Womens Lit Reflection

Seeing this class on the course list choices made me happy. Finally a course I sort of felt like I already knew something about it. Including of course, my obvious female perspective because I am a girl. I liked the people in my class. I already knew some of them and they are all nice. My biggest fear was having a teacher who was hard to talk to. That was soon demolished once I met Ms. Tally.
This being a new class, Ms Tally was always asking us if we liked how she was doing things as a teacher. That was nice. I liked being able to say my true opinion although I rarely had anything to change because she gave us a fair amount of work. It was easily feasible as long as you read the books. I loved the book selection! With the exception of the Handmaid’s Tale, which I thought was quite boring. I felt like the plotline was a good start to the class but in comparison with reactions to the other books it just seems dull. I didn’t take as much from it as I did with the other books. The biggest lesson I learned in this class, is something that my dad has been telling me ever things I was little. I just didn’t listen until I had the opportunity to experience it firsthand. “Always be diplomatic.” My dad would say. It wasn’t until this class that I truly understood what being ‘diplomatic’ is. Basically, when you put your opinion out there to the public, you’d better make sure you have evidence.
One of the scariest things to me about this course was that a LOT of it had to do with time management. Well, that’s good and all. I know that’s what life is really about and I’m glad I’ve gotten better at it. I find it easier to write once I’ve talked out my thoughts to someone around me. That’s why these blogs were so hard for me to do in the beginning. Since I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. Now I just let my words flow out from the tips of my fingers and onto the computer screen. I write just like it’s my voice speaking. That’s what I love about this class. It captures your personality.
My opinion about women has pretty much stayed the same. I never thought women to be completely inferior or completely superior to men. I just thought they needed help at times from troubles with our society. I’ve learned that men do too. The whole world, men and women need to change in so many ways. They need to broaden their perspectives, and subject themselves to empathy. No matter what time, place, or status, women have similar experiences that overlap one way or another. In this way, we can relate to one another and get along better.

In The Style of Mrs Dalloway: Stream of Consciousness

“The air was in the early morning; like a flap of a wave…” (1).

South Africa
My favorite part of rain is the moments after. I see the rainbow so clearly from across the mountains and the wide open plain. All of them are still asleep, I’m the first of my group to wake up and fill the teapot.

London
I barely slept last night. It’s been two days since my daughter has left for her trip. Two days! I haven’t slept at all. Damn her school. How could they allow children to go to the wild? There’s nothing special about that. Call going to Primark at noon wild. Not going to some random grassy plain in Africa with lions. Those kids won’t come back. My daughter seems to think that by watching Discovery Channel she can survive on her own. That’s what the college experience is about isn’t it? She’s still my baby girl. It’s hot. I should open a window.

South Africa
I breathe in the clean air and it fills my lungs. I try to compare the smell to something I’ve experienced before, but nothing comes to mind. Yes, nothing. It smells like nothing. It doesn’t smell like perfume. It doesn’t smell like pollution. It doesn’t smell like food…yet. I’m confused. I thought everything had a smell. Is my nose blocked? No…I can breathe perfectly well. Look at me, I can breathe!

London
Ah fresh air. Who turns on a siren at 9am? It’s no time for loud noises. But that’s London eh. Where is that iPhone of mine? I hate iPhones. I never wanted one. But everyone says it’s the latest fashion. Everyone has one. I’ll send Amna a message. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll send her a message! Dear Amna…no no no. Dearest Amna. No. My dearest daughter Amna. I miss you and I hope you are doing well. Do not loose that pocket-knife of your fathers. You know how much he loves it…

South Africa
Bzzzt. Shit! What was that? Ohhh it was my phone! Crap. I’m not supposed to have it turned on out here. Cool! I can get reception! I should check if Noor is on MSN. I miss her! A text! From Noor? Oh just from my mom. Aww. She’s so sweet! I miss her too. Wow. I really do. I mean I barely even hugged her goodbye because I was checking if I brought dad’s pocket-knife. Umm wait. Where is it? Oh no! I must have left it by the fire at the last camp-site! We can’t go back there now can we? No… the guide just told me no way. He laughed. She’s going to kill me. I’ll just tell her a monkey stole it.

2 In One

Today we finished watching The Hours and reading Mrs. Dalloway. I thought that The Hours put up an interesting twist to Mrs. Dalloway and connected major themes. In The Hours, Meryl Streep is Clarissa Von who has characteristics of the Mrs. Dalloway character in Mrs. Dalloway. She is homosexual and has a partner, just like Mrs. Dalloway did. However, unlike the book, she remains close with her ex-husband. Richard. In the book although they remain close, their relationship did not seem as stable as it did in the movie. Clarissa Von has to deal with suicide, just like Mrs. Dalloway did. That is because she watched Richard commit suicide by falling out of a building.
I like the twist that Richard turned out to be the character of Laura’s son from the 50’s. Laura also dealt with suicide because she almost overdosed on pills, but we found out that the reason she didn’t go through with it was because she was pregnant with her second child. She says, “I can’t.” Just like how in the book says, “One cannot bring children into a world like this. One cannot perpetuate suffering…” (78). Laura ends up reasoning with herself that the reason why she cannot commit suicide is because she doesn’t want to harm a new born. I find this ironic because we find out that she left her family after her second child was born. Her husband dies of brain cancer and both her children end up committing suicide. So, just like in the book, she brings her children into suffering. When Laura comes to Richard’s funeral, she says to Clarissa Von,” Abandoning your children is the worst thing a mother can do.” Laura also said that nobody would ever understand or forgive her for it.
I think lack of choice is a big theme in not only the novel Mrs. Dalloway, but also in a lot of literature that women write. I have learned that women do a lot of things for other people rather than themselves. Nicole Kidman who plays Virginia Woolf in The Hours says, “I am the only one that can understand my suffering. I had my life taken away from me and I cannot live a life that I don’t want to live.” I think her message is important because even though it is sad to think that she would not want to live her life, and ended up drowning herself, she did what she wanted to do. She didn’t let Leonard, who I think is her husband control her any longer. When Leonard asked her why someone has to die in her book she responded with, “Someone has to die so that the others can appreciate life.” Leonard didn’t understand that. I find it interesting that she said that because maybe that means that she didn’t think Leonard appreciated life since she killed herself. I think that maybe it would have been better if the movie followed through on Leonard’s reaction after her death and if he changed his way of living.
Another aspect of the film and movie was regrets. Laura, Richard’s mother said, “It would be easy to have regrets, but what does it mean? How can you have regrets when you had no choice?” I still think that she had a choice. How awful it must have felt to go to her son’s funeral and know that he wrote about her in his book. He hated her for leaving him. The movie didn’t go into his sister and how she killed herself, which I think, is for the best because then it would have been confusing. Another example of having to deal with regrets happens when Richard was about to kill himself. He says to Clarissa Von that she and him couldn’t have been happier together and she should not blame herself for that. I felt like he had no regrets about how their relationship turned out. Laura mentions that she and Richard didn’t keep in touch often. So maybe he has regrets about the lack of relationship with his mother, but that isn’t clear.
The ending of the film shed a new light on suicide for me. In a weird way maybe Virginia Woolf was right when she said that someone has to die so that others can appreciate life. After I watched the film, it wasn’t that I immediately appreciated my life more, but I understood why someone could feel suicidal. Sometimes suicide isn’t always completely selfish like a lot of people think. When it comes to Laura though, I was surprised that she hadn’t killed herself before Richard did. It didn’t seem like she was doing a lot of things in her life at the moment, but she looked happy. I still think that leaving her husband and kids was selfish. Her home life in the 1950’s seemed perfect; she had a smiley husband and a cute son. Everyone was happy. Yet, it only seemed that way on the surface. The audience could tell that she had a lot of problems from stress and dark thoughts.
I’m glad that we watched the movie because it really put the plot of Mrs. Dalloway into perspective. Although The Hours was a combination of Virginia Woolf’s novels, but the single day plotline stayed the same. It helped me because it compressed the time span of the novel and made it more manageable for me to understand. I liked how there were parallels in the shots that captured each of the time periods. For example, when Virginia, Laura, and Clarissa would wake up in the morning, I could see a unifying quality in their actions. They would wash their face, cut the flowers, and put them down in a vase. Even though they had different lives, they shared similar experiences.

Mrs Dalloway Walk

Today’s walk around Westminster really helped me shape the book up more in my mind. I think it must have been just going to Dean’s Yard, which is where Mrs Dalloway lived. Also going to Bond Street and seeing where the flower shop Mulberry’s was. It reminded me that the book takes place in a single day and that it would only take me a couple hours to go to the places she did. First we went to Westminister bridge and we saw the Royal Abbey. We heard the Big Ben ring and just like Woolf describes, it brought a calming sensation to me. Walking through St. James park and seeing the ducks, made me think of the walk hat Mrs. Dalloway took. I’m not sure what season this book takes place in, but it could be spring. It also rained during our walk and it made me think of the symbolism in the book, such as the airplane in the sky, connecting everyone that was looking at it. Everyone on the street we were at felt the same rain we did. So even though we don’t know what that person was going through or how their day is, we both felt the same wet rain.
That in a sense is nice to think about, because one could easily connect the whole world just through scenarios like this. It would create more empathy and you would be able to know how someone else feels. Mrs Dalloway, Clarissa, and Clarissa Dalloway are all the same person, and yet have different elements to them. When a person like Hugh asks how Clarissa is today, I know that he has a certain relationship with her to be able to call her that. When Mrs Dalloway goes into the flower shop, she is greeted by Clarissa Dalloway. I, myself act differently depending on where I am, and who I’m with. For example, with my family they might call me by my nickname Amoon instead of Amna. At school different teachers pronounce my name differently:
Imna
Omina
Emna
Amnah

I thought of this during our walk because it connected me to London in the same ways that it connected the people in this novel walking through London.

"Don't Pretty Up My Vagina"

Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, goes far beyond contributing to stopping violence against women. In the chapter, “My Angry Vagina” the interviewee, speaks of what her vagina ‘wants’ and ‘needs’. The lady says, “It smells good already. Not like rose petals. Don’t try to decorate it” (70). I think this is important because it touches with the points made in Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth, in that nature is nature and women don’t need to be trying to impress anyone. “That’s what they’re doing–trying to clean it up, make it smell like bathroom spray or a garden” (70). I understand that this is an important lesson to teach because it’s true that our society should keep natural things natural. Instead of trying to change it into something aesthetically pleasing.
However, this chapter’s message gets lost because of certain disgusting parts. She talks about underwear such as thongs and how sometimes it gets uncomfortable to wear. For example she says it, “moves around all the time, gets stuck in the back of your vagina, real crusty butt” (72). The issue of this chapter is somewhat clear, that we put ourselves through discomfort for someone else’s pleasure. This description of the thong sounds very unsexy which I think is exactly what Ensler wants us to think, but you also just end up being grossed out instead of focusing on the issue. Especially if after saying that, she continues to put disgusting images in the reader’s mind. She says, “women would be coming all day long, coming in the supermarket, coming on the subway, happy vaginas” (72). I could not read this with a straight face, by the end of it I was laughing, but I could not look at other women the same way again.
I found it weirdly interesting how she personifies the vagina. She starts by bringing up birth, which is an important event for a vagina. Yet, she then talks about the other things that it wants. She says, “it wants to travel…read…sex…chocolate” (73). It just seems that this has lost the plot. I just think that she took it too far and I got confused by what point she was trying to make by the end of it. I feel that if she went beyond just underwear that woman wear then I would have been able to relate it to other things. Since she didn’t, I as the reader am just confused.

Statistics in The Beauty Myth

Naomi Wolf mentions a lot of statistics in her chapter ‘Sex’. This chapter is about how people perceive it and people’s views on it. In this specific section, she talks about how sex is portrayed in younger people. She uses MTV as an example. She says, “It seems that exposure to chic violence and objectifying sexual imagery has already harmed the young” (162). She goes on to discuss that it is not only pornography and magazines that have a negative effect on children, but even material in music videos and songs. She names The Rolling Stones who she says are seen as ‘male heroes’ and yet they say lines like, “I’ll stick my knife down your throat” (164). Not only that, but also in videos women are shown in chains or fishnet stockings and choked to death. She mentions that these images have become so normal that they don’t really shock anyone anymore. I wish she had mentioned other countries in the world rather than just the U.S. because many people in other countries would be shocked to see images like these. It is true that most world countries import U.S. T.V so maybe over time that ideology of shock will spread. I personally know teenagers my age and adults that criticize the U.S. and even U.K for airing violent programs.
According to Naomi Wolf, there are lots of statistics that support that sexual violence is highly influenced on what men consider tobe violent. For example she cites a study of college graduates and finds that, “Some women look like they are just asking to be raped. 83.5% and it would be exciting to use force to subdue a woman. 61.7%” (165). These statistics upset me because well firstly they are horrid to think about. 62% is well over half of the entire population of those schools and I get scared to think that I will be soon going to a university too. Although my university is not in the U.S. people are highly influenced by the same programs as Americans are. So who’s to say that they won’t turn out like them?
Most shocking was Wolf’s statement that, “Cultural representation of glamorized degradation has created a situation among the young in which boys rape and girls get raped as a normal course of events” (167). I think that this is so true and sad. At the same time, there are even more differences in gender because of how we react to a boy getting raped as opposed to a woman getting raped. I think that reaction is now global and not simply in the U.S.

Mrs Dalloway First Impressions

Since the beginning of the year we were warned about how difficult Mrs Dalloway by Virgina Woolf was going to be. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the plot or because of the writing, but now I know it’s both. Straight from the beginning the setting was clearly placed in London, and the character of Mrs Dalloway was introduced. The first line of the first chapter says, “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself” (1). A couple sentences later it says, “And then thought Clarissa Dalloway…” (1). Woolf continuously switches names from Clarissa to Clarissa Dalloway to Mrs Dalloway. There seems to be no pattern yet, but maybe that will become clearer as I read on. It might be that when she is in a certain place or doing something in particular then she would have to be called a particular name.
Something I found interesting how Woolf literally wrote her words in a train of thought, as in sometimes completed and sometimes not. For example, Clarissa says, “For it was the middle of June. The War was over…John, her favourite killed; but it was over; thank Heaven–over. It was June. The King and Queen were at the Palace” (2). I had to read that sentence twice or three times just to understand it. She keeps jumping around thoughts and mentioning different people so that I don’t really know whom I should be paying attention to. Will there ever be just one main character?
This takes place after WWI, maybe this is a sign of how it affected the people. For example, Septimus Warren Smith was in WWI and when he got back started to talk to himself and get stressed out easily. His wife, Lucrezia is frustrated because the doctors say there is nothing wrong with him, but she heard him say, “I will kill myself” (12). I don’t blame her for being upset. It’s sad that the doctors didn’t know what Post-traumatic stress disorder was. There are so many different characters introduced to the readers within the first 20 pages. It’s hard to follow who’s who, but also difficult that they don’t interact with each other and there is very little dialog. It seems like there’s a person thinking per paragraph, for example the bottom of page 21, Maisie Johnson is thinking and then it moves to Mrs. Dempster thinking about Maisie Johnson. I feel that this is most likely a reflection on society at the time, because people were confused about the war and violence that had happened.
I sincerely hope that I get used to this book quickly and can understand what I read within the first time of reading it. I hope that I learn to love Woolf’s writing style and maybe pick up a few traits for myself.

Guilt

After reading both A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and The Beauty Myth, there were parts that made me feel guilty.
To begin with, in Wollstonecraft’s book she advocates that it is time for women to change their mannerisms in order to better society. She says that women need to be more educated in order to have more things to think about in their daily lives rather than just housework. She says, “girls marry merely to better themselves” (79). Wollstonecraft clearly states that she does not approve of these actions but would prefer that women spend their time doing something more productively. This makes me feel guilty because I feel that I too am a part of what she disagrees with. I have dreamed about getting married and having kids. Not because I don’t want to have a job or be educate, but instead just because it makes me happy. Wollstonecraft says, “women have seldom sufficient serious employment to silence their feelings” (78). I sort of disagree with this and I will use my mom as an example. She told me that she had many opportunities to work, but she refused them because she felt like spending time with us was more important. She didn’t mind spending all of her time with us, nor did she feel like that didn’t satisfy her needs.
In The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, she explains that putting on make up and looking nice, can objectify a woman. She describes how a woman walks down the street, “she painted her face for an hour, blending and shading, and now she holds her head as if it were a work of art” (249). Well firstly, reading that line made me think of a confident executive woman maybe in a business suit and how she feels confident about herself. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I feel like by saying she held her face up like a ‘work of art’ we would be judging her. I understand that women should not only care about their looks, but I personally feel that it should be ok to want to dress up and look nice just because it makes one feel good.
Both these books have very valuable and important messages that have definitely helped shape society. While it is important to be aware of these issues, we should also focus on getting rid of the guilt and judgments. At the end of the day, isn’t that what makes us feel the worst?

Pornography- Men and Women

Naomi Wolf writes in The Beauty Myth that “such imagery [beauty pornography] represses female sexuality and lowers self-esteem by casting sex as locked in a chastity belt in which beauty is the only key” (146). In other words she means that pornography can make women feel ugly. In my opinion this is true in many cases, as we see men falling for women with a certain figure. That in a way can allow other women to think that they can only be beautiful if their bodies are similar to the women in pornography. Pornography is giving a false image of how women are meant to look like during sex and also how they’re meant to act. I feel that a lot of people in our society forget that pornography isn’t real and that most of those women were not born with bodies like that.
Another example where you see that pornography is not reality, Wolf describes a situation with a friend of hers. “A friend, a model, at fifteen, showed me the prints from her first lingerie shoot…I could hardly recognize her (151). Her friend, Sasha had scoliosis and had to wear a back brace, yet it was hidden and she was still posing in a provocative way for the camera. At the end of the story Wolf says, “like me, Sasha was a virgin” (151). This passage made me realize that nothing is even real in these advertisements. For example Sasha didn’t really have breasts that big, as she was only fifteen at the time. Also the whole scene was made to look like something made up and it didn’t represent Sasha’s real life as a high school teenager.
Wolf acknowledges the fact that pornography also can effect men negatively. While women are afraid of being ugly, the men say, “we’re afraid they’ll laugh at us” (153). I think what Wolf is trying to convey is that even though women are judged a lot by men, men are also judged by women. “The fact is that women are able to view men just as men view women, as subjects for sexual and aesthetic evaluation” (153). I like how Naomi Wolf always made sure to point out both sides for men and women. That way, her book reaches out to more viewers and avoids having a one-sided biased view. It shows that men can also feel uncomfortable with their bodies and that may pressure them into doing unordinary things.

Chapter’s I Didn’t Want To Talk About

As I’m writing this I am trying to cover the screen because there is a random boy sitting behind me and I really would rather him not know what I am writing about.

The Woman Who Loved To Make Vagina’s Happy
This chapter was about sexual acts and orgasms, but it also goes into a woman figuring out that she is a lesbian. The chapter goes on to discuss how this woman felt while watching romantic movies and seeing women moan on the screen. She says, “I longed to moan. I practiced in front of my mirror, on a tape recorder, moaning in various keys, various tones…”(107). I thought that was so weird. Who does that? She didn’t even mention how old she was while doing this. The only thing I’ve practiced for in front of a mirror was singing or a speech. I guess the other thing I had a problem in this chapter was when she describes the different types of moans in the last paragraph. The one that stood out to me the most was the “semireligious moan (a Muslim chanting sound)” (110). I guess it’s because when I hear this chanting sound I never never ever connected it to sex. It’s always been in a sacred place like a Mosque or even the Holy City of Mecca. To me this was a little bit offensive.

“As a lesbian” pg. 115 – 118

This chapter is about a woman describing sex and foreplay, all kinds of things and it makes Eve Ensler feel uncomfortable. This is surprising to me she came up with the idea of this book and yet still she wasn’t feeling very comfortable hearing this woman describe her vagina. Ensler says, “I realize I am embarrassed, listening to her…her love for vaginas and comfort with them and my distancing, terror of saying all this in front of you, the audience” (116). I think it was in this place where she realizes that she is pushing boundaries. There were certain words and phrases in this chapter that I just find too uncomfortable to discuss. Even though I understand her motivations and reasons for writing it, I have my own limits. Part of me thinks she was trying to shock people, but maybe that is for the better because it is true that we do not use these words or talk about these things openly. Maybe Eve Ensler did not intend for this book to be vulgar, but I think speaking these things aloud can provoke that reaction.

Too Much Information- The Flood

In Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, she interviews a lady for Queens who intimately describes an embarrassing moment of her teenage years. In the beginning I understood why this piece was included in The Vagina Monologues because the interviewee was so hesitant to talk about her experience openly. She says, “What’s a smart girl like you going around talking to old ladies about their down-theres for? We didn’t do this kind of thing when I was a girl” (26). Notice how she isn’t even able to say the word ‘vagina’ probably because of her age and how she was brought up.

            The lady then talks about meeting a handsome boy and him coming onto her in the car. That excited her and so she had what is considered as an embarrassing situation. He said to her that, “it smelled like sour milk and it was staining his car seat” (27). My first reaction to reading this was that I probably shouldn’t continue reading this book because things might get weirder. I also found this a bit graphic just the description of the wet car seats and stained leather. Afterwards I thought about it and came to the conclusion that if that had happened to me I would have been just as embarrassed maybe even more. Andy, the boy she was with at the time, didn’t help the situation at all. He made it worse by calling her a “stinky weird girl” (27).

            After this was all over, the woman tells Eve Ensler that she could never have sex again because she was afraid it would happen again. She says, “I closed the whole store. Locked it. Never opened for business again” (28). I thought it was sad that something like this would stop a person from having future relationships and even a family. I’m sure at that time during the baby boom of the 1950’s all women were expected to do was to have kids. I think it’s good that she ended up content with other things that she had going on in her life. She says, “Who needs it anyway? Right? Highly overrated. I’ve done other things. I love the dog shows. I sell antiques” (29).

            I think that Eve Ensler had a good point in starting these interviews because every person should be able to talk about something that has changed their life forever. I was surprised that this woman had never had therapy about this incident before and instead let it control her life. This chapter for me, was significant in that it showed that Eve Ensler had a good point in making these interviews because as the lady says, “You know actually, you’re the first person I ever talked to about this, and I feel a little better” (30).

Dad's Reaction

     Just the title of this book gives such a strong reaction to people, from what I know. When I began reading alone in my room, my dad walked in and saw the title straight away. He said in a straight face, "I'm glad you're getting your work done." He knew it was for school... I'm glad he didn't ask. But instead of letting him leave it at that, I asked if he would sit next to me and allow me to explain what it's actually about. "The Vagina Monologues," I said, "are about much more than vaginas." I stopped there and corrected myself. "Well, actually they are mostly about vaginas...but the meaning behind it is about the women." He nodded and so I proceeded. "Eve Ensler interviewed over 200 women and didn't even plan to have this book be about vaginas. [while typing it told me that the plural form of 'vagina' is 'vaginae,' funny I never heard of that].
   Thinking about how Eve Ensler had no idea she was going to write The Vagina Monologues, reminded me of how impossible it is to predict the future or tell what results are caused by your actions. Like the anonymous women who were interviewed in this book, telling their stories. The women for the most part had no idea how much they were going to tell Ensler in the interview. Ensler writes that her interviews with the older women in their sixties were the "most poignant of all, possibly because many had never had a vagina interview before" (23). Which to me is not that surprising. I would not have expected any of these women to have had vagina interviews before especially considering they were from the 'down there generation' which in the Foreword Gloria Steinem writes, "those were the words spoken rarely and in a hushed voice" (ix).

'Dis-Ease' Disease

     We live in an era where women feel more discomfort with their bodies than ever before. They are willing to do anything in order to maintain a ‘better’ more ‘beautiful’ image. The category that women strive to be in is part of what Naomi Wolf refers to as “The Beauty Myth.” In her novel The Beauty Myth, Wolf talks about exactly that. She says that the whole essence of beauty portrayed by society in our world today is just a myth; it is a lie.
     Women of all ages are willing to undergo surgery, like actually let a doctor cut up their bodies and risk death just to get a facelift or a breast enhancement, you name it. They allow beauty physicians to rip off hairs that apparently make them look ugly and so shouldn’t be there. If it wasn’t supposed to be there why did God create women with body hair?
     Smoking, taking drugs, or throwing up on purpose are all things women do just to be what society perceives as beautiful. It is a fact that young women are subject to the uprising in smoking globally.

     “39 percent of all women who smoke say they smoke to maintain their weight; one quarter of those will die of disease caused by cigarette smoking–though, to be fair, the dead women’s corpses will weigh on average four pounds less than will the bodies of the living nonsmokers,” (229).

    Are you kidding me? It’s insane to think that those women are actually more willing to die and weigh less than live and weigh more. I got upset reading that passage for the first time. You know what, it still upsets me. I don’t think it will ever stop upsetting me.
     It’s sad that they don’t value themselves for who they are instead of what they look like. And it should not matter what they look like anyway. Who is to say I’m not beautiful? I would only consider myself ugly if I were to compare myself to someone else that I thought fit better into the ‘beautiful’ image.
     Naomi Wolf states that, “The myth is not only making women physically ill, but mentally ill,” (229). Directly following, she goes on to say, “Stress is one of the most serious medical risk factors.” This is because it lowers the immune system and contributes to high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer. So no wonder women smoke; they are stressed! It still doesn’t justify the reasons behind it, but Wolf is clear to note that we shouldn’t blame those women for their actions because they are victims of the beauty myth just like the rest of us. “Women must not be blamed for choosing short-term beauty “fixes” that harm our long-term health, since our life spans are inverted under the beauty myth,” (230).

Not The Humble Dependant

Penguin Book’s edition of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman has an interesting quote on the cover that in my opinion accurately brings up the main points of our readings so far. “It is time to effect a revolution in female manners– time to restore them to their lost dignity– and make them, as a part of the human species” (49). So the first point is that there should be a change in the manners of women. Wollstonecraft touches base on these ideas by saying, “the woman who strengthens her body and exercises her mind will…become the friend and not the humble dependant of her husband (25).

Wollstonecraft acknowledges that women are indeed inferior to men when it comes to physical aspects, but she carefully adds that if given the chance, women could be intellectually superior to men. The women who ‘strengthens her mind and exercises her body’ will become the friend in a sense that other women will look up to her, admire her, and follow in her footsteps. They will not become what men want them to become that is ‘slaves of their own desires’ (56).

Wollstonecraft states that, “it will also require some time to convince women that they act contrary to their real interest” (49). I believe that women need to think of themselves as their own bosses; that nobody is holding reigns to them controlling which path they take. I believe that the only way for women to be treated equally in our society and in our planet is if women see themselves as equals.

In this generation a book with as many generalizations about gender roles and opinions as this one does would probably be criticized. However, it is important to understand that in the 1700s if someone could make a general statement about anything, it meant that they had enough knowledge to do so. It meant that that person had enough time on their hands and enough intelligence to read novels and comprehend them. So for Mary Wollstonecraft, and many people at the time, this book is groundbreaking. It not only opens up whole new ideas of what women are capable of, but it also allows for women to not blame themselves that society has corrupted them in such a way to fight against one another over who is more beautiful. Women, in my opinion, must befriend one another and act together in order to gain back the strength and power that they so rightfully own.

The Handmaid's Tale (Chapter's 1-8)

     The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood presents itself as a social-science fiction. Though that is arguable, I believe it is the most accurate genre for the novel because of its foretelling futuristic plot mixed in with the current structure of society.  Most intriguingly, in these chapters I find is the society where knowledge is expected to come from the elder women and go to the young. Yet, at the same time, the elder women are not always willing or able to give advice to the younger generation. Aunt Lydia holds the hands of the main character as an ancient tradition. The main character then goes on to tell us that Aunt Lydia's hands were empty and that her hands, as the young woman, "were supposed to be full, of the future; which could not be held or seen," (pg. 57). That just goes to show how untold the future really is; which I think makes it even more interesting that Margaret Atwood decided to write a novel with her thoughts on what 'could' happen.
     This book was written in the 1980's and contains 'images and sardonic wit,' as said by Independent. It is true this book is full of all types of imagery: Auditory, Tactile, and Visual.

A Letter To Hanna Rosin

Dear Ms. Rosin,

            I read your article, “The End of Men” for my Women’s Literature class and I must say it has led an interesting discussion in our classroom.  Your article brought up some thought provoking points that otherwise might have not been noticed. I personally never knew that more couples are choosing to have daughters over sons, which I believe does in fact prove your point that more women are beginning to populate our planet, and with that contributing more than ever to our economy as a whole. You mentioned several times in your article that “man has been the dominant sex since the dawn of mankind,” which is true, but you also wrote that the “era of the firstborn son is totally gone.” That is probably true in most of the Western World, but there are many other countries that still follow their traditional ways by man leading his society either because of religious reasons or family culture. Also, while mentioning that during the recent recession “three-quarters of the 8 million jobs lost were lost by men,” you failed to explain how that affects women in the workforce. I believe that in order for your initial argument that women are essentially undermined by today’s society to get across efficiently, you must thoroughly research the facts on both sides to prove your point. If you cannot find sufficient information to support your argument, then it is just not worth arguing about because your audience will not understand what you are trying to tell them. Please do not take my thoughts and comments of your article too critically. I agree with most of your points, but I advocate in equality and not superiority of either genders.

Sincerely,

Amna 

First Impression

     Having just started Women's Literature yesterday, I am already getting a good vibe from the new blogging idea. Not only have I never blogged for a class, but I have never blogged for anything else either (in the online sense). That doesn't mean I haven't been asked to though. Oh no, some of my friends actually have a blog up and running. They contribute to it weekly and that's great for them. I just never really made time for it until now.

     I have always tried to keep a constant source to release my energy into. Whether it's sports, drawing, writing, or taking pictures there is just something special about having at least one thing that is done just for yourself. Though this blog is going to be checked and graded on by my teacher, I still feel...at ease because it is just as she said, MY published work.