Author Archives: Kaplan

Jinxing

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/18/12
Primary Language: English

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”.

It Never Rains At Autzen Stadium

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Eugene, Oregon
Performance Date: 4/25/12
Primary Language: English

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.

Blue For Boys, Pink For Girls

Nationality: French
Age: 33
Occupation: Assistant Professor
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/11/12
Primary Language: English

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.

Only Lesbians Drive Subarus

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, Washington
Performance Date: 4/14/12
Primary Language: English

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.

Rain Song

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Portland, Or
Performance Date: 4/21/12
Primary Language: English

Growing up in Portland, Oregon, my fellow schoolmates and I were used to seeing rainy days throughout most of the year. My informant here, a fellow elementary school student of mine, remembers that every time that we would have recess in elementary school (1st through 5th grade), we would sing a song to make the rain go away:

“Rain Rain Go Away, Come Again Another Day.

We Want to Play Outside, Come Again Another Day”

He remembers, we would sing this song essentially every day that it rained. Of course, the weather would only clear up very rarely, and most likely not due to our singing of this song. Nevertheless, on the rare occasion that the rain would stop soon after, we would all attribute it to the magic of the song and we would all vehemently defend its legitimacy. On days where it wouldn’t work, we would often attribute it to our lack of singing it correctly or not enough people to make it work, etc. My informant remembers days where we would be sad or he would even cry because the song didn’t work. He remembered thinking that he was the ‘special piece’ of the puzzle, and knew that the song wouldn’t work if he weren’t there. He thought that his friends needed him for the song to be successful.

I believe that this song is mostly known around rainy and wet areas where it would likely be utilized and passed along more often and efficiently, such as Portland. I think it may have some relation to a variety of rain dances that were used centuries ago to have rain fall to nourish the crops. I believe it is a more recent rendition as children saw the rain dance, and believed that if one could make it rain, then they could sing to stop it.