ENG 112 Online: Varieties of Writing

Essay 2 Lecture 2: What is Synthesis?

December 20th, 2007

Supplement Lecture Text:

Below is an example of synthesis from one of my favorite academic essays—Brian McVeigh’s “HOW HELLO KITTY COMMODIFIES THE CUTE, COOL AND CAMP: ‘Consumutopia’ versus ‘Control’ in Japan.”

Keep in mind that this example is in APA, not MLA. We want MLA in this class. And it’s an example that is a little more complex than what we will be doing in our first essay. However, it’s an example we can all strive for.

McVeigh argues, “But we must choose our adjectives carefully, because women who collect Hello Kitty articles are not necessarily interested in things cute, but rather have a predisposition towards what is better described as camp, and this campiness, for older female Hello-Kitty aficionados, is tied to a type of femininity that highlights cultural desirables such as sincerity, kindness (yasashisa), and sensitivity to the feelings of others (omoi-yari), the latter being a norm heavily emphasized in different spheres (see Lebra, 1984; McVeigh, 1997b, 1998). What we have is not immaturity, naïvete, or regression, but theatricalized innocence, accessorized cheerfulness, and affected youthfulness. According to one social psychologist, ‘Owning things with cartoon characters on them shows one’s childlike nature… It is proof of one’s youthfulness, which is now considered a positive attribute’ (Yamazaki, 1999). And for many women, Hello Kitty is a celebration not of childishness but of the childlike, a hope that in spite of a gloomy, harried, and harassing world in which they are forced to outmaneuver others, they are still light-hearted, spirited, buoyant, and ingenuous” (231).