Always be planning ahead! Give yourself time to read the readings, get the basic ideas, and take note of what other people say. You get an amazing experience to hear such unique voices unlike your own. Listen, engage, and empathize #BSUENG490

Every time they talked about Serena's pregnancy after mentioning how the needles looked identical, I got so scared. Like, don't mix them up, please! #bsueng490

The way Alex's body moves differs by gender. Around women, she is generally more careful and talkative; more dominating and louder in their presence. She is also willing to be cared for, leaning on top in comfort. She leans into men submissively, making herself physically smaller. #BSUENG490

I find it pretty interesting how Alex/Adrien's reactions to care differ for the dads. Alex and her dad have been nonverbal and physically distant, just co-existing; Adrien's is more nurturing and very self-sacrificing for his "found" son. He doesn't question or scold him; he compromises. #BSUENG490

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book... #BSUENG490

"I chuckled first, then I laughed. Just sounds, only sounds." At the end of her story, Isobel reclaims her name and her voice, no longer part of a constant transaction of silence. #BSUENG490

"And they say: but look what you have been given. Equality, diversity: they all become gifts for which we are supposed to be grateful; they become compensatory. We are not grateful when a system is extended to include us when that system is predicated on inequality and violence" #BSUENG490

"When the sun touched her, it brought out the sepia and cinnamon in her blood, overpowered the milk and honey, and he could no longer pretend she was white." #BSUENG490

Reading parts of the book reminded me of a migrant's journey, particularly with assimilation on 70, 81, and 87. Binti makes due with what she has available to keep her culture with her, like many immigrants with recipes #BSUENG490

"Refusing to recognize difference makes it impossible to see the different problems and pitfalls facing us as women" #BSUENG490

"Still, not all science fiction has the same ancestral bloodline, that line being Western-rooted science fiction, which is mostly white and male... She goes out as she is, looking the way she looks, carrying her cultures, being who she is."

Too many times have I seen the men described in this theory use slurs of groups they are not a part of and justify that usage with the parts of their demographics that are marginalized, particularly gay and working-class men #BSUENG490

Trying to keep up with all the rules Cassie be breaking #BSUENG490

Cassie has become too emotionally to the case to where both of her lives are blurring together dangerously #BSUENG490

Cassie's guard is being dangerously let down the more involved she becomes with the group. The "no pasts" rule makes it easier to integrate herself without anyone questioning her, even as she plays a faked role in these real, tight-knit relationships #BSUENG490

Listening to the audiobook and I remember this is told in the past tense and I just need to pause every 10 minutes each time a new secret is revealed #BSUENG490

"Rather than stressing collectivity or the concerns of women per se,... The young women is addressed as a potential subject of great 'capacity'" (624). *** "So she's got that body, no husband, and the ability to make a living in a real field" #BSUENG490

"God forbid we know her cycle was regular!" (Liv and I when discussing how O'Kelly gets squeamish over female body functions) #BSUENG490

I tried not to read at first from a trans perspective when we initially learned the author is NB. Continuing showed more acknowledgement of terms like gender dysphoria and liminal spaces with gender binaries, terms that are not in everyone's immediate field. #BSUENG490 (1/2)

When Ada goes through her panic attack, she finds comfort in the masculine part of herself, one more docile than Asughara. I find their dynamic interesting, as Ada finds comfort in the man spiritually inside her, one she is not allowed to talk about, despite her experiences with men #BSUENG490

The Cyborg Manifesto reads like a sarcastic piece on identity being shaped under the stress of Western perspectives. In a sense, it reminds me of A Modest Proposal. #BSUENG490

"The Ada felt like a trickster, which felt right. She could move between boy and girl, which was a freedom, for her and for us. But when she turned twelve and started bleeding, everything was ruined... we were in a cage that obeyed other laws, human laws" (123) #BSUENG490

On page 50, when Ada finds herself between Black Americans and international students, I have found myself feeling similar as I would not "fit in" with other Fil Americans, instead finding more similarities, less "check boxes" with other diasporas. It feels like a rip between identities. #BSUENG490

The transvestite, however, can do more than simply express the distinction between sex and gender, but challenges... the distinction between appearance and reality that structures a good deal of popular thinking of gender identity. . . (488) (1/2) #BSUENG490

Knowing the author is nonbinary (NB), I could see many elements alluding to being transgender--specifically NB. For example, the plural "We" creates a distant, less individualistic perspective that sometimes feels dissociative from the world, which can feel like gender dysphoria. #BSUENG490

Reading 'The Wonder' #BSUENG490

At first, I was confused how Critical Refugee Studies (CRS) took root in feminist theories as it approaches limitations in emotions. This article helped to understand how we may dehumanize others, to objectify them as we distance ourselves with emotions becoming detached. #BSUENG490

"You like Nan the best?" "But she wouldn't be me." Lib shrugged. "A woman can change her name..." (154) #BSUENG490

"How to quantify the quality of being alive?" (107) If all the riches in the world cannot equate to a living thing, how may we determine one's worth? Through the body? How the mind is shaped and used? Through expression of self in the names we use? How do we sustain life, or being alive? #BSUENG490

I found myself thinking of the Barbie (2023) movie with her transformations of mind and body. The daughter, initially, and Ken's shift to toxic masc. point to Barbie's dangers on what the female body "should" look like, relating to the "docile body." It changes with Barbie having an (1) #BSUENG490

Some of the objectification I noticed in the book mostly came from Lib's perspective, dehumanizing the Irish and religion, such as Sister Michael, with her assumptions. Anna is constantly objectified in the story, treated as a religious idol by the townsfolk and a study subject by Lib. #BSUENG490

We hunger for stories, starving to have some sort of relation as to who we are and what more we can be. To have ownership of a story, to write your name, address, and age to identify your storybook cover can be the most magickal preservation of our sense of self, even when tied in tape #BSUENG490

"there is a whole manuscript in the School's Collection/that was set down by her,/written in water, with the fin of a ray for a pen,/on a long scroll of kelp./...She would prefer to suffer a heavy nosebleed/rather than admit she ever had a hand in its composition." #BSUENG490

In "The Courtship of Mr Lyon," I found it interesting how the Beast was described in more feminine terms, being associated with his King spaniel pet, the domestic house, and his actions being child-like, like how shy he becomes with Beauty. He also, in a sense, becomes controlled by her. #BSUENG490

"But isn't this fear convenient for them? Wouldn't the worst be, isn't the worst, in truth,...that they only have to stop listening to the Sirens...to change its meaning? You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her. And she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing." #BSUENG490

What interested me was Gilman's own story,suffering through and recording the Rest Cure, asking why must go through "pain pain pain," questioning what love is when banned from holding her pen. It was also interesting the speeches of design, making me think of stereotyped gender aesthetics #BSUENG490