Annotating a Secondary Source

Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire

By Cara Daggett

My strategy for reading a secondary source, such as Cara Daggett's Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire, is to really make sense of what the argument is. I compile my notes on a Google document, that I would say is pretty neatly organized. Before I start reading, I split my screen, half of the window showing the reading and half of the window showing my notes. This way I can quickly take notes down as I read. Unfortunately, I am pretty dependent on technology for note-taking. I find it to be a lot more efficient for me because I can keep my notes organized and not have to switch between two mediums. However, I am very careful on what notes I write down, as I always try to write what I hear and read in my own words instead of copying everything. 

Annotating

When I start this reading, I see that there is an Abstract, which will really help me understand what the entire reading is talking about. It helps to identify the key terms and define them, for example, "petro-masculinity". After reading the first introduction paragraph, I step back to see what its about and how it relates to the overall message. From what I read, the gist is that fossil fuels don't just fuel profit, but is also fuels freedom and power over others for men.

The next paragraph gives specific evidence from the real world, by showing the steps that the Trump Administration in 2016 to cause fossil fascism. We can more clearly understand Daggett's claim because she connects to something that we are facing even today. The kind of person Donald Trump is, he really emulates the dominating male figure who uses his policies to reassert his power. As I read, I like to take quotes from the reading that really stand out to me, such as this one about Trump's climate denial. 

If I encounter a new word, like "hypermasculinity", I either look it up or use the context to figure out the meaning. Putting two together, I can see that "hyper" + "masculinity" is probably about a very intense version of masculinity that is stereotypical and really aims to be dangerous to women. 

Daggett states that her writing is a feminist perspective of fossil fuel systems, which makes it clear who the audience is, people who are studying gender and environmental studies. She also states that research that involves gender and energy is very bare, so she is hoping to also reach a bigger audience who are unaware of the importance of her research. The purpose of this journal article is highlight the link between gender and energy, and why there is so much aggression against climate change ideas. The author herself is using a lot of citations in the footnotes of every page to really show how this is real. By referencing other works, she is establishing her argument with evidence and support.