Should anyone even portray masculinity or try to change to image of masculinity in the minds of other. The portrayal of masculinity in famous TV show ‘Peaky Blinders’ is a controversial issue. While some may say that this portrayal creates a toxic image of men among youth, some may argue that the characters in the show portray men in the sense that they are hardworking and oriented towards being successful.

BRAINSTORMING (February 1st)

Initially, I was very confused about picking up the topic on which I would write my research paper. I had already decided that I would do my research on a topic that relates to ‘masculinity’ in some way as it was my are of interest but the problem I was facing was narrowing my research to one topic and then explaining the whole concept based on it.

In the beginning I was not clear enough regarding the research and I went for explaining a whole issue, but with some help of my friends and professor I was able to fully understand the barrier I was facing and they helped me overcome it.

Finally then I chose ‘Peaky blinders’ as my subject around which I wrapped my ideas to target a big concept of toxic masculinity .

Below is my initial brainstorming ideas, I made a note of the things I need to look and be careful of while approaching this assignment. This is just a rough idea of what I should not forget to include.

Research Proposal & Looking up Sources ( 8th February- 10th February)

Now I was clear of what I need to aim for, that is peaky blinders and the glorifying of toxic masculinity in it. Which was excused by the characters for the aftermath of world war 1. Basically, I chose this series due to the fact that I was already familiar with a lot of stuff that was portrayed in this TV show, so the first thing I did was ask myself that what they did wrong and what was its influence on me.

After that I went to Capilano’s library where I searched certain terms to get as much information as I can. After that I looked up on google for some relevant articles, and fortunately I got lucky and found plenty of articles and views of other people on it, I carefully examined every review and looked at the show from the author’s perspective whose article I was reading. I made PLENTY of notes I just grabbed everything even if it was not related just to get educated about my subject. I am glad to say that was the best thing I did. Another thing worth mentioning is that I had plenty of knowledge about the show already due to the fact that this is my favorite show and I have watched it on Netflix.

Below are some images that show my notes and some search results. I copied and pasted everything that had potential of containing information relevant to my research, just to create a space where all the things I need I available.

Peer editing and Feedback ( 15th March- 24th March)

I finished my essay was ready to get reviews on it by my fellow classmates. My friends gave a wonderful feedback pointing out all the mistakes I had done, like my thesis statement was a bit towards a bigger issue and not towards my main topic. I fixed it with the help of feedbacks. Basically, I learnt that both the feedbacks that I got appreciated the use of events in the series to relate the issue I was talking about in my essay. One of the body graphs according to the feedbacks was going a bit off topic when relating to thesis statement, so I proof-read it again and fixed it, making it much more better than before.

Also I had some flaws in citing some definitions, with the help of feedbacks I got the other day, I fixed my citation mistakes too. The same goes for small grammar mistakes, overall the feedback experience went great for me and I appreciate my fellow classmates for they spared some time to give an insightful feedback to my research essay.

While I was editing and fixing some things from the feedback, I noticed that I needed to add a relatable event in body paragraph as it was needed there. Another thing I noticed while fixing the essay was rearranging some parts of the body paragraphs to make more sense of events while reading it.

Final Reflection

Finally, the work has been done. I feel very relieved as coming from a very different academic background I faced some problems of writing with a different style and all about the citations and stuff. In the end, I figured it out and did the best I could. I surely learnt many things in the process of writing this essay, like I would copy DOI from the search results from the Capilano library site then search it up on google. This way I managed to open the full article instead of just an abstract. Also, it was a very enjoyable time for me to write about something I loved, it was the first time I had did a research on a tv show. The exciting part was the fact that I did not completely relied on the internet for the evidence I needed to support my arguments, I was already familiarized enough with ‘ Peaky Blinders’.

It was not easy for me to gather information for events as this topic did not have much of sources, to overcome this problem I searched specific scenes that directly correlate with me with the things I wrote in body paragraphs. In this way it was way more easier to pick up specific relevant information. If I were to rewrite the paper, I would definitely change my way of getting information from the beginning, and directly start with getting articles that have information regarding the events that I plan to include in my essay, this would prevent wastage of time. While editing the work of my peers I noticed the way the some facts were inserted and learnt from it. Looking at other drafts also helped me improve my thesis statement, and most of all the suggestions I received about modifying some parts of my body paragraphs enhanced my final essay. It is true that we cannot find the mistakes in our own thing unless it has been reviewed by a second person, therefore I also helped my friends by providing them with insightful feedback on their essay and helped fix their grammatical mistakes, thesis statements, and MLA guidelines.

The thing I am proud of the most is my use of examples. According to feedbacks I received on workshop days I did a very good job connecting the arguments with evidence like, explaining certain things that took place in the series and how it is proving the fact that I just mentioned in my body paragraph. Overall, this assignment was a very exciting thing to me, I did not feel like working on it instead I enjoyed every last bit of it.