Author Archives: Kaplan

Only Lesbians Drive Subarus

This piece of folklore falls under a general stereotype and is potentially offensive to some people. When I was talking with my informant, he informed me that he drove a Subaru Outback. He paused for a second, seemingly waiting for my response. When I said nothing, he told me that many people say that

“Only Lesbians Drive Subarus”

When I asked my informant more about this, he began to tell me that he gets comments like that on a regular basis. People are always, jokingly, asking if he is a lesbian because he drives that car. My informant is from Washington and says that “even though there are a lot of outdoorsy women that drive Subarus, I still don’t fully understand how they got such a bad wrap”.

Subarus are a much more common car in the Pacific Northwest, but he says the he’s heard the stereotype everywhere. “It’s just a good all-purpose car. It can get me to the mountains, off-roading, and everywhere else adventurous that I want to go” he says. He said that it’s probably not a good thing for marketing the car, considering lesbians likely only make up a small percent of America’s total population. “Maybe they should do some new marketing or make a new name for it” to grow it’s market a little bit.

When I asked why he had the car in the first place, he said, “my dad said it was the only car I could get. I’m not mad about it, I still think it’s pretty cool”.

I think that the car may have gotten this stereotype because of advertisements, or because many pacific northwest women are more outdoor types, which is typically connected to a ‘lesbian personality’ in popular culture for some reason. I don’t think that there are more lesbians driving Subarus than any other brand of car out there, just that it tends to be more rugged women that drive them. It seems as though the stereotype has caught on, however, as I have heard people say that even living here in Los Angeles.

Blue For Boys, Pink For Girls

This piece of folklore is something that is widely known across the country, if not the entire world. My informant is a pregnant woman, and works and lives in the Los Angeles area. When asking her about folk practices that she takes part in regarding her baby during pregnancy, she said that she is waiting to find out whether it is a boy or a girl so she can find out whether to paint the baby’s room pink or blue, get it pink or blue blankets, or get it pink or blue clothing.

When I asked my informant where she got this notion of baby boys being ‘blue’ and baby girls being ‘pink’, she simply said “it’s everywhere”. We all have grown up in a society where that’s just how it is. Popular culture, magazines, movies, and more all exhibit that this is just how it is and how it’s always been.

“The other day”, she said “I was watching the sequel to Father of the Bride”, and they were creating the baby’s room. She was going to be a girl, and they showed the room and it was “all pink, pink walls, pink furniture, pink stuffed animals, pink everything!” she said. It got her thinking about it, and solidified the fact that she would have to do this for her child if she wanted it to have a ‘normal upbringing’.

When I asked her how she believed that this notion and tradition started, she just said that it’s probably in human nature. Blue looks like a more masculine color, and obviously, pink is feminine she said. When I asked her why blue and pink rather than any other colors, she said that she wasn’t sure. “Maybe they’re just the most inherently masculine and feminine colors” she said.

I believe that this tradition started because, like my informant said, blue and pink are the most inherently masculine and feminine colors there are. I remember reading of a study saying that men are more naturally attracted to blue, while women are more attracted to pink. I believe that this tradition stuck on, and is now a big part of our popular culture and traditions of a baby.

Annotation: Father of The Bride Part II (1995), Movie.

It Never Rains At Autzen Stadium

Last year, I went to the USC vs. University of Oregon football game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. At the beginning of the game, the announcer in the loud speaker at the game proclaimed that:

“It Never Rains at Autzen Stadium!”

As he said it, all of the fans yelled it along with him and began cheering loudly. I turned to my friend that I was at the game with and asked her what the deal was. I knew for a fact that Oregon is notorious for its heavy rains. In fact, I had watched an Oregon football game the weekend before on TV where it was a torrential downpour! My informant said that it’s just a part of what they do at football games.It’s a tradition, she said.

She told me that they’ve always done it, and that they even did it when her brother was at school there in the early 2000’s. “It’s not that it really doesn’t ever rain at Autzen Stadium”, she said, “it’s more about the symbolic meaning”. Something like, the Ducks never have a bad game at Autzen Stadium, or that they will always play well, she says.

My informant told me that there have been multiple occasions in her college career where they have blatantly said that while it was raining or pouring. She says that it’s just something that brings everybody together at the games; it get’s everybody fired up. “The players love it, the fans love it, it get’s us ready to go!”.

I believe that this tradition was likely started because of Oregon’s notorious rains and long rainy season. It was likely a way of intimidating opposing teams and players. Because usually that might be the only thing that opponents know about Oregon, I see it as the University’s method of saying “you don’t know anything about us, you don’t know what you’ve got coming for you in this game”. I also think it’s symbolic, like my informant stated, that the Ducks will never play a bad game there.

Jinxing

This piece of folklore came about when I was watching a basketball game with my informant, and the player had gotten fouled and was shooting free throws. The commentator said that this shooter was a “phenomenal free throw shooter, one of the best in the NBA”, and that he had made 16 in a row at this point. My informant looked over at me and said, “he just jinxed him”, and the player wound up shooting and missing the free throw attempt. My informant said “I told you so”, and I asked him what he thought the origins of jinxing were.

My informant told me that he has been familiar with the concept for years, in sporting events, and life events in general. “I’ve learned to never try to predict things, saying that things will be good or that something will happen. I’m afraid of jinxing it” he said. When I asked my informant whether or not he really thought that this piece of folklore was, in a sense, real, he said “you never know”. He told me that more often than not, whenever he feels like he has jinxed something, it usually goes wrong.

My informant told me that he wasn’t sure whether it just felt that way, or if there really was a statistical correlation. He says that he is especially sensitive to jinxing in the world of sports. He says that he never outright says that one team will win, or that a certain player will have a good game if he is rooting for them. He said he just wants to “play it safe” so he doesn’t get frustrated afterwards if things go the opposite way.

He says that sometimes he’ll even try to jinx the team or player that he is rooting against, telling somebody that the team he wants to lose is “going to win”, in hopes that it will jinx the other team. A lot of people believe that it doesn’t work that way, he says, but thinks that he may as well try.

I believe that this piece of folk belief likely dates far back in history, as it seems to be common across the globe and a very common belief. I believe that people believe in jinxing because they only really pay attention to when the jinxing actually works. If a person or team gets jinxed one day, and they end up succeeding anyways, I believe that an individual will not pay as much attention to that event. On the other hand, if a jinx goes through and truly works, I believe a person is more likely to say, “I told you so” or “that always happens”.

Signs from the Dead

My informant for this piece of folklore was recalling a time shortly after her father had died over two years ago. My informant, now 54, discussed with me a charm that she spotted that brought a sort of closure to his death. She told me that outside of her home window, just a week after her father’s death, she saw a Western Meadowlark, Oregon’s state bird, flying in her backyard.

My informant says that this specific bird seen incredibly rarely, and that she had never seen one before in her life, despite living in Oregon for over 40 years. Many cultures, my informant says, “believe that the dead send messages to their loved ones in a form that they are likely to recognize as a sign that they are on their journey and that all is well”. She says that her father loved birds, and throughout his life always had a birdfeeder in his backyard. She says that she and her only sister had grown up with a love of birds because of this, and shared a deep connection with their father on this topic.

“It must have been more than just a coincidence to have one of these rare birds even be spotted outside our home, let alone hang around for almost an hour flying in our yard for my family and I to see”, she said. Even more amazingly, her sister, who lives about an hour away, and is an “amateur birder”, had the same experience just a day later! My informant remembers being in awe when she spoke to her sister and they realized that they had both had the same experience with these birds. “What are the random chances of that?” asked my informant. “It must have been dad”.

She said that both her sister and her found that a sign from their father in the form of a meadowlark was “so appropriate” and that they believe that this was a sign sent down from him as a form of parting words or symbols.

My informant’s take on this occurrence was also grounded in reality, as well. “An openness to messages and miracles from beyond reveals some pretty comforting, awe inspiring experiences”, she said. It’s a way of comfort and of closure.

I agree with my informant in this case- the rarity of such an event, especially happening to both her and her sister, points to something supernatural occurring here. I believe that this folklore, of signs sent back from the deceased, likely dates back very far, possibly to the Native Americans and beyond, like my informant said. It is a way for those still living to find comfort in knowing that their loved one is safe in whatever new life they are leading now, depending on the beliefs of those who still live. I thought that this is a pretty phenomenal piece of folklore and example of it in action, and that it is important to share and archive for the future.