Proposal:
The focus of my research is the idea of escapism portrayed in TV shows that society watches. Escapism is the tendency to drift off and imagine what your life would be like if one was in that decade. People tend to fantasize about a different when life is not so smooth and want to escape their problems. Escapism is most common when reading books but it could happen when watching a TV show based in the 80’s. With that being explained I am basing my theory on escapism on a popular TV show based on the 80’s called A Different World. I chose to do this show because it has a lot of episodes that are focused on important issues that were enforced in that era. I can relate to the show because they are college students but also same race and relatable teenage issues.
Sources:
Ponsignon, Frédéric, et al. “Why Are International Visitors More Satisfied with the Tourism Experience? The Role of Hedonic Value, Escapism, and Psychic Distance.” Journal of Travel Research, vol. 60, no. 8, 2021, pp. 1771–86, https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287520961175
Background: The article discusses how people from different countries like to tour as foreigners compared to people who live there but still act like tourists. The article calls the tourist who is not familiar with the scenery foreigners. Domestic tourists are familiar with the scenery and are familiar with the ins and outs and do not see the beauty of their country anymore.
How I intend to use it: I intend to use this article to further explain the idea of escapism. When watching or reading a book we prefer to watch something unfamiliar. For example, the eighties is an unfamiliar decade I know nothing of except the stories my family tell me about. I think it’s better to see what it was like than to actually live in that decade.
Hartz, Taylor. “Get Real? Viewers Weigh in on Whether TV Shows Should Reflect COVID and BLM Reality or Should Offer an Escape.” TCA Regional News, Tribune Content Agency LLC, 2020
Background: This article discusses whether to showcase the Pandemic and BLM matters portrayed in TV shows. Writers were having a debate about showing what exactly is going on in the world. In the end, writers decided to show the pandemic in “Grey’s Anatomy”. In the show, Law & Order showed how a caucasian woman called the police on an African-American man bird-watching.
How I intend to use it: I intend to use this article to further explain how escapism can be shown in different ways. Escapism is not only about escaping reality but also showing some part of reality.
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you have more to offer on this topic than you’re showing here so far, HotGirlSemester. I hope these comments, which I also left on the “Help With Definitions” page, will prod your thinking about how to describe “escapism” in the very particular way I think you’re using the term.
HotGirlSemester is researching escapism, broadly considered. The Proposal+5 reads:
My first thought is that HotGirlSemester and I have very different ideas about escapism and that it may take quite a while to describe what she means by it. I would have thought that spending time with fictional characters the same age and race as oneself who are also in college like the viewer would be more of an IMMERSION experience than an ESCAPE. HotGirl even says the characters grapple with “relatable teenage issues.” Now, it’s possible that for HGS, the 80s are ancient enough history that watching A Different World really does feel like being transported to another time. So THAT would be an important component of escapism for her to define. Are the cultural attitudes, the mores, the ethics, the politics, the relations between races SO DIFFERENT between the two eras that HGS is escaping to the 80s? If so, maybe the charm of watching the show is that, although the characters are superficially LIKE the Author (HGS) but their attitudes and their culture are fundamentally UNLIKE each other. That’s the only way I can conceive of “having it both ways” and finding the show both familiar and alien to the World we know.
I like your observations regarding the first source, HotGirl. I think there may be something fundamentally “escapist” about any fiction from a different time period. I certainly understand how the “distance” we sense when watching people of earlier generations grapple with problems can be less stressful than seeing the same thing in a more contemporary setting.
You confuse me a bit when you insist that the characters in A Different World, for example, reflect themes and problems you resonate with, but that’s going to be your job to explain: How much DISTANCE do we want; how much SIMILARITY and RESONANCE do we need for an escapist experience to be more than just an escape?
Graded.
You’ll need more sources to get to +5, and to bring your grade up.
Further revisions are always encouraged, and regrades are always available following substantial improvements.
Should you revise, your Beloved Professor will not automatically notice.
So, if you desire a Regrade, put your post back into Feedback Please and let me know you’ve earned fresh consideration.
I’ll decide whether the improvements are substantial.
(Try not to make things worse. 🙂 )
Yes professor thank you for the benefit of the doubt i was having trouble with finding sources that relates to escapism. And i’ll try not to make things worse.
Keep in mind that sources can easily address ESCAPISM without addressing FICTION or TV SHOWS. The very idea of taking refuge or comfort or any other balm from temporarily getting “away from ourselves” is psychologically rich; anything you learn about our need to do so (and how it may benefit us to “take a break” from contemporary or personal concerns) should help you explain the value of “wasting” time on an 80s TV show. Right?