Storytelling and the struggles to empathize
In the beging of 2021 I decided I wanted to to improve my skills on softwares like Premiere Pro and After Effects.
Like the storytelling junkie I am, instend of just making some silly animations, I thought it would be a great idea for me to create a completly made up makeup brand and shoot several videos as if they were cormercials for that brand through out the decades.
A true genius…
But once the idea was in my mind, I had to do it!
The process of learning more about Premiere Pro and After Effects was really interesiting, and it thaught me alot about who I am as a storyteller. However, today I want to put the softwares and the techniques aside and focus on an aspect of this project that really got me by surprise.
Part I: On the right side of history
I don’t know about you, but I tend to believe I’m on the right side of things. As time passes by, it is normal for me to look back on some of my beliefs and realize I was way off. And this is a normal part of life!
As we get older, we have more experiences and learn about different perspectives, leading our world view to shift.
With that in mind, imagine me watching a 1940/1950s commercial?
I mean, the aesthetic is splendid and some of them are good fun. However, having to listen to a bunch sexist statments, spoken off as if facts — even by women! — made me feel like wating go back in time and tell these people some truths!
Now, while feeling all the feels, what I realized was that — if I wanted to make a commercial that seemed right out of the 50s — I’d have to write something that looked and sounded like them.
And I did not wanted to do it!
How could I write any of those things, I don’t believe any of it! They are all so wrong and outdated. How am I going to make this video?
Honestly, for a moment it felt like I just shouldn’t do it. Just give up! I was ready to change my plans and a do just some redom animation when I first heard this strange — not so new — term: historical empathy.
Part II: No one ever thinks they are the villain
If the term historical empathy sounds as foreign to you as it did to me, allow me to briefly explain it.
Historical empathy is the skill that, usually, a historian has of recognizing how someone might have acted or thought during a situation taking into cosideration aspects such as politics, religion, culture, etc (Yilmaz, 2007 apud Barton).
As explained by Brooks and Endacott (2013, p.43), for historical empathy to happen there are three different steps a person must take:
- Historical Contextualization — a temporal sense of difference that includes deep understanding of the social, political, and cultural norms of the time period under investigation as well as knowledge of the events leading up to the historical situation and other relevant events that are happening concurrently.
- Perspective Taking — understanding of another’s prior lived experience, principles, positions, attitudes, and beliefs in order to understand how that person might have thought about the situation in question.
- Affective Connection — consideration for how historical figures’ lived experiences, situations, or actions may have been influenced by their affective response based on a connection made to one’s own similar yet different life experiences.
What all of this technical terminology is trying to say is that: in order for you to understand history and its implications, you can not judge historical figures actions through a mordene lense. You need to take into consideration what were the cultural norms, what were the pressures someone was facing, and all these other variable that might have influenced people’s actions.
I believe that by now — like I did — you’re probably thinking: “so you are saying that you should agree with some sexist commercial from the 40s and 50s?”. The answer to that is a resounding NO!
You see, like many people do, I mistakenly thought that empathy was the same as simpathy. Allow me to explain!
Simpathy regards the ways in which we act towards someone, being that these actions have simply the intent of creating a good relationship. The thing about simpathy is that, usually this relationships are forged through surface level connection, taking in the fact that when someone is being sypathetic, they are not trying to understand or relate to the ther person, but only get along with them. [1]
Unlike simpathy, empathy means that you are actively trying to understand someone else’s perspective, even though you might not agree with them. As explicited by Pereira (2013,p.8) “Empathy involves understanding what the historical agent thought and felt, and not having the same feeling as they did”.
I believe that a great example of historical empathy is the 2015 movie “The VVitch” (Ok, ok! May be I’m a little obssed with this movie).
The story is set on the 17th century, with charecters that are protestants immigrating from England in 1630s, who truely — and I mean truely — believe that witches, who fly around in brooms and make pacts with the devil, exist.
I can not speak for you, but I have never met a witch, at least not not like this. Also, I have never lived as a woman in the 17th century or even immigrated! Yet, I find myself caring and empathizing with these characters. Even when I don’t agrre with their way of dealing with certain things, I can understand them in a human leval.
Isn’t that what we all want?
Part III: Stop assuming, start asking!
Remember that I wanted to create a makeup brand from scratch?
Well, with the help of historical empathy I was able to do so. Because insted of just assuming what this woman was like — and projecting my own prejudices onto her— I toke the time look through her eyes and give her a chance to be truely herself. Regardless of agreeing or not with those perspectives.
I allowed myself to imagine what kind of woman from the 40s would be a business owner. I was allowed myself to relate to her struggles and how she might have dealt with them.
What I came to realize was that, the characters that initially seemed so different and othered, began to feel more like people and, because of that, I was finally able to let go and enjoy my creative process!
With that, I was able revel in beatiful magazine ads, old TV commercials and any thing I could find about makeup of the era. You know, the fun part of creating! At last, I recruited my sister as a model and got my hands on into making the video.
Here is the result!
Conclusion
After all that, when I finally finished the video I was suprised on how much I enjoyed the final product (there are some technical issues, but I’ll talk about on later posts)!
But most important of all, was the lesson I learned about storytelling. This lesson being that, when you are a storyteller you will — and you’ll want to — create complex, problematic and, sometimes, annoying characters. However, in that moment — as the person who is telling the story — your job is not to judge the morals of this character, but to help them develop and allow them to tell their own story.
That is all for today! What do think about this perspective, do agree with the empathetic lensse or do you find it unhelpful? Let me know your opinion?
References
[1] HUBACK, Rodrigo. Qual é a diferença entre simpatia e empatia?. Instituto Brasileiro de Neurodesenvolvimento, 2020
BROOKS, Sarah e ENDACOTT, Jason. An Updated Theoretical and Practical Model for Promoting Historical Empathy. Social Studies Research and Practice, Volume 8 Number 1, 2013. Link em: https://www.socstrpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/MS_06482_no3.pdf
PEREIRA, Juliano da Silva. Algumas reflexões sobre o conceito de empatia e o jogo de RPG no ensino de história. XXVII Simpósio Nacional de História: Conhecimento histórico e diálogo social, 2013. Link em: http://www.snh2013.anpuh.org/resources/anais/27/1364641045_ARQUIVO_ALGUMASREFLEXOESSOBREOCONCEITODEEMPATIAEOJOGODERPGNOENSINODEHISTORIA.pdf
YILMAZ, Kaya. Historical Empathy and Its Implications for Classroom Practices in School. Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2007
