Recent Rabbit Holes

• the history and sociology of whistling as it relates to gender, race, class, the early environmental movement, and more!
• abandoned places
• those people who sneak onto cargo trains to travel across the country
• liminal space/backrooms stuff
• random winter olympics drama

Whistling

This started as an observation during a shift at my work, where I noticed a couple men in quick succession enter the store while confidently whistling. They had complete sureness that they belonged in that space, enough so to take up space not just physically but sonically, drawing unmistakeable attention to their presence. When had I last noticed a woman whistling or making excess noise in a public space so confidently? I couldn't tell you

I quickly took advantage of some downtime that afternoon to take a look at the current literature on the gendered component of whistling, and other auditory methods of taking up public space and who felt obligated to do so. I found little, but stumbled instead across a paper analyzing the history of whistling from a gender, race, and class perspective. It came from the perspective of auditory recording technology, and also promised a look at how this all connected to the early environmental movement. Suffice it to say, I was intrigued!