About Me: Because Many People Want to Know Why & I want to gripe about research access.
Dear Visitors,
I've received a lot of comments in regards to why I chose to be proactive about figuring out the image.
When I first started, I really didn't know why. But since then I've done a lot of thinking. I believe it comes down to a number of things.
1) I'm a capitalist. Originally I bought the domain because I figured I would get a good return on investment. Through work experience I've gained a background in marketing and web (I've built my own websites before, I'm pleasantly surprised at how efficient Weebly is.) I figured I could web farm it or resell the domain, as once you put something on the web it is hard to take it down. I'd have free advertising on and off for a while.
2) I'm a folklorist. I studied folklore in college and grad school. No, not Cinderella. I guess as a folklorist and an internet junkie (redditor), I've had a fascination with circulation, reinterpretations, and uses of images on the web, especially how they develop through time. Some internet images live for years, die, and resurface again for another purpose (in Reddit terms, images and copy pasta will always be reposted and reposted). I was lucky enough to have Alan Dundes as a professor, who taught me little things can be important.
The boring part of college and grad school exposed me to some statistics, critical thinking, library and internet research tactics, and human subject policies. I was cleared to do my own human subject research (but then decided to study dead people). I've also had the pleasure of being a review editor for an academic peer reviewed journal.
Who won?
Obviously the folklorist in me did. Even though I'm done with school, I saw this as a unique opportunity to prevent/clear up a lot of potential misconceptions over an some data on a very sensitive and touchy subject. In my opinion, acquaintance rape is under-reported, misunderstood, and often ends in victim blaming. (I've tried to avoid inserting my opinions on other parts of this website for the sake of only focusing on the veracity of the data...however keep in mind researchers are all often driven by something).
Something I learned.
It sucks not being a college student if you want to do research. Crappy electronic resources and limited library access (and for me, one that paled in comparison to other universities) really, really sucked. Especially when you live in a remote area. The library I went to for a book needed student IDs to copy or scan...if I wanted to check out a book I would have to pay $60 for a year to check out books as a member of the public. I have to admit Google Books helped a lot in terms of searching through books to verify some things or to see if a book was worth tracking down. Further it helped immensely that people kept sending links. Thank you to those who did, and even though I haven't gone through all of them I still will try to reply to people individually.
In short, anyone with a little bit of time and perseverance can do their own research. It is just a lot harder, in my opinion, when you aren't a college student or part of academia.
Best,
Your friendly internet folklorist
p.s. folklore does not equal false knowledge.
p.p.s. check out my future projects page.
