Bodies Quotation

The quote that caught my eye the most was at the very beginning when it stated, "Many women feel ambivalent about their bodies. In significant ways women's bodies are a source of empowerment: They create life, give birth, work out, express sensuality and sexuality. On the other hand, women may perceive their bodies as too fat, too thin, painful during menstruation, or vulnerable to sexual abuse". This quote is so powerful in many different ways. It states the characteristics that a women's body entails while also incorporating the relevance as well. It shows the positive and some may consider other as negative effects of a women's body. All in all when it comes together I can personally on some level relate to this poem. On a daily bases I feel like I am in some way putting my body in a negative perspective. I am never satisfied with how I look, and I feel like many women out there feel the same way. I liked this quote the most and it includes a great deal of what this class women's writers embodies.

Writing bodies/ Bodies Writing

The quote I choose to post is, "Throughout history women have been subjected to physical, psychological, verbal, and economic abuse at the hands of men, often those who claim to love them- husbands, lovers, fathers, uncles, brothers." I believe this quote is important because you always hear about women coming out and talk about the abuse, but you never hear men really say a lot. But when women are talking about the abuse they have gone through, most people have the tendency to blame the women; saying along the lines of they were asking for it. 

Also, while I am posting I would also like to add some thoughts about the discussion that was held in class. When Laura asked the question if someones sexual preference should matter, mostly everyone said that it shouldn't. But when reading about May Sarton, she was cast many teaching jobs because she came out as a lesbian. I just wanted to add to the discussion, that I think we all believe it shouldn't matter who someone loves, but in reality it does. And I honestly believe that we are never going to live in a society where there isn't one person who doesn't have a problem with it, as sad as it is to say.

Writing Bodies/Bodies Writing

p. 376 "For many women writing the body, pleasure is impossible until sexual violation and its aftermath have been painfully inscribed. The hurt and rage caused by rape, incest, and sexual abuse enflame many woman's writings, as do issues of anorexia, bulimia, and other forms of bodily denial. Some women have felt compelled to conceal sexual violence even as their writing exposes it."

When I read this I thought that perhaps many women aren't sure how to write or what to write about when talking about there own bodies until something tragic happens and then they see what there bodies truly mean. When something such as horrible as sexual abuse occurs some women have no other way to talk about it then in there writing. They can't get away from what happened but might not want to tell anyone so they write, or some get an eating disorder because they feel they have to change themselves. It's horrible that this happens to many women and that they can't write about the body until something like this happens.

The quote that stuck out to me from the Writing Bodies/ Bodies Writing intro dealt with sex and agriculture metaphor. Aristotle's idea that the "active sperm gives identity to the passive ovum" and the female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities". Women have been compared to the Earth(uterus) in which seeds(sperm) are planted. I disagree that the act of fertilization gives men more power or superiority naturally. Surly a farmer is not more powerful than the Earth. The farmer or seed-planter is not the only one acting in the growth process,even if it seems that way to them. The Earth and its elements will have the final say whether there will be growth or not, not the farmer. This actually relates to womanhood as well because women do have the final say on whether they will allow a child to develop within them or not. Women today have more power than men when it comes to reproductive rights as long as they don't let themselves be swayed by the opinions of the 'farmers' who may or may not be able to plant seeds within them. It is the woman who has the final say with regard to whether or not she will allow seeds to be planted (unsafe-sex). It is also the woman who has the final say whether the seeds will be allowed to stay and grow or if they must be rejected or eradicated (abortion) especially if it was not her choice for the seeds to be planted (rape).

As for that idea about a lack of qualities that makes us female, I think that there are just as many qualities and natural abilities men lack that women posses. It is ignorant to assume women are the only ones lacking. Men and women contribute evenly to society and reproduction even though they may at times play different roles. One key point may be that women lack that superiority complex that would push us forward and hold men back. Women, I think, more readily acknowledge and have acknowledged over time that the skills and roles of both sexes are important and valuable to the continuation of society.

Bodies Writing

            After the discussion of the quote "Many women feel ambivalent about their bodies. In significant ways women's bodies are a source of empowerment:"in class today I was shocked that no one brought up the idea of genetics.  I'm also surprised that so many intellects choose to not consider this when looking at gender. As most of us know all eggs contain the X chromosome while it is the sperm that determines the sex of the baby by carrying an X or Y. Contrary to many cultural beliefs it is the male who determines the sex of the baby not the female. it is not until seven weeks into development that genitalia begin to develop, both male and female have the same anatomy up until this point.
           In my freshman biology class in high school I was taught that females are genetically superior to males, end of story. Females being XX and males XY. All sex linked disorders are attached to the X chromosome, for example color blindness and hemophilia. A female can be a carrier of this disorder but not necessarily be effected by it, because she has two X chromosomes one can compensate for the other. Males, how ever, can only be carriers if they are effected by the disorder because they only have one X chromosome. With this knowledge I don't think it is fair that so many people forget or just don't know about it. Being female is AWESOME! at least I think so and I wish more women thought this as well instead of criticizing ourselves and each other, lets celebrate our triumphs, and not harp on our short comings.

Bodies Quote

"Both women use absolute language, direct address, in their manifestos; theirs is an urgent message-"your body must be heard"- a seductive cry for distinctively female erotic voices (Cixous, LAWL 395).

This quote goes along with the saying "Actions speak louder than words." Women have the power and right to freedom of speech and expression and in ways that can be very powerful. But how far can those words go if you don't actually do something about the issue? Women's actions would make a larger statement then just talking about it. They can make a bigger difference in society.

Body Quote

I chose the same quote as Maelia for this section and would like to continue off of her explanation, "Many women feel ambivalent about their bodies. In significant ways women's bodies are a source of empowerment: They create life, give birth, work out, express sensuality and sexuality" (page 375). It really spoke to me in the fact that women have so much to offer, and so much power in their body. Granted neither sex can live without the other, however, it is a woman's body that carries a child for 9 months and then gives birth. Men don't often realize just how strong the female body is. In response to Maelia's post, I also wonder how women haven't already had the power throughout the years. If it was a woman who brought you into this world and raised you, how wouldn't a man think of a woman as one of authority?

body quote

"Many women feel ambivalent about their bodies. In significant ways women's bodies are a source of empowerment: They create life, give birth, work out, express sensuality and sexuality." (page 375)
   
  When I first read this quote my thought was why weren't women the dominant sex, in many ways we are the creators, how was men able to to demean women and get away with it back then and even now? This quote really made me think of the body, particularly the female body and how much pain it is put in, physically and emotionally.

bodies quote

What actually caught my attention the most was the first few lines that describe how women feel about their bodies. "Many women feel ambivalent about their bodies. In significant ways women's bodies are a source of empowerment: They create life, give birth, work out, express sensuality and sexuality. On the other hand, women may perceive their bodies as too fat, too thin, painful during menstruation, or vulnerable to sexual abuse". I thought this was interesting because I guess, I could relate to it. I can't tell you how many times I've changed my opinion about my body depending on the day. But also the last four words of the quote, 'vulnerable to sexual abuse', is something I've thought about personally. This is because I feel like women have this worry, that they have to burden, about always having to be cautious of their surroundings and of the men around them. Women are more vulnerable to sexual abuse. Whereas a man can walk home in the dark at 4am and not have to worry, a women, walking home alone that late at night, would. The average women is naturally physically weaker than a man and therefore can not necessarily always defend herself. Yeah, there are tricks and tactics you can learn to protect yourself as a woman. But I know, from 'pretend' fighting with guys that if they really wanted to hurt you or beat you up, that there is nothing I could really do to stop them. It would be much easier for a guy to take advantage of a girl, than it would for a girl to a guy. So I do feel like it is something women have to always consciously be thinking about on a day to day basis, just to be safe. Rather be safe than sorry!

Page 376-377

"Which women writers are in a position to celebrate their desire, and which are most subject to sexual exploitation, has been historically and socially determined by race, class, nationality, sexual preference, age, and caste. Although there are important similarities among women writers' depictions of desire, it is important to examine the salient contrasts. Differences in sexual orientation certainly affect women's attempts to write the body."

I found this quote intriguing because it pinpoints how the writer, Adrienne Rich, believes sexual orientation influences writing about the body in a negative way.  I interpreted this statement as Rich claiming that lesbians may not be able to connect with their bodies as well as heterosexual women. In her opinion, this label and life choice may disable their credibility as a woman writer.

Bodies

On page 387, in the last paragraph, Australian critic Anne Cranny-Francis raises the question "What is the body? How are its limits defined?".  These questions reminded me of our class discussion when talking about "Welcome to Cancerland" by Barbara Ehrenreich.  Is a person just simply a body or is it both mind and body?  Does a person change emotionally/mentally change when they have to alter their body or are they still the same person?  I feel that it says a lot about a person by how they view the body.  If a writer views and writes as if the body as purely physical during a scene or story than that brings about a whole new aspect to the reader.  If the writer makes the mind and body whole than there can be a much deeper connection between the story and the reader.  Anne Cranny-Francis then discusses how sexuality is exploited through bodies.  When one views a body on its own it might be perceived as purely sexual but when you add the mind and emotions, I think a character comes to life.  I think characters are bodies plus emotions instead of simply just the physicality and that this is especially important to writers because they are the ones creating the body and then a character.

Writing Bodies/ Bodies Writing Quote

"Many women feel ambivalent about their bodies.  In significant ways women's bodies are a source of empowerment:  They create life, give birth, work out, express sensuality and sexuality. On the other hand, women may perceive their bodies as too fat, too thin. painful during menstruation, or vulnerable to sexual abuse."

This was the perfect opening statement.  It caught my attention right away and instantly allowed me to connect with the piece from the beginning.  Too often women devalue their bodies because we are so often devalued by others around us, especially men.  Our bodies endure a lot more than men do, for the most part.  A lot of the time we forget how much our bodies can do as women and how special the body of a woman is.  Each and every female in today's society has at least one physical characteristic of themselves that they can't stand.  We each need to remember how special being a woman is.  Men will never understand but I think that is what makes it even better.  As long as we value ourselves through all of the processes our bodies' experiences, then that's all that matters.

"English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear has no words for the shiver or the headache. . .The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love has Shakespeare or Keats to speak her mind for her, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry."
--Virginia Woolf (page 380)

I imagine that this quotation must allude to mental distress as well as physical pain--at least that is how it seemed to me.  It is known that Virginia Woolf suffered from depression, and although her words are fluent on paper, it is hard to imagine her speaking about her own mental illness.  Given how taboo the topic of depression is today, the condition itself must have been even more isolating in centuries past.  So many of the women writers we've studied have mentioned madness in relation to writing. It would be hard to believe that the two do not correlate.

Bodies

On page 382 Harriet Jacob's describes the sexual abuse that enslaved women faced alongside existing physical abuse. What's so powerful about her words are how she protects the experience but shares it as well. The quote specifically shows how Jacob's is able to use her writing to take control over what happened to her without having to relive it. She writes, "I was subjected to such insults no pen can describe. I would not describe them if I could; they were to low, too revolting." With this she shows how the body is constantly a means of creation. Physical and emotional pain comes from the body but stays in the mind and eventually can be expressed through an act such as writing.

On page 375, the first few sentences were the one that stuck out to me the most.

"Many women feel ambivolent about their bodies.  In significant ways women's bodies are a source of empowerment: They create life, give birth, work out, express sensuality and sexuality.  On the other hand, women may perceive their bodies as too fat, too thin, painful during menstruation, or vulnerable to sexual abuse".

This stuck out to me because it holds so much truth to it.  It is so hard for us to fully accept ourselves, especially our bodies, when it shouldn't be.  Our bodies are capable of amazing things, yet it is hard for us to keep that in mind with the way that not only men, but other women are constantly objectifying and taking our bodies for granted.

Bodies Writing Quote

"Still, the fact that many women through the ages have told their stories of unfulfilled desire indicates that expressing frustration in love has never been the literary prerogative of the male writer alone." (pg 380)

I was drawn to this quote because I never realized how true this really is. We have discussed in class how women writers are considered to be more emotional than their male counterparts, but this quote really drives that idea home. As women, we are seen to dwell on our frustrations in love. Men, not so much. We use writing as an outlet to express those frustrations. So is that a reason that women are downgraded? Because of how they feel?

Speaking in Tongues Response

When reading Anzaldua's piece, my first impression of her was that she was a negative and narrow minded writer because she was hard to follow and it was difficult for me to see where she was coming from.

As I got further into the piece I found some really great quotes and better understood the message she wanted her readers to receive.

On the bottom of page 317 she writes, "Why does writing seem so unnatural for me?" I found this surprising and intriguing as writing is her chosen occupation. What I think she was trying to convey is that even for her, as a professional writer, it can be difficult to lay all of her thoughts and emotions out a blank page for the world to see. She later says, "Writing is dangerous because we are afraid of what writing reveals," which restates her issues with writing. It isn't easy to write, and write well, plain and simple.

On page 319 she wrote, "Because the world I create in writing compensates for what the real world doesn't give me." I found this quote very powerful, accurate and inspirational. I enjoy writing, most often song lyrics, because it provides you with an escape and opens up a world of endless creativity and possibilities. In writing we can be whoever and whatever we want. Writing gives you the gratification of producing something you, and only you, created.

Bodies Quote

The quote that I thought stood out the most to me was on page 380, "Throughout history women have been subjected to physical, psychological, verbal, and economic abuse at the hands of men, often those who claim to love them- husbands, lovers, fathers, uncles, brothers. For women, to speak out about sexual abuse is to risk making body and spirit doubly vulnerable, since such violence has often been sanctioned, it impact trivialized. Yet countless women have testified to their own experiences of sexual coercion and those of other women...Writing about sexual abuse is one way that women are fighting back."

This quotation just shows an aspect of why women writers may be hesitant to write and have it published. Writing using their personal experiences involves very deep emotions and discussing these feelings with others makes them more vulnerable. They may feel like they could be attacked again for making her experience public or they could just think of themselves a weaker because it happened.   Although it is hard for women to write about, those  that do get it down on paper are fighting back. By writing about it, they show their strength and I think that it is a way for women to fight together.  

-Jessica Mitchell

Bodies Writing Quote

On page 380 I found a quote that I liked best. "Throughout history women have been subjected to physical. psychological, verbal, and economic abuse at the hands of men, often those who claim to love them- husbands, lovers, fathers, uncles, brothers." This quote not only speaks about women being abused pyhsically but also verbally and economically. Women, not just women writers have been verbally put down because their work was not good enough, not up to par and standards with that of men's. What makes it right to emotionally damage someones, anyone's self esteem and self worth.  What really caught my attention was that the women were being put down by those who were closest to them, not just critics or strangers. Economically I think the quote is trying to say that women, no matter how good the work they do is, are paid less than men and given far less credit as well. We are all aware that throughout history, women have been beaten and abused simply because they were women and at one point, it was actually allowed.

Favorite Quote from "Writing Bodies/Bodies Writing"

On page 375- The opening sentence, "Many women feel ambivalent about their bodies. In significant ways women's bodies are a source of empowerment: They create life, give birth, work out, express sensuality and sexuality."

I really liked this quote because to me its saying women have mixed feelings about their bodies, which is so true and completely relatable. Our bodies are a source of empowerment, they should increase our spirituality and give us strength. I never really looked at how important the women body is considering the fact we create life and give birth. Most women and men look at women's bodies and think only the shallow, she's to fat, to skinny, has an abnormal figure. And I think it is really interesting how we can connect a women's body to writing. 

Body quote

(377) "For many women throughout history, to write of sexuality  has been to write of loss, regret, desire unfulfilled."

This quote stuck out to me because, as mentioned in the reading, women's bodies have been abused for years. With women of all races, rape has been a large part of history, as sad as it is. With that comes absolutely no desire, loss of innocence and regret for who they are. This quote says a lot of how women's bodies have been attacked and portrayed.

Teddy Bear Opinion

Although I respect what everyone in class said about receiving teddy bears as gifts and see how they could be comforting, I disagree. In some cases a teddy bear does provide a certain level of comfort, but I believe that it really depends on the person giving it. If it was given by a hospital staff member or a charity then I see the positive. However, if I myself was ever in a situation such as the one discussed in the Cancerland piece and a close family member or person gave me a teddy bear I would feel it has little meaning. A teddy bear or similar gift feels generic and cold. I believe that it could put distance in a relationship that is already stressed due to health circumstances. I cannot speak from direct personal experience, but the situations that I have been involved with I've found that the best gift you could give someone who's facing such an emotionally, physically, and psychologically altering event is just support and love.

My facebook feed is full of them today....

The reason this is making news is, of course, BECAUSE his stance is so extreme... but then again it is sanctioned by his university and department....


http://jezebel.com/lit-professor-thinks-women-and-queer-writers-suck-sorr-1388250948

Environmental toxins and Women's Health

 
An article today in Huffington Post: A Powerful Union: OB-GYNs and Chemical Policy Reform

Although the focus of this article is more broadly concerns of women's reproductive health and environmental toxins, I think it is timely in light of  Ehrenreich's "Welcome to Cancerland" when she highlights the need to look at environmental causes of breast cancer:

"Like everyone else in the breast-cancer world, the feminists want a cure, but they even more ardently demand to know the cause or causes of the disease without which we will never have any means of prevention. "Bad" genes of the inherited variety are thought to account for fewer than 10 percent of breast cancers, and only 30 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have any known risk factor (such as delaying childbearing or the late onset of menopause) at all. Bad lifestyle choices like a fatty diet have, after brief popularity with the medical profession, been largely ruled out. Hence suspicion should focus on environmental carcinogens, the feminists argue, such as plastics, pesticides (DDT and PCBs, for example, though banned in this country, are still used in many Third World sources of the produce we eat), and the industrial runoff in our ground water. No carcinogen has been linked definitely to human breast cancer yet, but many have been found to cause the disease in mice, and the inexorable increase of the disease in industrialized nations -- about one percent a year between the 1950s and the 1990s -- further hints at environmental factors, as does the fact that women migrants to industrialized countries quickly develop the same breast-cancer rates as those who are native born. Their emphasis on possible ecological factors, which is not shared by groups such as Komen and the American Cancer Society, puts the feminist breast-cancer activists in league with other, frequently rambunctious, social movements -- environmental and anticorporate."

Continued Discussion for "Cancerland"

Concerning today's discussion about the teddy bears and crayons, I do agree that the crayons may not necessarily be appropriate to give to every cancer patient and I can see why the author feels that it is a way of infantilizing women with cancer. However, I do see why they would be a great gift for certain patients. Like some people in class said, coloring in coloring books is a great way to relax and can comfort us with the simple pleasure that we had when we were a child. My roommate and I have a dinosaur coloring book that we use when we don't want to deal with homework, and we hang up our colorings in our room just because they bring ourselves out from the stresses we have. So, for certain people I think crayons would be an acceptable gift, but I can also see why in the case of this author she feels the fact that women with cancer are given crayons and teddy bears is infantilizing. I think she feels that maybe because the general public pays more attention to women with breast cancer (even though men can have it) and beauty products are given, she feels there is a general belief that having breast cancer makes a women lose her femininity. Maybe since women are thought to be losing their femininity, the author feels that they are looked at as childish and that is why people give crayons and teddy bears as gifts. In terms of writing about women's bodies, maybe because women with cancer often have to mastectomies and lose a part of their body that makes them feminine the author also feels that the fact they are given crayons just push that fact on them more.
(I'm sorry if that doesn't make sense. I'm having trouble putting it into words).
  
-Jessica Mitchell

Discussion Questions for Friday: 9/27 Melissa Mazurek & Bethany Nelson

Gloria Anzaldúa

(1942- )
315-323

1. How has Gloria Anzaldua’s race and sexual orientation contributed to her writing? How have these obstacles she’s faced shaped her thoughts and outlook on society? Does this relate to any previous writers we’ve talked about whether in this section or the previous?

2. (319) “Write with your eyes like painters, with your ears like musicians, with your feet like dancers. You are the truthsayer with quill and torch. Write with your tongues of fire. Don’t let the pen banish you from yourself. Don’t let the ink coagulate in your pens. Don’t let the censor snuff out the spark, nor the gags muffle your voice. Put your shit on the paper.”

-What do you believe Gloria is stressing to her audience? If every woman throughout history had done this, how could the world be different? Would women’s position in society be different?

3. (323)In the very last paragraph Gloria writes, “Find the muse within you. The voice that lies buried under you, dig it up. Do not fake it, try to sell it for a handclap or your name in print.”

-What do you believe she meant by the term, “faking it?” What does this term mean to you and what are some examples in today’s world of people, “faking it?” Why do you believe people do this?

4. (322) “It’s not on paper that you create but in your innards, in the gut and out of living tissue - organic writing I call it. A poem works for me not when it says what I want it to say and not when it evokes what I want it to. It works when the subject I started out with metamorphoses alchemically into a different one, one that has been discovered, or uncovered, by the poem. It works when it surprises me, when it says something I have repressed or pretended not to know. The meaning and worth of my writing is measured by how much I put myself on the line and how much nakedness I achieve.”

-How does this quote reflect the vulnerability women show? What does it say about our writing techniques as compared to the men’s style that we’ve discussed in class? Does this affect the quality of their writing? If so, how? If we aren’t vulnerable, what would our writing look like?

5. (321)” It’s too easy, blaming it all on the white man or white feminists or society or on our parents. What we say and what we do ultimately comes back to us, so let us own our responsibility, place it in our own hands and carry it with dignity and strength. No one’s going to do my shitwork, I pick up after myself.
It makes perfect sense to me now how I resisted the act of writing, the commitment to writing. To write is to confront one’s demons, look them in the face and live to write about them. Fear acts like a magnet; it draws the demons out of the closet and into the ink in our pens.”

-What does this quote tell us about how she views women in the past? What demons is she referring to? What is she suggesting we do to change our future? What demons is she referring to?

6. (319) “Why am I compelled to write?... Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger... To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispell the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit... Finally I write because I'm scared of writing, but I'm more scared of not writing.
Why should I try to justify why I write? Do I need to justify being Chicana, being woman? You might as well ask me to try to justify why I’m alive.”

-How does this quote relate to our society today? Why do we write? As a class? Individually? How does this relate to women in history going through difficult times?


7. In her letters to these third-world women, Gloria Anzaldua starts off in each section by mentioning how she’s either laying naked in the sun, in her comfortable bed or taking herself to pizza, luxuries these women may not have. Do you feel as if this is intentional? If so, how do you feel this ties in with the concept of the reading?

Class Disscusion Questions- 9/30/13 ----Taylor Cappelli and Laura Lukowski

May Sarton
1912-1995
pages 295-297

1. "Sarton speaks most urgently and often about what it means to be a women and writer and about the female muse as a primary source of poetic inspiration. Sarton's source of inspiration represents a lesbian variation on the standard muse of heterosexual male poets, their female lover. " (Sarton, p.295)
--- Do you believe that sexuality has an impact on not only women writers but writers in general? Due to the fact that Sarton was cost several teaching jobs after coming out as a lesbian, do you feel that it is worth having your sexuality known to your audience?

2. "May Sarton's chronicles her life as a young writer enamored of Elizabeth Bowen and Virginia Woolf, two British writers whom she met during her visits to England." (May Sarton p.295)
---Based off our readings on Virginia Woolf and Sarton's main themes of her novels, such as friendships, marriage, lesbian love, and aging, do you feel that talking with other women writers can affect themes they write about?

3. "Sarton considered her primary art form to be poetry" (Sarton p.295)
---How important do you believe it is to incorporate art into poetry? Do you feel it makes it more powerful? How do you think poetry can speak the truth?

Carol Ann Duffy
1955-
pages 333-336

1. On page 333, if you would like to refer back to it, what two plays of Duffy's were produced at the Liverpool Playhouse?

2. What were Duffy's first five volumes of poetry about? (Refer to page 333-334)

3. Sean O'Bien said "poetry, like love, depends on a kind of recognition. So often with Duffy does the reader say 'Yes, that's it exactly', that she could well become the representative poet of the present day." (Duffy p.334)
---What does he mean by this?

4. In 'Female Stand Nude' What do you believe the message is that Duffy is trying to get across? (Refer to page 334-335)

Hello everyone! Here are the Discussion Questions for Barbara Ehrenreich's Cancerland:

1. What is the value of "I" to Barbara in her state of mind? What does it mean to you?

2. What is your opinion of the corporate sponsorship of disease?

3. Are teddy bears and boxes of crayons appropriate gifts for a woman in this situation as symbols of caring, or do you interpret these actions as degrading and/or 'infantilizing'?

4. Does being female make it more socially acceptable to display weakness?

5. In the mid 1970s the American Cancer Society did not support the idea of post-mastectomy support groups. What do you think could have been a reason for that?

Contemporary Women Writer Presentation

Suzanne Collins Presentation

Barbara Christian

I really enjoyed reading about Barbara and I also enjoyed the Highs and Lows of Black Feminist Criticism. I found it interesting that when she talked about the highs and lows in school, church, home and in the yards . She mentioned in school and church (more public settings) that boys were always before girls and priests always before the nuns but when it was at home and in the yard she doesn't mention any sex before the other.

Contemporary Women Writer Presentation Pieces:

Hey ladies!
If you would like to take a look at these you're welcome to. They're for the presentation on Monday, but we'll only be showing a small bit of them. You're welcome to go more in-depth with them.

Article & Video

Barbara Christian

The Highs and Lows of Black Feminist Criticism

I thought that if a reader did  not know the author of the literature they were reading that it would be beneficial on their part by not causing them to be bias from the beginning.  However, after reading Barbara Christian's, "The Highs and Lows of Black Feminist Criticism," it made me rethink this thought.  I think that her point being made was that black women are the best critics for literature.  It seemed as if she was saying her and her female family members had stories to tell that not a white woman or any man would ever have to tell in their lifetimes.  A black feminist approach would be different from any other writers' approaches based on their experiences as black women.  And for so long they could not speak out about these experiences in writing or any other forms of art.  I took from this reading that maybe knowing who the author is would actually give the reader an insight to the position the book will be coming from depending on who the author is, instead of just causing them to form bias opinions, it may benefit them to better understand the reading in its entirety.  

bell hooks

When reading bell hooks "Talking Back", I found myself to some point relating to her. My family always calls me the trouble maker, the 'rebel' of the family. I was always the one who would 8 out of the 10 times have something to say back when it was just time to walk away. One part in "Talking Back" that grabbed my attention was the quote on page 74, "The fear of exposure, the fear that ones deepest emotions and inner most thoughts will be dismissed as near nonsense, felt by so many young girls keeping diaries, holding and hiding speech, seems to me now one of the barriers that women have always needed and still need to destroy so that we are no longer pushed into secrecy or silence." I believe that she feel that it is so out dated to say that girls are expected to keep a notebook filled with feelings that we hide away so no one can see. bell hooks I wanted to say believed that girls and women together to step up and out of the so called cover we're under and take owner ship for our words. Also, to say them out loud and not be afraid of what other people are going to think of us. Everything is so different now, she talks about how her parents would talk about breaking her spirits, where my parents would never want to do that just because I am a girl. I believe a lot of things are different today with the way some people believe women should be.

Elizabeth Gilbert

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/magazine/eat-pray-love-get-rich-write-a-novel-no-one-expects.html?smid=pl-share

Hi All,

I've shared a link above to an article on Elizabeth Gilbert that I think is interesting given the the conversations we've had in class. Gilbert is best known for her book Eat, Pray, Love, a book I confess I snarkily dismissed in a George Eliot kind of way when the spotlight (and Oprah clamor) was at its highest intensity. I still have not read it, but this article made me at least examine my assumptions about its author and her writing/literary/intellectual skills as well as my own limitations and prejudices as a reader, scholar, and feminist. As the article notes: "Despite having spent the first decade of her career writing three critically acclaimed books, critics cast her as a pampered solipsist peddling self-help. “Even worse — chick lit, if you really want to get ghetto,” Gilbert says. “What little respect I clawed my way to, I totally erased.” I think this article provides an intriguing look into the life of a contemporary woman writer who has found fame/money writing in a genre that can often  be belittled as a "womanly" genre of self-help/empowerment/naval-gazing privileged "finding-of-oneself" despite her background as a skilled writer and ambitious career-woman. She addresses this in the article with considerable grace. She has also become a powerful patron to other women artists (think of the questions raised by Woolf in A Room of One's Own). Admittedly, it is a long article, but I think it provides an excellent contemporary example of some of discussions that arose from our Reading Of Eliot's "Silly Novels..."

Discussion on Hurston/Walker continued...

In our group for discussion today, we discussed how we liked that in Zora Neale Hurston's biography it says, "Recognized today as one of the finest American writers of the twentieth century..." We thought that it was nice that she was called an American novelist because there are several categories people could label her writing with, such as women writer or African American writer. Then we went to look again at Alice Walker's biography to see what she was listed as and we found,"An internationally renown African American novelist, poet, and essayist..." We as a group were surprised to see that Walker had been listed as African American, but Hurston was just listed as American. They both had similar upbringings and both wrote about similar things, so why is it that they are considered in different categories of novelists?

-Jessica Mitchell

Alice Walker

I saw in Alice Walker's "In search of Our Mothers Gardens" that the first paragraph was a poet speaking to a prostitute and he was saying, "in the selfless abstractions their bodies became to the men who used them, they became more than "sexual objects" more even than mere women: they became saints. instead of being perceived as whole persons, their bodies became shrines: what was thought to be their minds became temples for worship. " This coincides with what someone said in class maybe the first week, that women were regarded as divine to be worshipped and not people with intellectual minds but rather, something to look at and to have proper etiquette and so on. I like that they tied in together with our thoughts.

Women's Roles in the Media

Before we left class yesterday, Dr. McGee posed a very interesting question to us: Is it considered damaging the way women are portrayed across mediums? I am a Public Relations major, but I also have a minor in film studies, so I found this question to be extremely relevant to my way of thinking and what I believe.

We as society have seen the roles that women play in film change over time. For example, Pixar's most recent female heroine, Merida from Brave (2012) is one of the strongest female role models for children. But can't we see different traits of the earlier Disney princesses that are just as relatable (I'm very biased because I absolutely adore Disney and Merida is my favorite princess)?

What do the rest of you think? Has there really been a shift in what kind of female characters are being found in the more recent Disney/children's movies? Or are there different things to be said for each individual princess? And what do you think George Eliot would have thought of characters such as Merida or Mulan?

Sara Contreras Comedy Show Mon Sept 16

Hey girls. I just wanted to put up the information for the comedian Sara Contreras who will be in fredonia Monday September 16th for the Openng Ceremonies of Hispanic History month. In the context of the class Sara can be viewed as a "Women Writer". She writes for MTV3 and she writes he own comedy show, this may not be writing in the familiar sense, but Comedy is a difficult field for women to break into and she writes all of her own material. She is a riot and if you are free I think you would enjoy her show.

Time/Place
7:30 Horizon Room William Center: Opening Ceremonies Dinner [You need a ticket for this from the ticket office, they are FREE]
8:30 McEwen 202: Sara Contreras comedy show.

I hope you enjoy the show if you go :)

Chloe liked Olivia

When we read A Room of One's Own the section that brought up how revolutionary it was that "Chloe liked Olivia" made me think of the Bechdel Movie Test. The Bechdel Movie test is a test that assess the precence of women in movies. There are three rule for a movie to pass the Bechdel Test: 1. There must be two women in it (with names), 2. these women must speak to eachother, 3. they must speak to eachother about anythng other than a man. The test seems simple enough to pass, but it's surprising how many movies, including famous and contemporary, fail the test. 

Here is a video by feministfrequency about the Bechdel Test:

And here is a link to an article by Ross McGuinness for metro.co.uk about the test: The Bechdel test and why Hollywood is a man’s, man’s, man’s world.

I think it would be interesting to see how this test applys to our favorite books. Should the rules be tweeked for a literature course or would the test show similar results as they are?

Margaret Cavendish

Unfortunately, we really didn't get the chance to discuss much about Margaret Cavendish's poetry from the other night's reading, so I decided to continue a bit of it on the blog! I found these to be extremely beautiful. The passion she shows for her writing through her poems is thrilling. In the poems "The Poetess's Hasty Resolution" as well as "The Poetess's Petition" she discusses the struggles she may have had while writing in these days. Yes, she had the financial support, however being a female she may not have had the support of the rest of society. She goes on as if to say that she writes solely for herself, and no matter what, she liked her writings. "Self-love did make my Judgement to rebel."
She speaks of praise in both poems also. Praise can be given to one based upon what others think of them, or one can give themselves praise. I believe Margaret Canvendish wrote for no one but herself. She gave herself the praise she needed to stand up for what she believed in. If one didn't want to read her work, so be it. However, it'll be there for anyone who may want to read it in the future (which we fortunately have.)

On page 64...

On page 64 I'd like to bring up a few quotes that intrigued me. The first was "the normal and comfortable state of being is that when two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating." Also, "Perhaps a mind that is purely masculine cannot create, any more than a mind that is purely feminine." I believe she is trying to say that our minds must work androgynously. I think she is trying to say not only do we have to think like women writers, but also like men, and visa versa. She also says "It was delightful to read a mans writing again. It was so direct, so straightforward after the writing of women. It indicated such freedom of mind, such liberty of person, such confidence in himself." She appreciates the differences in men's writing as well as women's. There are good qualities about each that a person could appreciate and take into consideration. I believe she is also trying to say that men already have this 'right' to write and will have such confidence because they know that they can write just because they're men and that's something women writers struggle with; the confidence.

A Room of One's Own, Section 5-6 Continued Discussion

Someone in class today mentioned the quote about the women writing as a women, but forgetting that she was a women and then the discussion focused more on the fact that Virginia Woolf's idea was that the best writer had a little bit of both male and female in them. We then discussed that then and still today it still seems that if a man writes a little more femininely, they appear weak, but if a women writes in a masculine way, they appear strong.

I think this ties in well with one of the quotes I had chosen for today. On page 63, it says: "Clearly the mind is always altering focus, and bringing the world into different perspectives. But some of these states of mind seem, even if adopted spontaneously, to be less comfortable than others. In order to keep oneself continuing in them one is unconsciously holding something back, and gradually the repression becomes an effort. But there may be some state of mind in which one could continue without effort because nothing is required to be held back."

It seems that here Woolf is saying that everyone has a part of their brain that thinks like a male and everyone has a part of their brain that thinks like a female. The two ways of thinking have to be united so that that person can have full happiness and success as a writer. So, a women would think mostly like a women, but would be influenced  by the man and the male would think mostly like a man, but be influenced by the women. This way they write with their sexuality in mind, but they also keep in mind the male perspective. So is this why it seems society today thinks that it is wrong for women to write in more of a masculine than feminine way and vice versa for men? Is it because they are not writing what is expected of their sex? Can't
they have different perspectives and ideas that they feel relate more to the opposite sex?

-Jessica Mitchell

Virginia Woolf and Today

While reading "A Room of One's Own,"I stumbled upon a quote that intrigued me on page 56.

"Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes women do like women."

And then it hit me. She's describing the people who dismiss relationships outside a male-female relationship. Back then, they had just as many issues as we do in today's society. People didn't believe in gay rights. Some people probably even didn't acknowledge the fact that women do indeed like women and men indeed do like men.

Has society really changed since Virginia Woolf's day? Are there still people that turn a blind eye on those who prefer women? Does that notion truly make people uncomfortable?

Discussion Continued

I wanted to bring up the quote "One can measure the opposition that was in the air to a woman writing when one finds that even a woman with a great turn for writing has brought herself to believe that to write a book was to be ridiculous."in class on friday but couldn't find the right way to squeeze it in.  This quote really struck me because the fact that opposition can make someone turn away from something they were born to do is incredibly upsetting.  I don't think that this has anything to do with women being 'overly-emotional' either.  I think it's the fact that so much opposition can break a person down no matter what their specialty is.  Something comparable to this would be nursing.  I think I had mentioned that both my parents are nurses in class before but to this day my dad still is slightly criticized for being a male nurse.  He started to doubt his career choice while he was in college and people would laugh when he said his major was nursing because its supposed to be a 'woman's job'.  This example may not be the best to compare to writing but it is something that still exists.

Men Writing Women

Something that got brought up in class today that I found interesting was that men often write about women in ways that were never uniform. The quote: "Are you aware that you are, perhaps the most discussed animal in the universe?" really made me think about the literary fascination men have had with women. They can be portrayed as the goddess, the milkmaid, or the damsel in distress. However this was not reflected in everyday life during that time. There was a very rigid role that a woman played with no room for difference. It almost seems as if men were writing a one sided conversation on understanding women, but refused to acknowledge the input that budding women writers were trying to provide. When women attempted a voice in the dialogue about themselves, they were silenced.

Correlation Between Creativity and Mental Illness

Today in class, there were quite a few people that were curious about Woolf's suicide, and a handful of people gave their own theories/speculations as to why she took her own life. Many people seemed to have attributed it to the fact that her life was not the most pleasant; however, as I mentioned in class, mental illness does not discriminate and can happen to anyone, regardless of their environment and experiences.

As a person with mental illnesses (a creative person, no less), I've done a lot of research over the years to learn more about my condition. What I've found is this: mental illness is an uncontrollable genetic disorder caused by changes in the brain's structure. This includes the idea that the brain is not producing enough/producing too much of the "hormonal" chemicals; most commonly dopamine and seratonin. There are also theories that people with mental illnesses may have imbalances within the neurotransmitters in their brains--meaning they literally have different mindsets and thought processes than the average person. I've included visuals below.



  

That being said, there are a number of speculations as to why there is, in fact, a link between creativity and mental illnesses.

"Psychotic individuals are said to display a capacity to see the world in a novel and original way, literally, to see things that others cannot.

[....]

A study by psychologist J. Philippe Rushton found creativity to correlate with intelligence and psychoticism. Another study found creativity to be greater in schizotypal than in either normal or schizophrenic individuals. While divergent thinking was associated with bilateral activation of the prefrontal cortex, schizotypal individuals were found to have much greater activation of their right prefrontal cortex. This study hypothesizes that such individuals are better at accessing both hemispheres, allowing them to make novel associations at a faster rate. In agreement with this hypothesis, ambidexterity is also associated with schizotypal and schizophrenic individuals. Three recent studies by Mark Batey and Adrian Furnham have demonstrated the relationships between schizotypal and hypomanic personality and several different measures of creativity.

Particularly strong links have been identified between creativity and mood disorders, particularly manic-depressive disorder (a.k.a. bipolar disorder) and depressive disorder (a.k.a. unipolar disorder). In Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Redfield Jamison summarizes studies of mood-disorder rates in writers, poets and artists. She also explores research that identifies mood disorders in such famous writers and artists as Ernest Hemingway (who shot himself after electroconvulsive treatment), Virginia Woolf (who drowned herself when she felt a depressive episode coming on), composer Robert Schumann (who died in a mental institution), and even the famed visual artist Michelangelo."

If anyone is interested, you can read up on this theory here.

A Room of One's Own, Section 1-2 Continued Discussion

At the end of today's class, we were talking about how when we read Woolf we should consider her reasoning for why she went about writing the way she did. One of the things that I noticed as she was developing her ideas and really liked in Section 1 was when she referred to her thoughts in terms of fishing.

She wrote, "Thought- to call it a prouder name than it deserved- had let its lie down into the stream. It swayed, minute after minute, hither and thither among the reflections and the weeds, letting the water lift it and sink it, until- you know the little tug- the sudden conglomeration of an idea at the end of one's line: and then the cautious hauling of it in, and the careful laying of it out? Alas, laid on the grass how small, how insignificant this thought of mine looked; the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back in the water so it may grow fatter and be one day worth cooking and eating," (p.17).

I find how she considered her idea in terms of fishing and not catching a good/ big one rather clever. I think she is trying to take us through the process that she goes through when thinking about what women and fiction mean, but could she also be using this analogy to show us that maybe women's fiction is insignificant, just as catching a small fish? What do you think?

-Jessica Mitchell

continued discussion from class

I began reading up more on the actual cause of death of Virginia Woolf. It was to say a little bit macabre then just walking into a lake in drowning. It was said she suffered from a 'manic-depressive illness'.  But as I was reading I found she left a final note to her husband who was said to have supported her tremendously. So, I found out she was married and it goes on to say interestingly that in two books by Stephen Trombley that "Woolf is described as having a confrontational relationship with her doctors, and possibly being a woman who is a "victim of male medicine", referring to the contemporary relative lack of understanding about mental illness". I found this interesting that even her mental health was affected by her being a woman trying to be treated by a male doctor. Which makes me wonder, what if it was a female doctor; what if that was a commonality at the time? Is it possible her mental illness could have been more understood? 

Maria Nunez Intro :)

Hola my name is Maria Nunez. I am in this course because I am an English major and I will take any excuse to do a CCC as an english course. I actually am interested in the topic of women writers because I want to know what that means to other people, personally I don't understand why women are not just writers. I also want to know what that means to the writers themselves. All races, nationalities, religions, etc. have women but we seem to still treat women as inferior beings even in countries like the United States that are so "forward" thinking. The quote that interested me most was, 

"Jan Morris said that she was in the process of transcending gender and was aiming at becoming a horse, to which Nayantara Sahgal replied that she hoped that it was an English horse, since in some other, poorer countries, horses were not treated very well. Which underlined, for all of us, that there are categories other than male or female worth considering," (Popva). 

I think that this quote struck me most because it made me think of a discussion that we had in a poetry class last year about social location. Social location is essentially how you as an individual interact with the world based on everything that makes you up, from gender to race, to nationality, to language, to your parents, anything and everything. We talked about the fact that women are usually grouped into one giant mass but because of social location we can not say that the struggles of all women are the same, and the question came up about whether or not we should have one collective women's movement or if women should split based on their social location. 

One of the things that I thought about when signing up for this class was "Yes, a class that isn't centered around male writers!" But then I became to think about the fact that women are expected to cheer other women on solely because they are women. For example I think twilight is awful, but I was once told that I should support Stephanie Meyer because her book was a bestseller and that is breaking barriers for women. My response was that yes she was a best selling author which showed that women authors can sell books, but all of her female characters kind of suck which I felt set women back a few years. I think this class will be interesting because there is so much to get into and there are already so many different opinions in our class. :)

Intro to Lauren Voelkle

Hello Ladies!
My name is Lauren Voelkle and I am a senior Psychology Major here at Fredonia. I am minoring in English, which is why I decided to take this class, in order to fulfill my requirements. I am also in the group STEPS (Students Teaching Equals Positive Sexuality) and we sometimes deal with women and gender issues in addition to our presentations on safe sex, alcohol awareness, STI's, HIV/AIDS (my favorite topic), homophobia, sexual assault, and healthy and unhealthy relationships. This semester I am going inactive, however, to focus on my grades, but feel free to talk to me if you'd like! I am from a small town called Marilla, which is just outside of Buffalo, and I love all things dealing with being Buffalonian....Go Bills! I also love movies/tv, music, logic puzzles, and hiking in my free time.

One thing I wanted to mention in class over the Wikipedia/American Novelists controversy is how the women who are writing are being treated in the work place. There is proof that women are still being paid a lesser wages than males do all over the world, and yet there are still more male writers? I wondered if that has anything to do with the "broken-windows theory" and how it relates to women in the workplace. Women might not be getting paid as much because their male counterparts believe that they are "broken" women who need more money for health care or materialistic things. Males spend most of their money on electronics or entertainment, as opposed to women who spend their money on makeup and things to make them look better. What do you think?

Also, for an anecdotal story, the other day I was talking to my male friend and we got onto the topic of card games. I mentioned that I would suck at poker because I am inexperienced and he told me that was because "guys are better at poker than women". He obviously didn't know who he was talking to and he got an earful for trying to compare men and women's abilities, but what I'm trying to say is- if any of you are good at poker, let me know so I can prove a point!

Intro

Hi I'm Katarina, 

I am a senior here at Fredonia. I am majoring in English with a creative writing minor. I took this class because I really enjoy this topic. I took Scribbling Women with Professor VanDette a couple of semesters ago and she was so passionate about the topic it really interested me. I also play Soccer and Lacrosse for Fredonia, which I absolutely love. 

“To Examine Women’s Literature from a feminist perspective is to assume that the distinction between “masculine” and “feminine” is important to the generation of all writing.” This is one of the many quotes that I found interesting in the reading. “ASSUME” being the key word to this sentence, verifying that we as women are agreeing that gender has an effect on writing. By having classes such as this, “Women Writers,” class we are separating ourselves all on our own. However, I am not saying I don’t think women are mistreated and under looked when it comes to all forms of writing, but, I also do not think what is being done is helping the cause. I think by making this a complaint, of gender equality, we are putting a target on our back and maybe women who don’t deserve or are less as brilliant as past authors are getting recognition for the wrong reasons. The wrong reasons being just to quiet the protestors. 

Hi my name is Shannon Keele. I am a sophomore early childhood education major with a concentration in English. I chose this class because I needed it for my concentration and the other options seamed dull and did not interest me. Something about me is that I love animals. I own some goats and cows that I show off at fairs. The quote I chose from the reading is "What I fear the most, I think, is the death of the imagination" (Sylvia Plath). I chose this quote because I feel that imagination is being taken out of the education system due to higher expectations in learning and an increase in testing. Due to this there is a lack of interaction between kids,their play time and their freedom to imagine.

self introduction-Bethany Nelson

Hi everyone!

I’m Bethany Nelson, and I’m a junior here at Fredonia.  I’m studying Public Relations with a minor in English.  I’m originally from Jamestown, NY.  My hometown is really special to me and I really love how going home is just a 40 minute drive down the road!  I’ve been swimming competitively since I was 11, and after taking a year off of swimming my freshman year here, decided to join the swim team here for my sophomore year, and absolutely loved every second of it! Most people don’t understand why I love swimming so much, and for the most part neither do I, but I just go with it!  I swim distance freestyle events, so my races are the super long ones that no one ever wants to watch…or swim.  Besides swimming I really love my family.  I have a huge family; I have 6 members of my immediate family and a total of 40 cousins on both of my family.  My family are some of my favorite people in the world, and I dont know what I would do without them.  I really love reading, basically anything, but I’m a sucker for love stories.  I’m obsessed with Pinterest, quotes from Pinterest, and trying to make my life look like it belongs on their website.  I’m a self diagnosed coffee addict, but I have no intention of trying to change that... :)

I was interested in taking this class not only because it fits a requirement for my minor, but also because the idea of taking a class solely on women writers sounded fascinating.  I’ve always found classes that are focused on a specific topic to be a really cool way to learn about that topic.  Instead of rushing through women writers as a section in another class, I thought it would be exciting to spend a whole semester studying them.  This class will also be entirely different than any class I’ve ever taken before, and I’m excited to study just women writers this semester!

As Miller said on page 2 “Because women have not had the same historical relation of identity to origin, institution, production that men have had, they have not, I think (collectively) felt burdened by too much Self, Ego, Cognito, etc.”  I think that this is a very interesting opinion of a woman during this time period to have.  If I were to have read it and not known who had written it, I would have assumed it was a man.  I wouldn’t consider myself an active feminist, but that doesn’t mean that hearing about people say that we make a big deal about nothing doesn’t hit a nerve.  Honestly, reading it made me a little upset.  It isn’t an opinion that is typically had by women.  To me it says that women don’t have as much to complain about as men do, and are blowing their struggles for equality out of proportion.  In my opinion, women have struggled just as much, if not more than men when it comes to identity.  Throughout history white men have had it made for them.  They never had to fight to have the rights they were born with the way that women did.  Thinking about women throughout history not having equal rights, not being able to attend school, not having a say in who they were marrying, or not being able to put their own name on their work contradicts this quote.   If we ever want to be considered truly equal to men, in areas other than just in literature, having women express opinions like this aren’t doing us any good in terms of gaining ground.