3) Gee’s first theorem is that you either have a discourse (belonging (speaking, doing, thinking, valuing)) or you do not, there is no in-between, however it is possible to fake it. This one is controversial simply because people like to believe they can become whoever and whatever they want, but Gee I saying you can not truly do that. His second theorem is that our primary or initial discourse can not give us any sort of power and can only be truly understood once another discourse is learned that the primary one can be analyzed, compared, and understood. This is controversial because people believe that they have a very good understanding of their initial discourse, but this theorem says otherwise and says you need a comparative one to even truly use it to its fullest extent.
4) Mushfake is when you “making do with something less when the real thing is not not available” (Gee 13), or in this case being able mimic or fake a discourse when the availability is not there to truly learn it because you started too late or another reason. Meta knowledge “is liberation and power, because it leads to the ability to manipulate, to analyze, to resist while advancing” and it does that because it is the deepest and truest understanding of an idea, in this case a discourse, meaning that you know why and how your discourse works and functions. Finally, resistance is the ability to “resist such superficial features of language” (Gee 11) in other words it is the ability to not use or participate in the more crude, dividing, isolating features of a discourse that keeps the central and “real” people together, but points out, discourages, and even sometimes persecutes and belittles outsiders.
5) Gee talks about when people are trying to “teach” or otherwise “show” someone a new discourse the teacher or master makes “it looks as if they can do what they real can’t do” (Gee 11) or in other words “fake it until you make it” or “fake it until you can mushfake it”. Cuddy talks about “faking it until you become it” and that is a very bold statement, as some people, like Gee do not really believe you can change. However both people believe that the only way to even come close to getting a new discourse, speciality or position is to fake it, learn, adapt, until you either actually become it, or come so close it is indistinguishable. Furthermore, Cuddy’s power posing to raise testosterone and lower cortisol could be very important tools to “faking it” as it is a very rigorous task that can take its toll when their are so many new things and you feel like you do not belong. Just Cuddy’s simple methods could help a newcomer push past their apprenticeship until they either “become it” or are able to “mushfake it”.
I thought this was a very interesting idea, because it is true that you really need to say something right in order for someone to then get the meaning, and if you do not say it right, a lot of times the meaning is lost and they just think about how you said it
This was simply because this was a rather interesting word and I had to think about it a little and use context clues
This relates to Cuddy’s idea that you “fake it until you make it/become it” which is very interesting as se said she felt like a pretender because she did not understand the discourse yet
Again, this relates to Cuddy’s idea of faking it as Gee talks about pretending until you can actually get the discourse or fake it enough that it is indistinguishable or “mushfake”
