28)#102-10. What Was Right Back Then?? [A Question of Morality]

Now that spring break is over*sobs*, I can get back to blogging. This entry is for week 10.

During our off-week, I read the ‘winter’ and ‘spring’ sections and I noticed a pattern. Why must all adult characters have some kind of perversion?!? Cholly impregnates his daughter; Soaphead Church is a pedophile; Mr. Henry sexually assaults Claudia and spends time with prostitutes... this list can go on. I must ask, “Was it that bad?!?” I mean those times was not the best of times, but why is every character morally corrupt? It really bothered me when I read the book.

Like I mentioned in my previous entry, the self-hatred of African-Americans (because of internalization of the white perception etc.) also bothered me. In class, we talked a lot about this issue and as I’d like to call upon ‘the doll quote’ which effectively illustrates the topic at hand. As Simge already knows, I do not like dolls(if you are that curious why I don’t like them, see her entry 'The Bluest Eye' and no, I did not get paid to advertise her blog, it is just because I want to :P).

I’ll blog about week 11 later…

If anyone would like to harass me-jk- or just randomly say hello, please do so. I like comments very much though I seem to have a limited audience :’(

'I Hate How Much I Love You' by shewatchedthesky under CC Attribuition-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

27)#102-9. You're Beautiful Just Because..

Having read the first part of the Bluest Eye, I was appalled to see how much self-hatred the characters had for themselves. The character that appalled me the most was Pecola actually. Pecola lives like a shadow, constantly reminded of ugliness. She is devoid of love. Indeed, she poses the question, "how do you get someone to love you?" That is how desperate she is. The only hope she has is having blue eyes, eyes that will redeem her in others' minds.. Eyes that will get her noticed and make her beautiful. Finally, those eyes will make people love her..


The real dilemma I will address here is not how an 11 year old girl came to such a conclusion, but WHO decides what is 'beautiful' and what is 'ugly.' Physical appearance that we are so obsessed with, why does it have to define attractiveness? I might sound like an old lady for saying this, but what happened to "having a heart of gold"? Traits like modesty, consideracy, conscienciousness...what happened to them?

To be honest, there are days that I question these things myself, but luckily I have the most amazing people, first and foremost my parents, in my life to remind me when I get frustrated that I do not need somebody else's approval to be this-or-that. They'll love me the way I am-not because I confirm some sort of a societal criteria. So when my friend asks me if she looks beautiful, I'll say, "Yes, because you look like yourself.."
'Beauty 6' by Leah Makin Photography under CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

26)#102-8. Last Week Was A Nerdy One..

Now that the presentations, term papers, and midterms are over for now, I can officially get back to updating my beloved blog :) This entry will be for the previous week.

On the 5th of April, we, group blue, had to face the truth. The truth ended up being equal to about 70 e-mails(as unbelievable that sounds, I am being serious. I actually counted!), 2 meetings and a couple phone calls...We made our presentation to an audience of 3 people which was quite an irony within itself. Nevertheless, I still felt comfortable(less people to please-YES!). My AMAZING group members and I were very nervous and excited at the same time. We were pleased with the outcome. However, hopefully, we'll do even better for our final presentation which will be on my birthday, so basically, I want to make it rock again XD

Other than the presentations, of course, we had our research papers due that weekend. With the recent midterms and projects in my mind, I just thought, "Hmmm.. this just keeps getting better and better." Anyhow, I did what I had to do. I based my paper on the Asian American 'model minority' stereotype with a special focus on Asian American students. It was a fun assignment for me as I was already wondering about the topic beforehand.

All that is left for me to say about my paper is.. make mama proud!!

Image: 'peter pan syndrom' by RaymondPhotography under CC Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

25)#102-7. The ‘Honor’ Mark

This past week we had two other presentations. First of all, I’d like to congratulate the group members for trying to give best presentation they can in one of the most hectic weeks of the semester, so give yourselves a clap :)

Secondly, here comes my review of the texts...

I think Emily is one of the obsessive female characters I’ve read about in my entire life. She seems to be infatuated by death, and call me ‘harsh’, but she is really selfish. Letting go of others is probably the most difficult thing one has to learn; however, Emily stubbornly refuses. She holds on to both her father and so-called lover. I don’t think she’s being fair to these men. Let them rest in peace, Emily!

Let’s move on to Hanife…

There’s so much to say about her story. Hanife’s story is real just as many other young woman’s who were victimized by honor killings. Since I am a young woman as well, hearing about things like this makes my heart ache. Knowing that you could be one of those women… you just weren’t because you were lucky enough to be born into your family...It is just too much to bear. I hope someday all women can be free because of the simplest reason; everybody has the right to be so!

Another point I cannot resist to make is this: As I was discussing Hanife with a friend of mine, I realized something else. The word ‘honor’ actually translates to ‘onur’ in Turkish; however, when we translate ‘namus’ (after all, honor killings are all in the name of ‘namus’ ),we translate it as ‘honor’ to English. Does anyone else see what I see? Isn’t something really wrong here? Don’t you realize that this word is ‘marked’? Think of Deborah Tannen’s article Marked Women. Unfortunately, this ‘mark’ is specific to the Turkish language as far as I know. It sickens me to realize this, but I think this is one of those issues where the society needs to evaluate itself: How can you speak of honor when you kill too many innocent young women to count?

Explain that.

Image: 'Vanessa in Sepia' by NMCIL ortiz domney under Creative Commons Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License