FINAL BLOG: The Experieinces of a Woman...

Before this semester I had never really put much thought into woman’s literature. Now, after a full semester of it I think I have an idea of what it may be. To me, woman’s literature is the stories and the real experiences of what it means to be a woman. Throughout this semester, the readings showed us a woman’s responsibilities, fears, maturation, wants, needs, and most importantly struggle. We read about women being jailed, beaten, raped, neglected, and used. All of these things led us to learning about another important thing and that is a woman’s strength. There were stories where we saw women raped as in PUSH, and 2 or 3 Things. In both of those stories we see the female characters pick themselves up and use their experiences to better themselves and to move forward. There were stories where we saw women dealing with a loss by death as in the Shawl, Butterflies, and our first book, 19 Varieties of Gazelle. Rosa watches Magda as she’s killed by a guard, Dede loses her father, though they were not close, and Naomi reflects of her grandmother and her thankfulness for her. A major subject we see a woman dealing with in these books is being a mother. We read about the love from a mother, the sacrifices a mother must make, the responsibilities of a mother, and how a mother can be reflected in their child. In PUSH, we see Precious is neglected, beaten, and used by her mother. She is never shown any love and is never appreciated. Her mother even uses Precious as a ploy to receive welfare. Precious’ mother never took her responsibilities as a mother seriously and that led her to allow Precious to be raped and to miss out on an education until Precious took it upon herself to find a way out. Because Precious felt and remembers what her mother did to her and made her feel, she promises that her kids will be a priority to her. Because of her responsibility as a mother, Precious takes her education more seriously and tries to put her and Abdul in a better position in the future. My favorite book was by far The Vagina Monologues. Eve Ensler uses a perfect mix of humor and emotion to portray the reality of a woman’s experiences and maturation. One story I will remember most from the Vagina Monologues is the story about the young girl and her first experience with menstruation. I think that these monologues are most prominent to me because of how they tell a story of something so frowned upon to talk about…to men at least. As a man I never want to read of hear about a woman and what they experience during that “period”. It’s something you just don’t think about. Ensler makes it bearable and actually interesting to read about because of the quotes she uses like “Twelve years old. I was happy. My friend had a Ouija board, asked when we were going to get our periods, looked down, and I saw blood.” Things like that don’t make it so gruesome. 

• What is important to women in history, relationships, education, their bodies, self-identity, progress, and expression?

Education/Progress: Education is important to women because it shows motivation, it shows a sense of wanting to better ones self and to be in control. We see this most in PUSH. In push we see that when Precious tries to move forward and earn a better education that her mother tries to stop her. Her mother seems as if she is jealous that Precious may have more opportunities or taken advantage of more opportunities than she was able to. Precious uses education as a way to propel herself out of the hood. Education is progress to women.

Relationships: Relationships are important to women because like anyone else, women need to feel a sense of belonging. Look at the women from the Eve Ensler film we watched. In prison, these women rely on one another to get through their days and many of them will rely on each other to get through their lives. They have all been through terrible experiences and because of that they can relate to one another and cope with one another.

Body: The female body we see and read about in the Vagina Monologues. Ensler connects woman’s personalities and experiences to their Vaginas. Through the monologues Ensler emphasizes the importance of the vagina to the woman as a whole. She shows us that the Vagina is one of the many things that makes a woman so special, so unique, but also so vulnerable.

Identity: Identity is something that is also very important. We see this with Dorothy in 2 or 3 Things I know for sure. Dorothy sees what her older female family members have become. She sees how unhappy they are, how they are like a door mat for men, how they just take a back seat. She also sees how they treat her and it’s not lovely. She takes her life into her own hands and creates her own identity, not the one that her family has all just fallen into. She teaches herself to love people and to be open. She is a passion woman and hasn’t followed in the footsteps of her family members. 

As this class comes to an end I have learned in this course the importance of woman’s bodies, their minds, and their experiences. This course overall, emphasized on the sensitivity and also the strength that it takes to be a woman…

Sorry for the length. I became a little carried away. There was so much to about. Thanks You!

                

Dorothy and coping...

-For this last blog on 2 or 3 things I know for sure, I want to talk about how the main character Dorothy (though this is an autobiography) deals with her struggles in comparison to the many other female characters we have read about over this semester. In this story we read about Dorothy’s struggle in being physically abused, raped, somewhat tortured physically and mentally by her own family and stepfather.

-       In all of our other stories we’ve read, there has been a pattern of women struggling. Either by how they are treated, what they experienced, or how they lost a person they loved dearly.

In 19 varieites of Gazelle we see Naomi find a sense of gratefulness when her grandmother passes on.  In krik krak we see the women losing the one’s they love, prostituting for the sake of one’s child, and seeing a mother being treated as a witch.

-       -In every story we have that the majority of the female characters have been extremely strong and have amazing will and perseverance. Being enslaved, beaten, used, and even raped, they all still find their ways to cope.

-     - Dorothy like all of the other women found her ways to cope. She showed us that she was refusing to be what her other family members were. The things that she was taught not to do, she wanted to do. Despite how she was treated by her family, not shown love or anything towards what beauty is, she opens up to life and doesn’t get caught up in the past. In our last book, Rosa coped by not moving on for a long time from the past. Here, Dorothy leaves the past behind by focusing on not being what she was taught to be. She focuses on living life free, and loving people.

2 or 3 things I know for sure... Relating...

-So far I've found 2 or 3 things I know for sure to be a very deep story. By deep I mean that Dorothy tells a story that can be very similar to what many other people have experienced growing up and that's what keeps me interested and wanting to read more. With this story I feel like we're finally reading something that I can relate to or closely to. As we see, Dorothy is not shown much freedom or love from her family. She seems to be powerless growing up and is always reminded by someone of her lack of what they feel is "beauty". She is abused not only physically but mentally.

-The way I feel like I can relate is story of my brother Erik. Though I call him my brother, we are not blood, the story follows. Erik growing up was my brother Matt's best friend throughout the middle and high school years. Erik is similar to Dorothy because of how he was treated by his family and parents. He was always told by his mother how he was a useless bastard and would never accomplish anything in life just like his father who was in jail. His mother abused him and often times took away everything he had developed love for. For him those things ranged from pets, clothes, even to a laptop he used for graphic editing. Eventually he moved in with us during his senior year of high school and today he's very successful working and living comfortably in Alabama. Erik's mother I would say plays the role of Dorothy's stepfather.  I can't relate to this directly because growing up I was always shown love by my parents and family, like many others I was taught that I can be whatever I dream to be. I was loved as I feel everyone should be, but Dorothy is not. She's told what she can't do, what she can't think about and never does she see what she is capable of or how beautiful she really is.

The Shawl- Motherhood.

-This is the blog I couldn't submit sunday and was meaning to e-mail I completely forgot to do so. Sorry it took so long. Whether or not I receive credit is up to you. Sorry once again.

-This is another story about motherhood. Reflect on the way motherhood affects a woman's identity. How is Rosa's survival mitigated by the loss of her daughter/motherhood?

-From all of the books we’ve read over this semester I’ve seen that motherhood can be many different things, it depends on who the mother is and what motherhood their mother showed them. For example, In Precious we see Precious’ mother seeing motherhood as nothing more than an opportunity to use Precious as a maid. She has Precious do all the homely dirty work, but she never shows her any love.

-In the Shawl we see that Rosa takes Motherhood as something important to her. Early in the story in the camps, Rosa does everything she can to protect Magda, for to hide Magda she uses the Shawl. When Magda is discovered by the guards and is killed, the picture of Magda on the electric fence is burned into her memory. Rosa would sacrifice anything for Magda, be it food, warmth, or any comfort she would give it all for Magda. As the story continues on, Magda continues to drift further and further into her past memories of the camps. The main memory that leads her into isolation is Magda, how she was killed and how Rosa didn’t try to save her from the guard in the moment of her death. All of her trying to hide Magda from the guards, and keep her from any harm meant nothing now because she didn’t attempt to save her when it mattered most. In isolation in the hotel room Rosa is alone and she’s constantly thinking and writing to Magda, though Magda will never get to read the letters. This shows her guilt about not being able to keep Magda alive. Her showing guilt shows that she takes a responsibility for Magda.

-I think that’s what Motherhood is, is a responsibility of the mother to carry herself in a certain manner and to take responsibility for their children, to try to protect them. Once one has become a mother they change some of their ways for the better of the child, unlike Precious’ mother, but like Rosa. In all of the stories we’ve read that some mothers take motherhood seriously and others don’t know that motherhood is.