Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This week’s Guest Post Thursday(‘s) Guest Post Writer is Katia Bishofs.
I met Katia a couple of years ago on (the) Finish the Sentence Friday bloghop. My first thought reading Katia’s blog, IAMTHEMILK, was, to employ an archaic expression, ‘this person really has it together’. We hit it off and IAMTHEMILK became one of my first stops on the ‘Friday rounds’. This is the truly cool thing about the ‘sphere, that I get to meet people from all walks of life, from all parts of the planet… and Canada! Katia has a pretty damn remarkable presence among blogs, being printed/published and re-printed in more sites than I read! So, when the time came to ask another clark to write a Thursday Guest Post, I realized asking her would be a perfect opportunity to demonstrate, in a small and disguised way, the efficacy of the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool of self-development!
(Yes, that is a Wakefield Doctrine docTee in the photo above.)
Without further adieu…. hey! Katia has a second site (no! not sight…site! well, maybe both, as it is a well established fact that, when it comes to intuition and near-creepy sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of others, clarks are the masters!), it’s a website totally full of helpful and valuable information and advice for mothers (and others) engaged (or contemplating engaging) in a job search: the Recruiter Mommy.
…Katia?
Top Five Best Things About Being an Outsider
I’ve been involved with the blogosphere since 2012. Due to kids (mine) and life circumstances (also mine) my relationship with it is no longer monogamous, but whenever I do visit the blogosphere, I follow Clark’s doctrine with great interest. With his help via comments on my blog, I was able to confirm my suspicions that out of the three personality types the doctrine identifies, I’m a fellow Clark. When I read about Clarks, one aspect that I find particularly fascinating about them is their overly developed sense of outsiderdom.
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I once had to come up with one of those awkward third person bios for a website I was featured on. This one read: Katia was born in a family of immigrants. She always felt like she didn’t belong, so one day she moved and switched continents so she could ‘not belong’ for a good reason”.
Up until I immigrated my outsiderdom had been an emotional state rather than a biographical or social fact confirmed by my surroundings. That well kept secret, however, would occasionally overflow and spill over to the outside at times of emotional tide and vulnerability, making itself potentially noticeable.
After moving from Israel to Canada my sense of outsiderdom finally received a reason. Seven years into my immigration, I rarely feel like an outsider anymore. I recently attended a blogging conference, where a hilarious post was shared by Meredith Bland at Pile of Babies. That particular post inspired this one, as it made me examine what would be perceived as a disadvantageous situation in a different light. Sure, immigration was one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do, but I can’t say that my new status of immigrant, a.k.a. outsider by choice, didn’t come with its set of perks. I give you immigration’s top five advantages:
- Weird behaviours are totally acceptable – scratch that. They are actually expected of you. Want to drink creamer straight from the bottle thinking that you’re treating yourself to your first ever bottled iced coffee? Want to do all of that publicly? Go for it. It can all be chucked up to cultural differences. True story.
- Geographical idiocy is acceptable as well –let it be known that my inner compass is not just off, it’s set to “Trust your gut” which never fails to lead me in the wrong direction. Guess what? Move countries and with your new permanent residence you’ll also get your permanent “Get out of judgment jail” card.
- Your “weird behaviour immunity” extends to your kids and covers them as well– when your toddler is outside screaming “mama bum!” No biggie. Cultural differences and stuff, remember?
- No one’s that surprised if you start a sentence but don’t finish it – (see?)
- Political opinions are a Nice To Have – Call me apolitical. I’m from the Middle East and I overdosed on news in the first thirty years of my life. Let’s see you drag me into a political conversation after that!
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Have you ever felt like an outsider?
Katia Bishops writes IAMTHEMILK and Recruiter Mommy and can be found on ‘the Facebook’
About clarkscottroger
Great post! Love Katia from Iamthemilk! Nice to see her on here!
Thank you so much, Clark for the lovely, lovely introduction, I really appreciate this! And hi, Sarah!!! :-)
Hey Katia,
I can totally believe that first story…packaging is deceptive…were you wondering why people werent gagging whenever they drank iced coffee?
Ive been trying to think of the reasons being an outsider is cool when one doesn’t have the cultural differences to help the cause….I think as long as you’re an old enough outsider, people grow to expect certain behaviors so you can do what you want (sometimes).
Howdy Clark!
Thank you, Zoe, for making me feel like less of an idiot about the creamer incident. I was thinking “hmmm, it’s definitely sweeter than I would expect and also, I can’t feel the caffeine, which woohoo!”
It’s a great observation you make. I first tried to think of reasons being an outsider is cool and it was too difficult of a mission. :-)
Even though I’m allegedly a Scott, I feel like an outsider quite often. Maybe it’s just because I’m a shy-until-I-get-to-know-you Scott.
Dyanne, I wonder how Clark explains this contradiction! :-)
I promise a much more cogent outline of why a ‘shy scott’ is not a contradiction… but, before I do that I will provide you with a video that I need Dyanne to watch very carefully… for the very last second of the vid, watch the wolf* closely
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpsYkQrYERo
* wolfs are our favorite … behavioral paradigm for the socttian personality type.
I think I kind of understand. It’s often the ones with the loudest bark etc. Haven’t watched the wolves yet, but interesting connection. Off to watch :-)
the thing about worldviews (the basis for our three personality types) is that they (the worldviews) are descriptions of ‘how a person relates themselves to the world around them’
a scott is said to be a predator, not only for the implication of a confident and aggressive person, those are simply styles of interacting, but for the idea that a predator experiences a world that is relatively simple, dominant/submissive, predator/prey, fight/flight… all taking place in the concrete here and now. The real fun (and this is meant to be fun as well as useful) is when you observe a scott. a primary characteristic of a scott is found by looking at them, their eyes, to be very specific. Dyanne, I am certain is very shy but all it takes is a single photo to see the ‘gaze of the scott’ in her eyes. She might be bored (by a roomful of people), she might be uncertain if people like her when she enters a room, but she is never not paying attention. (I am fond of citing the imagery of the mother lion dozing, eyes half closed as the cubs play… anyone want to walk up and grab one?…lol)
This applies to the other two, this appearance that shows/implies how a person is relating themselves to the world around them… hell, just take a look at the photo of the three progenitors…do I really need to tell you which is relating the world as a predator and which as an outsider and which as a member of the herd?
oops didn’t want to go on too long, the video? literarily it is in the last second of the tape, I swear the wolf winks at the camera (no!! really her left eye go see for yourself!)
I DID see what you wanted me to see, then! At the very last second, the wolf seemed to be saying “I could have bitten his head off, if I’d wanted to.”
You’re right that at a party or big social event where I don’t feel comfortable, I am scanning the room, people watching, taking mental notes of what is going on.
Maybe, someday, I’ll finally understand this stuff….
actually you already do… (and yes, more Doctrine to follow…lol) it is the way of ‘your people’ to grasp the essential elements of a thing quickly (as does the wolf or other predator, after all, they survive and flourish because of their reflexes and quick response)… the more complicated takes longer with scotts, not for lack of ability, rather for (seeming) lack of applicability you have the key metaphor down… of course not everyone demonstrates 100% of the characteristics of the personality types, but the degree to which people do demonstrate the predicted style of coping with the world around them is what makes the Wakefield Doctrine fairly amazing and definitely fun!
Dyanne
thank god you saw it too! (well, I do recognize the…. subjective factor in what I do with the Doctrine and sometimes I’ll see something… and think, ‘er clark? maybe you best hold back, you don’t want to alarm your readers!)
totally winked at the camera man…. and, tell me that ‘you’ would not do the same lol
Love you Katia. Great post, and thanks for the mention.
Thank you very much for this Post, Katia!
I’d like to thank you also Katia. Really enjoyed your post.
I look forward to the GPTGP at the Doctrine. The writing is always top notch and the resulting conversation, without fail, opens for me new avenues of learning about clarks, scotts and rogers. So I also need to thank you, Dyanne!!
…and your little wolf, too!
Although I did not see the creamer drinking in person, I was there and can vouch that I didn’t think it was weird at all. :) And I’ve lived in the US my entire life. Outsider? Um. Clark. I love your post here, Katia!! And you!
Hi, Clark!