The book Out on Main Street, provides a contextualization of the customs and history of people in a generalized fashion. The book goes against the generalization that often occurs when discussing people. I think that this work is very useful at breaking down the barriers that can form when the stereotypes of people are broken down. It is much better that there is information about the various challenges associated with stereotyping.

Mootoo describes much of the history that is present in relation to her Trinidadian rituals, rites and customs. These are specifically in relation to the cultural and religious ideas of the Indo-Trinidadian minutiae, and how they take hold in the context of Canada. She is trying to protect her own identity, which is distinctly brown. It goes through her interactions with what is considered to be Indians who are deemed to be actually from India. She looks like she wants to avoid confusion and she has bitter comments that are directed towards her feminine girlfriend.

The issues that are raised in the novel not only related to cultural identity and the stereotypes that come up in relation to that, it is also concerned with the sexual orientation of women and with the gender identity. The story really sheds light on what is believed to be true in the case of race and gender, and it depicts other sides to these stories that are not as often told to the public. Thus this novel challenges the status quo.

The Kappa Child consists of stories that are told which work to expand the gender roles in sci-fi novels. The book talks about many of the spoken and unspoken tales that are explored and these act in a way so that the stereotypes about gender and race are broken down. This develops the myth and puts an exclamation mark on the possibility of translation and it suggests that there are worlds where there is an alternation between the fantastic and the real.

The work effectively brings out elements of race and gender that go beyond what is typically seen, and for this reason the book contributes well to the challenges that these people face in a world largely focused on stereotypes. One of the biggest stereotype that is challenges is the idea of what makes a good wife or a good mother. The narrator discusses his adventures and through these he shows the various situations in relation to the stereotypes that are present in gender and race. One of the characters is an exotic Asian female figure. She is always wearing pyjamas and a housecoat that keeps her boxed form. She finds herself in the arms of an alien stranger. There are many mythical creatures in the novel, and kappa is one of the main ones. These are small tricksters whose heads have a bowl-shaped hollow. They can rape women and can fight people in sumo matches. I believe that this novel essentially describes many of the types of characters that are found in real life. The kappa is a disgusting creature that can rape women, and I think this is a metaphor for a certain type of person that is a predator in the streets and a criminal who rapes women.           

Critical response to Handmaid’s Tale

The movie the Handmaid’s Tale provides a clear perspective on gender roles, and what is expected of people of specific genders. Specifically, the movie takes a look at the role of females in terms of what is expected of them as wives, handmaids, or marthas. The language in the movie is used as a tool of power. The official vocabulary that is created by Gilead does not take into consideration the needs of the elite. The movie depicts the ideas in relation to women not being able to hold jobs There is a system of titles that is created, and the men are defined by the military rank. However, women are defined by the gender roles that they play as wives, handmaids, or marthas. They do not have individual names and they are stripped of their individuality. The feminists are treated much in the same way as deformed babies. People see them as being subhuman, and they are denoted as being “unbabies,” and “unwomen.” The wives are often called the handmaids sluts, and they feel the painful experience of the sanctioned adultery. It is interesting how the handmaids’ red garments are a symbol of the ambiguous sin that is the handmaids’ position in the Gilead. Similarly, Gilead is used in the definition of the feminist rhetoric of the female solidarity and the sisterhood to its advantage. This shows the similarity that there is a dark side of feminism. Even though Atwood has a gentle criticism of the feminist left, she is actually targeting her criticism towards the religious right.

Critical response to Juno

Juno reveals the issues that are going on with the rise in the teenage birth rate. The film makes the presence of teenage birth to be something that is relatively attractive. The movie raises some interesting questions about the challenges there are in dealing with teenage pregnancy. I would have thought the movie would have been much more delicate in the way that it handled the subject matter, but I actually found it to be extremely liberal in the treatment. I also read quite a few reviews about the movie that agreed with my perspective. The people who opposed the liberal treatment of teenage pregnancy were called Hollywood moralizers, and I think this is something that is very accurate and very needed. Without having these types of reviews, it would be extremely difficult to have a sober second thought when it comes to the treatment of this material. However, at the same time, I think that those who are watching and who are teenagers are significantly influenced by the content that is going on in the film. The movie does not talk about the fact that there should be an emotional connection with a person in order for them to have intercourse with them, or the fact that there should be some component of love. Instead, it treats the idea of getting pregnant and having intercourse with someone when there is no emotional connection as being something that is relatively normal. The movie contributes to the unevolved culture that is currently perpetuating in society where people go around and have sex with each other because they feel that it is something that is healthy or normal. In actuality, there should be an emotional connection with the person in order for the sex to be something other than primal.

Week 4: Compare material from Breast Cancer Action and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The material contained in Breast Cancer Action is specifically related to a strategic plan for the next five years. The plan contains information about the best efforts that are being used in providing a clear set of strategies to be used in activism about breast cancer.  The Susan G. Komen website contains information that is more specifically designed to inform people about breast cancer, rather than specifically on the action plan that aims to address breast cancer. It provides ways to let people get involved with fighting breast cancer, and it discusses the many components of the research and grants that are currently being spearheaded in relation to breast cancer. I also found that the Komen site was much easier to navigate, rather than the other site, which did not have a significant amount of information. However, I found that the BC Action plan was very useful at providing a significant amount of information on the current updates that were going on in the news in relation to breast cancer. Both of the websites clearly are dedicated to fighting breast cancer, and they both aim to engage people to becoming a part of the fight against breast cancer. The sites aim to inform people while making it easy for them to become engaged. Both websites want to ensure that people have a solid understanding of the various news and progress in breast cancer, and this is facilitated by new information as well as history associated with the fight against the disease.

Week 3: Response to Kushner’s Breast Cancer

Rose Kushner’s breast cancer caused her to be an advocate for the disease. I think this is a very interesting component to finding a way to ensure that there is a significant amount of progress in fighting a disease. I think that the more people who are affected by a disease, the greater the chance there will be a significant amount of advocacy for eliminating that disease. For example, I noticed that the Relay For Life always gets a significant amount of people participating because there are a lot of people who have been affected by cancer. This puts other diseases at a disadvantage because there is not as much money being dedicated to research in other categories. Kushner wrote her book “Why Me? What Every Woman Should Know About Breast Cancer to Save Her Life.” This book helped to raise the awareness about breast cancer and the way that it was treated. It put an emphasis on the disease so that there was concentration on finding ways to eradicate the disease.

I think she made major contributions to the treatment of breast cancer, and even though many of the ways she was advocating treating breast cancer were dismissed at the time, her ways of looking at treatment are relatively commonly employed today. I think this may be an indication about how gender was treated at the time of her writing. Perhaps if she were a male her theories about treatment would be taken more seriously during that period. The 1970s was a period where feminism was really taking hold, but it had not made the type of progress to the point where a woman would be taken as seriously as a man. For this reason, the practices that Kushner was advocating were not being used.