Reading bridgetmartha's post sparked a desire in me to return to Nnaemeka's section on western feminism compared to nego-feminism. Re-reading this section highlighted for me some of my own presumptions, which came from approaching her work with a western feminist eye. Nnaemeka quotes a theorist (Steady 1987) who writes, "Neither sex is totally complete in itself. Each has and needs a complement, despite the possession of unique features of its own." This phrasing of "incompleteness" made me assume that Nnaemeka and Steady were assuming heterosexual relationships and the need for a man and woman to be partnered together. This is something I felt resistance to immediately. After reading through this section several more times, however, I caught myself.

Mon. 12/01:

(ICPR) Reading: Susan Nussbaum, Good Kings Bad Kings

Read as much of the novel as you can for today, and continue reading for Wednesday.

(ENGL) By 5 PM: posting #13--your reactions to and questions about Nnaemeka's essay. How does it invite you to think differently about internationalizing feminism (particularly in relation to Mohanty's essay, Americanah and/or Persepolis)?

Tues. 12/02:

(SOWK) Class Visit from Anna Strosser to discuss her memoir

I feel very strong about Salas's paper on the barriers, strategies and support systems that second-generation immigrants utilize to succeed in elite college campuses. I feel like I relate to all the factors he mentioned that maid aid in the personal, academic and professional success of second-generation immigrants. Although I became an American Ciziten in 2006, I still identify as a second generation immigrant simply because of the barriers I have inside and outside the classroom. Salas talked about how Immigrant children have parents who are less able to help them with their schoolwork due to language and cultural barriers. I grew up struggling to do homework because I was an English second language student.

Like smalina, I found myself most struck by Ken's letter at the end of Anna's memoir. I was left wondering about Ken's voice and feelings through all of this. ndifrank mentioned wondering about how you, Anna, coped with Ken's emotions when they lingered past his understanding of their cause. This is also something I'd like to know, and I'm curious: are there or have there been techniques that Ken has used to cope with feeling emotions past memory of their cause?
From Margie, I'd love to know what it's like to see your mother as a caregiver (throughout her life) and to then take on the role of caregiver yourself-- something you mentioned in your editor's note. What have you learned from your mother about caregiving and what do you feel you're inventing yourself?

I wanted to share some recent thoughts I had about the Mutter that fit into the same argument about how the place can be improved. I was especially taken by the developing fetuses they had (at 1 mo., 3 mo., etc.) and by the ones of disabled fetuses. Along with the entire museum, these portraits of disability and growth could really bring a normalizing eye to these phenomenon. We don't talk enough about our bodies in American culture (unless to shame women for not fitting some arbitrary ideal) but we have so many physical differences.

"I argue for going beyond the historicization of the intersection that limits us to questions of origins, genealogy, and provenance to focus more on the history of now, the moment of action that captures both being and becoming, both ontology and evolution" (361).

One of the things that resonated with me most strongly in Nnameka's article is her call for a more truly "globalized" view of feminism. While the word "globalization" carries connotations of imperialism in Feminist Studies discourse, I would argue in this case that it is instead could be reused and repurposed to describe the need for many different, culturally-inspired ways of talking about feminism. I find her call inspiring--ways of talking about feminism that are not western-culture specific, and instead incorporate the multiplicity of cultures available. It is using the identities of writers, of specifics, towards understanding the universal--much like standpoint theory. (See, for example, p.

In reading Nnaemeka's piece, I kept on going back to Persepolis and Americanah and thinking about the contradictions between the lives of the protaganists and Western expectations of feminism. Nnaemaka criticizes the treatment of "third-world" women as "case-study and country-specific sections" that pertain "to the specific countries from whence they come" but can't be used in theorizing, and it'd  be easy to fall into the trap of placing these works in such a catagory (366). Even though they only represent the narratives of single individuals (although Americanah is fiction, I still think the narrative it represents is valid in this consideration because of its realism), we should read them not as case studies but as pieces of a larger narrative.

Hi everyone,

As I procrastinated on homework I browsed the news and found some ESEM related articles. I feel you guys will enjoy the one by MIC.com about voluntourism. The other is by the washington post about the 6th extinction. 

The one about voluntourism though I found very relatable. Because I know a lot of people with their profile pictures of them with a random kid in some village they went on some mission trip or volunteering trip.

In another article I read long ago a woman was reflecting on the damage she did as a voluntourist and went home with all the "girly" things she intended to ggive to the local girls. It all goes back to Teju Cole's point that we can help by educating ourselves on the situation.

I would love to know more about the role that societal pressures played in Annie's difficulty in communication with Ken in the beginning. Did you not discuss your feelings with him because you didn't think he wanted to or because you didn't think it was right?

I would also like to know more about your and Ken's sense of spirituality. You said several times that it is very important to both you and him, and it would be nice to know how it manifests and how it has aided you on this journey.

Lastly, I'd love to share with you some of the things we discussed about sharing feelings in the Two Women Talking workshop. What do you think? How have your feelings influenced your writing?