Author: admin

An overview of my paper is that the sections are: Intro, Binaries and Expectations, Pleasure, Violence and Control, Homosocial Spaces, Third and Safe Spaces, and Awakening. I tried to use an equal amount of Stone Butch Blues and The Color Purple throughout the paper. I also used one secondary source for each of these sections. I found a source for every section in order to better explain what I was trying to say or to give context to what I was saying. The goal was that I wanted my readers to reflect on society and think about how it has impacted their own free will and beliefs about themselves.

I cut down a lot of my quotes for this second draft and I went back in and revised sentences as well. There were some parts that needed more explanation, and some parts that just needed less words. I noticed that I use “This shows…” a lot and so I changed those sentences. I also wrote my introduction paragraph for this second draft, but I’m waiting to write my conclusion until after the second peer review. The two people who reviewed my paper said that it was organized well so I’m happy about that. I also have often been taught that your topic sentence should be the first sentence of your paragraph, my peer reviewers found topic sentences within the beginning of my paragraphs so I’m not sure about reorganizing my paragraphs sentences around, but they said that the organization of the paragraphs in order was good. I still have the headers for each of my subtopic in my papers but I was going to keep that in for the next round because then if other people review and say it should be organized differently, it’s easy for them to point out where the sections should be moved around

I went back to my draft and tried to make a lot of my sentences more concise. I know one of the tips from our “Academic writing..” book is to make sure every paragraph and sentence has a purpose for being written. I also tried to vary the sentence length, although I think I need to go in and fix a lot of run on sentences. These are a bad habit that I have. I also definitely need to cut down some of my quotes but I’m waiting to do that until after the first peer review because I want to ask which parts of my quotes seem most important. I still haven’t written my conclusion or my intro paragraphs yet. I’m still waiting on these because I think they will be the strongest if I wait until the rest of my essay is fully written the way I want it to be. So, I might write the intro and conclusion after this first peer review, but I think there’s a decent chance I wait until after the second one.

I liked that both Sam and Caitlin had Jane Eyre for their readings because they asked different questions, so I got to read the sections through different lenses for what each of them were asking, but the questions also related to each other a little bit. Caitlins was about Jane’s character, but how the setting affects it. Sams was about Jane’s actions and expectations, and how her gender affects it. I noticed that in Caitlins reading of Jane Eyre, she is more resistant to what is going on around her. In Sam’s reading, she starts to conform more, like how she says she needs other people to like her and if they don’t then there’s no point to anything.

I also thought Jules reading was cool because you don’t often see serious topics presented in a graphic novel. That concept reminded of “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe. I think Jule’s reading being a graphic novel really added to the reading experience and helped you feel and understand more of the authors experiences

I wrote about 14 – 14.5 pages of my paper so far. I got to all of my sections but haven’t done my intro or conclusion yet. I wanted to get all of my thoughts about the readings and secondary sources out and then go back and organize it and write my intro and conclusion. I’ve re-organized my sections a little bit but still haven’t decided on a final structure yet. I also want to go back in and fully revise the way I wrote things. I wanted to just get all of my thoughts down, then go in and make it sound more like an academic writing piece that could be published. We haven’t finished reading the “Academic Writing” book yet, plus I thought that if I tried to write academically from the start, I knew it would be hard to get myself to write. I thought it would be easier for me to just put everything down then go back in and reword and restructure. That’s what I think I’m going to focus on for our next drafting day in class.

I really enjoyed Gabriellas reading “Nightbitch.” I thought the metaphor of turning into a dog was creative and the chapter did a really good job of showing how overworked mothers can be. Her husband called her a bitch, but she had a lot going on and he was dismissive of her concerns. Being a woman in general can be a lot of pressure, but there’s even more pressure when it comes to motherhood. We see this when she constantly reminds herself not to forget her milk, and then she forgets it one day anyway. I like the part specifically that pointed out the issue with the term “working mother.” It’s so true when the book says that every mother is a working mother, even if she doesn’t have a “real” job. Being a mother is one of the hardest jobs there is because it’s 24/7 and you don’t get paid for it. Overall, I really liked this reading.

I liked Ian’s reading too because learning the history of zombies was new information to me. I didn’t know that the history of the zombie myth had racist origins and that’s something really crazy to think about considering how much zombies are now worked into the media as the article pointed out

Organizing my paper was really easy after the activities we did in class. After class and going into the outline I already knew what I wanted the topic for each “mini paper” to be. I had my secondary sources for each of them and then I knew some scenes from each of the books I’m doing. I went back into my notes and found more scenes for each of the sections. Most sections can fit into both The Color Purple and Stone Butch Blues, only one of the sections doesn’t include The Color Purple. Organizing also made me realize that there was one secondary source topic I was missing so I found that as well. I have 5 sections for this paper, and some are longer, some are shorter, the amount that I predicted each page will take adds up to 15 pages. I already started drafting my paper, I have 2 of my shorter sections done so far, which adds up to 5 pages. I’m a little scared I’m going to go over the 15 page limit because both of my sections ended up being a little longer than predicted. Right now I’m just letting myself write all that I want to and then after all the sections are done, I’ll go back in and cut back what isn’t as necessary or concise.

I liked Jazmyn’s reading, which was a chapter from “The Hate You Give.” I enjoyed reading this because I’ve seen clips from the movie on social media, but I’ve never seen any parts of the book, so it was interesting to get to see Starr’s internal monologue. Reading this chapter made me really want to read the whole book, as well as watch the movie. There are depictions of racist comments, and these passive aggressive comments are things that I see occur in real life. I appreciate how the book/movie both have accurate depictions of racism, what it looks like, and how it affects people. I’ve never read the book or seen the whole movie, so something this passage of reading pointed out that I didn’t know before was that Khalil was unarmed when the cop shot and killed him. At his funeral they announced this because this is something the cops were trying to hide, knowing that it made them look even worse. Readings like this always remind me how much more training I think we need to have for police officers. Cops still shoot and kill black people all the time with no reason. Cops should be trained to not shoot unless they or other civilians are in serious danger, and even then, they should be taught to shoot to injure, not shoot to kill. I know these are things that probably are taught a little bit, but they are not enforced nearly enough

I finished my annotated bibliography, and I think I definitely found a lot of good secondary sources that I can use for my paper. I found ones that address the bigger parts of my paper, like the binaries of gender and sexual orientation. I also found ones that can represent smaller aspects of my paper, like safe spaces for queer people. There are a few on the time period and background for my books, and I found sources that can go with both of my books. One area that I do think my secondary sources are lacking in is that I don’t have any secondary sources that mention another book that much. I tried to research for a scholarly source that used “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, and couldn’t find any. I also searched for the books “More Happy Than Not” and “This Is How You Lose the Time War.” Both of these books focus on sexuality as well, but I couldn’t find anyone who wrote about them. My discussion is next week so I am going to ask the class if they have any recommendations for other books or things to research for my secondary sources.

I really enjoyed both Megan and Maddie’s readings because the topic of eating disorders is something that I see and hear about often but never get the chance to read about. I feel like many girls go through the experience of knowing someone struggle with an eating disorder and the readings helped me to further understand them. I learned from Megans reading how ambition and perfection go hand in hand with anorexia which is something that I didn’t know before. The article that we read said how over half of teen girls are on diets or think they should be on diets, and honestly the number isn’t shocking to me. I’ve heard of and knew what body dysmorphia is, but I learned from Maddie’s reading that the full name for it is Body Dysmorphic Disorder, or BDD for short. These readings were very sad but it’s a topic that I think needs more attention, especially in today’s climate. Many female celebrities have started to become concerningly skinny, and it promotes eating disorders for young girls who think they have to look that way too. Even if it isn’t intended to promote EDs, people are influenced by celebrities, and this has started to become a “trend” again.