Author Archives: sdw2623

Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright and poet born in 1854 and became popular in the 1890s. He was gay and considered different and wild for his different views and attraction. Wilde was thrown in jail and exiled for his consentual gay acts, where he later died. Wilde was involved with the aestheticism movement and published many poems. He wrote the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” where he was criticized for lacking morality. The main character, Dorian Gray, upholds admired beauty but also engages in “sinful” lifestyle choices. His work was not as celebrated due to his controversy of homosexual acts and for his character that followed a more hedenistic lifestyle. At the time, homosexual acts were illegal and extremly look down upon. Due to this, Wilde was considered “wild” and out of the norm. Oscar was also described as

Wilde was also considered a “wild” writer. Many of his poems had homoerotic messages and he had written many letters to his lover Douglas. 

-Stephanie Wilhite

Gloria Anzaldua speaks on taming a “wild tongue” that she has due to her Chicano language. She is reminded by society that she is different and the way she speaks is different. Due to this, she and others who speak in the same way are expected to keep quiet. Anzaldua’s experience at the dentist shows what her life is like. The dentist is telling her she has a wild tongue and despite what he does, he can’t keep it controlled. This shows her experience of not being controlled by society. She has a wild tongue because she speaks differently than everyone else, and society wants her and people like her to conform to the language of everyone else. She was being forced to change her own identity by having to lose the language she spoke. The way someone speaks and their primary language is the largest way a person expresses themselves. Taking away the language of a group can lessen their ability to express their lives and experiences. Taking away the ability for people to express themselves can affect generations after them and can also ostracize them from society. They may also be seen as less than everyone else for speaking a different way. The Chicano Spanish can also be seen as “low class” by other Spanish speakers but is actually just a different way of people to express themselves and should not be class related. In the end, people should not have to lose their own language because they are seen as different or less than everyone else.

-Stephanie Wilhite

She is such a wild woman, she parties all the time and lives her life on the edge. I have never met anyone like her.

As I was lost deep in the woods, I saw a wild man. He was alone in a small handmade cabin wearing animal fur as clothing and carving up a rabbit for dinner.

You should not try to pet a bear, despite their cute looks, it is a wild animal and it will hurt you. It is not like the dog back home. 

I saw a wild beast running rampant in New York City. It tore down buildings and threw cars. No one knows where it came from.

Did you catch what happened at the Oscars last night? What a wild thing to see happen live at such a prestigious event!

-Stephanie Wilhite

The Good Lion by Ernest Hemingway and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak both present wildness in their stories but use it to send different messages. In Where the Wild Things Are, wildness is used to describe a world with beasts that have sharp teeth and claws that live in nature. The Good Lion uses wildness to present the contrast between the uncivilized and civilized. Though, both of the stories use wild to describe the behavior of a person or folk characters. 

In Where the Wild Things Are, wildness is used to describe the world that has creatures with claws and scary teeth. The world is away from any kind of civilization and the child protagonist is there living without any rules and can behave in any way he wants. He likes to make mischief and is called a wild thing by his mother. “And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth…till Max said ‘Be Still’ and tamed them with the magic trick…and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all”. The child is considered the most wild among wild untamed creatures. The word “wild” and “terrible” are repeated throughout the story which show how untamed the beasts are and how despite that, the child is still the most wild. 

In The Good Lion, wildness describes how the African lions behave in comparison to the good lion. “But the good lion would sit and fold his wings back and ask politely if he might have a 

Negroni or an Americano and he always drank that instead of the blood of the Hindu traders”. In the story the good lion only eats refined and civilized food in comparison to blood and meat that the African Lions eat. The Good Lion compares how the good lion is much more civilized than the African lions but does so in a way that looks down upon the wildness of them. ““Yes, father,” said the good lion and he flew down lightly and walked to Harry’s Bar on 

his own four paws.” In Africa, the good lion flies above the African lions as though he were too good to walk among them, but when he is back home he walks to the bar and does not fly above everyone else. 

-Stephanie Wilhite

The “Wizard of Oz”is a story written by the author L. Frank Baum and published in 1900. The book features a young girl named Dorthey who is lifted up into a tornado and transported to the land of Oz. There she meets a lion, a tinman, and a scarecrow who all decide to travel together to see the wizard to ask for their desires. Frank Baum communicates this story to children but gives an underlying message for the adult audience. The story presents a fantastical world for children to read but conveys to adults a commentary on American Politics at the time. The wizard behind the curtain in the story represents how leaders and politicians are really not doing anything to help the people and are just hiding the truth behind closed doors. The Wizard of Oz is certainly written as a children’s story and is targeted to them as the audience due to the nature of the story and how the book itself is written but it gives a deeper message for adults who are also reading the book to pick up on. 

The word “wild” in the Wizard of Oz is used mainly in relation to nature and wild animals. Frank Baum uses the word “wild” in the book multiple times “full of bogs and marshes and covered with tall, rank grass…But here the country seemed wilder than ever”. In this quote, the author uses the word “wild” to describe the landscape. He uses the word to describe how disorganized, uncivilized, and untamed the area was. This word is used to describe how far away from civilization and how fantastical the land of Oz is. 

-Stephanie Wilhite

Famous by Hip Hop/Rap artist Kanye West in the album The Life of Pablo is a song I would consider wild. The song itself is written by an artist that many would consider pretty wild due to some strange statements and very public controversies such as running for president, his current pleas for his ex-wife, and famously his controversy with Taylor Swift. Famous came about after his controversy with Taylor Swift that occurred at the VMA awards after he interrupted her speech to say that another artist should have won. Kanye’s song lyrics say “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous” claiming that his controversy with Taylor at the VMAs is what made her famous.

This song is wild in that it sparked up controversy and lots of media coverage and comes from an artist that is also considered wild. “Famous” sparked a very public feud between the Kardashians (Kanye’s previous family) and her, leading to many celebrities and viewers picking sides. What I find wild is how a song lyric led to a very popular feud that got everyday people (non-celebrities) invested in this drama. It’s also very wild to make claims that another very famous artist became famous because of Kanye. Another very wild thing that occurred in this song was it’s music video. The video featured lookalikes of multiple celebrities, including Taylor Swift that were nude in a bed with Kanye. I believe it’s very wild to create a video that includes wax models of other celebrities while also dissing said celebrities. The song itself I don’t believe is wild in the way it was created and sounds but instead due to the effects that occurred due to the release of the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7FCgw_GlWc

-Stephanie Wilhite

American football is a largely popular sport among American men. There are many commercials and videos that cater to it. The video I chose was a compilation of the best plays in the NFL in 2021. It is just one of many videos that are like this. The fanbase for American football is very large in the U.S. and therefore gets lots of attention and funding along with interest to make videos with rankings or commentary such as the video I chose. Football is a very male dominated sport due to the sport almost always only offering positions for men. Women participating in the sport is rare and usually looked down upon. Due to the gameplay of American football, lots of pushing and physical contact, team recruiters look for men to participate. The business behind the NFL and American football is also dominated by men. Sponsors will also more heavily fund and broadcast male sports as a whole. This sport heavily speaks to the misogyny among sports funding and exposure. It speaks to how sponsors would much rather fund male sports and make a larger deal about the sports men play versus women. Football is very popular and culturally important to the U.S. as a whole. We have Super Bowl Sunday every year to watch the finals for the NFL and thousands of ads and news articles that promote the sport. There is also the importance of football in colleges and high schools. Going out to watch the school football players play games is considered “having school spirit” and is implied to be important in participating in the school culture. 

American football is in my opinion the blueprint for “playing gender”. There is no real option for women in this sport but yet the sport is said to be culturally important to American life and school life while leaving out half of the population. Football is thought of as a wild and more brutal sport due to its heavy contact which plays into how it leaves out women. Women in society are not expected to be seen as wild and therefore are not truly welcome in this wild sport despite women still being capable of being wild and playing heavy contact sports such as rugby and roller derby. 

-Stephanie Wilhite

Wild Tales, directed by Damián Szifron and released in 2015, is a series of short stories that show the behavior of different people when they are each faced with what they believe to be unjust. In each story the characters are facing injustice and are driven to extreme behaviors in the quest of their own fulfillment of justice. This suspenseful comedic drama, like its title, is wild. This film is wild not by wild’s definition of nature or away from civilization, but instead by the meaning of bizarre, erratic actions, anger, or lacking restraint. Each story had the characters acting out in a very angry and extreme way. Most of the stories resulted in the death of someone, due to the angry and wild behavior someone exhibited. According to Urban Dictionary the word wild means excellent, special, or unusual. Each of the different parts of the film that occurred were very bizarre and very unusual making the film fit the more slang usage of the word wild.

The very first story that occurred in this film was very shocking and set the tone for how the rest of the film would play out. A character that was able to get everyone that wronged him on a plane and then crash it at the house of his parents is a very wild story. I was shocked to watch a story that would seem impossible, play out. It perfectly lays out how the other stories will be in that it surprises the viewers and re-sets their expectations for the film. The film itself I would consider wild due to someone thinking of the idea to put together extremely bizarre stories and constantly keep the viewers on their toes wondering what exciting yet unhinged event will happen next.

-Stephanie Wilhite