Blog #1

The concept that I am going to talk about is Conquergood’s performing as moral act. I strongly agree with all four theories and can really see how they play out in different situations. Basically what the four theories explain is how and why you are engaging with another person the way that you are. They thoroughly explain your motives and the reason why you are choosing to engage with another person.

The first of the four is the custodians rip off. In this theory it explains that you are only engaging with someone in order to gain something for yourself. An example of the custodians rip off is gold diggers. Gold diggers will date or marry someone who has a lot of money, not because they care about them and like them, but because they want their money. They are in the relationship for selfish reasons and are trying to gain something for themselves. Another example of this would be when kids suck up to their parents because they want money. They are only engaging in this friendly behavior because they want something from their parents, not because they genuinely mean it.

The second of the four is the enthusiasts infatuation. With enthusiasts infatuation, people try to overlook and avoid admitting problems or differences within a relationship. They put their “blinders” on and only focus on the good because they don’t want to face the issues. The best example of this would be a bad relationship. I have seen this happen many times before. People get into a relationship and they really like their significant other, so once problems start to arise they ignore them because they don’t want to risk losing their partner. They overlook differences and do everything in their power to justify that everything is going great.

The third of the four theories is the curators exhibitionism. With the curators exhibitionism people solely focus on the things that deviate from them and are in contrast with their life. They judge a person based off their differences and they only view them based off of what is different about them. A good example of this would be racism. People judge others based off the color of the skin and just because they don’t look the same. Another common example would be politics. People could get along great and then they could mention that they are in different political parties and will suddenly have conflict. They close their mind off to differences and judge people based off the traits that don’t align with their own.

Lastly, the fourth and final theorie is the skeptic cop out. Skeptic cop out is very similar to the curators exhibitionism. The only difference is that with skeptic cop out people actually decline to interact with those who have contrasting traits with them. A great example of this would be when you are interacting with step parents. Some might not want to interact with them just because they aren’t their “actual parent”. Not because they have been wronged by them in any way, but just because they aren’t their real birth parent so they close their mind off to a connection with them.  

I felt that Conquergood’s performing as moral act was important to talk about because it caused me to become aware of the different motives for interacting with others. In the moment we never stop to realize why we are doing what we are doing, but it is really important to start realizing your motives. Another reason why I chose to talk about this concept was because it involves everyone. Everyone can think of a time that they were in each theory and communicating solely based off of the reasons described. It is very easy to relate to and important to become aware of.