sara.gladwin's blog

“Colored Amazons” really reminded me of was an essay I reading a while ago called “In Search of Our Mother’s Garden” by Alice Walker. I kept hearing Walker in the back of my mind, writing about the ways in which her mother created a home, a domestic space that could flourish and grow. The garden was her mothers pride and joy; it was neatly cared for and tended to every day with a passionate hand. What Alice Walker eventually comes to say is that by choosing to see only what African American women in history did not have, often we forget to see what was created in place of what did not exist. Those voids were filled in many different ways, generally through art. She talks about other forms of expression, such as song and tapestry weaving, many things that are overlooked in historical retellings. Her mother’s garden stood as means of expression as well. It represented her mothers desire to create a home that had always been denied to her.  I was especially reminded of this when reading Gross, who says, “Adhering to the tenets of domesticity was not important to blacks solely as a way of contesting white racism, but on a more personal level it also affirmed them as men and women” (Gross 88). This “home-making” seemed to dominate the desires of African American women that were described in the book. Often, Gross would describe the effects of being unable to recreate a home in the traditional sense and the physically and psychologically violent effects it had on black women during that time.

I chose this photograph because it speaks also to the silence imposed upon one’s self, the limitations we may feel in forming the opinions we do

or do not voice. This past week I have had several realizations leading ultimately into an epiphany about the way silence plays a role in my life, and how it will continue to affect my interactions with classmates in this 360.

I recently come to restructure how I believe epiphanies form, in that I no longer see an epiphany as a sudden realization. Instead I recognize it as a gradual process, one that takes into account multiple realizations and experiences. Often I will discover a piece of an epiphany through my surroundings, or an experience, or another person. Eventually, those small pieces accumulation into a full actualization; into a moment of clarity generally categorized as the epiphany. However, the pieces leading into that moment are crucial and inseparable from the mean

When I thought about silence, I kept coming back to what Irene said in class about silence being entangled with noise; such as our pauses between words and sentences. So I felt as though my visualization needed to convey my fascination with the concept of silence as a part of a larger whole that incorporates both silence and noise. I envisioned silence just before or after something completes a fall, the silence of the fall itself. This idea felt similar to the phrase “the quiet before the storm.” For me, this “quietness” or silence before noise was captured through a photograph of a raindrop as it rolls off the tip of a leaf. Ultimately the drop will break its fall to create both sound and movement but the moments before that plop into the water and subsequent ripple effect seem silent to me. This is especially true in photographs, which can capture moments and extend them, making them appear clear and motionless. The capture itself is a kind of silencing, because whatever was in motion will stay forever poised, locked in the silence occurring before the drop. A person who looks at a photograph sees the frozen moment and anything else they see or hear is imagined and shaped by their own interpretation and expectations of that moment.

Sara Gladwin

Critical Feminist Studies Final Paper

Anne Dalke

5/11/12

Violating Language

As I was reading a chapter in the book “Feminism is for Everybody” by Bell Hooks, I became inspired to start thinking about the ways in which language was used in the classroom and what effect changing that dialogue would have on classroom experience. I became interested in exploring how language could be used to alter the classroom to become a more inclusive place, where silenced voices are able to have the opportunity to be heard.  Hopefully I could find a way that the classroom could validate students experiences instead of conditioning students to filter out certain parts of their lives from the classroom.

In the beginning of the comic book, The Adventures of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Chris Ware wrote a series of tests and notes for the reader. An exam question asks for the gender of the reader. If the reader is female, she is to immediately put down the book (Ware 1). This implies that there is something about the experiences within the comic book that are so inherently gendered male that a female could not possibly understand them.  She may as well never read the book. Jimmy Corrigan examines masculinity and what it is like to constantly battle the social pressure to live up to an ideal masculine identity.

This was something interesting that I found a while ago and todays class is reminding me of this video so I decided to post it to see what people think. I found it interesting that the She's the First video promotes their usage of twitter and social media; while this video talks about how few people have interent access in relationship to how many people are actually in the world. I have other thoughts about the video but I am hoping to see what everyone else thinks too!

the video comes from this website: http://www.miniature-earth.com/

“Who are the 99?

An ever-growing team of specially powered young people. The 99 prevent disasters, help people in need, and perform good deeds under the banner of the 99 Steps Foundation.

What are the Noor Stones?

Each member of the 99 bears a Noor Stone- an ancient gem of power. Forged out of the destruction of ancient Baghdad, the Noor Stones were created to preserve the wisdom of the ages. When bonded with a specific young person, each gem grants him or her a different gift of power”

Hi this isn't my post for this weekend but if anyone still hasn't seen the movie and is having trouble finding it, I have it checked out of Haverford library and am going to be watching it possibly today but definitely tomorrow night if anyone wants to join me or borrow it at some point. email me at segladwin@bmc! maybe we can group watch it in the denbigh common room with some snacks and popcorn.