Posts

Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick is a dystopian sci-fi graphic novel about a planet that women who are considered “non-compliant” are shipped off to as prisoners. Non-compliant refers to any women who talk back, do not convey traditional beauty standards (small features, thin frame, etc.), or those you would consider a bad mother. Women, in this dystopian future, are all fearful of offending or stepping over the line because the risk of incarceration on Bitch Planet are so high. Anyone, even other women, can accuse someone of having an attitude or defying the society’s “norms” and be sent off to this other planet.

An example of what the society views is a “compliant” woman.

The storyline shows how this dystopian society “others” women that defy standards that are placed upon them. It is also interesting to note that in the story, there is a panel of men, called the Council of Fathers, that control what happens in the prison. They see firsthand what the women go through and they end up making decisions on how the women are treated, what they can do in the prison, and who they interact with. I believe it is a nod to how women are often “othered” in our society as well, especially by governmental entities, and how when the women stood up against the men working and controlling the prison system, they could put up a fighting chance.

At the end of Book one, the sporting event Megaton that the prisoners are forced to participate in leads to a death of one of their own. Throughout the first book, you see the rage that the women feel about being sent to this planet and being forced by society to act a certain way their whole life. In this scene, however, you see the walls come down and they all mourn the loss of their friend. It brings them closer, and I think it is what keeps them fighting so hard to take down the Council and the militant ruling against women and their minds and bodies.

I decided to do my text review assignment on a famous sci-fi novel called Dune by Frank Herbert. As some of you may know, this book has recently become a blockbuster movie released in the last month starring a loaded cast with Timothy Chalamet, Zendaya, and several others. After watching the movie, I decided I wanted to read the book to find out the rest of the story as the movie ends just after the first portion of the novel. Throughout the story, Paul Atreides is the heir to his family’s throne and is an intelligent and gifted teenager born into a destiny that he does not yet understand. Paul’s father, Leto, is given the most dangerous yet profitable planet in the universe in order to “mine spice,” which is needed for intergalactic space travel and is the most expensive resource in the universe. The planet is called Arrakis, home to the Fremen who are known to be incredibly dangerous and are the only inhabitants that can navigate the vast dunes of the planet. House Atreides is taking over the planet from their arch nemesis, the Harkonnens who leave the planet sabotaged with bad equipment and end up re-invading the planet and slaughtering about all of House Atreides except for Paul and his mother who are forced to flee to cross the Dune and work with the Fremen. I found that this book ties into our course because it deals with different races, cultures, and clans clashing in a power struggle. Relating to a beginning concept from our course known as “othering,” all of these different races and clans view each other as practically scum. All they each want to do is dominate the other and act in their own interest. This is where Paul comes in as acting as the heir of House Atreides, but has another roll as the profit for The Fremen. Paul is able to cross the “othering” barrier between the two different societies and helps fight against the Harkonenns.

The film Pushing Hands tells a story of an old Chinese man named Mr. Chu living in New York. Mr. Chu has a son called Alex Chu living and working in New York. Alex Chu married an American woman called Martha. The difference between eastern and Western cultures, the difference in age, language and living habits, makes it impossible for Mr. Chu to communicate with Martha and integrate into his son’s life.

In the beginning of the film, director presents the cultural difference between China and America, old and young. Mr. Chu is used to Chinese food while Martha is used to Western food. Mr. Chu likes listening to Beijing Opera and he plays it loudly while Martha listens to her song with headphones. In their free time, Mr. Chu and Martha still do not communicate with each other. Mr. Chu practices calligraphy while Martha uses laptop to work. Soon, they cannot accept each other anymore. Martha thinks Mr. Chu is so traditional and she thinks that playing opera so loudly is impolite while Mr. Chu does not accept Martha’s directness and almost impersonal democracy.

From my perspective, such conflicts between Martha and Mr. Chu are inevitable due to so many different identities. I think of Persepolis when I watched this movie. Marjane in Persepolis also has various identities and she also experienced cultural differences when she went to Austria. By contrast, Mr. Chu is a respected and popular person in China but when he comes to the US, his identity changes a lot. His incompatibility with the environment makes him unable to adapt to new life and rarely communicate with other people. The film skillfully shows this problem and director also tries to tell audiences that it is very hard to solve these conflicts caused by cultural differences. Mr. Chu’s and Martha’s habits have long been ingrained. I think this work inspires a conversation that can be discussed: are conflicts caused by deep-rooted cultural differences really unavoidable, even on such a small scale?

The Tortilla Curtain Review

Let’s review, shall we?  The Tortilla Curtain by T.C Boyle (1995) takes a narrative perspective to tell the story of two families living in Los Angeles, California. The first family of Kyra and Delaney are wealthy Americans living in their private home at Blanco estates.  While the second family of Candido and Rincon are undocumented immigrants from Mexico living at Topanga Canyon. Generally, the novel explores the suffering and struggle of undocumented immigrants working or living in the United.

Sadly, throughout The Tortilla Curtain Mexican immigrants experiences discrimination and injustices from the White Americans. For example, when Delaney hits Candido while driving, he at first thinks of his car and the driving experience he possesses when he notices that he hit a Mexican. Unfortunately, instead of Delaney taking Candido to the hospital, he offers him $ 20. Due to the fear of deportation Candido willingly takes the $ 20.  Certainly, this incident depicts the injustices most of the unlawful immigrants experience not only in the United States but across the globe.

On the other hand, the idea of constructing a wall as well as the gate by the Blanco community to prevent coyotes from entering into the community depicts the identity of the Americans from other communities. Note that having a gated community restricts other people from accessing the Blanco estate. More specifically, the idea can be viewed in the context of restricting the immigrants into the community. Similarly, I think that this idea relates to the determination of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart to rebel against the missionaries accessing his community Umuofia.

Consequently, after the wall is vandalized, Delaney decides to punish Candido by having him arrested even though Candido is not the Culprit. Essentially, due to his influence in the community, Delaney misuses the power he possesses to hurt Candido. However, despite the hatred Delaney has for Candido when the floods occur, Delaney is helped by Candido from drowning.  Therefore, I think that from this novel the author wants us to ask ourselves, is it lawful for the government to address the challenges facing immigrants?  On the other hand, I think that the novel reveals how integration in society between different cultures occurs.

Work Cited

Boyle, Tom Coraghessan. The tortilla curtain., 1995.

.

The movie The Help is the film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s novel under the same name. This film introduces us to two black women who have spent all of their lives taking care of predominant white families in the 1960s. Aibileen is a made and nanny of 7 children for the Leefolt family. Minny is an outspoken maid and the best friend of Aibileen who often finds herself getting fired. She soon develops a friendship with her employer, Celia, who finds herself very devoted to Manny. We get to know these women as an aspiring white woman, ‘Skeeter’ chooses to interview them. The movie was a huge hit when it was released and continues to be one today, encouraging people around the world to hold discussions surrounding race and power.

Injustice surrounding identity and power are heavy themes in this novel as it does feature black women working for powerful white families. This is where the concept of “othering” can be applied to describe the relationships being had in the book. Aibileen and Minny are seen as the “other” while the white families are considered to be the “one” as they hold all of the power. Working as a maid the employer is already the one in power, but when the issue of racism comes into play the power dynamics are even more extreme. There is also the issue of power within Minny’s relationship with her husband who is physically abusive in their relationship. However, Minny takes control back by getting the courage to leave him.

The message that the writers and directors of this film wanted to share was how racism was involved in all aspects of life during the time and in the setting. People of color were treated as less than by a majority of white people at the time and often faced challenges with verbal abuse. Minny is a woman who was incredibly outspoken and did not face being treated poorly at all, rightfully so. She goes as far as making her infamous “shit pie” for Miss Hilly after she had been wronged. While this movies addresses very seriou topics surrounding race and power dynamics, there is an element of humor laced throughout the plot. This movie is high on recommendation lists and is a great way to drive important conversations surrounding race issues.

In 1970s Virginia, Remember the Titans, based on a true story, tells the story of a town integrating one black and one white high school. With that comes one combined football team. Herman Boone, the head coach of the black high school is chosen as the head coach of the new team over the head coach from the white school, Bill Yoast. Boone and Yoast themselves at first struggle to respect and work with one another, and it takes even longer for the newly integrated team’s players to do the same. The movie explores the impact a newly integrated school has on the community, making sure to take note of the hardships and unjust treatment the team and school receive.

The idea of injustice is present throughout the story, with the focus turning being on coach Herman Boone, a black man. Despite getting the head coaching job, the school has decided Boone will be fired if he loses one game. This is a clear example of injustice, as the school board which has been carried over from the white school, doesn’t want to have a black head coach. Later in the season, they attempt to rig a game so Boone will lose and be fired, and this reflects on not only injustice but systemic injustice. The school board attempted to change the system to force Boone out, a method that would affect him and all black coaches, and this makes it a systemic injustice. The act is an injustice alone in wanting to fire a coach because he is black, but the means in which they do it make it systemic, an idea the class content covered deeply.

Power, as it pertains to structure, is present in the movie from the jump. Boone is initially chosen as head coach of the integrated school by the white school board because they want to appease all. This touches on the class concept of “the Other”, as it can be seen Boone, a black coach, is outside the power structure but can work his way in. Boone would not be “the Subaltern” because he isn’t boxed out of the power structure permanently, but he is still “the Other” because it wasn’t completely in his control to get a position of power. Identity is also at play, as much of the movie is driven by identity specifically as it pertains to race, with most characters outside the team siding and sticking with those of the same race, only capable because of the system structural inequalities built. Ultimately, I believe the makers of Remember the Titans want us to see that although positive stories coming out of such an ugly era, even the good stories didn’t go without their harsh realities. Even once the team came together and accepted each other, they faced hateful, racially motivated treatment from the outside. This creates a conversation around injustice, power, and identity, as we see and discuss how those ideas helped prop up such an ugly era.

(Image found at: https://movies.disney.com/remember-the-titans)

The text I am choosing to review, The Handmaids Tale, is both a novel and a TV series. It is set in modern day Gilead, which was once the United States, where a a regime has taken over in purpose to repopulate after birth rates decreased significantly. To repopulate, women are basically taken as property, live in the home of the rich family that stands behind the regime, and ultimately is used for sex and a womb. Shortly after giving birth, the handmaids are forced to give their babies to the commanders and their wives and are then sent to another commanders home to repeat the process. I think this text is particularly interesting to analyze and review because of the power dynamics between social class as well as gender inequality and touches on many topics we learned such as migration and “othering”. Keep in mind  the regime is only happening in what was once known as the United States, so most of the rest of the world views them as the “other” but with good cause which I feel like we did not see throughout this course. There is also very clearly a power dynamic similar to the master slave dialectic we learned from Hegel between the commanders and the handmaids. In both the novel and TV series, Canada is kind of used as a safe harbor and asylum for people who fled and continue to flee Gilead for their safety. They were forced to migrate or become slaves under Gilead law which is something else we touched on in class. There is not only the power dynamic between handmaids and commanders but everyone in between. In all cases women are at the bottom of the food chain whether a handmaid, a Martha (caretaker of commanders house), an Aunt (the women who keep the handmaids in line) and even the commanders wives.

“The 100” is a series on Netflix, in this series land was no longer safe due to radiation so they lived in space for a long period of time. When they started to run low on supplies they decided to send 100 teenagers and kids down to land to see if it was livable. When the reached land and realized it was sustainable they then had to form a functioning society.

Like any functioning society they formed a type of government and a clear set of rules. They had to find food, water and build shelter. They found people who survived the radiation called “grounders”. They had been there the whole time the 100 children were up in space so the grounders did not want people on their established area. Conflict happened very quickly between the grounders and teenagers, they would set traps and even kill one another. Overtime when they managed to co exist with one another. The rest of the adults on the ship were running out of supplies they had came down to land. Once the adults arrived they tried to take over and do things their way and establish a new type of government, the adults recreated a conflict between the grounders.

This is something we have seen in many text this semester. The result of colonization and activities such as that. A functioning society was formed and then new people with their own set of cultures and ideas came in and tried to do things their way since they thought it was the most ideal way to live. Throughout the series when they come upon new people/tribes there is always conflict where one group is essentially trying to overthrow the other in order to survive. I think the author was causing its audience to think about what happens when a new culture or group comes into a pre established territory and tries to take over. Though the series is fiction that type of activity was prominent throughout history.

IMAGES:

MV5BZTUxN2I1N2EtOTdlYS00ZDY1LThjNTEtZTIyYzliNTA2YzlhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDM2NDM2MQ@@._V1_.jpg

ems.ZW1zLXByZC1hc3NldHMvdHZzZWFzb24vUlRUVjEyODEwMS53ZWJw

the-100-series-finale-e1601501194566.jpg