll be sharing this in the future.
• The research methods workshop! I've finally learned the difference between methodology and method! (essentially methodology = your reasoning for WHY you're using the methods you use, your general approach, as it were) I got some useful feedback from Emma, Miles and Amelia on their ideas for methods to use - the main point that I hadn't considered was that it would be worth looking at social media and discussions about asexuality/aromanticism that are happening among ordinary people on social media and not just academics. Now, on the one hand, I think this is a very good point and is absolutely correct and this is definitely something I should consider. On the other hand, social media sucks and I don't want to think about it. Sorry. Every day I get closer to becoming a Luddite. Like I'll do it for the sake of research and pushing forward the frontiers of knowledge but I will complain the entire time.
• Initial list:
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• Initial list:
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• OH YEAH MILES ALSO HAD SOMETHING HE WANTED TO SAY I NEED TO ASK HIM WHAT IT IS
• The other main point of consideration is the focus groups I want to do. I was really interested in what Emma told us about projects that use textile making to give people something to do while talking - apparently this can be really helpful for making participants feel more confident and less put on the spot. Perhaps I can do something similar in my focus groups? As Emma pointed out, there's also the issue of making sure I keep it manageable.
• The macro lecture this week from Sam Winston was sooooo interesting I am having the time of my life here. Like it's not relevant to my project but urghrhghh I love linguistics and artist books and illustration and design and printmaking. Also me when I lie I do actually think some of his strategies could be useful to me - the word cloud thing in particular could be a good way to visualise some of my findings perhaps? Also got to have a lovely chat with Sam afterwards about what he does and linguistics facts we find interesting so that was great! Also I did really love his little model of how his thought process while making art works. He's just like me fr
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• Haven't done any new reading specifically for my project this week because I've been busy trying to get the contextual review done but I have been checking out various other books that keep accidentally being vaguely relevant! No matter what I do I cannot escape my research topic! I start reading Juno Dawson's memoir The Gender Games about her experience as a trans woman and it talks about gender stereotypes and how she was treated differently when seen as a man vs as a woman and it also talks a lot about depictions of women in media and how they are impacted by societal attitudes and impact them in turn. I start reading The Making of Guys and Dolls because I wanted to find out some fun behind the scenes trivia about a musical I quite like and I get slapped in the face by this quote about how romance plots are necessary to the musical form: "Could a Broadway musical become a success without romance? Virtually every musical was a love story, and the temper of the era demanded light entertainment" (p.3). I pick up Reading Angel, a silly little collection of silly little academic essays about my silly little vampire noir show, and basically all the ones I read are about representations of race and gender and how they reflect societal attitudes. EVERYWHERE I TURN I SEE HIS (MY RESEARCH PROJECT'S) FACE!

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