Blog # 6

Maxine Hong Kingston- The Women Warrior

In The Women Warrior Kingston tells the story of  her no name aunt that her family does not speak of due to her shameful past. I think Kingston as an author is taking a big step with even publishing such a book. Writing about your family and personal life could be detrimental to her and her familys relationship. Especially because her family never actually talked much of her aunt, but  Kingston wrote a book about the situation. Analyzing Kingston's situation in this way reminds me of bell hooks Remembered Raptured. Bell hooks in her writing did not want to make it seem like she was targeting anyone or releasing too personal information. I wonder how Kingston's family reacted to her creating The Women Warrior? Would her family support her book although it is about her familys unspoken aunt?  I enjoyed reading Kingston's work but you often forget to think of these things when you are reading a book or an article.

Blog #5

Pha Lo- "When Eating Organic was Totally Uncool"

After reading this article it actually sparked my interest in the whole concept of eating organic. I did not realize that there was a point in time where people who grew their own produce and food were ashamed of doing so. Pha Lo writes about how ashamed she was to have to rely on store parking lots grass in order for them to grow their own organic food. Back then if you grew and ate organic food you were judged because this meant that you could not afford to go to the store and buy your own food. When in actuality this was actually a good thing to do not only it being more affordable but also beneficial to your health. Today when you think of someone eating organic you do not think that they are poor. A lot of people spend greater sums of money to buyorganic produce rather than to grow it themselves. Today making use of your money is well needed and if you can grow your own organic food then nothing should stop one from doing so. Many families had to grow up feeling shameful for eating and growing their own organic foods. Opinions of people change through decades of time and it is unfortunate that Pha Lo had to feel ashamed to grow organic while today some may say it is a smart and "cool" thing to do.

Blog # 4

In Darraj's "It's Not an Oxymoron, " she is talking about the contradiction that many think of when they think of arab feminism. This thought was proven wrong by Darraj when she realized that it is not an oxymoron like the title says. Darraj realized her own idea of feminism after reading other types of culture's feminsim like Bell Hooks, who is a black woman. I did not realize until after reading Darraj's writing that there are all these different interpretations of feminism. I just thought feminism was exactly as what the dictionary said the word was defined as. I actually learned a lot from reading Darraj's work and started think about how feminism applied to me. I'm not sure if it's something you just know what it means to you, just like how Darraj had to search for her own meaning of feminism. I think it's important to understand other cultures understanding of the idea of feminism in order to grasp your own concept of it. I believe that Darraj has been very influential to other arab women as well as women of all cultures. Your religion should not stop you from being independent. I think more women need to realize that we should be breaking away from this patriarchial society, women can be just as powerful as men.

Blog #3

After reading Erica Martinez's, "Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power and Guilt," I made a connection to another text. Martinez talks about how as a daughter she is like her mother's "social security" and will have to take care of her mother as if the roles of parent and child were switched. In another one of my classes I read, "Who's the Parent Now," by Julia T. Wood. Wood writes about a character, Kate who has to take care of her own family, marriage and now her mother. Although Martinez did not have family of her own, I found these two pieces of work relatable. Both Martinez and Kate felt guilty for not really wanted to help out their mothers. They did not want to come off as selfish, but they both just wanted to continue on with their own lives and not be held down by caring for their mothers. Also another similarty is that Martinez mentions how her friends brothers are not expected to take care of the mothers, which is considered to be a double standard. In "Who's the Parent Now," Kate is annoyed at the fact that her brother Sandy does not have to give up his own life to help aid his mother. It is seen in both situations that daughters take on the role of caretaker for their parents and not the sons. In the end for both situations both women get their independence back. I found it interesting to how Martinez's writing is relatable to so many other women, not just of her culture either. Martinez as well as many other women fictional or not, deal with the same struggles of having to parent their own parent as well as facing guilt.

Blog # 2

According to The Color Complex "The Emergence of Modern Colorism in the Americas"

From in the early days of slavery and still today many face the issues of racism. Race takes a toll on everyone's life whether it be good or bad. For people to be seen and judged upon their skin color and not on what they are able to bring to the table is unjust. There should be no superior race and to think that this how our society still thinks today is just sad. It should not be the lighter the skin the more privelages you obtain. It should not matter what color your skin is, but I don't know if this idea will every leave people's minds. If society disregaurds the idea of race and racism our world would be so different. Race is something that the society has created, it does not really exist it is just something that we all created in our minds. Slaves have suffered the most from racism and dealt with harsh beatings and even rapes. This idea of race needs to be dropped, and being that it exists still today after how far our society has come I dont know if it ever will. 

Blog #1

Blog pertaining to Remembered Raptured "Class and the Politics of Writing"

This chapter of Remembered Raptured brought up a point I never thought about. When you read a personal or autobiographial piece you often do not think about how writing about personal issues effects that being's family. Your family's reputation can be altered in a negative way depending on what  personal topics were shared. This author wanted to publish her writing but it was not meant to put a target on her family's back or to blame an individual. After reading this chapter I so happened to watch a video on Youtube that also relates to this fear of publicizing personal information. A girl on youtube was talking about how she copes with her anxiety and where her anxiety came from. The girl talks about her parents divorce but she decided not to go in to full detail because she wanted to respect her parents. I immediately thought of how much of an issue this could be. People want to be open with their audiences but they would be putting their family lives at risk. Issues like these exist in author's lives and could even be related to those who share their lives with us on reality t.v. shows.