Hjiab

After reading Persepolis I was curious as to why some women wear the veil and others do not. not from a political side just generally curious as to what the hijab represents. Although this video does not answer my question, it does shed light on the fact that by wearing a veil women in the world as being questioned about their intentions just because of an article of clothing. So even though I am curious, and so are others, it is important to remember that these women are people too and we should be sensitive to how we approach the subject because there is so much media misrepresentations. Wearing the veil has become a big debate in the Muslim culture because it can be used as an item of suppression but if a woman is choosing to wear it then she should not be ridiculed for her choice.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/taniasafi/this-is-what-hijabi-women-want-you-to-know?bffbvid&utm_term=.vtOR8R7b3#.tsKeKe3aE

Victoria's Secret

After Vitoria's Secret fashion show one can only expect to see an array of opinions about the women and their bodies. Right now society is in a body image positivity movement. Love your body for what it looks like and who you are. Everyone is different and should be celebrated...except if you are skinny. In the midst of all this love women with curves (which is good don't get me wrong, I am all for positive body images for every woman) comes the knocking down of women who are either naturally very thin or work really hard for their figures. I have read things such as "only real women have curves" which is just so hypocritical of the whole movement of appreciating women's bodies. I am naturally very thin and when I was in high school I was a competitive gymnast for ten years so I had a gymnast body and I used to get put down because of it all the time. We should be celebrating all bodies and not berating those that look different than yours. The new wave of women's experiences now goes skin deep.

Here is a link to the work-outs the Victoria's Secret models do and let me tell you they work hard and are happy with their bodies. So Shouldn't everyone else be?

http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Victoria-Secret-Model-Full-Body-Workout-21416942

Creative Response

Blackout: Brooke Gray

As I wake on this mid-summer day

My skin damp and my dress wrinkled with dew

Surrounded by hay I realize I am not where I usually lay

And I remember toasting to the fond memories of you

How everyone thought you were so kind and caring

I wonder how long I laid here, drifting in a black sea

No longer am I angry with the news I had been sharing

No longer will you and I open the doors with a church key

The longer I sway here in this field I come to touch with who I really am

I harvest the thought that I don’t need you to make me complete

I will no more sit beside you like your adoring fan

The wind blowing you out of my mind like just another piece of wheat

Standing up I walk home head held high and I go to shower

Scrubbing you off from me because waking up alone showed me I had power

I wrote this sonnet for my creative writing class, however, I wrote it around the time that we were reading Robber Bride and it really inspired me to write a poem about how women are not weak and we can move on and be strong after a break up.

Female villain/Robber Bride

Think of female villains from literature and film. What do they seem to have in common? Is female villainy different from the male variety?

To mean when I think of female villains, I automatically think about sex. Many of the female villains in literature and film revolve around the scandal or lust over a man. I cannot recall any film readily were the female villain was not a sex object or was committing crimes where the male gaze was not present. Which is different from males because many times the male villain is seen as trying to end society or the world, a much grander crime and women are shown as fighting over the affection of a man. Women can be bad ass too, we are not just baby makers. 

Sorority bashing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=hSTCGe4neOM

This post hits close to home.

I understand that being in the greek community may not be for everyone, however, this video does not show that. It shows the bashing of Greek women. It portrays any woman who is affiliated with a sorority as a mindless robot and undermines anything positive that being a member of a sorority can do for someone. There is no merit in this video, no evidence, all it is doing is making fun of women. It is doing exactly what many people wrongfully accuse sororities of doing, which is breaking down a woman's character. My sorority has provided me with endless amounts of support when I thought my whole world was falling apart. my sorority sisters give me confidence to go after my goals and not settle. As the creator of this video was a woman, I feel like instead of trying to bash on women she should have come up with a more respectful way to talk about her frustrations about the Greek community, women should pick each other up, not knock each other down.

Defunding

https://www.facebook.com/TheOther98/photos/a.115969958413991.17486.114517875225866/1193027930708183/?type=3&theater

This might be TMI but I figure since this is a women's writing class which focuses on women's issues and this is a womanly experience that it would be appropriate to discuss. When I lost my virginity I was beyond scared, not because I couldn't talk to my parents or because it was traumatic but just because it was a big thing. Oddly enough my best friend also lost her virginity at the same time (I know creepy) and we needed somewhere, some place to go. So we went to our neighborhood Planned Parenthood. When we went it wasn't for an abortion, we just went to have a check up, and be informed about birth control. Now that they have defunded them, I am worried that those resources will become harder for young girls to find. It was a huge comfort just to have someone to talk with about how sex works and how I can be safe about it.

Planned Parenthood

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/planned-parenthood-abortion/398558/

This may be offensive, however, it is just my opinion on this whole video scandal. From the research I have done, the tissue samples from fetuses were going to research. Why is that a problem? If the aborted fetus was just going to go to waste or wasn't needed for a religious ceremony then having them used for research can help save lives. The women from my understanding were not pressured or misinformed about the transaction. I am pretty sure that they had to consent to everything, the abortion, what happened afterwards, and whatever else Planned Parenthood has. Money makes the world go round, and if Planned Parenthood needed that extra money for their service which benefit so many other people then why is that a problem.

Stephanie Lenox

I took the editing and publishing workshop with Stephanie and also attended her poetry reading.

It was interesting to see two different sides of her English passions. I was very surprised at the types of poems she wrote/read because they were very different from her business side. Her poems were very informal and deep, they really showed emotions and had a sense of humor in them. Compared to her philosophies on editing and publishing which were very much about effective communication, relationships and professionalism. It was nice though to see the different sides because it made me able to connect more to her and her poetry by seeing her as a real person outside of the business world.

I have never been to a poetry reading before and it was a very interesting experience. It puts the poems into perspective when you hear them read from the author's tone of voice rather than your own. When you read them yourself you imply your own personal meanings.

Research Paper Assignment

Graphic novels are becoming very popular in young adult literature and as an aspiring high school English teacher I want to research topics/themes in this book so that way if I wanted to teach it in the future I would have a good background to pull from. I found the views of women presented in this novel are views that many Americans are not used to seeing or dealing with. I want to research deeper into the oppression of women in Iran and how that can affect young men and women growing up. I also want to put some aspects of social standing in there because I really feel that depending upon which class you fell in had an influence on the severity of the oppression you received. And possibly to tie in a cultural connection to people in the U.S I could talk about the contemporary movements about wearing the shawl here in America. I have seen articles on the internet about Muslim women taking a stand and voicing their opinion about the meaning of the shawl and whether or not a woman should be required to wear it.

Short Story: Sarah by Mary Lavin

I thought this story was interesting because the stigma for having children out of wedlock in Ireland was very bad. Many women-- as I have learned through the films we watched in class-- were sent to asylums to go through a process of reformation. But in the short story Sara the only thing that was said about Sara was that she had a bit of a bad name. Even the people in her community would go to defend her. It makes me wonder why the views in this story did no match the views that I have seen in other parts of Ireland. Yet at the same time none of the other town women trusted her around their husbands. Another interesting difference I noticed between the short story and the film was that in the story when Katty was telling her husband about what happened to Sara she said that she was found where women like her belong, in a ditch. Why did she not say a magdalum asylum? It is clear to me however that at the end of the story Katty did believe that the father of Sara's child was her husband. And I do believe that as well because of the husband's reaction. Did he react the way because he actually had emotions towards Sara or because she was carrying his child? This story for me leaves a lot of room for the reader to make inferences, it does not give a lot of detail about the mindset of Sara or any other characteristics for that matter except for the fact that she was a religious woman.

I am having a hard time grasping onto the fact that these nuns in the asylums truly believed that these children from the penitents were born as bad children. How did they think that denying them a mother was going to fix anything. How can a woman deny their motherly instincts?

Perspolis

Marji’s family continues to drink and go to secret social gatherings for many reasons. One of those reasons is because it gives them a chance to relax and escape from the cruelty of the war around them. It gives them a reason to celebrate and to remember what fun feels like. Another reason, one that relates to social class, is because they are wealthy they do not feel the threat of punishment as harshly as those of lower class do. A good example of this (besides the fact that they can afford to buy wine) is when they are stopped by law enforcement her dad was able to escape punishment and being searched because he was able to pay them off. Class plays into many aspects of her life and this is just one of them.

Lives of Girls and Women

In “Changes and Ceremonies” what significant changes occur?

This chapter centers around the focus of the Operetta. I viewed the importance of the Operetta as the right of passage for moving on from middle school/Junior high to high school. I thought of this as an important influence of change because of this quote, "It was becoming known that boys-- some boys-- would walk home with girls--some girls-- on that night" (149). Throughout the whole chapter, Del was beginning to look at boys differently and she was looking at the desire to become one of "those girls". She even develops an eye for Frank Wales which was something new to her, so new in fact she didn't even mention it to her best friend Naomi. And this year was generally the last year before people made life decisions. Some of her classmates did not even come back to school the next year but went to do labor work. It seemed to me that this chapter was the last year that Del had innocence. 

Slammerkin

The red color of the slammerkin is a major motif in the novel. To Mary, the color red has captivated her because she lives in a world of gray poverty, hardship, and isolation. To her, the color red symbolizes a chance for her to live a life beyond her humble one and enter a world of excitement. The color red also reminds her, however, that in the life she lives now she can never have something as nice as a red ribbon. So it drives her to into a new life of prostitution. Here in this life she is learning how to control men and hold power over her own life. The desire for the red ribbon high-lights the underlying desire for power and control that Mary seeks in her own life.