Category: Uncategorized

Some of my favorite papers to write were in my British Literature class and Gender and Sexuality in Literature classes. In my British Literature class, I was given a prompt to explore a particular theme in a Shakespeare sonnet and how that was reflected in the form. I really enjoyed writing this paper because it was an argument based on the form and themes within a poem, which I found interesting to write. I also liked writing a lot of the papers in my Gender and Sexuality in Literature class. In that class, the papers had prompts where I had to create an argument about a theme in different waves of feminism and not just pull evidence from the texts we were reading, but also from outside current events. I enjoyed those papers because I had a lot of freedom when writing about the waves of feminism and choosing what outside current events/pieces of media I wanted to include as other pieces of evidence.

My least favorite papers to write were in my US Literature Class. A lot of the papers I wrote for that class were focused on the different theological beliefs people in the early Americas had. One of the papers I wrote was about Native American’s theological beliefs and the other two were about Calvinism. Those papers I wrote were all based on past historical texts and documents and while interesting, they were difficult to write because of how hard some of the texts were to fully understand.

I think my strongest paper recently was one of my papers from my Gender and Sexuality in Literature class from last semester. I wrote a paper connecting the Constructivist Approach of Third Wave feminism to the movie Fight Club by drawing on the Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of the classical versus grotesque bodies. I really enjoyed writing this paper and I feel it was one of my strongest because of how interested I was in the content and theme of the paper. I also think it was one of my strongest papers because I was given a lot of freedom on what I wanted to write about as long as it related to Third Wave feminism and included a piece of media or text we went over in class. My weakest paper was a paper on Mary Rowlandson’s kidnapping and how her Calvinist faith affected her during that time. This was a very weak paper from me. I think it was so weak because of how much of the argument was based in Calvinist theology. The text I had to pull evidence from was very old and difficult to understand and then creating an argument about her Calvinist faith was even more difficult.

I approach analysis and writing usually by creating a very casual outline. I wouldn’t even really call it an outline, it’s more so just a list of ideas with some quotes that I think might support those ideas. I then will start writing and draft my thesis. As I begin writing my body paragraphs, if I feel that the thesis has to be changed, I’ll go back and change it and keep writing and revising until the argument makes sense. Writing a paper for me usually ends up with me drafting, revising, drafting, revising, etc. Sometimes when I revise I realize I need to add evidence from another source and then I will search academic journals to find secondary sources I might need to add in a section of the paper.

My writing has evolved a lot since high school. I used to be required to draft a thesis first and then create a detailed outline. This usually led me to taking more time to write because often, I changed my mind about something and no longer needed this detailed outline I wasted time on because my argument changed. I also used to never use passive voice nor “I” because I was not allowed to in high school or I would get points off. Now I find using passive voice and using “I” in certain parts of my writing to be more effective to really stress my argument. Not having so many arbitrary rules on the form of my writing as I had in high school has really given me more freedom and creativity when drafting and forming my argument.

What’s fun about literary analysis is when I come up with some lightbulb idea argument about the text and because of that get fully invested in the analysis. That happened with the Third Wave feminism paper I talked about above. As soon I started seeing how Bakhtin’s classical body theory could be used to form my argument based on the text I was completely invested in doing the analysis. What’s difficult about literary analysis is when the text is difficult to understand, such as when it is a historical document like the one I used for the Calvinist paper I talked about above. It’s also difficult when I don’t feel invested in the text. If I’m not overly interested in a specific test It’s difficult to find something interesting to analyze. There have been times in the past where I had to write on one specific text that I just happened to not like that much and it made analysis so difficult. It’s much more fun to do literary analysis when there is more freedom in the texts being analyzed for a paper, in my opinion.

For this blog post I asked ChatGPT the prompt of “Summarize “Menopause and Hysteria in Victorian Medical Texts and Rhoda Broughton’s ‘Mrs. Smith of Longmains’ “. The tool did somewhat okay with summarizing this text. It was able to pull out the most important overarching points, however the summary it provides is almost exactly similar to if the reader just read the abstract of the paper. It does not handle the complex academic arguments that well

ChatGPT does not handle the complex academic arguments that well. A strong part of the writer’s argument in this text is that “Mrs. Smith of Longmains” challenges the deeply rooted Victorian era understanding of hysteria by providing a counter narrative that challenges those long standing medical beliefs. ChatGPT really gives the bare minimum summary for this part of the text. While it describes how Robert Branes and Henry Maudsley were spearheading the push to re-characterize hysteria as being related to puberty and menopause rather than the nervous system during the 19th century, it does not provide details on how this medical ideology is deeply rooted in societal understandings of women’s bodies. ChatGPT does not truly grasp the argument this text gives that hysteria “had always implied the inherent instability of women’s bodies, and these new discussions mirrored broader cultural debates around gender and power” (James 202). Even when ChatGPT provides its key interpretation of the article, it does not discuss the historical implications of the world hysteria and the way that “Mrs. Smith of Longmains” challenges the persistent desire by society to control women’s bodies. While it does summarize that the story “highlights how women internalize and resist patriarchal medical ideologies”, it does not relate this to the greater societal implications that James is getting at. ChatGPT’s summary is unable to understand the underlying implications of the text’s argument in that it is relating hysteria and medical diagnoses of women’s body to the larger patriarchal desire to control women’s bodies and the power that women’s bodies hold.

ChatGPT did get right the main points of the text as it looks like the summary came directly from the abstract portion of this article. It was right in noting that by the late 19th century hysteria was classified as a nervous system disorder, but that Barns and Muadsley, and other male doctors were pushing to reexamine puberty and menopause’s affect on hysteria. AI was also correct in stating that the narrator of “Mrs. Smith of Longmains” experiences physical discomforts and anxieties that blends supernatural elements with their internal anxieties that are framed as hysteria, but when her dreams come true she is view, not as being hysteric, but as having the power to predict the future. ChatGPT did not include how “Mrs. Smith of Longmains” talks about the theme of biological determinism. It does say that women internalize and resist patriarchal medical ideologies, however it does not include how the pathologising of female behavior inhibits their agency. It also does not include how the story challenges cultural myths about “reproductive capacity and redundancy” (James 201). Another major thing that ChatGPT did not includue was that while the narrator of “Mrs. Smith of Longmains” does have instances of imaginative power, it is because she has a dream that turns out to predict her servant murdering someone. That is a major part of the story and the reason why the notion of hysteria is challenged yet it is not included in ChatGPT’s summary at all.

The prompt I gave shaped the result by giving the bare minium summary of the text. Since I didn’t ask for quotes to show which part of the article the main parts of the summary were coming from, all of the summary points appear to have been pulled from the Abstract. When I re-read the Abstract of the paper, almost every summary point from ChatGPT came from there. When I asked for direct quotes with my summary I was given a bit more information, but the quotes I was given were only about a sentence long at most. The quotes were primarily a few words. I was given no longer quotes which continued to make the main summary points be pulled from the Abstract.

I might use AI in my research to quickly determine if the article I am looking at has any main points that fit with my research. Based on this summary I just used, AI can be good to quickly pull information from the Abstract without needing to read it all. This could be helpful when the Abstract of the paper if fairly long. However, I still don’t really like using AI when I research but I personally don’t find it very helpful. Based on this summary all I was given was facts from the Abstract and a few sentence long quotes, I feel that I didn’t get much more help out of this than if I only skimmed the page on my own.

Something of great interest to me within Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body is the use of figurative language and its function within the novel. Through reading this book I noticed how figurative language appears in reference to Louise, used either to describe her or to explore the narrator’s feelings towards her. When the narrator leaves Louise to ensure that she gets proper cancer treatment, the use of figurative language disappears. No figurative language is used to describe Gail, even though Gail plays a large role in the narrator’s life when Louise is absent.

However, when the narrator begins thinking of Louise the figurative language reappears. It is used to express the narrator’s feelings about Louise’s cancer diagnosis, with the narrator describing Louise’s clavicle on page 119, for example, as a musical instrument:

“I cannot think of the double curve lithe and flowing with movement as a bony ridge, I think of it as the musical instrument that bears the same root. Clavis. Key. Clavichord. The first stringed instrument with a keyboard. Your clavicle is both keyboard and key. If I push my fingers into the recesses behind the bone I find you like a shell crab. I find the openings between the springs of muscle where I can press myself into the chords of your neck. The bone runs in perfect scale from sternum to scapula. It feels lathe-turned. Why should I bone be balletic” (119).

Such use of figurative language to convey the way the narrator feels about Louise’s body expresses the deep, meaningful way that the narrator loves Louise and how large of a role that Louise plays in the narrator’s life. When Louise is absent from the narrator’s life, the use of figurative is absent as well, showing that life without Louise is a life that is dull and lacking vivid description.

Interestingly, the use of figurative language is not only used by the narrator to describe Louise, but also to describe her mother:

“it was hard to image Pea having any figure. She was like a child’s drawing of a snowman, just two circles plonked one on top of the other” (166-167).

This use of figurative language is far less appealing. It is a complete contrast from Louise. This contrast of comparison between Louise’s mother’s appearance and Louise’s appearance, further conveys how the narrator views Louise as a major influence in their life and just how much the narrator holds Louise up to a fantasy of vivid perfection.

A particular character that stuck out to me in this section of Chopin‘s The Awakening was Robert and his return home in XXXIII and XXXIV. A quote that includes Robert is when Edna sees him again upon his return from Mexico.

“A hundred times Edna had pictured Robert’s return, and imagined their first meeting. It was usually at her home, whither he had sought her out at once. She always fancied him expressing or betraying in some way his love for her. And here, the reality was that they sat ten feet apart, she at the window, crushing geranium leaves in her hand and smelling them” (256-257)

Edna consistently thinks of Robert after he leaves throughout the text. He becomes a sort of fantasy to her and a man who is everything her husband is not. Edna views Robert as a young man that she elevates as a person of desire. Such desire she feels for Robert is primarily because he has given her attention that she feels she does not get from her husband. While Mr. Pontellier treats Edna like a woman who is failing at being a wife and mother and who does not understand how to keep face, Robert provokes a yearning in Edna. She believes that he sees her for her, that he cares about who she is in the person. However, when Robert returns and she realizes that he has not immediately come to visit her, Edna begins to understand that possibly he does not feel the same way about her, or that he was leading her on.

Because she has held him up to such a fantasy of a perfect man who desires her, it is hard for Edna to realize that Robert may not actually want her as much as she wants him. She spends so long thinking that he loves her but soon sees that this may not be the case. Robert’s actions upon returning display just how much Edna is suffering and confused because of her husband’s treatment of her. She wants a man to treat her with love in a way that Mr. Pontellier does not.

By the end of chapter XXXIV, Edna comes to accept that Robert “had seemed nearer to her off there in Mexico”, meaning that Robert seemed closer to her when he fulfilled a fantasy of longing and love for her that she was missing in her life (268). Now, however, Robert has shown that Edna was not as major or influential in his life as he was to her. Rather, she was a friend who he simply enjoyed spending time with. This time with Robert after he returns displays just how much Edna longs and craves for attention and love from men that she is missing from her husband. This desire for desire is not only shown with her experiences with Robert, but also with Arobin, whom she spends time with to feel that she has a man’s attention since she does not have the full attention of her husband.

It is not until Chapter XXVI that we learn Robert actually does love Edna, stating that he left and did not contact her immediately upon his return because he was fighting his feelings for her ” ‘because [she was] not free” and was ” ‘Pontellier’s wife” so he ” ‘couldn’t help loving [her] if [she was] ten times is wife; but so long as [he] went away from [her] and kept away [he] could help telling [her] so’ ” (280). The immediate sadness and thought that Robert did not love her when he returned and the depressed feelings that came after that exposes how much Edna wants love and affection from a man that she is missing from her husband. Learning that Robert does love her makes Edna incredibly happy, hoping that they can be together. But in this hope, she fails to acknowledge that she is still married to a man that does not give her the attention she deserves and being married makes it almost impossible for her and Robert to be together.

A particular character in this section, and the last, that I find notable is Mr. Pontellier. My Pontellier has many patriarchal ideals that he has internalized, holding strong opinions of what his wife should do and how she should act while ignoring the ways he is supposed to look and act according to those ideals that he holds so closely. Instead, he weaponizes societal ideals for men and women to his advantage, trying to control all aspects of his wife’s life. In Chapter XVII he judges his wife for going out, stating ” ‘Well, I hope you left some suitable excuse” and that if she “felt that [she] had to leave home this afternoon, [she] should have left some suitable explanation for [her] absence” (130). He judges her constantly, telling her that everything she is doing is wrong and that even something as simple as going out should be done with precise actions because she is a woman of a certain social class and that is what is expected of her.

Mr. Pontellier is also obsessed with money and wealth. He wants to remain in a higher social class so he repeatedly internalizes what society expects of the wealthy. Throughout this section Mr. Pontellier exposes the ways in which physical, outward appearance is of vital importance to him in order to maintain social standing and reputation, stating that needs to buy and use commodities simply because they are made for the wealthy and that ” ‘The way to become rich is to make money…not to save it’ ” (137). His obsession with crafting and maintaining his reputation is deeply connected to societal stereotypes of the wealthy and the expectations of how men and women are ‘supposed’ to act in that class. This desire to main such a reputation fuels his want to control his wife.

Mr. Pontellier is also so intertwined with this desire to have such a great outward appearance and has so internalized patriarchal standards of women that he is unable to grasp why his wife is feeling depressed and angry. Instead, he wonders “if his wife were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could see plainly that she was not herself” (147-148). He notices what is occurring to his wife but is unable to grasp why, or possibly he does not want to. Because, admitting that he is the reason for the strain in their marriage, that he is the reason for why his wife is acting in such a way, would completely destruct the patriarchal system he uses to understand his life as a man and his role as a husband. To admit that such systems are damaging to the well being of his marriage would be to admit that such systems are damaging to himself. And if he were to realize that, it would lead to an identity crisis where he would not know who he is as a man. Rather, he ignores the effects of those systems and instead continuously blames his wife so that he can rationalize the situation without having to tear down the systems that benefit him and govern his life.

Current Media in this Section

” ‘One of these days’…’I’m going to pull myself together for a while and think–try to determine what character of a woman I am’ ” (215)

” ‘Why should you bother thinking about it when I can tell you what manner of woman you are’ ” (216)

This section goes into detail about expectations of women and men in marriage. The two quotes above from this section made me think of news I have seen about The Heritage Foundation proposing and pushing for a marriage bootcamp as a way to ‘combat the decrease in marriages among young people’. This is rooted in the idea that the patriarchy should tell women who they are meant to be. As more and more women become educated and work to find out who they are as a woman, like how Edna wants to, less women are choosing to marry young. The Heritage Foundation pushing for these marriage camps so that women can get married and have babies as ‘God wants them to’ connects to this quote from Arobin about how as a man, Edna doesn’t need to think for herself because he can tell her who she is.

Chapter III of The Awakening stood out to me in several ways. A particular section from this chapter that really drew my attention was:

“He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.

Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the bonbons and peanuts for the boys. Notwithstanding he loved them very much, and went into the adjoining room where they slept to take a look at them and make sure that they were resting comfortably. The result of his investigation was far from satisfactory. He turned and shifted the youngsters about in bed. One of them began to kick and talk about a basket full of crabs.

Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it.

Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had ailed him all day. Mr. Pontellier was too well acquainted with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the child was consuming at that moment in the next room.

He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying at home to see that no harm befell them. He talked in a monotonous, insistent way” (11-13)

This passage draws on the ongoing expectations of women to be perfect mothers and wives that is so perpetrated within society–and continues to be. One of things I found most interesting in this chapter is the way that Mr. Pontellier views himself as a husband and the manner in which he thinks of his wife and what her role is supposed to be in his life and their marriage. When he states that he found it “discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation” , it is of interest the way that he sees his wife as a woman who he does everything for, yet he takes no accountability for all the things he ignores doing (11). He frames himself as a victim in his marriage where he lives for his wife while she goes on being ungrateful and disrespecting him. However, he fails to see the many ways that he is ungrateful for his wife. It is intriguing the way he states that his wife is the “object of his existence”, which could either be true or could be a statement of him trying to convince himself that all the times he ignores his wife and leaves her along to take care of the children by herself is because he is working to support her. He is annoyed and feels disrespected that his wife does not want to listen to all the fun he had on his night out, completely disregarding that he woke her up from his sleep and left her all alone to take care of their children while he spent the night partying.

I also found it thought provoking the way in which societal expectations of women and men’s role in marriages play out here. Mr. Pontellier very much supports them, telling his wife that she needs to be a better mother and help tend to Raoul because that is her “place” (12). He also becomes angry, saying that he can’t do everything and that he is not home as much as his wife because he is trying to ensure that “no harm befell them” (13). His actions display the way that patriarchal expectations for women and men make husbands believe that their actions are to support the family. This is a major pressure on Mr. Pontellier, believing that he must do it all for his family to survive and the way he goes about it is because of societal pressures for him to act in such a way. Yet, these expectations placed upon him also benefit him. He is given the opportunity to leave the home, to party, to not need to spend time at home taking care of the children 24/7, and he simply cannot understand this. Because patriarchal standards frame women as being ‘born’ to be mothers, their unpaid labor is framed as natural. Mr. Pontellier does not see what his wife is doing to take care of the children as work. He undervalues it. And in response, Mrs. Pontellier feels utterly alone and over worked. This chapter displays how deeply rooted societal expectations within marriages are and how disregarding the unpaid labor of childcare is deeply damaging to women’s mental and physical well being.

Current Media in this Section

Chapter XV relates deeply to current media surrounding immigration. The quote below, in particular, relates to an Instagram post I saw just yesterday about Trump’s immigration raids and the way that people in support of them believe extremely racist and prejudicial things about immigrants from South and Central America.

“Madame Ratignolle hoped that Robert would exercise extreme caution in dealing with the Mexicans, who, she considered, were a treacherous people, unscrupulous and revengeful. She trusted she did them no injustice in thus condemning them as a race. She had known personally but one Mexican, who made and sold excellent tamales, and whom she would have trusted implicitly, so soft-spoken was he. One day he was arrested for stabbing his wife. She never knew whether he had been hanged or not.

Victor had grown hilarious, and was attempting to tell an anecdote about a Mexican girl who served chocolate one winter in a restaurant in Dauphine Street. No one would listen to him but old Monsieur Farival, who went into convulsions over the droll story.

Edna wondered if they had all gone mad, to be talking and clamoring at that rate. She herself could think of nothing to say about Mexico or the Mexicans” (108-109).

The Instagram post I watched was a street interview of several different people who were in favor of Trump’s immigration raids and the actions of ICE. The interview asked the people why they were in favor of the raids. Many people gave reasons that were either racist or based in false prejudicial stereotypes–the same/similar stereotypes that Madame Ratignolle gave. This interview shows how that discrimination is still present in American society. Some of the people in the interview didn’t care about the raids and that detachment about what is happening is similar to Edna’s actions and thoughts. But such detachment from racial prejudices and horrific actions against immigrants also perpetrates the problem, and trying to tell a joke, as Victor did, to lighten up the conversation ignores combating discrimination entirely.

Liz Prince’s Tomboy reminded me of a text I had read in my Gender and Sexuality class last semester. The book I read in that class was also a graphic novel called Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. Both Kobabe and Prince share life experiences of individuals who are faced with the pressure to conform to feminine gender expectations. In Gender Queer, the main character is faced with some of the same struggles as the narrator in Prince’s text. The narrator in Gender Queer is also a tomboy of a sorts whose parents don’t really care whether or not their child ‘acts’ like a girl even though e were born female. In Gender Queer, however, the narrator’s parents are much more relaxed in follow gender expectations themselves, compared to the parents in Tomboy, with the parents in Kobabe’s piece challenging gender expectations by er’s father having long hair and wearing feminine looking clothing and er’s mother not shaving her legs and armpits and wearing more masculine looking clothing.

The narrator in Gender Queer also faces similar struggles in school, being labeled as a lesbian by er’s peers, who assume er sexuality because e dresses more masculine. It is not until e finds a place in an LGBTQ+ & allies club that e feels more support. I’m not sure what will happen after the provided section of Tomboy, but hopefully the narrator is able to find support as they explore their sexuality .

It’s also interesting how both of these texts mention the desire to wear all clothing that has been marketed for boys, even undergarments. I think this shows how clothing for these characters is a form of not just outward, but also inward expression. To wear masculine gendered clothing is to create an appearance where these characters feel safe and comfortable with themselves. It is to allow them to feel love, safety, and comfort in their bodies–to express themselves in a way that facilitates that love and comfort. Unlike the narrator in Tomboy, the narrator in Gender Queer goes until er early adulthood wearing women’s underwear. E felt so uncomfortable because e was unaware that they could buy boys underwear to wear. It was not until e’s sister suggested it that e felt comfortable buying boys underwear.

I also found it interesting in how both narrators had an important, close friendship with a boy in their childhood that shaped who they were as a person. In Gender Queer, the narrator has a close friendship with er’s neighbor, playing many games that are gendered masculine. It is not until e goes to school that gender expectations are pressed on er and er’s friend that the two of them end up distancing from the friendship because er’s friend is told that he should not be friends with the narrator since “girls have cooties”. The narrator in Tomboy also has a close friendship with their cousin playing pretend games that are gendered masculine, where the narrator dresses up but as characters that are men. This similarity between the characters in these books show how important friendships are in building a child’s identity. Through these friendships the narrators were able to explore and discover the way society functions and the place the narrators play in it.

Current Media in this Section

Within the excepts of The Hidden Hand assigned, a topic that came up repeatedly, especially on pages 181, 194, and 195, is the fact that Capitola does not ‘obey’ Old Hurricane. This expectation for young girls to obey a father figure is something seen in our current culture. Specifically, I watched an Instagram post a few days ago about how many hyper conservatives are pushing for women in college to learn how to be good wives. The implication in this video was that these conservatives wanted women to learn how to be submissive wives. This relates to this theme in this novel of the expectation for women and girls to be submissive and the desire by men for women to follow what they say, to obey them. Wanting women to learn how to do this college carries the same message as Old Hurricane wanting Capitola to obey him.

A particular selection within Chapter Five of Girl, Woman, Other that was of interest to me is on pages 418-419. The passage is:

“it was so odd seeing a stage full of black women tonight all of them as dark or darker than her, a first, although rather than feel validated, she felt slightly embarrassed if only the play was about the first black woman prime minister of Britain…instead of lesbian warriors strutting around and falling for each other..during the interval at the bar she noticed a few members of the white audience looking at her differently from when they’d arrived…much more friendly, as if she was somehow reflected in the play they were watching and because they approved of the play, they approved of her…she kept getting the black sisterhood nod, as if the play somehow connected them together” (418-419)

I found this section intriguing in terms of what it commentates on Carole and the larger societal systems at play within this text. Carole feels very uncomfortable seeing a stage full of black warrior women and states that she would be able to understand and feel more comfortable with the play if it were to have been about a black woman achieving a position that is historically known to have been filled by a white person. The discomfort Carole feels while watching this play gives commentary on the larger societal structures at play within this novel. Because Carole lives in a society that has historically been dominated by white people and because she has had little education about the setting of this play (Nigeria) it is more comfortable to frame the play in terms of societal structures that white people have put in place. Those structures are familiar to Carole, whereas black women warriors are not.

Along with that, there is interest in looking at how the other audience members treat each other. The white audience members look at Carole as through she is reflected in the play and show that they approve of her being there. This is a form of implicit racism that Carole, and many of the other characters, have faced. The text doesn’t share what the intention is from the white audience members to give this look. Regardless of the reason behind it, they display how deeply rooted internalized racism is that white people feel the need to ‘approve’ of black people and black people’s unique experiences. Along with that, it is interesting how Carole feels she is being treated by the black audience members. She feels that they are assuming she is part of the “black sisterhood”. It could be that the black audience members assume she should be part of their community or, there is a possibility that Carole’s assumption displays the deep effects of racial stereotypes on her. She has gone through her life being forced to be a part of a group culture in a way that white people are not expected to. The pressure to join the “sisterhood” exposes how racial stereotypes have so deeply affected Carole to feel that she must share the same exact feelings of the group when she does not.

Current Media in this Section

On page 437 Dominique explains that if you are not a ‘pretty enough’ woman then you don’t get media coverage and that this seriously hinders the fight for women’s rights because if only white, ‘pretty’ women are given that big of a voice then that silences other people within the feminist movement. This made me think about this article I read about how societal issues are often ignored until they happen to white women and if the same situation happened to a woman of color, there would be victim-blaming. The article was about Renee Good, in particular, and how parts of her identity, including her sexuality, has been used as a way to blame her for a man murdering her. The article talks about how again and again parts of women’s identities are used as excuses for horrible things that men do to them, but that when something terrible happens to a woman, it is usually only the white women who the media gives the most attention to. The article also questions how the media would have treated Good if she was a woman of color and what it means for feminism that white women are more likely to get media coverage over women of color. I posted the article link below.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/01/white-supremacy-women-renee-good-ice-killing: Blog Post: Reading Response 1 (Girl, Woman, Other & Goblin Market)

My name is Megan and I am an English Education major. I’ve always been interested in reading since I was little. I entered college thinking I was going to be an English major and get a minor or concentration in psychology or possibly women’s rights, but I ended up entering in the education program and found out it was the right path for me! I’ve always been interested in women’s rights and how those themes and struggles are shown in literature. That interest has led me to take many English electives on women’s rights, along with themes of gender and sexuality in literature. I also really enjoy learning about history and the government. I’m currently taking an American Government elective this semester to learn more about politics and it’s been very interesting hearing from people with different political ideologies. I love learning about the different ways people think and act, and the way that humans come up with ideas and create things, which is one of the reasons why I often prefer fiction texts over nonfiction ones. My favorite genre of literacy are poems, but I also enjoy a nice novel. I feel that there are so many unique ways to create a message in a poem that just can’t be done in any other form of writing. My favorite book is The Great Gatsby. I have so many opinions about that book that someone once told me they thought I hated it! I also love reading The Handmaids Tale and other dystopian novels. I always find something so interesting in reading how society and government functions in writing and how people use that same writing to commentate on it. In the future, I’m planning to become a high school English teacher. I just passed my praxis, which means I officially can start student teaching in fall of this year, which is very exciting!

There are many things I hope to get out of this class. First, I’m very interested in discussing more about themes around women’s bodies in literature. I’ve taken English classes on themes of gender and sexuality before, but I’m hoping to learn more about this specific aspect of gender and sexuality in literature. I’m hoping that I can gain more understanding about the treatment of women and their bodies by the end of this class to add onto what I’ve learned in the past about how gender and sexuality functions in literature. I’m also excited about the way that the readings of this class will function. I’m used to taking daily quizzes for when reading is due and I’m hoping that I will gain a better sense of interacting with the assigned texts by writing blog posts about them, rather than being asked a list of questions. I’m also excited about the way that annotations will be collaborative in this class. I find that I learn by learning from others. Hearing about my peers ideas when I’m in class helps me better analyze and think about the text by allowing me to see different perspectives I hadn’t thought about on my own, so I’m excited for those annotations. I’m also hoping to learn more about how to draft scholarly papers, like the one required for this class. I’ve never written a type of paper like the one that is required and I’m interested to learn more about how that will play out. I’m hoping by the end of this class I not only learn more about women’s bodies, but also learn how to better articulate my ideas about literature in a way that is professional and original.