Creative memoirs

So after today's class, I had a little realization.  For the next paper, I have been thinking of a way to approach the topic, and to be quite honest, I have drawn a blank.  But, after today's class, I had an idea.  First of all, most of us in the class don't know each other.  This parallels to the authors of the works we have read in class; we don't know them.  However, we read about a specific experience he or she has had.  Why do we care?  Why do we care what each of our classmates had to say?  We all know that we do care.  We enjoy reading about, and learning about these strangers.  We enjoy this even more when can do so by viewing an artistic work.  This exactly what memoir is.  No, I'm sure not everything in a memoir is true, much like how most of our projects may have had some biased involved.  But the fact of the matter is, that it is true to us.  To me, I am a good friend (which is one of the 'pieces' of me), but to people who I'm not close with, maybe I'm not.  The point is that memoir is from that person's point of view, and they chose to write a memoir rather than a novel to further demonstrate THEIR point of view.  I don't know exactly where I'm going with this, but I thought I should get my thoughts down.  Everyone had a great project today.  I wish I could have seen all of them in detail!  Great job, ladies.

Little Women

So Thursday in class we began to watch Little Women. I havent seen the movie in years and sadly, I have never read the novel; so needless to say, I didn't remember most of the plot. Of course, last time I saw the movie, I was much younger and had not yet developed my feminist voice. Therefore, watching it in class felt much different than the first time. I loved the feel of the movie. The entire plot is about strong women. Yet, they adapt to social norms in term of wearing corsets, tending to the house, etc. However, personally I dont thinkt hat adapting to social norms, assuming that you don't mind these norms, is not a bad thing, nor does it mean that these women aren'f feminist. I feel that if a woman likes to tend to the house etc then she should. This is one problem that I have with the feminist movement. I feel that at times, it says that women shouldn't be the classic housewife; that they should go out and make a difference. When, yes, women should go out and make a difference and exceed men's expectations, some women want the traditional lifestyle. Does this mean those women are not feminist?

The interviews

I really enjoyed discussing the interviews in class. It was nice to know how everyone felt about the two authors after the interview rather than before. What I found most interesting was that both books were overall mostly disliked after we read them initially. However, after reading and discussing the interviews, people started to like Heywood. Is this because we didn't like her because she was so self centered in her writing? If so, doesn't this go back to our inital question: Why do people read memoirs? The nature or a memoir is the story of that person's life or specific experience is it not? Then how can we expect the writer to NOT be self centered? Just some food for thought...
I also was wondering about what everyone though about sexual harassment. We talked in class about whether we thought what Jane did was sexual harassment or not. I said yes then, but after some consideration, I would like to change my answer to know. My reasoning for this is that sexual harassment is an act of UNWANTED sexual experience, however the kiss was most definitely mutual. Therefore, it is not sexual harassment, but merely a sexual act. In that case, sexual harassment is not traditionally being "punished" for sexuality, but as time goes on, the definition of sexual harassment gets more vague and therefore there is more room for acts that are not sexual harassment becoming sexual harassment. On that note, should we "ease up" on sexual harassment laws? But then again, would that promote more acts of unwanted sexual activity? It's a thin line to cross. What do you all think?

protest...

So this weekend, I was driving around with my roommate and we saw a protestor against Obama speaking at graduation.  Yes, we all knew it was coming.  The protester we saw was driving a truck that had pictures of dead fetuses on it.  There was a picture of Jenkens and under the picture it said Judus.  SERIOUSLY?!?!  Can we really make that comparison?  So, what do you all think about this?  While, yes, Notre Dame is a representation of the Catholic church, isn't is something along the lines of 96% of the senior class want Obama here?  It just makes me so angry to see people like this on the streets.  It is one thing to protest with class, but it is quite another to make the campus into a battle ground, do you agree?  Let's face it: we are feminists and we are all about protests, but at the expense of such a great events for the seniors?  I was thinking that as a class we should protest the protesters... who's with me?

the backer

So this weekend, I headed to the Backer with all of my friends Saturday evening as usual, although I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the bar.  There was a group of about 10 of that was a mixture of guys and girls.  We spent most of the night dancing and by about 3 am, one of my girl friends and I were ready to head home.  Thus, we went to the door to see if a cab was outside that we could snag.  However, on the way to the door, a man who was about 40 to 50 years old smacked my ass relatively hard.  Of course, I could not just walk away and pretend it didn't happen, so I confronted him.  He was extremely drunk and his friends apologized numerous times for his inappropriate behavior.  Yet, I figured this was an opportune time to preach my ideas about feminism.  I asked him how he could have gone all these years and still treat women like that.  His friends expressed their embarrassment of the situation and I simply said that he is the person who should be embarrassed of his behavior.  First of all, women are to be treated with the same respect as men.  If he doesn't expect a woman to randomly come up to him and grab his junk, then how does he find it ok to grab my ass?  Not only am I young enough to be his daughter, but I was clearly not interested in him. 

After the night was over, I was thinking out loud to my friends how ironic the entire situation was.  When I was with other guys we came to the bar with, not a single guy spoke to me.  No one offered to buy me drinks or try to dance with me, but the second that I leave with solely another woman, we get harassed.  Not just approached; harassed.  This is a problem.  Men have enough respect for other men to stay away from the women they are with.  Yet, as soon as a woman is alone, she is fair game for sexual harassment?  It's sick.  And that is one of the many reasons that the Backer is not one of my favorite bars.

feminism

This was one of the best books I think we have read in class, although I find them all interesting. I was thinking about the question we left class with... "Is this text feminist?" I think the obvious answer to this question is yes. However, how so? When we discuss the meaning of the veil and why women are forced to wear it, yet men are not, isnt that sexist? The fact that Marji is a woman and goes to protests although that is not the norm... doesnt that make here feminist? The fact that she, although it is against her religion, has sex because that is what she, as a woman, wants... isnt that feminist? There are several discreet inferences to the feminism and I think that as a class on Tuesday, we overlooked them. Seeing she was not engaged in an egalitarian relationship like the bems, and she didn't protest for women's rights doesn't mean she is not feminist. She stepped outside the norm. She didn't conform to the Islamic code and because of that... she is a feminsit

race

After today's class I have a lot to say.  First of all, I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the comments in class were even racist.  I do not want to step on anyone's toes, but someone mentioned that if a black man is wearing Lacoste rather than Ecko that they are more "white".  That is stereotyping both black and white.  I'm "white" and I don't wear Lacoste.  Does that mean that I am not as white as someone who does?  Another person said that A lot of Saint Mary's girls go through college without taking a women's study or multicultural course and therefore they go on believing the racist thoughts that have been passed down from generations.  She even mentioned science and math majors.  I'm a science major, does that mean that if my family passed on racist thoughts to me that I will blindly believe them?

I guess my point on all of this is that a lot of racism is unconscious.  We started class talking about how everyone is a little bit racist and I would just like to give my opinion as to why that is.  There was a social psych research article published (this weekend I will try to find it on PsychInfo) about racist and the subconscious.  It was a study done where many participants (who were considered "not racist" by a psych test, were put in a situation where two children seemed to be in danger.  One child was of the participant's heritage and the other was not.  They person had time to save one child, and every time, the participant chose the to save the child of the same heritage as he or she.  

The reasoning for this is as human beings, we have a desire to pass our genes on.  This is why we have a sex drive, etc.  So, to protect our genes, we most closely relate to those who have similar genes as us.  We may not be "racist", but we all have a unconscious desire to pass on our genes.

On another note, everyone stereotypes.  We judge people on the way they dress, the way they speak, the way they act.  It also may be a subconscious thing, and it may not be bad.  If someone is dressed nicely at a job interview, the employer may feel that the person takes care of their body, is organized and smart when in reality the person may just like fashion or even be a little materialistic.  

I'm just starting to ramble now, but I guess my point is that yes, we all categorize people.  That is how our brains work.  And, yes, we are all a little bit racist, even if it is not the classic definition of racist.