Intersectionality (Julia Green)

Summarize:

Dancing Around Objectification

In this text Merlino (the author) talks about 2 different scene that both showcase the sexualized and degrading treatment women face in America. In the first scene called “The Harlem Dancer,” there is a black woman that is being objectified because of the color of her skin. Merlino mentions how the audience looks at her like an object, rather than a woman.The people in the story want the features of this beautiful woman, but none of the hardships that come with being black. The second scene is different from this because the woman being talked about is white. Therefore, she is able to deny the people lower than her but must obey to the ones that are of higher status.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is the idea that social and cultural categories act together in contributing to social inequality. This text talks about the basis behind intersectionality and gives examples as to when it is used. An example was a black woman, she is being discriminated against both being black, and being a woman, there is never just a singular category. The text then goes into different types of intersectionality. “Interlocking matrix of oppression,” and “standpoint theory,” were both talked about and how they relate to intersectionality.

The Urgency of Intersectionality

This TED talk by Kimberle Crenshaw starts out with a game. She used this game to start off her presentation about intersectionality by showing the audience how little they know about the topic of black women killed in the last 2 years. She then went on to describe what intersectionality was with another example of a woman who tried to bring her experience to court. The court dismissed the woman because the company hired black people and hired women, but what the court failed to realize was that the company wasn’t hiring black women. At the end of Crenshaw’s talk, she brought out some women to talk about their experiences as a way to “make up” for the beginning of the talk, when the audience couldnt stand for these women.

Bechdel Test

The Bechdel Test is a way of evaluating ow women are portrayed in different types of media. The rules of the test are that there must be 2 women that have a conversation with each other that is about something other than a man. The idea of this text first appeared in 1985 in a comic strip called”Dykes to watch out for.” It was found that about half of all movies pass the Bechdel test, which calls to attention the gender inequality that is portrayed in the media today.

Response/Connect

I found the first reading about the 2 different girls very interesting. It is a perfect example of intersectionality, showing that the harlem dancer was looked as an object to all men, while the other dancer held some control over a certain group of men. The Bechdel test is a perfect way to test intersectionality as well, because you could focus it in on women of color rather than just women in general. These reading connect to “The Egg and The Sperm,” reading because that text focused on the gender inequality that women face also. All of these texts bring to light the gender discrimination that women face in society.

Question

Do you think the Bechdel Test influencing movies today to the extent it might have when it originally came out? Do producers even think about the idea that there is gender inequality in their movies?

Metaphors We Live By and How They Effect Us ( Julia Green)

Summary and Response: Metaphors We Live By

The major concept of “Metaphors We Live By,” by Lakoff and Johnson, talks about how metaphors aren’t strictly in writing or interpretation. Metaphors have been integrated into our culture as metaphorical concepts. Some examples the text gave were, “Argument is War,” and “Time is Money.” The idea of a metaphorical concept is that it structures what we understand and how we use that in getting our ideas across. The text gives examples of both of the metaphorical concepts and how these metaphorical concepts are used. I thought the section on “Time is Money,” was especially interesting. The text talked about how we view time as a commodity and therefore give it a value. The text then talks about how this metaphorical concept is only looked at to be true in our culture and society. The text says, “This isn’t a necessary way for human beings to conceptualize time; it is tied to our culture.” That got me thinking into what other metaphors do we live by that are unique to our culture. I would like to look more into that and see some of what other cultures metaphorical concepts are, and how they dictate their society.

Summary and Response: The Egg and The Sperm

While reading “The Egg and The Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles,” Martin focuses on the idea that the discussion of the egg and sperm reflect closely the typical stereotypes of males and females. In almost all depictions, the lifetime and actions of the egg are looked at as passive. Martin says, ” It (the egg) does not move or journey, but passively is swept” This is in contrast to how sperm are depicted, having to do with force and strength. Martin could find only 1 text where the sperm is not portrayed as typically “male,” which is in a movie. Later in the reading, Martin talks about how new research gives the egg a bigger role, but at the expense of making it seem hostile. She then goes on to talk about how although the egg is now given a greater role, it is still described with female stereotypes. The egg has become “hostile” and “traps the sperm.” I found this especially interesting, that with all the new technology that comes with this society, the egg is still given female stereotypes. One would think in this day, the process could be better described than with the attributes of a female, just because it occurs in a female body. I also found it very interesting that Martin could only find 1 text that didn’t describe the sperm with male stereotypes. It just furthers the argument that there will always be bias and stereotypes in society, no matter the advancements.

Connections

In “The Egg and The Sperm,” Martin uses many metaphors to help get her point across. One metaphor that specifically stood out to me was the comparison of the egg to a Queen. The egg was described as needing rescuing and the Sperm being the King, rescues the “Queen.” In “Metaphors We Live By, ” Lakoff and Johnson talk about how we use metaphorical concepets to structure what we do and how we understand what were doing. After reading this, you can infer that Martin uses this metaphor to help the reader understand how the egg is being portrayed in science. This metaphor helps Martin get her point across and helps her build her argument.

Tools for Analyzing Texts (Julia Green)

Summary:

This chapter first talks about how we analyze texts regularly. You look at different aspects of a whole and see how they are put together to create the entirety of the whole. Looking deeper into analysis, you can see that there are different lenses, or “theories.” Some of these theoretical concepts are: audience, purpose, genre, and media. These concepts are used to consider a texts context. The last part of analysis is personal interpretation. After taking the text apart and looking at the individual parts, what has it offered you? What can you offer someone else about the text that you have analyzed? Analyzing texts doesn’t just mean words, you can analyze a picture or someones stature, or an artistic piece. The first part of analyzing is just describing what you see, then interpreting what you described.

Response:

I found it very interesting that you can analyze something without even realizing you’re doing it. You take apart a text and come to your own conclusion about what it means to you, or what the author is trying to convey. Every person can look at the same text and take away something different from it, which I think is a beautiful concept.

Question:

What do you do if you analyze the same text multiple times and get a different result every time? Is there a way to decide which is the most “correct” analysis?

Cash flow problems? (Julia Green)

I saw this ad on the 6 train and what caught my eye was the primary colors. At first look, this ad looks like it could be for a shopping site, but when you take a second to look at it deeper you see its actually for prescription medicine. I think this ad uses primary colors and shopping bags to grab the everyday subway riders attention, along with the “text bubble” like word layout. This ad tries to appeal to the average person by talking about cash flow problems. By mentioning free delivery among other things, a customer might be more inclined to check out this product.

Julia Green

Describe yourself.

Im relatively outgoing, but once you get to know me Im extremely outgoing. I like to think that Im funny, even though Im probably not. I have a close knit group of friends that consists of 7 people. In my school I was the youngest person in my grade, but coming here Ive met many people that are younger than me. My birthday is December 14, 2000 for reference. Im not basically all types of music except for hard rock but my favorite type of music is currently alternative, although it changes a lot. I love stars and everything that has to do with the night, including night life and sleeping. Ive loved the city ever since I was a little girl so I knew I wanted to go to college in NYC. I chose Baruch partly because my brother just graduates from this school and because I knew I wanted to do something with business. I was on my high schools varsity cheerleading team ever since freshman year and I plan on going back to help coach the team throughout the year.

Describe yourself as a writer.

I think that I am a very literal writer. Im not good at incorporating big words and I dont have an extremely vast vocabulary. I can write research papers and essays on school material much easier than I can write anything creative. I believe that I have good grammar and my spelling is okay. Usually my downfall in writing is that I dont explain myself enough in the choices that I make. I have experience writing long papers from last year. In my AP Research class I wrote a 34 paged research paper where I had to come up with my own question, so I know how to manage writing time as well. That paper also showed me how I can use similar texts to guide my own style of writing.