QCQ #1
QCQ #2
“No one would expect students to use every concept of this chapter in a course paper or a test essay…” (Parker 83).
As someone who definitely was affected by this confusion, this statement came as a sigh of relief. We(the students) cannot absorb so much at once and are not expected to. However, many of us do make clumsy or rudimentary connections between these concepts and the texts we have read. Recognizing words, phrases, in stories we have read or will read. It’s kind of funny how our brains will work overtime to consider what we cannot consciously understand. In this way, why would Parker introduce all these concepts and diagrams and vocab words if we most likely will not remember many of them? Is he just trying to get it out of the way? It just feels as if there could be a better way to teach us. Especially in a way that is not so confusing as to need multiple readings to simply comprehend.
QCQ #4
“… a feminist interpretation depends not so much on the characters themselves as on the broader social contexts that shape how we process the characters” (Parker 154).
As the theories and view on feminism have changed, so too have the views of women and feminine-coded characters in media. The context is usually made(from my perspective) depending on the history of American and European female characters. A basis of purity, softness, and a demure nature is what a woman was, and, in some perspectives, is still “supposed” to be. Not all of the characters were like this though, reflecting the different women and positions in society they inhabit. Unfortunately, many of these characters are punished for being different and less than “perfect.” This view can be seen especially in film. Take, for instance, slasher/horror movies from the 1980’s and 90’s. The trope of the “final girl” is so prominent that it has been parodied and criticized over and over. There has been an effort made in more mainstream media in the last ten or so years to make the female characters less passive and more active, even if they are not main characters. However, any character that challenges tropes seemingly set in stone will garner extra scrutiny, extra criticism, not just from those with a more medieval point of view, but also those who have more modern opinions and are looking for a character that does everything correctly.
Pertaining to the two sides of this debate on what a woman is supposed to be, why do the opposing sides sound eerily similar?
QCQ #5
“We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing is certain; If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright(Gorman lines 81-90).”
These words from Gorman are beautiful and hopeful and a far-cry from the information given to us by Parker in the last few pages of chapter 6. Parker discusses the differences between women and men and white people and black people and all of that in relation to feminism, eventually concluding that, based on all the data, black women are at a sociatal disadvantage and always have been. However, the data from Parker encompasses the past. Like Gorman, I think a better future can be in the cards for us, if only we try to make it happen. Despite the present actions that were taken yesterday and today, tomorrow is a new prospect. Yeah, things can’t change overnight, but just trying to take one step at a time will pave the way for a better future, a future where our descendants can live without the conflict and hate that is so prevalent everyday.
Why might Gorman be focusing on the future rather than the present like so many other poets and artists?
QCQ #6
“Where are you off to, lady? for I see you,| You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in your room.”
This poem focuses on the perspective of a woman watching men on the beach, though the narrator is, in a way, watching both the men and the woman. While most of the lines seem to be about the woman admiring and being attracted to the men, I think this quote shows that she is not only struggling with her attraction, but also her identity. Why will she not go down to the beach? Maybe it is because she is more comfortable alone in her room, since she has lived in loneliness her whole life. It is all she knows. Maybe she is instead hyper aware of her presence as a woman and worries that it may disrupt the scene she is admiring. Parker mainly talks about the sexual attraction pieces of queerness, but that does not extend to other important aspects of someone’s queer identity. The often normalized gender roles that Parker also discusses makes a clear appearance, as I stated above. The combination of the woman’s perceived gender and supposed attraction(heteronormativity) to the men separates her from dispelling the loneliness of her life.
What are other reasons associated with queerness that the woman could be watching(admiring?) the men on the beach?
QCQ #7
“… I’d spirit/his knives and cut out his black heart… place it on a low/shelf in a white man’s museum/so the whole world could see/it was shriveled and hard,/geometric, deformed, unnatural.”
This poem seems to be talking about a person who has been forced to turn to sex work despite their big hopes to be incredibly successful when they left home. Parker talks about this situation, and we find that it is far more common than many would like to think. Not necessarily the sex work part, but having to set aside our dreams for a number of reasons and find whatever work we can. Our personal goals for success are at the forefront when we are supported, but once times get tough then many will turn to soul-sucking jobs in order to make money. Unfortunately, these kinds of jobs support the society that led us to set aside our dreams, thus our need for money to live is a root cause to the general happiness of the dreamers in our society. Those who make money off our desperation, our depression, our beautiful broken dream is the subject of this quote. Our society lines their pockets and the dreamers(who are necessary for the success of any civilization) are beaten down. The dreamers, and practically everyone else too, become subjects of the interpellation we are called to. There’s a more recent piece of media that has similar things to say. It is the series of music videos released by the band Megadeth, which, though discussing war, still makes use of showing the different people who work and are affected/benefitted by this system. It deals with subjects such as corruption, death of adults and children, war, and has a good amount of gore, in case you wanted to check it out.
What are some small, possible changes the average person can make to impact the poisonous effects of our society?
QCQ #8
“She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.”
This entire short story is an example of the unconscious class themes that Parker talks about. Specifically this quote makes use of that concept by saying that the protagonist can see the tops of trees from her room, which is “upstairs.” Presumably, this means her house is big, at least two stories, and, since there is no outright mention of wealth, the reader could interpret this as saying she is in more of the middle class. There is a peddler crying his wares out the window as well. The word choice in this sentence tells the reader that she is literally and figuratively looking down on him. She is looking from the upper story window instead of a ground level one, which would imply that they are on “equal ground,” and he is labeled as a peddler, showing that the protagonist doesn’t know him and his main significance is his job title. Using these aspects as background information has the same effect as the implications in Jane Austin’s novels, which Parker describes using a movie adaptation of her book Persuasion, wherein the servants of the household are more decoration or set pieces rather than contributions to the story. While there are likely many more implications that I don’t see simply because of my own “cultural blindness” of sorts, there is also the symbolism of being free and experiencing life again for the first time. There was a “new spring life” and “the delicious breath of rain was in the air,” again using specific word choice to exemplify the newness, the experience. This could be showing her newfound position in life, since she, as a middle class white woman, has presumably “belonged” to a man(in the eyes of society) her whole life. Now, though, she is more in charge of her life than ever before, and Chopin’s description shows the reader how incredibly freeing that is.
What other implications could be made from this quote alone?
