Author: admin

My topic is how society impacts the way queer women feel the need to represent themselves and how society reacts when queer women don’t fit into the binaries expected of them. I am going to do two books for this topic. The first is “Stone Butch Blues” and the second is “The Color Purple.” I’ve read both of these books before and think they fit the category well. “Stone Butch Blues” really focuses on the binaries of butch vs femme. “The Color Purple” focuses a little less on the binaries but still addresses expectations of women’s bodies, specifically queer women’s bodies, during sex, which I think is very interesting. I’m not sure what pages I want the class to read yet for these books.

I was debating between two ideas for this paper. The first one is how women’s bodies are represented and expected to conform to boxes even when they are deemed “outside the box.” This topic would focus on queer women’s representation and how there are different expectations of butch vs femme women and how people are shocked when they don’t fit into one of these categories. Society has to put people into boxes even when they are outside the heteronormative box. This affects the way people expect different types of queer women to act, dress, and how their bodies look.

The second idea I had was about how women are treated after birth and the care that we provide to them. Something I was really interested in was pelvic floor physical therapy. This is something that many women, even ones who haven’t given birth, could benefit from. There is a lot more that goes into it than people think but finding a physical therapist that specializes in this can be hard and is not covered by a lot of insurances.

I decided to go with the first topic for this paper because I have a women and gender studies minor, although both of these topics interest me a lot

My favorite papers to write were ones where I had a little bit of choice in what I was reading and writing about. Some of them have been completely open choice and others have been a few readings from class then we get to pick what to write about out of a few choices. I think my strongest papers have been ones where I get to come up with interpretations or theories about pieces. I think it’s really fun to see a unique interpretation and be able to find evidence to back it up and explain it. My analysis has improved a lot since high school. I can close read passages a lot better now and see the “hidden” things within writing. I can make connections between vocabulary and other readings that I’ve done, and I used to struggle to make those connections. Having the context of setting, like region, and time period are very important for me to know when I read and write. It affects the lens that I use for reading and writing, whereas in high school I think I only ever read or wrote things with one lens.

When I asked AI to summarize the article it broke down the summary into different categories: Summary, Victorian medical views of menopause and hysteria, “Mrs. Smith of Longmains,” Literary critique of medical discourse, and overall argument. When using ChatGPT to summarize, you don’t get nearly as many details as the article provides. The article used quotes and ChatGPT didn’t even give one of the quotes provided in the article. This makes a big impact to me because when you read an article and it provides evidence to back up its claims, you can then form an opinion on whether you agree or disagree, whether you think the argument is trustworthy, etc. When you read an AI summary and it doesn’t give any evidence that the article provides, you can’t really form an opinion on the article. I do think that the summary tool is good to use if you’ve already read the article like we did and you need to be reminded what it was about or what the key points of importance were. Using AI to summarize could be a good way for some people to take notes, but it’s not a replacement to actually reading the full length of what you are supposed to read

Something that really stuck out to me in this reading was the descriptions of Louise’s body by the narrator. The way she is described in a lot of passages seems to be flawed, but they are flaws that our narrator loves. Things that she loves Louise for, not things that she loves Louise in spite of. This reminded me of sonnet 130 by Shakespeare. Both authors describe flaws that their lovers have, and they may recognize that they are flaws, but they don’t necessarily see them as such.

Some of the descriptions are not even necessarily flaws, but just things that can be gross to think about in regard to the human body. Like the passage about the epidermis being all dead skin cells and the quote “The dead you is constantly being rubbed away by the dead me” (123). The passage then goes on to describe dead skin cells flaking away off her body. These types of descriptions, and the way our narrator loves Louise for them, makes me think of the classical vs grotesque body. The grotesque body is natural to everyone, but most are grossed out by it. Our narrator is not grossed out by it but rather fascinated by it and Louise’s “grotesque body” seems to be something that the narrator misses most. I think this could be because they were such a sexual couple and the idea of knowing someone’s “grotesque body” is, in a way, even more intimate than sex

While reading “Milk” it really stuck out to me how Coreen was treated by the doctors and nurses, specifically the main nurse Patrice. Patrice started patronizing Coreen very early on when she was asking her questions about her job, race, and ethnicity. The nurse was being very condescending and rude when Coreen didn’t fully answer the questions or was wrong about what is a country or not. Patrice’s treatment of Coreen only got worse as the story went on. When Coreen was both freezing and burning at night, Bea tried to help her and called in Patrice. Patrice then said that Coreen was being dramatic and Bea had to go find a doctor for Coreen because Patrice was dismissing her needs. Coreen was then diagnosed with Endometritis, which could have possibly been diagnosed earlier if Patrice was attentive to her patient. There was also an issue where her IV was not correctly hooked up for 10-15 hours. This shows how none of the nurses were paying attention to her. This treatment of Coreen reminds me of TikTok’s that I continually get where black women speak about how they are treated in healthcare. Their symptoms are disregarded as them being “dramatic” and they do not get the full attention of healthcare professions that men, or even white women do. They are ignored and this is something that we see happening to Coreen because she is South African. Although she was born in America and identifies as just American, the doctors kept pushing to know where she is “really from.” Bea does not face any of these issues with the nurses. The issue of black women being treated unfairly in healthcare is still an ongoing issue that needs to be changed

I really liked how Edna seemed to have a lot more agency in this section of the book. She was doing a lot of things that she actually wanted to be doing, like going to the jockey club and visiting Mademoiselle Reisz. Mr. Pontellier wasn’t in this section of the book as much and I thought it was interesting how much more open Edna was with people about being unhappy in her relationship with him not being there as much. She admits that she is happy when he is gone and says she wouldn’t want him around any more than he already is because they wouldn’t have anything to talk about. As much as I disagree with Mr. Pontellier’s morals and beliefs, I do feel bad for him in this section. When we do see him, he is concerned for Edna. While I also disagree with his concerns, it does seem to come from a place of caring. He seems to want her to “get better” throughout this whole section, while she is going behind his back to fawn over any possible letters from Robert and to kiss Arobin. While I like that she has more agency to explore what really makes her happy, I wish she would be more honest with her husband.

The first thing that stuck out to me in this reading and continued to stay with me through the rest of it is the passage on pages 12 – 14. Mrs. Pontellier put the kids to bed and after one of them seemed to be getting bad sleep, Mr. Pontellier went to investigate and saw the child had a fever. He then told Mrs. Pontellier that she doesn’t pay enough attention to their kids and neglects them. He is mad that he has to tend to the kids because he works and she doesn’t, so it should be her job to take care of the kids. Mrs. Pontellier then goes to cry by herself and thinks about how common these types of arguments are with her husband.

This particular scene stuck with me for the rest of the reading because Mr. Pontellier clearly wants a traditional wife and she doesn’t seem to want to do those duties. It makes me think about how the trad wife is seemingly making a comeback in society. Many social media influencers are romanticizing this lifestyle and making it very appealing to impressionable young women. While there are definitely some women who would have a happy life never working and only devoting their time to their house, husband, and kids, this lifestyle is not suited for many women. It is very hard and can be very draining, which is something these influencers don’t portray. One of the main influencers that I think of with this is Nara Smith.

She’s a 23 year old woman who posts TikTok videos of her cooking. She has 4 kids and she makes this trad wife lifestyle look easy. She always posts herself cooking the most elaborate meals, with her hair and makeup done and flawless, and in a beautiful outfit. She always has food ready for her husband and never seems to have any issues taking care of her kids. Influencers like this romanticize the trad wife lifestyle, but young people don’t consider how much time and money she has in order to live this lifestyle so effortlessly. For the average person, taking care of children full time, while cooking and doing all the cleaning, is stressful and tiring. At the time “Awakening” was written, women didn’t have a choice and had to live this lifestyle even if it didn’t suit them, which is why we see Mrs. Pontellier having issues taking care of her children. Women do have a choice now, but popular influencers are making the trad wife lifestyle seem much easier than it is. While this lifestyle can be very fulfilling to many, it should be portrayed as real and hard work, not just something that women are expected to do.

A part of “The Hidden Hand” that stuck out to me is when the smuggler was invited to stay the night and when he turned out to be Black Donald, Cap clung on to him and said she would sooner die than let him get away. She is always charging into the face of danger for someone so young, and the other characters usually see this as a bad thing. They see her as untameable and want her to act more like a “girl.” Analyzing the way her personality is seen as “boyish” makes me think about nature vs nurture. She did not grow up in an environment that forced her into stereotypical “girl” interests and activities. Instead she fended for herself a lot of the time and found herself more interested in “boy” things, and found it easier to get a job when she was pretending to be a boy. The characters all want her to act more like a girl, until the very end of the reading when Cap outsmarts the burglars hiding under her bed and saves everyone in the house. After that, old Hurricane really appreciates her ability to stay calm in dangerous and scary situations, and her smart thinking, traits that are usually seen as boyish. Without her innate personality, there are many situations in this story that could have ended badly. If they were able to make her conform the way they wanted her to, the story would have been very different. The idea of nature vs nurture in Cap’s personality makes me think about how popular gender reveals have gotten within the last 10 years, and how they weren’t really a thing before that. I see Instagram and TikTok posts about gender reveals all the time and it starts off with conformity at a young age. If it’s a girl then the cake is pink, if it’s a boy then it’s blue. We as a society start off young children with societal expectations on how they should be acting, the same way the characters in the story wanted Cap to act a certain way. Most people innately have both masculine and feminine traits, and I think letting these uniquely and naturally develop within each person should be more normalized.

One part of this section that really stuck out to me was when we got to see Dominique and Shirley interact with each other. We knew that they were both friends with Amma, but I hadn’t thought about how these two interact at all. When I was previously reading Shirley’s chapter, I had read her homophobia as something as the past, without realizing it’s how she still feels. I was disappointed to see that so many years after learning about Amma’s sexuality, she still doesn’t accept it. I really liked how Dominique picks up on it though, “She’d once caught Shirley watching Amma kiss a girlfriend at a party, the expression on Shirley’s face when she thought she wasn’t being observed. The woman is a closet homophobe, although Amma won’t have it, says Shirley wouldn’t be her friend if she was” (Evaristo 430).

This passage shows a lot about all three characters. Amma overlooks the obvious flaws of the people she cares about, Dominique is observant and a very protective friend, and Shirley still doesn’t have any character development. The interaction between Dominique and Shirley makes me think about how many things go unnoticed by the characters of this book because they care for the people who betray them. Is the affair between Lennox and Winsome obvious to other characters who see these two interact? Are Shirley and Winsome’s husband the only people to not pick up on it? I wish we were able to get more into the characters’ heads and thoughts. 

Shirley’s homophobia reminds me of the current events going on with Nicki Minaj right now. She was never previously seen as homophobic, but she has been getting accusations of it lately and supporting people who are. She was even called out for her support of certain people during the Grammys recently and most celebrities there laughed. This small connection between Shirley and a popular celebrity makes you wonder what people really think about things and if they are hiding their true feelings on certain topics.