experiencesthroughliterature - Tumblr blog

[experiencesthroughliterature]

The Myth of The Latin Woman

After reading the myth of the latin woman in class we discussed school uniforms and how we feel. I was neutral while wearing school uniforms. On one hand I didn’t like it because I never had enough money to go and buy more than two pairs of pants and shirts but on the other hand I liked it because when things went smoothly nobody could tell. I had to wear it all during middle school but they would have these days where you pay $1 to wear jeans. I still never had enough for that and people could notice when I wore the same ones. In the story they reveal stereotypes and media and how it can misinform people and have consequences. It shows how latin women are overly sexualized and exotic. The overly sexualized part happens in schools as well, sadly. But mainly to females with a body, speaking from experience. In middle school even with the dress code I still got sent to the office. Not just in middle school but also in high school, we were allowed to wear “anything” we wanted but not females with a body. I remember one day I came into school with a pair of jeans and the back was shorter than the front but still high enough but my mother was still called and I had to change. But as I went on the rest of my day there was another female who was literally wearing boxers and a crop top. Being a black girl with a body young you get overly sexualized and looked at very differently no matter what you do, not just at schools or even at home. I would wear or do things my sister does and get called fast because of my body. You walk down the street and are constantly being catcalled. It is sad to say that I am used to it. I would never understand why females who are born with a body vs those who are born petite are treated so differently. I mean I understand it from males but I can’t understand it from parents and school officials. And why in school we can not wear tank tops because of our shoulders? Who is really looking at shoulders? We can’t wear shorts unless they are at the knee or past it. Let a male come into class with shorts way above their knees and a tank top they don’t get sent home or written up. It is really sad how society makes us females cover up and accommodate the males because they can’t control themselves but never think about us. What if being covered head to toe all the time is uncomfortable? What if we couldn’t control ourselves? You think that they would tell boys to cover up? No, they would tell us to act like ladies and hold it together. Just when I think we are making a change and moving forward officials still find a way to pull us back.

-Omarria Hollister

[experiencesthroughliterature]

Speak, Okinawa

Speak, Okinawa, speaks about the author's experience being a mixed girl who's mother is Japanese and whos Father was American. In the story, Elizabeth explains how she never felt connected to her mother. In fact, it seems that she almost resented her for not being able to fit in properly, and making her feel like an outcast. She felt as if when people made fun of her mother, they made fun of a part of her, since she could not leave her obviously Asian mixed appearance. Elizabeth had actually taken a liking and preferred spending time with her Father. Eventually, She actually discovers a side of her father that she never knew before, and a side of her mother that made her closer to her.

Most recently, and I am talking about a few days ago, I can relate to this and I feel exactly the same way, with different context. I've always had quarrels with my mother. As an asian as well, I never wished to disappoint my parents, and tried my best to be a good girl. I obeyed my mother lots, and everything she said had an impact on me, lots of it which ripped my heart out. There were many times I yearned to understand her, because it seemed like we could just never do that. She had trouble speaking and communicating her feelings. I think this was because of the way she grew up. Being shy, introverted, reserved and also well behaved, she never got the opportunity to rebel or to say out her thoughts. With me, growing up in America, I was free to express my ideas more openly with the people around me. Actually, in America, it has become a modern social expectant to improve oneself, and that includes speaking up for oneself, communicating your thoughts clearly, and trying to solve problems (like generational trauma).

And so, I never felt close to my mom. Our conversations were always brief, and on the outside only. I felt like there was no connection like a normal American mother and daughter would have.

I compared my friend's mother to mine at one point. His parents had both grown up in the State, and had more Americanized ideas of socialization and bonding. Visiting their house, I met his mom and she had interacted with me so friendly, so welcoming, and so freely. She had asked me if I wanted to go shopping with her one day, which was something I felt like my mom would never do. That day I broke down. I had wished my mother was everything like his. And that day I started to resent my own mother for not loving me the same way.

In similarity to Speak, Okinawa, I also had preferred my father because of this same reason. He had gone to college, and was more accustomed to American ideals and their way of socialization. As an American born Asian, all I knew of was the American way. I felt that my dad was the only one who could understand me.

But recently, my mom and I had an emotional and intimate talk. For the first time, I couldnt even believe it. But she talked to me, and for once I thought I realized that I had never knew her at all. That For the first time I was understanding her. And secondly, I learned that my father was not everything that I thought him out to be.

It was an eye changing moment, and I think my relationship with both my parents have changed drastically, mostly with my mother.

This was the day before she had left to visit Vietnam. I found out that all this time, she had loved me, in her own way, but with difficulty expressing it in the way that I had wanted her to.

Before she had left the car to go into the airport, my mother had said "Thank you for everything." For listening to her story and her heart. "For what?" I asked almost out of nothing but pure curiosity.

Now, when I look at her, when I get to see her in our facetime calls, suddenly she's like a different person from what I knew. We had the mother and daughter connection that I had always wanted, but even more.

Like Speak, Okinawa, I felt like I've experienced the exact realization as the author did. Its crazy how much you would never know about a person until one day they reveal it to you. Its crazy how we can judge someone but there are limitations to their expression due to the difference in social norms or how they grew up.

For me, it opened my eyes that not everything is what it seems. From the worst to the best, there might always be something like a hard nut that has to be slowly cracked and peeled to reveal the inner truth of it all.

Lisa Le, substitute for 2 (500 word) posts

[experiencesthroughliterature]

response- Jada c the secret lives of church ladies

The pictures did remind me of the secret life of church ladies. I say this because in the story Eula is supposed to be this super religious person and not do anything wrong but she is having intercourse with another woman. The pictures portraying body modifications on a nun is the same as eula. I don’t think anything is wrong with what eula and caroletta are doing. I just wish that eula could accept it and not make caroletta feel bad. I say she is feeling bad because it seems like after they finish eula wants to repent and she regrets it and always wants to not do it again but still ends up doing it. I wonder if she is in love with caroletta, like if she really allowed herself would they be together? Would they have to move to a new city? I think that they should be basically already committed. 

-Omarria Hollister

[experiencesthroughliterature]

response-The black girl Take-Kenadi C

I like the idea of Eula giving Caroletta small pieces of her. It is true that men give up and bashes the female, I have yet seen the way where a man gives up and just leaves it at that. A female pursuing a man first really gives me the ick. I cannot see myself doing it. Pursuing a man to me is like catering to a man and I will never do that. I have seen movies where a man would be home all day while his girlfriend works and once she comes home he asks where is dinner and expects her to cook. See once you cater to somebody too much they turn around and take advantage and get too comfortable. Luckily for me the movies always end in the couple not being together anymore and she realizing her worth. Moral of the story I agree with not pursuing a man first I wouldn’t even text first. 

-Omarria Hollister

[experiencesthroughliterature]

Ohhhh that is so hilarious!! LOL 😂

Weird to think about it in our human world, where men cant biologically have children, but I suppose this is their reality in Bloodchild. Actually, if their body is a host for baby parasites, would they even have round bellies? Maybe the eggs could grow even further up their bodies, making their WHOLE BODIES round and plump! Something to think about ;)

-Lisa Le

POV: The men in Bloodchild #LOL

Reagan Lloyd

[experiencesthroughliterature]

Hi Omarria, I wonder the same thing. You talked about what it would for a man to be catcalled and their reaction to it. It might be completely different from how a woman views it, because they are not used to it or because they have a different perspective about it. Perhaps this opens up to the discussion about gender norms. Things that happen to women can result in a totally different response from men. What causes these differences in norms then?

-Lisa Le

cat person

In this story it’s between two immature people. So you have a young college student who meets an older man at her job and begins flirting. They talked a lot during breaks and text messages, so she began to really like him. When they hang it turns out that he isn’t what he seems and when they had intercourse it didn’t match up to it. Afterwards she started to dodge him and not text back leaving him mad and confused. Both parties were immature and didn’t know how to communicate. I am on the girl's side because I do not feel like she needed to give an explanation. In class we discussed how she wanted to be told she was pretty during it and I see nothing wrong with it. I do feel as though at the end it is unnecessary for him to use that language with her. No, she didn’t have to speak to him because they were not together so giving him validation was not needed. He reminds me of dudes nowadays because they feel like you owe them something. They are so sassy and full of themselves which makes me wonder who the female is. Let’s talk about it because it isn’t just the males the females play a part in it too. Some boost a dude's head up so much and allow him to disrespect them to where he feels like he can. But then he turns around and meets a female who isn’t going to put up with it and will leave and he is threatened. In the story I do think that if she wanted to text him she could have sent the message because maybe she could have worded it better. The friend was wrong for sending it so harshly. Do I think he is wrong for wanting to know and being hurt? No, he isn’t wrong but again he isn’t entitled, if he would’ve just asked the first time and let it go once she didn’t respond then that would’ve been fine. Both had a version of one another that didn’t satisfy. When she saw him in person she could have acted a little better because hiding with her friends just made it obvious. She also could have been scared, a man being ghosted isn’t the best thing. From experience when you ghost a man after having intercourse or just a random one on the street, they can get violent and crazy. Some weird reason when a man is rejected they react worse then when a female is. But they love being catcalled? As a woman I know that I don’t like being catcalled but men do and that is because they don’t get it so often. I wonder what if they get it just as much as women would they still like it? I think that they would still like it because they do not think like females do. This story is the perfect example because they had intercourse, she wasn’t feeling it, and ghosted him. He sees her out in public, decides to text her and when he doesn't get a response he calls her out her name.

-Omarria Hollister

[experiencesthroughliterature]

"I Can't Breathe"

George Floyld, thats what Eric Garner's experience reminded me of. Similar experience, similar oppression. The unfortunate sentence which deems to bring awareness to the people.

-Lisa Le

[experiencesthroughliterature]

A Small Needful Fact by Ross Gay

"Is that Eric Garner worked for some time for the Parks and Rec. Horticultural Department, which means, perhaps, that with his very large hands, perhaps, in all likelihood, he put gently into the earth some plants which, most likely, some of them, in all likelihood, continue to grow, continue to do what such plants do, like house and feed small and necessary creatures, like being pleasant to touch and smell, like converting sunlight into food, like making it easier for us to breathe."

Ross Gay's poem about Eric Garner is beautiful and sentimental. He describes Eric Garner's life as simple and nurturing as it was and could have been. For those who don't know, Eric Garner was a 43 year old African American male who's life was taken away when NY police officers put him in a chokehold while arresting him. The point of the poem is not to criticize the cause of the police that were arresting him that day, but because of the inner racism that enabled them to hold Eric Garner, a big black man, down into a chokehold which took away his life. It represents the fear and intimidation that society has about Black people. The fear that they are capable of overpowering them, or the stereotypes that they are aggressive and bad. Ross Gay, in the poem, spreads gently about the realistic nature of black people, that they are just humans as well, capable of doing the most wholesome and caring things, such as planting. It challenges the ways in which society views black people.

The most impressionable line, "like making it easier for us to breathe," gives to all to remind us how he had died, and serves to remind black people as well of the how his death had acted as a voice to spread this awareness.

-Lisa Le

[experiencesthroughliterature]

cat person

In this story it’s between two immature people. So you have a young college student who meets an older man at her job and begins flirting. They talked a lot during breaks and text messages, so she began to really like him. When they hang it turns out that he isn’t what he seems and when they had intercourse it didn’t match up to it. Afterwards she started to dodge him and not text back leaving him mad and confused. Both parties were immature and didn’t know how to communicate. I am on the girl's side because I do not feel like she needed to give an explanation. In class we discussed how she wanted to be told she was pretty during it and I see nothing wrong with it. I do feel as though at the end it is unnecessary for him to use that language with her. No, she didn’t have to speak to him because they were not together so giving him validation was not needed. He reminds me of dudes nowadays because they feel like you owe them something. They are so sassy and full of themselves which makes me wonder who the female is. Let’s talk about it because it isn’t just the males the females play a part in it too. Some boost a dude's head up so much and allow him to disrespect them to where he feels like he can. But then he turns around and meets a female who isn’t going to put up with it and will leave and he is threatened. In the story I do think that if she wanted to text him she could have sent the message because maybe she could have worded it better. The friend was wrong for sending it so harshly. Do I think he is wrong for wanting to know and being hurt? No, he isn’t wrong but again he isn’t entitled, if he would’ve just asked the first time and let it go once she didn’t respond then that would’ve been fine. Both had a version of one another that didn’t satisfy. When she saw him in person she could have acted a little better because hiding with her friends just made it obvious. She also could have been scared, a man being ghosted isn’t the best thing. From experience when you ghost a man after having intercourse or just a random one on the street, they can get violent and crazy. Some weird reason when a man is rejected they react worse then when a female is. But they love being catcalled? As a woman I know that I don’t like being catcalled but men do and that is because they don’t get it so often. I wonder what if they get it just as much as women would they still like it? I think that they would still like it because they do not think like females do. This story is the perfect example because they had intercourse, she wasn’t feeling it, and ghosted him. He sees her out in public, decides to text her and when he doesn't get a response he calls her out her name.

-Omarria Hollister

[experiencesthroughliterature]

How do you know what a BlackMan is? What qualities do you imagine, nature, personality. What exactly is a BlackMan?

-Lisa Le

[experiencesthroughliterature]

Can't we love each other, same sex and all, while having faith for our father as well?

-Lisa Le

[experiencesthroughliterature]

Find the place that can be the window to your Soul.

-Lisa Le

[experiencesthroughliterature]

Cat Person

Kristen Roupenian's "Cat Person" short story...

boy, what on earth happened in this story..?

Reminds me of a total fail of a date, but it was started by two people who were incapable of dating in the first place.

oh god.

Roupenian starts off "Cat Person" with an introduction of the 2 character's first meeting. Bad flirting at the movies. Romantic.

Can we even say it was flirting? The female character, Margot, was bored and messing around with customers as she was working the concession stand. She had asked how such a person could eat Red Vines, an unpopular candy choice.

Robert a sufficiently older body than Margot, the victim of her unmeaningful flirting, came back and decided to ask Margot for her number. And she did.

Right off the bat, we can see that the two don't really have a great relationship or attraction to one another. However, Robert shooted his shot, and ignorantly, Margot decided to give it a try.

Soon after, they began texting one another. We can see here when Margot is talking to her Stepdad that she is in love with Robert and that they might plan to get married soon. Probably sarcastic, it reveals Margot's unserious attitude towards their relationship.

Furthermore, Robert and Margot went on their first date to the movies...and well, it turned off pretty awful. At least, it seemed as though Margot's and Robert's expectations of one another through their texts, didn't seem to ignite as much of a connection in person.

After a few drinks, the two did seem to relax and have a good time together a little bit. They decided to go to Robert's house that night.

What I don't understand about Robert is that he was hesitating on bringing Margot over to his house. He explained that "he had cats" very cautiously.

But when Margot enters his apartment, there are no cats to be found. What does this mean for Margot? Was Robert actually a whole lie? Trying to swoon a girl by creating his own character that he was a lovable man who had compassion for cats, or that he was a crazed loner?

Here, Margot actually feels cautious about Robert. However, She was soon trapped into the situation, somehow ended up on Robert's bed kissing him.

She didnt actually enjoy the sex or feel any intimacy with Robert. She had saw him as the most unattractive man and didn't actually want to pursue anymore. Eventually though, she entices herself to enjoy the experience by thinking about how attractive she had felt to this man.

Robert, on the other hand, his expectations of the lively fun and sexy cheerleader like impression of Margot limped. Literally, during sex.

That was about it. It was a messy, immature and total fantastical false impression of each other.

At the end of the story, Margot wants to avoid Robert because of this reason. She feels like she had made a mistake and that it just wasn't what she had expected it to be. Robert never got closure, and ends up revealing an aggressive side to himself, one that supports that perhaps he was faking a character in order to get close to Margot.

This story really makes me think of men out there who are like Robert, or termed incels. Despite Margot's ignorance and bad decisions, she is 20 and young. Robert is almost 20 years older than her, and at that age you'd expect more responsibility, wisdom, and caringness. However, Robert is one of those men who do not have those qualities and expects things from a woman to make him feel desirable.

I thought this piece was really wild...but entertaining. Its just another perspective of what kind of people can exist in our society.

-Lisa Le

[experiencesthroughliterature]

How I expected Kristen Roupenian's "Cat Person" to be about:

[experiencesthroughliterature]

Sonny's Blues

I was reading "Sonny's Blues," which is a story of two brothers who find it hard to understand one another. One is a math teacher, while the other is a creative musician. However, the musician goes through a type of escapism through drugs and poor life choices. Although he chooses to do these things, I can understand how he had felt creatively. He wanted to pursue something that no one around him had understood, especially his mathematician brother. I think its often thought that creative people who are passionate about the arts, writing, dance and music will get nowhere. They'd be missing the money, the talent, and the appreciation from others. It will feel almost depleting to be told that everyday, also, that what you love is incapable for survival in society. This is probably a reason why Sonny decided to escape in this way. His place of comfort became the pub, where you don't expect success from partying or drinks. It was the only place where he felt understood and appreciated for what he loved. For me, as an artist and creative like Sonny, I can relate to the yearning of wanting to be understood, and supported. It is almost like life is empty without our passions to push through. In the end, Sonny's brother was finally able to understand him, and I thought it was touching.

-Lisa Le

[experiencesthroughliterature]

From reading the Autobiography of Eve I got that women may be gullible and rebellious. She disobeyed God and listened to the snake with the forbidden fruit. If you are told not to do something wouldn't that make you want to do it more? For years women have been muted and silenced and used. Eve chose desire over obedience and caused the rest of us to do the same.

-omarria Hollister

[experiencesthroughliterature]

#eveandsnake

-Omarria Hollister