The Price of Freedom

Throughout this course there have been many themes explored, but one of the ones I am most interested in is the underlying theme of the price of freedom. In almost every book we read this course, freedom, and the path to the attainment of freedom, played a large role in character and plot development.

In Ms. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Clarissa is burdened by Richard. Richard is suffering from AIDS, and Clarissa is the one person keeping him alive, giving him hope. She goes to visit him almost every day, and she truly devotes herself to this man. A similar situation occurs with Laura, the reader of Ms. Dalloway, as she feels trapped within her own life. She is burdened by normalcy as she fights depression and puts up the facade that she is happy and contempt. However, as a conversation between Clarissa and Laura reveals, Laura eventually ran away from her son and husband, and felt truly free for the first time in years. Virginia Woolf herself is denied freedom as she is holed up in rural England, slowly going mad. She is kept under prisoner-like conditions and is unable to free herself, as the only escape she has from her situation comes from the joy she gets from writing. Suicide features in these women's lives, as it becomes the way for them to experience freedom. Suicide, whether directly or indirectly, gives these troubled women freedom from their lives and responsibilities. For Clarissa, even though it comes as quite a shock and is a truly sad occurrence, Richard's death, in a way, gives Clarissa life. Clarissa is freed from the burden of Richard's caretaker, and she is now able to move on with her life. Virginia Woolf chose to escape her own troubles by drowning herself, death was her freedom, and ending her own life was the price she was willing to pay.

We read another book this year entitled Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee. Freedom in this book was exemplified by the main character changing her name from Jyoti to Jane, and then again to Jasmine. By changing her name, Jasmine was stepping forward into her new identity, but she was also freeing herself from the past. Jasmine wanted to escape the stereotypes or judgments that might come along with the rural Indian name of Jyoti. Freedom came at the price of changing her identity so she could truly start fresh in the United States, in her new life. Another example of the price of freedom comes from Jasmine's relationship with Bud. This relationship is similar to Clarissa's relationship with Richard in Ms. Dalloway. Jasmine functions as Bud's caretaker, and she feels obligated to stay by his side through the good and the bad. When she meets Taylor, however, she realizes that she must leave Bud in order to pursue her dreams and live her own life. At the end of the story, Jasmine leaves Bud and is pictured, "scrambling ahead of Taylor, greedy with wants and reckless from hope" (Mukherjee, 241). It is evident that Jasmine has been trapped for so long that she cannot wait to truly experience freedom, free of all burdens and solely worrying about her own needs and wants.

We also read a book by Naomi Wolf called The Beauty Myth and a book by Eve Ensler entitled The Vagina Monologues. Both of these books dealt with women's issues, freedom from judgments and stereotypes, and elevating the status of women. In The Beauty Myth, Wolf talks about how women are repressed by stereotypes and held prisoner by cultural values that place emphasis on artificial beauty. Women are unable to express themselves as society demands women look and act a specific way. The Beauty Myth promotes freedom, but this freedom comes at the cost of going against popular and mass media, and expressing one's self at the cost of being an individual. In The Vagina Monologues, Ensler talks about women freeing themselves from their own vaginas. She wants women to re-discover, or in some cases, discover for the first time, their sexuality. At the beginning she talks about how even the word vagina is somewhat taboo. She urges women to talk about their vaginas, lifting the burden placed upon women regarding the ability to connect and have a relationship with their own vaginas. The women interviewed feel liberated when talking about their vaginas, it is new to them and feels like a guilty pleasure. The freedom of talking and popularizing vaginas comes at the price of breaking invisible expectations that women's sexuality must be repressed and kept in the dark.

The first book we read this year was The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. In her created society of Gilead, women were stripped of their identities and simply made into objects for the pleasure of man. The women in this book had no freedom, and were forced to do as the men said and live lives dedicated to them. Everything in this society, from social and formal events to everyday tasks such as gardening, was forced. Freedom was nonexistent in Gilead, and at the end, the main character, Offred, finally gained freedom by letting go. She stepped "into the darkness within; or else the light" (Atwood, 307). Offred's freedom came at the price of giving herself to the men who came for her.

Women's Lit as a whole also embodies the theme of the price of freedom. I have read many wonderful female authors this year, and have truly enjoyed this class (I am sad it is coming to an end!). Women's Lit has come a long way over the past few decades. Historically, literature has mostly been dominated by men, however, with the women's rights movement, female authors became inspired and women's literature took flight. The freedom of women's literature means that women are respected as authors just as much as men. I believe we are near this point, as women authors are just as credible and have just as much to say as their male counterparts. I have come to greatly respect women's literature and look forward to using the ideas I have developed over the past months in my future studies.

Allure: The Beauty Expert

While I was doing a project about images that promote and enhance the beauty myth, I found a magazine called Allure which I believe embodies the beauty myth culture itself.

This is the definition for allure from dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/allure

Allure [uh-loor]
noun

verb (used with object)
1. to attract or tempt by something flattering or desirable
2. to fascinate; charm

verb (used without object)
3. to be attractive or tempting


Allure magazine, even through its name, targets and tempts women. The magazine, like many others of this nature, pushes the boundaries of beauty and enhances the beauty myth. This magazine not only sells products and fashion trends to women, but it also sends lifestyle messages and beauty norms. These norms, such as being skinny, white, and sexy, urge women to experiment with their own sense of identity as they become increasingly dependent on magazines and the mass media to provide them with new cultural and gender norms.

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=643&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=WqNhGpqsUhLyBM:&imgrefurl=http://www.popcrunch.com/taylor-swift-allure-april-2009-pictures/&docid=BQ-1FFrS3GQ3rM&imgurl=http://www.popcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/taylor-swift-allure-cover-april-2009.jpg&w=442&h=600&ei=SHWrT_m4M6i80QWfy7AE&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=499&vpy=268&dur=301&hovh=262&hovw=193&tx=101&ty=155&sig=100272548258877551950&page=1&tbnh=126&tbnw=93&start=0&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0,i:164

In the last chapter of Naomi Wolf's Beauty Myth, she expresses her ideas for how we as a society could go about fighting the injustice of the beauty myth. In my opinion, this chapter truly stressed the importance of a noncompetitive approach to beauty. Wolf stressed the importance of the relationship with the other woman. The other woman represents women who may be seen as competitors or obstacles in the way of another woman's happiness/achievement of fulfilling the beauty myth. "The 'other woman' is represented through the myth as an unknown danger" (Wolf, 287). When speaking of the other woman and competition fostered by the beauty myth, Wolf says, "By changing our prejudgments of one another, we have the means for the beginning of a noncompetitive experience of beauty" (Wolf, 289). Women immediately see other beautiful women as competition, as the enemy. Wolf seems desperate to change this state of mind, "We have to stop reading each others' appearances as if appearance were language, political allegiance, worthiness, or aggression" (Wolf, 287). As women  work towards lessening the amount of judgments made simply from looking at a woman, real connections will be more easily made and competition in beauty will be a far more futile ordeal.

This chapter is also a call to action, exemplified in the last pages of the book when Wolf writes, "The earth can no longer afford a consumer ideology based on insatiable wastefulness of sexual and material discontent" (Wolf, 289). I think it is time to change the direction advertising is heading. There has already been much damage to the view of females in the advertising industry, highlighted by the way in which their bodies are used to sell and tempt an infinite consumer base. First, women need to stop obsessing over beauty. It may be difficult, but women need to be comfortable in their own bodies and accept themselves as they are. In an extremely opinionated paragraph on page 290, Wolf discusses how women can achieve true freedom from the beauty myth, "A woman wins by giving herself and other women permission - to eat; to be sexual; to age; to wear overalls, a paste tiara, a Balenciaga gown, a second-hand opera cloak, or combat boots; to cover up or to go practically naked; to do whatever we choose in following - or ignoring - our own aesthetic".

The problem is not simply competition in beauty, it is the unrealistic standard of beauty set by magazines like Allure. There are hundreds of magazines just like Allure, targeting and subconsciously influencing young women and men alike throughout the world. Our culture will never truly change, it is too late, the beauty myth is too deeply intertwined with the values of our culture. Men naturally see a woman in magazines and deem them as beautiful. They have seen these images all their lives. They are desensitized. Boobs, cleavage, bare legs, what is the difference, we have seen it all. We need to save girls while we can, for they are the most vulnerable and susceptible to the influence of the beauty myth. The beauty myth has perpetrated our mass culture. Our only chance to defeat this monster myth is artfully conveyed on the last page of the The Beauty Myth. I believe this passage is the most important idea in the entire novel; it is an inspiring message:


"A woman wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her" (Wolf, 290).

The Vagina Versus: Part II

The Vagina versus. THE HEART

In my first Vagina versus post I talked about the relationship between the vagina and the penis. However, in this post I will be comparing the vagina to the heart, which I thought was a very interesting comparison when it was brought up in the last chapter of Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. In this chapter, Ensler talks very vividly about the process of birth, beginning with a sentence and a vision not usually depicted in birthing stories, "I was there when her vagina opened" (Ensler, 121).

During this chapter, the vagina is described as a sort of life force. It moves past just a sexual organ, and transforms into a life giving, living, breathing phenomenon. Ensler very vividly, almost psychedelically, describes the pre-birthing transformation, "her vagina changed from a shy sexual hole to an archaeological tunnel, a sacred vessel, a Venetian canal, a deep well with a tiny stuck, child inside, waiting to be rescued". Ensler then goes on the describe the visual image of the birth actually taking place. The description is specific and grotesquely detailed to say the least:

READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=679&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=VZSsFCl2m3JKhM:&imgrefurl=http://fidelismedestar.blogspot.com/2012/01/social-media-proceed-with-caution.html&docid=GYfSe0cP2n9XjM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgmXOq6UcnUc4Yv8l3bgD9BFLibJVEmmx1G4OVEATS_EA3Dje-OjxVEeFIrnVB70PRol84Alib-LMvJFEhdw53wAWmmLlIo3eJXFF3f2X6Abcu0jvn9HviI9FbQAc1d-civwcPz6aHeWxa/s1600/caution%252Bsign.jpg&w=450&h=450&ei=K8u_T970Jcmd0QXf4bndCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=345&vpy=170&dur=3016&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=108&ty=150&sig=100272548258877551950&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=133&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:142


"I saw the colors of her vagina. They changed. Saw the bruised broken blue the blistering tomato red the gray pink, the dark; saw the blood like perspiration along the edges saw the yellow, white liquid, the shit, the clots pushing out all the holes, pushing harder and harder" (Ensler, 122). Wow. I felt like I was in the room even while writing that; it is so intense.

Ensler then goes on to describe the after-birth scene, and this is where she makes her comparisons between the vagina and the heart. The heart is often depicted as the true life-giving organ, a life-force in itself. However, Ensler makes the claim that the vagina is also life-force. After the birth when she is looking into the mutilated and open vagina, she observes, "her vagina suddenly became a wide pulsing red heart" (Ensler, 24). The heart is often portrayed as the source of passion and selflessness in our bodies, but Ensler argues that the vagina is similarly capable of selfless sacrifice. In one passage, Ensler describes the heart, "It can ache for us and stretch for us, die for us and bleed and bleed us into this difficult, wondrous world". She goes on to reveal, "So can the vagina" (Ensler, 125). While the differences between the heart and the vagina are obvious, Ensler draws many connections mainly based on the ability to give life. Whether it is through pumping blood throughout the body or birthing a child, both the heart and the vagina are capable of creating and sustaining life. Ensler reveals even more similarities between the two as she explains, "The heart is capable of sacrifice. So is the vagina. The heart is able to forgive and repair. It can change its shape to let us in. It can expand to let us out. So can the vagina" (Ensler, 24). In this round between the vagina and the heart, the result is a tie.

The Vagina Versus: Part I

The Vagina versus. THE PENIS

There would obviously be no mention of the male genitalia in a book called The Vagina Monologues. However, I thought the differences and similarities between these two sexual organs was worthy of a blog post at least. In Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, readers are first desensitized to the word itself. As Ensler mentions, "Let's just start with the word vagina. It sounds like an infection at best, maybe a medical instrument". This is the first noticeable difference between the penis and the vagina. Vagina "never sounds like a word you want to say", while the word penis is more widely accepted (Ensler, 5). There is a lot of angst attributed to the word vagina, and as Ensler discovered, women are extremely reluctant to even mention the word much less talk about their own vaginas.

Ensler interviews many women throughout these monologues, and the discomfort associated with talking about vaginas is clearly depicted in many of the encounters, "I mean...well, never mind. No. Never mind. I can't talk to you about this. What's a smart girl like you going around talking to old ladies about their down-theres for? We didn't do this kind of a thing when I was a girl" (Ensler, 26). In this excerpt, the woman being interviewed won't even refer to her vagina by its proper name, she calls it her 'down-there'. This name further distances this woman from her vagina and outlines the lack of a relationship she has with her own vagina. It is as if she is separated from it.

Ensler then goes on to describe the clitoris, which is, "the only organ in the body designed purely for pleasure" (Ensler, 51). The clitoris contains 8,000 nerve fibers, which is twice the number of nerve fibers found in the penis. The penis and vagina are both designed for pleasure, but I do not doubt for a second that if men had an organ that's sole purpose was to provide pleasure, it would be flaunted and praised nonstop. The clitoris, however, is hidden, concealed within the vagina, out of sight. There is a lot done to decrease the pleasure of women, to keep the clitoris hidden. The vagina is not treated well, exemplified when Ensler talks passionately about the things that are shoved and stuffed up there. "Like tampons - what the hell is that? A wad of dry fucking cotton stuffed up there. Why can't they find a way to slightly lubricate the tampon". Ensler also talks about how men are constantly trying to clean up the vagina, "make it smell like bathroom spray or a garden" (Ensler, 70).

Ultimately, Ensler talks about man elevating the penis above the vagina by degrading the vagina. She says of men, "Hate to see a woman having pleasure, particularly sexual pleasure...they wouldn't be able to stand it. Seeing all those energized, not-taking-shit, hot, happy vaginas" (Ensler, 72). The vagina is oppressed by the penis dominating the sexual frontier. The penis goes along suffering from little criticism, while the vagina is constantly shaved to achieve perfection, douched to achieve cleanliness, and transformed into an object of the pleasure of a man. The vagina is on a comeback, but for now the battle of the vagina and the penis goes to the penis.

Transformers and Avengers

Last week I saw the movie The Avengers with two friends. I originally wondered why Scarlett Johansson was cast in the part of Agent Romanova. Scarlett has had a very legitimate and respectable acting career, however, she is also often portrayed as a sex symbol. This, like it or not, probably played a role in her choice as the part of Agent Romanova in the movie. There are many action scenes in the movie, and many parts in which I suspected a stunt double was being used, and I thought surely there must have been more actresses who were more suited to play the part. I then realized that Scarlett, while being an accomplished actress, played into the beauty myth. People want to see beautiful women on the screen. The girl with the best fighting capability is not always the one chosen for the acting part, beauty goes a long way in show business, and often trumps talent.

One movie where I believe that beauty played a disproportionately large role in casting is the Transformers series. Megan Fox was chosen for a starring role in Transformers in 2007 (she is also regarded as a sex symbol). Megan has had an interesting acting career, with Transformers being her first major role in a successful film. She was then propelled to stardom, and as a model, was idolized by fans and movie lovers alike. The need/want to see beautiful women on the screen goes back generations, but why is it that many actresses are beautiful? Why should this play such a large part in the film industry and in our culture as a whole? The need to see beautiful women on the screen has become a given in Hollywood and the film industry, to the point that models are making the switch to acting careers. We are a consumer based society, and our obsession with beautiful women in movies is a trend that I cannot see changing anytime soon.

The Beauty Phenomenon

The beauty myth is in everything we do. We, as a culture, are so invested in the qualities and beliefs of this myth it controls our lives. The beauty myth has manifested itself deep within our culture and dictates the way men and women live their lives. The beauty myth can affect us both consciously and subconsciously. For instance, when a girl goes on a diet or buys all the clothes she sees a model wearing in a magazine because she desires to look like her, the influence of the beauty myth is a conscious phenomenon. We want to look good for others and also for ourselves. However, where is this sense of 'looking good for one's self' coming from? I think this attitude comes from years of exposure to beautiful women and this is what we as a culture define as beauty. Why do girls not go out and buy comfortable non-stylish clothes? Why do girls put on mascara to make themselves look pretty? How is this pretty?

The beauty myth is also evident in almost every form of media imaginable, as women strive to look younger, thinner, and less like themselves. When speaking of the nature of fashion magazines, Bob Ciano, former art director of Life magazine, says, "no picture of a woman goes unretouched...even a well known [older] woman who doesn't want to be retouched...we still persist in trying to make her look like she's in her fifties" (Wolf, 82-83). This re-imaging gives grounding to the fact that many women desire to look younger than before in order to appear more desirable to men, but has it always been this way? Did women in colonial times struggle to maintain their youth? The beauty myth cannot even be called that since it is simply part of our nature, it is not a clear component, but rather a way of life.

Pornogrpahy vs. Magazines

The porn industry is fast becoming one of the most popular and profitable fields in film and entertainment. Naomi Wolf's Beauty Myth explores this field in a chapter entitled 'Culture'. In this section, I was shocked to find new information about the rapidly increasing popularity of pornography. The amount of money the porn business is bringing into the industry is astounding, and according to Wolf, "pornographic films outnumber other films three to one, grossing $365 million dollars a year in the United States alone, or a million dollars a day". This makes porn "the biggest media category". Pornography is also dominating magazine sales, as "eighteen million men a month in the United States buy a total of 165 different pornographic magazines...one man in ten reads Playboy, Penthouse, or Hustler each month" (Wolf, 79). As a giant in the film and magazine industry, the popularity of pornography worldwide has lead to a competition with other (traditional) magazines and other forms of entertainment. Magazines these days are becoming sexier than ever, as evidenced by the two ads on the left. I believe magazines are feeling the pressure of entertainment industries such as pornography, and this pressure is pushing them to be bolder than ever before concerning the content they deem as appropriate to publish. Some images in magazines, such as naked women barely covering themselves up with their arms, are borderline porn, and this line between porn and viewer friendly is growing ever thinner and the area between acceptable and offensive is increasingly grey.

The beauty myth was always used to sell magazines, but magazines are more than just pages to browse through, their true power is much deeper than that. Magazines are used as a way to connect, "They bring out of the closet women's lust for chat across barriers of potential jealousy and prejudgment" (Wolf, 76). Women can share common experiences through the carefully crafted issues of magazines; they are a representation of women's mass culture. Each reader feels connected to others because they know information or are aware of events that they can then share with others. Magazines, however, also function as the killer of self-esteem. The women in these issues are so beautiful and so stylish that it is impossible to copy or look like any of them. How did this cycle begin? Women aspire to look like a celebrity in a magazine or who marvel at a photo-shoot in the latest issue of Vogue. Magazines have transformed as women (and sex) are now used to sell almost every product imaginable. How can women still read copies of these brainwashing creations after seeing women degraded and put on a pedestal that is unrealistic and just fake?

Here is a copy of the May 1917 issue of Vogue (left) and a 1991 issue of Vogue (right):

  

 

The difference between these two covers is astounding, and it is evident that we have become desensitized to images like the one on the cover of the 1991 issue of Vogue. So what has caused this change in what is morally right? What happened that made it okay to put a picture of a 99% naked woman on the cover of a major publication?  This dramatic change in cover material could be the effect of pornography, an industry that has always been pushing the boundaries of exposure. With pornography putting the heat on all other forms of entertainment, it will be interesting to see if magazines get sexier as the line between what is and isn't appropriate fades away.

Harvard Sailing Team

This video from the Harvard Sailing Team (a You tube comedy sketch group) features men acting like women. In the video, the men embody physical characteristics of women as well as many stereotypical sayings and habits of the opposite gender. The video is based entirely on stereotypes of women and the aim of the video is to pinpoint and depict (with a lot of exaggeration) a day in the life of a teenage girl... 

I think this video is very funny, but after completing a semester of this class, I see how it could offend women and how it is unfairly stereotyping females. At the beginning of the video, one guy makes a call to his 'boyfriend' asking him all sorts of questions about his plans for the night, poking fun at the notion that females love to talk and make plans with their friends. The video then delves into more serious issues such as weight loss and diet. At one point, a man is talking about how many pounds he wants to lose, while another points out, "you already weigh that much right now". While the video takes on these issues from a comedic standpoint, these are problems that girls may face on a daily basis. The fact that these men are even portraying women talking about this proves that the beauty myth and the skinny phenomenon have infiltrated our culture to the point they may someday to define it. 


These men had only four minutes to make comments and observations about women's culture or the feminine nature as seen through the eyes of men. Amazingly, they spent almost two of these minutes talking about food, diets, weight loss, and pinkberries (a brand of frozen yogurt). The skinny phenomenon, the belief that if you aren't skinny you aren't pretty, is a very real and very scary idea. This phenomenon also includes the belief that weight can always be taken off, the number on the scale can always go lower, and lower, and lower. In Beauty Myth the belief that models are getting skinnier and skinnier shows no hope for women. Is it a self-esteem issue? Fitting in? Or does the need to please others and conform to societal and media pressure so much that it forces these women to starve themselves and mistreat their bodies?

Calculating Beauty

What makes a person good looking? The million dollar question. My twelve year old brother recently did had a math project in which he was asked to record the measurements of his face. The first step was to measure the length of his lips, find the halfway point, and record the length of each side to test for symmetry. He then repeated the measurement using the outside of his right eye to the outside of his left. Then he measured the inside of his eye to the inside of the other and followed by measuring the outside of one nostril to the other. He concluded the experiment by measuring the distance between cheekbones. The point of the experiment was to see how symmetrical and properly proportioned his face was. At the end of the assignment, the math teacher said that the more symmetrical your face, the more you are perceived as 'good looking'. Symmetry does exist, but is being beautiful the same as properly aligned?

In Naomi Wolf's Beauty Myth, beauty and perception go much deeper than the measurement from a nose to a cheekbone. Wolf says that, "The quality called 'beauty' objectively and universally exists" (12). Beauty is part reality, but the other part of it is in the eye of the beholder. However, over time, beauty has transformed from a quality into a lifestyle. Women strive to embody it, while men strive to obtain women who possess it. Beauty has always been an admirable quality, why wouldn't it be?

Wolf perfectly outlines the core of her book and the beauty myth itself when she remarks, "In assigning value to women in a vertical hierarchy  according to a culturally imposed physical standard, it is an expression of power relations in which women must unnaturally compete for resources that men have appropriated for themselves" (12). This excerpt is extremely important, as it sets the scene for the rise of the beauty myth. However, I am also interested in the role of women in the formation and progression of the beauty myth. I think the old saying, "it takes two" applies to social standards. Men may be the ones who provoke and encourage women to exude beauty, but women are equally guilty of absorbing the stereotype and turning it, along with the help of men, into a worldwide phenomenon that finds its roots embedded deep within our culture.

Identity Part Two: Americanized

In part one of my identity series, I talked about the power of a name in the formation of an identity. I will now talk about the power of a place in the formation of an identity. When Jyoti moves to America, she dons two new names, Jasmine and Jane. These are stereotypically American/Western names, while her true name, Jyoti, reveals her Indian upbringing. Why, however, does Jyoti feel that in order to immerse herself in American culture, it is necessary to take on a new name?


I feel that in order to take on this question we must first look at the message Mukherjee is trying to send. I believe with the name change, Mukherjee is highlighting the fact that when immigrants come to North America they must change and adapt in order to fit in with the people and culture. The author depicts this transformation by giving Jyoti a literal identity transformation. The name change signifies the change within Jyoti that takes place as a result of her move across the globe. Her situation is no different from most life-altering moves, in the sense that the environment she is exposed to naturally changes the way she thinks, acts, and expresses herself. Jyoti felt as though she needed to take on the personalities assigned to her by others in order to fit in, in order to become an 'American'. However, is it necessary to become an American just because one resides in the United States? The US used to be regarded as a melting pot of cultures, where immigrants could come and add their own unique ingredients to the concoction that was the American identity. With time, the American identity became more prescribed and recognized as many immigrants saw their old nationalities fade as they became increasingly Americanized. The term Americanized refers to the influence that the US has over its citizens, and these influences range from social media to political ideology to sport culture. However, there are places in the US that keep international identities alive, such as Little Italy or China Town.

I cannot relate to Jyoti's story. However, I recently had my own experience with embracing change and adapting to a new culture. When I moved from Aspen to London in my sophomore year, my world changed from watching people walk their golden retrievers down Main Street to watching double decker buses and black cabs crowding Edgeware Road. For the first fifteen years of my life, I was raised in a small town in Colorado, and then, like a shockwave, I was injected with British culture and the English way of life. I have picked up many phrases and adopted many British customs; I feel as though in the three years I have lived in England, I have changed noticeably from my small town Aspen self. The experiences I have had have contributed to this change. From hosting two students from Cairo who experienced the Arab Spring, to visiting a concentration camp on the outskirts of Munich during a soccer tournament, I have been exposed to cultural, social, and political ideas that are a unique part of living abroad. With my change in location came a change in perspective, and while I underwent many changes of my own, I still feel like the same person with a slight hint of Britization.


Britization [brit-uh-zay-shun]
adjective


The process by which one becomes influenced by British culture to the extent that he or she may show signs of behavioral assimilation as well as the overuse of the phrase "cheers".

Identity Part One: The Power of Letters

In this piece I will refer to the main character as Jyoti. This is the first name the narrator was given, it is her Indian birth name. I believe Jyoti is her true, pure identity, and so I will refer to her by that name throughout this blog post.

A name is just a grouping of letters. It means nothing. However, in Jasmine, a name is everything. It functions as an identity, a sense of self. A name is what we make it, it is the tool that helps others form judgments about us and through which we are able to present ourselves. A name is also a form of identification, as we take this random grouping of characters and make it mean something to ourselves and the world around us. Jyoti uses the power of letters to change her identity and become someone else, signified by a name change. With the first change from Jyoti to Jasmine, the main character begins to adapt to American life, Jyoti is Indian, while Jasmine is an American girl. Bud also wants Jane to transform herself, assigning her the identity of Jane. Jyoti adopts this identity and remarks, "Plain Jane is all I want to be. Plain Jane is a role, like any other." (26). In this excerpt, it is obvious that Jane just wants to fit in; she yearns for acceptance. She is willing to take on the name given to her by Bud, and she is willing to play the role of plain Jane. The notion that Jane is a role is very interesting, and it seems as though Jyoti is simply playing Jane at first.

Jyoti finds comfort in her name changes. She feels secure in her new identity, and with the permanent change, she can fully and truly adopt her new persona. It is amazing how a person can change with the mere alteration of the letters that define them. Is Jyoti actually different from the Indian girl of her past, or is the power of letters allowing her to leave behind her past identity and transform herself.


Watch the first 36 seconds, but then after that he starts talking about the many detestable qualities of human nature (he is a pessimist)...

The Core of Women's Lit

Women's literature is a broad term. There are many themes and motifs under the surface of female writing, and I believe the nature of women's lit is unique and very telling of the plight of women over the past centuries.

One major theme I have noticed in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Jasmine by Mukherjee is the search for an identity. In The Handmaid's Tale, the main character, Offred is stripped of her identity and given a number. She is viewed as a handmaid, not as a woman. In the Republic of Gilead, Offred does not have an identity, she is simply another handmaid who is used and abused by the Commanders in the town. The Commanders are the men, the alpha males. In Jasmine, the main character struggles to find herself; she is forced to adapt to different cultures, as she moves from India to the US. She soon marries, but feels herself stuck between two worlds. When Jasmine marries Prakash, he wants to make her a "new kind of city woman" (77), and she reflects, "Jyoti, Jasmine: I shuttled between identities" ( 77). This loss of identity and self is further heightened as Prakash wishes to recreate Jasmine, and she feels lost. When she is stripped of her identity both literally and figuratively; she feels exposed, confused, and must embark on a search for her true identity.

Another theme I see in these two books and in women's literature as a whole is a sense of rebellion. Perhaps this resistant side of female authors stems from oppression in the days when women were not given equal rights, not given the freedom of their male counterparts. In my opinion, women today are still not treated equally, but it is undeniable that the situation has improved over time. In The Handmaid's Tale, Offred refuses to accept her fate in the new and revolting Republic of Gilead. She does everything she can to try and hold on to the past. She constantly has memories of Luke, she can mentally escape Gilead, but she one day hopes to physically leave the Republic behind. However, towards the end, the book takes an unexpected when Offred gives herself up and stops fighting the way of life she despises so much. In Jasmine, the main character fights the pain in her life by refusing to think about her hardships. She minimizes the damage and fights on. She is strong. This refusal to be dragged down by her past is evident through Mukherjee's short, blunt, and impersonal style of writing. I believe there are many hidden messages in women's literature. This may be due to the fact that female authors have always had a lot to say but were never given the chance. The struggles of females are evident in their literature, as the hardships they endured and the issues they faced are at the core of women's literature.

Bharati Mukherjee vs. Jasmine

Bharati Mukherjee's life story has many parallels to the life her fictional character, Jasmine. Bharati, like Jasmine, grew up in rural India with a large family. Jasmine has eight siblings, while Bharati lived with her extended family (over thirty people). At a very young age, Bharati's family moved away to England, but  returned to India a few years later. She then went to America pursuing an education, and instead she found a completely new life, a new identity, and a new sense of self. Bharati and her father had no idea what was in store for her in the states, exemplified by this quote from Bharati on a BBC page on her life story, "he had no idea, nor did I when I got on that plane to the states that my life would change and that within a week in Iowa in a woman's dorm I would find myself..." (BBC World Service). Bharati talks about finding herself, finding her identity, an issue Jasmine struggles with constantly throughout the first portion of the novel.

Jasmine, like Bharati, must adapt to many different environments. I will be interested to find out whether or not Jasmine ends up as a successful individual, mirroring the life of Bharati. I believe that Bharati reflected her own life problems and obstacles in the creation of Jasmine. Jasmine is the recreation of Bharati Mukherjee. Also the book opens with the line, "Lifetimes ago..." (1), signifying the recreation of one's self and the multiple lives Jasmine has lived, the multiple identities she has held, and the time that has passed during her transformation into the role of 'plain Jane'. Bharati may be reflecting on her own journey, reminiscing of a life long ago in India. Change is constant throughout Jasmine, and change is equally evident in Bharati's life story.

Three Names

Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine is the story of a young Indian girl living, and adapting to life, in America. She is given many names in the first few chapters of the book, specifically Jane, Jasmine, and Jyoti. Who is Jane? She seems to be one girl in India, but a completely different person whilst adapting to life in America. Jane's lack of identity is highlighted when she is talking about how Bud (her husband) calls her Jane. During the course of this passage, Jane remarks, "In Baden, I am Jane. Almost" (26). This excerpt signifies that Jane does not quite accept her identity. A name is the most basic form of identity a person can have, and with the title of the book as Jasmine, further questions regarding Jane's true identity are raised.

In the first chapters of Jasmine, I also paid particular attention to the writing style of Mukherjee. Most of her sentences are short, succinct, and very blunt. Take, for example, this passage when Jane is reflecting upon her age, "The truth is, I am young enough to bear children into the next century. But. I feel old, very old, millenia old..." (34). These sentences are choppy and each part of the line is accentuated, especially the 'but' as it is its own complete thought. I think this sentence structure mirrors the way Jasmine goes through life. I believe she deals with the turmoil in her life and all her obstacles by making them into palatable issues, breaking them apart, as she makes it easier for herself to move on. Jasmine, when informing the reader of the death of Pitaji, simply says, "Pitaji died the next May. He died horribly. He got off a bus in a village two hours west of us and was gored by a bull" (58). This description is impersonal. She is simply informing the reader of the death, nothing more. There is no emotion; there is no personality, as it is simply a recounting of past events. I think this brief section on the death of Pitaji illustrates Jane's tendency to minimize tragic events functions as a coping mechanism. It is difficult to get a sense of time, due to the jumping chronology of the piece, but I will be interested to see if the writing style  and sentence structure change slightly as we begin to delve deeper into the life story of the girl with three names.

Important Quotes from The Handmaid's Tale II

"Bodily functions at least remain democratic" (263).

I think that this quotation is important in that it signifies how many aspects of Gilead are forced and regulated. To be democratic is to have the freedom of choice, and this is a right that the Republic of Gilead denies its citizens. The fact that Offred has to search all the way to bodily functions in order to find an aspect of Gilead that has a democratic nature says a lot about the environment she is living in, as well as the regimented life she is subjected to.

"I lie there like a dead bird. He is not a monster, I think" (267).

This quote casts doubt on whether or not the Commander is a monster. When Offred is describing her sexual encounter with him, she "lies there like a dead bird" and I see this as her accepting her role and giving in to the Commander, and thereby into authority. Offred, at this point, decides to 'fake it' and this attitude reflects her routine and fabricated approach to intercourse. One interesting point comes after the passage when Offred notes, the "Commander looks smaller without his uniform, "older, like something being dried" (267). In this moment, the Commander seems to be stripped of all his power, all his intimidation, and Offred takes over, faking her way through pleasing him.

"I would like to be without shame, I would like to be ignorant" (275).

This excerpt brings into question whether or not Offred would be better off if she did not know about the formation of Gilead. She wishes she was ignorant of how life used to be before modern day Gilead. This quotation relates to the saying, 'what you don't know can't hurt you' in the sense that if Offred did not know a better life, she would not be as opposed to Gilead because it would be normal for her. This is a scary aspect for Offred, especially when she meets the new Ofglen who seems to be brainwashed and has shut out the former Gilead, only accepting the new republic. Ignorance, for Offred is an easy solution, because if she never knew a previous life, how could she feel shame in living her current one?

Important Quotes from The Handmaid's Tale

These quotes are from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (chapters 37-40). I read this segment of the book for homework, and when I came into class the following quotes were written on pieces of paper and posted on the whiteboard. I was paired up with a partner and given a quote to analyze, but I enjoyed these pages so much that I wished I could give my opinions on each of the quotes. So, I decided to do so...

"Is there joy in this? There could be, but have they chosen it?" (247).

This quote comes at a point in the story where the women and men are attending an event in the courtyard. The women are all 'dolled up' in extravagant clothing while the men remain in formal suits. The women, I believe, are made to look like objects, and this clear contrast of gender clothing and color signifies an imbalance between the men and the women. I liked this quote because of the last part, 'but have they chosen it'. I feel this segment puts into question not only this courtyard get-together, but also the nature of Gilead. Is it forced? Is the society in which Offred lives truly free? Gilead, like the women in the courtyard, may look pleasant from the outside, but all of this could be a facade, hiding the true inner turmoil of the community. Furthermore, this quote takes into consideration the idea of dressing up and improving one's image for the pleasure of others. Are the women at the party dressing up for themselves, or are they putting on a show for the men? This type of situation makes me think of high school prom, where the girls go through every form of self-improvement imaginable to prepare themselves for the night. Men, for the most part, don a tuxedo, some nice shoes, and spend a few minutes fixing their hair, and it is out the door. Are girls dressing up because they like to see themselves look good, or are they providing the entertainment for men? I believe most women dress this way for prom because it is the social norm, however, I would be interested to know whether this self-makeover originally was for the confidence of women or for the pleasure of men.

"But everyone's human, after all" (248).

I liked this quote because as I have been reading this book, I sometimes have forgotten that the characters are just as human as you and me. The characters all seem to fit into these prescribed roles and abide by the regulations of society; it is nice to get a simple reminder that the characters are in fact human and as such are capable of making mistakes even in their own perfect world.

"Nobody says anything" (252).

This quote is interesting for its simplicity. It says a lot in a few amount of words. This quote comes after   Offred suffers a nasty fall in the company of many of the men and the Commander himself. The silence of the men around her is deafening, and they are unwilling to help her as she must pull herself up. Also, this quote plays into the theme of gender imbalance as a woman is not even capable of performing the simple task of walking without the help of a man. She struggles to walk and needs the steady arm of the Commander to aid her in her journey; she is completely dependent on him.

Steinem and Syfers

In the first piece I read today, If Men Could Menstruate, Gloria Steinem talked about the theory of penis envy. She focused on the concept of menstruation and the reaction to this phenomenon if men were the ones who experienced this phenomenon. Her opinion was that if men were the ones in place of women, they would find a way to embrace menstruation and make it an enviable quality instead of a detestable one. "Menopause would be celebrated as a positive event, the symbol that men had accumulated enough years of cynical wisdom to need no more". Steinem also says that men would find a way to normalize the occurrence, or make it seem cool, and one man might say to another, "Yeah, man, I'm on the rag". The author goes on to talk about how periods make women behave most like men during that one week of the month. She then asks, if this is the case, why are women expected to be more rational and less emotional during the other three weeks? Why is this the norm for males but a surprising turn of character for females?

I then read Why I Want a Wife by Judy Syfers, in which the author described her views on the duties and responsibilities of a wife. Her piece basically listed every chore imaginable, and then a few more. Syfers, a housewife herself, provided an interesting viewpoint, as she was, in essence, reflecting on her own role within the household. One aspect of the piece I found particularly interesting was Syfers' use of the word wife. Wife could almost be substituted out and replaced by RobotModel 6000, and the meaning and message of the piece would still be intact. There was no intimacy with the word wife, no feeling. It was just wife this and wife that, for example when talking about wives from the viewpoint of men, the author says, "If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another." In this quote it is obvious that there is no personal element in marriage, and the speaker's reference to other wives is similar to an upgrade from the iPhone 3 to the new iPhone 4. My main issue with the piece is that it makes it seem as though men have unlimited needs and demands. Not all men want to view their wives as objects, and not all men want their wives to "type their papers after the men have written them". Also, not all women in 1971 would accept this kind of cold and lifeless treatment. I think the piece is summed up well when the author says, "My God, who wouldn't want a wife?". This statement perfectly embodies the idea that wives are desirable because of all they can do for a man, what they can give. This implies, however, that wives are easy to obtain. If a man wants a wife, he can have one, he can go out and get one. There is no choice on the female's side, it is just another manly desire that shall be fulfilled. This piece brings up a lot of controversy, but it is a very interesting view on the role of women in the household and the role of the wife through the eyes of her husband.

Faludi

The third piece I read today was Blame It on Feminism by Susan Faludi. This piece talked about what it meant to be a woman in America in the 20th century. The piece also gave a great definition of feminism, which I feel strengthened the argument of the piece and set the stage for a great conclusion. Feminism is often a word that is thrown around a lot, given extreme meanings, and sometimes even has a negative connotation. I liked how clearly Fauldi defined feminism when she stated, "Feminism asks the world to recognize at long last that women aren't decorative ornaments, worthy vessels, members of a "special interest group". They are half (in fact, now more than half) of the national population, and just as deserving of rights and opportunities, just as capable of participating in the world's events, as the other half". I think this quote clearly defines the goal of feminism and the overarching goal of females around the world: equality, nothing more, nothing less. Feminism has a very basic agenda, and I realized that while reading this piece. The piece also touched upon the role of women in popular culture, specifically in the workplace and at home. Women, for the first time in history, are beginning to make a move in the labor force, becoming dominant in certain fields of middle class labor. "Female" professions such as nursing and cuisine are no longer containing females as they are trying to break the mold and advance their careers as well as themselves. Yet the piece asks, "If the status of women has never been higher, why is their emotional state so low?". I thought this was an intriguing question and it made me wonder whether or not women liked their roles in society. Today, we are seeing an increasing amount of women in jobs that require physical labor and these women can often struggle to balance their family lives with the importance and emphasis they are placing on their careers. Can women do both? Can they be respected in a career as well as be a mom and wife? I believe the answer is yes, but only with the help of men. Without the support of men, it is impossible. I also wonder whether or not the man's ego will hold him back. Men are more reluctant to enter into previously deemed "female professions" than females are to enter into the man's domain. I believe if men do not take responsibility and help women in the workplace as well as the household, women will never truly achieve equality.

The Power of Wild Geese

Today in class I read a poem by Mary Oliver entitled, "Wild Geese". This poem made me think about the traditional roles of women in society, and how those expectations have come to change over time. In the beginning of her work, Oliver points out that "you do not have to be good", and I believe this message is meant to empower women. The author believes that women should not have prescribed duties, and I believe wild geese function as a symbol of males in society. Males are free, they travel, they can fly, they can be loud and obnoxious. Women, however, are forced to experience the world through their imagination, as shown by the author, "whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination". I believe that Oliver is contrasting the man's freedom and his ability to fly around the world to the woman's dependence on imagination in order to truly experience life.

The poem is also interesting in the way it describes the world. It goes through scenes from nature, as if to say while women and men are living their lives, life goes on. I think this is more of a message to society and a contrast to the egocentrism we, as a society, are used to. How can one not be egocentric? After all, you view your entire life from one pair of eyes. It is difficult to adapt to another viewpoint and think about waterfalls flowing in other parts of the world (nature and life going on) while you are concerned with your own business and day to day life. While there were many similarities between this poem and "Power" by Adrienne Rich, I thought "Power" had a different message on the passage of time. In Adrienne Rich's work, she focuses on the preservation of time, evident through the conservation of the hundred year old bottle of tonic found in the earth. She also focuses on the memory of Marie Curie and her progress in science, saying that her perseverance and stubbornness gave her the power and ability to make great improvements in the field of science.

Women in the Workplace

The End of Men, written by Hanna Rosin discusses the possibility that modern, postindustrial society may be better suited to women than men. I believe there are many flaws in Rosin's arguments, and while it brings up good points for discussion, it is controversial at the least. The main issue I see with her work is her influence on the stereotypes of women and how these judgments tend to hinder females, yet later on in the piece she stereotypes males as being more suited for physical labor and jobs that require strength. She goes on to argue that critical thinking and communication are skills more evident in women. If the author claims that stereotyping is a problem, why does she stereotype? Rosin then generalizes about the leadership of men, saying they are controlling, and states that women are more moralistic leaders.

I found this article interesting, and it sparked a passionate and intriguing debate in my english class. I discovered my true opinion on the end of man (and the rise of the female) during this discussion: I believe that it not the end of man. Females are simply branching out into previously male dominated areas, industries that were stereotypically male, for example physical labor and positions of leadership/CEO positions in corporations. Female domination tends to be in the working class, as pointed out in The End of Men. However, the gender gap comes from the fact that men are not reciprocally branching out into fields previously dominated by females such as nursing. Men are hesitant to make the leap into "women's" professions, while women are eager to fill the shoes of men in their stereotypical jobs. Currently there are more female farmers in the world than there are male farmers, and many professions are recently seeing a more equal number of female and male employees.

I think it is important for men to adapt, to be able to pursue any career regardless of stereotypes. I also read a response to The End of Men, titled, It's Not the End of Men. In this piece, Anne Friedman poses a question which I believe perfectly depicts the situation of males in the workplace. The question reads: "Are American men aggressive brutes who need to make a living on their physical strength? Or are they omega males, cowed by high-achieving women?"A point is made that for every two males receiving a Bachelors Degree, three women are doing the same, and I believe the difference in employment and the rise of females is attributed to differences like this in the education system. We must ask ourselves, however, can males adapt to a changing economy, marketplace, and workplace; will they rely on aggressive behavior and try and make a living on physical strength, or will they cast aside stereotypes in order to better themselves in the long-run?