I’ve been teaching my students about socialization again, and I’ve been using the Hot-Crazy matrix as a tool for understanding how some people think and questioning why. I keep on expecting the matrix to piss people off–especially women who are, by the nature of the matrix, utterly demeaned and devalued. My expectations always fall short. In truth, the ladies laugh and say, ‘that’s true because I know someone who is hot and crazy and women are always crazy.’ When I follow up by asking if they themselves are crazy, the answer is always no.
Here’s what I’ve learned about the world from this: We always tend to act against our own self-interests if doing so makes us feel part of an in-crowd or aloof. We see it in politics when the ultra-poor appalachians are voting for the super rich republicans who want to release restrictions on businesses and cut the ‘welfare state’ services that the appalachians need to survive. I saw it with the Hot-crazy where all of the women in the class loved the video and laughed alongside the guys but never identified themselves as someone being discussed in the video.
I don’t have a clue what to do with this information. I know it is real and it is problematic overall, but I don’t know how to apply my understanding in any way that isn’t evil–i.e. me taking advantage of that situation to create my own empire.
I just wish we didn’t all work in stereotypes and existed in a realm where individuals were seen as such and not classified and grouped and tagged like so many sheep…