Feminism Blog Post

               Feminism is the idea that women should have equal rights when it comes to political, economic, and social rights. There are different types of feminism, there is first wave feminism and second wave feminism. First wave feminism is the idea of having equal rights as the men. To bring more opportunities to women as the men had, focusing also on women's suffrage. Gaining the right to vote and participating and being part of politics was one of the major arguments women were looking to win. Second wave feminism focuses on more issues rather than just one. It focuses on women's sexuality and the work women do. I believe that women having the right to be as equal as men is a good thing because women can't and shouldn't be looked at any different than men. Many males believe that women should stay at home doing all the housework while they go out and work. Although some might look at this as some form of luxury I believe it isn't. Just like men, women are also able to go out there and make something great out of themselves. Women are able to be as smart and talented as men are. Limiting women to only certain things doesn't allow us to show everything we are capable of doing. We all bring in something to the country we live in so why should we be limited to certain opportunities. A really interesting question to ask is do women have rights in America?. We see how in many other parts of the world women either have the rights they want or don't. Although the United States is considered the land of the free and the country with many opportunities, women are still being treated differently. When it comes to a woman's salary a woman earns 77 cents on mens dollar. Being paid less when doing the same amount work and having the same experiences as men isn't really the equality the United States says we have. Women also make up majority of the workers in the common jobs the U.S offers us so why should we be paid differently?. Not only is this a problem with women, it also effects the minority groups in the United States. Men are looked at as being more capable than women when comes to doing various tasks. If the United States is considered a land of opportunities and equality why are people still being treated differently?. Women don't just talk about feminism to bring up topics, women talk about this because its an issue women still have their concerns about, issues that they feel haven't fully been solved.  

Persepolis Reading

For class we had to read a chapter from a graphic novel titled Persepolis. The chapter we read is titled "The Veil" this chapter follows a young girl while living during the Islamic revolution. Many new laws and rules had been set which everyone had to follow. This made life for Marjane and her family very different because they now had to accustom to a new way of living. In this chapter we also saw how Marjane is very different than all the other characters. Marjane believed that she would become a prophet when she got older. Only men were prophets and she was only a kid which made all her peers laugh at her while teachers worried if she was okay or not. Another graphic novel we read was American Born Chinese a story about a young boy named Jing Wang that was picked on for looking different. Both of the main characters from these stories were isolated from certain groups because they were different. These graphic novels are stories that many people today can relate to, like being bullied or just being looked at differently for the way they look or what they believe. During our class discussion we talked about the similarities and differences between both of these graphic novels. There are a few similarities but many differences. Each story has a different setting, different situations, and the use of colors. In Persepolis the author chose to use black and white while the author in American Born Chinese  chose to use a variety of different colors. Colors helps tell a lot about a story. It helps to show the audience the author is trying to engage. Persepolis is illustrated in black and white which tells us the story can be directed to an older audience while American Born Chinese is illustrated in many different colors showing that the audience can be anyone from any age. Both of these reading were interesting because they’re stories that seem very realistic to situations people face today.

Blog Post 1. Oscar Wao

 Something very interesting about The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao written by Junot Diaz is the way the story is told. The story begins in present tense but then goes to the past telling us about the lives of the people that came before Oscar and Lola. His mother, grandparents and great grandparents. The story of every character is told in detail allowing us as the reader to understand the characters in a deeper level. Junot Diaz writes the story in English but includes a lot of spanish vocabulary the words are slang words which made the story feel even more realistic being that I am hispanic. It made me feel like I was actually in the conversation because I could relate to that sort of language. Another reason why this novel may seem so realistic is because it brings in actual history from the Dominican Republic. Rafael Leonidas Trujillio Molina was D.R’s dictator from 1930-1961. Trujillio was evil and the country became corrupt and many people disliked not being able to have their own voice. The story about Oscars life is a story most people would be able to relate to because of the realistic problems he goes through in life. I really enjoyed reading the first half of the book because it left me at the edge of my seat wondering more about the life of the characters and how Oscar will end up. I enjoyed the fact that the language switched up constantly making me remember of old friends that are from the Dominican Republic. Will Oscar try killing himself again or will he actually decide to change his image and finally start being more healthy and lose weight? If Oscar finally decided to make this change it would change the story completely, the story would actually have a happy ending to it. I actually do hope Oscar finally sees that he’s the only one that can better his situation and gains the confidence he needs to talk to girls the right way because Oscar is a very nice guy who needs to toughen up a bit.