#ENG490 My piece of advice for this class is to engage in the class and share your perspective! Read ahead!!

#BSUENG490 Is this maternal thinking? The father is honestly trying very hard to fulfill their needs it just feels weird because it more for him then his "son".

#bsueng490 it seems like they have made the choice to fully emerse themselves into being Adrien. Their first word being papa is super interesting. Also to see them try to save a life rather than take it feels like they may be changing fundamentally (maybe).

#BSUENG490 Almost every tool that she has used to kill or attack someone is metalic and she has a tendency to puncture peoples heads. All of this is eerily similar to her own injury.

#BSUENG490 Alexia walks into the car show with her hair up and exposing her scars from surgery. When she begins dancing her hair is down and covering its visibility almost representing how dancing is not representative of her entire self or is being used to cope with her past traumas.

Donna thinking about the women who had to give birth in the laundries during her labor was a very interesting moment. It is heartbreaking that she constantly calls herself useless. #BSUENG490

Sometimes I get uncomfortable when people are being Killjoys because of my own fear of breaking the status quo and having to suffer the consequences of that. However, after reading Ahmeds 3rd principle I've acknowledged that there are ways to support my peers that are less obvious. #BSUENG490

I feel like in both these stories the strength and experiences of other women are critical for our female characters to be free of the cruelty of men. #BSUENG490

"As I let my the water run through my hair and down my face, I wept." (86) Her otjize reminded me of some of my cultural accessories that if I lost I would feel like I had lost a part of myself. One of my friends keeps soaps and perfumes from her home country to smell like home. #BSUENG490

"it is easier once again for white women to believe the dangerous fantasy that if you are good enough, pretty enough, sweet enough, quiet enough, teach the children to behave, hate the right people and marry the right men, then you will be allowed to co-exist with [the] patriarchy" (291) #BSUENG490

#bsueng490 "Then I looked up at the Meduse and grinned. 'I hope it hurts,' I whispered." (45) Binti is honestly a very cool protaganist and I like reading how she tries to decode her edan. I'm excited to see what happens next!

"She's fading from the others minds, day by day; soon she'll be gone for good, she'll be only bluebells and a hawthorn tree, in a ruined cottage where no one goes." (466) #BSUENG490

The working class men section of the reading was really interesting as the exclusion of women and people of color comes from a place of inferiority. #BSUENG490

This kind of reminds me of Midsommar (2019) in the way that Cassie staying in the house would look like the happy ending (similar to Dani staying in the cult) but she would be abandoning her life for one that is fabricated and does not allow for true healing. #BSUENG490

The house is gothic, ancestral, isolatating, and messes with others emotions. "The idea of it being a target of focused hatred made something hot flare up in my stomach." (169) "the house calling up all the people who had danced here... welcoming us into their long lineage." (175) #BSUENG490

"Persephone's irrevocable pomegranate seeds, Never take food from strangers; old stories where one sip or bite seals the spellbound walls forever..." (110) #BSUENG490

"Rather than stressing collectivity or the concerns of women per se, this replaces feminism with competition, ambition, meritocracy, self-help, and the rise of the 'alpha girl' " (624) #BSUENG490

#BSUENG490 This book is such a nice change of pace. The descriptions of Alexandra Madison are also really interesting with her being "Organized, creative and persuasive." (pg 37) I can't wait to learn more!

"When you have been hiding in a great shadow, it hurts to look at the light, to be awake, to feel" (215) #BSUENG490

"I've had too much of it down here. I know i'm too much and everyone is tired of it, especially me. And I know the others care, but they'll stop me and I just want to lose, just this once." (177) "The guilt was too much. One simple promise- you will never have to feel them..." (156) #BSUENG490

"Cyborg politics is the struggle for language and the struggle against perfect communication, against the one code that translates all meaning perfectly..." (351) #BSUENG490

"- he should have never touched her if he wanted to keep her" (109) Understanding Ashugaras thought processes and conditions she has created for Adas interpersonal relationships has really been a trip. I am never sure how I feel about her. #BSUENG490

Chapter 9 was short but so interesting because we finally hear from the Ada and she seems resigned or accepting of the fact that she is not completely in control of herself. "In many ways, I am not even real. I am not even here." (94) #BSUENG490

"Performing one's gender wrong initiates a set of punishments both obvious and indirect, and performing it well provides the reassurance that there is an essentialism of gender identity after all." (279) #BSUENG490

"She asked him to come down and hold her, just for a little bit. It would be so easy for him because he is christ and it would mean so much to her... no one else was doing it, holding her." (36) My heart </3. I love how the gods are depicted and how many there are. #BSUENG490

I found it really interesting that Lib took on the role of a fairy by taking Anna and changing her name to Nan, the sip of milk and crumb of cookie also reminded me of the stories we heard of fairies throughout the book. She replaced the real alive tragic Anna with a dead perfect Anna. #BSUENG490

"No person because she is a woman, no woman or man, because they are mothers, should be denied any intellectual activities that attract them." (Ruddick) I like that being a mother is not limited to gender. I feel like other characters in The Wonder may develop maternal thinking. #BSUENG490

"I didn't faint," Anna kept insisting as William Bryne carried her home, blanketed in his jacket. "I was just resting." (185) Anna seems to refuse to be a burden as she doesn't eat, complain, or acknowledge her own pain. #ENG490

"But we are all sinners. And he fell sick so fast, he didn't get absolved in time." (129) It's very sad that Anna believes her brother may be in purgatory or hell and that seemingly no one has helped her process her grief. #BSUENG490

"a new realm of meanings is discovered, a range of values and possibilities that Western culture has traditionally coded as "male" and rarely made available to women... self-mastery and self-transcendence, expertise, and power over others through... superior will and control." (464) #BSUENG490

Something I found interesting is how Lib begins to soften towards Anna and recognizes that she has nice manners. Lib also continously critiques Annas mother for not offering food saying that "a women's worst pain was to have nothing to give her baby." (55) #BSUENG490

"She didn't want to talk about her childhood. Memories were quickly dismissed. All our grandparents were dead, and I was hungry for stories." (Bourke 300). I only heard stories about my parents childhoods after I turned 18. Being hungry for stories is very relatable. #BSUENG490

The story has overall themes of distancing yourself from culture and how trauma can span generations. In addition it touches on the isolation that minority communities face. #BSUENG490

"lest this frail little article of human upholstery before him might not be, in itself, grand enough to satisfy his expectations of us, since those, for all I knew, might have grown infinite during the endless time he had been waiting." pg 64 #bsueng490

The Gaslighting episode really added to my definition of gaslighting as it does not just happen in interpersonal relationships. Companies, oppressive systems, and the government use gaslighting as a defense for their negative actions against communities and push fault onto them. #BSUENG490

Something that really interested me throughout reading "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the baby that is only mentioned a few times. It seems like our main character may have postpartum depression. #BSUENG490