Paris is Burning with Pepper !

I was skeptical at first knowing what I would be watching because although I am not closed off towards exposure to homosexuality and femininity in men, its still something that’s difficult to fathom. Though this is true, I was able to just listen and understand why this form of expression and lifestyle was important to these individuals. The person who I was most intrigued by was Pepper Labeija. With a name like that, there has to be a story behind who he is. To begin with, he is such a dramatic person and wears so much colorful makeup but unlike the other people featured, he still wanted to hold on to the masculinity held between his legs. I felt that although it is almost impossible for a man to present himself that way and still consider himself a “man” he was unlike the other people that felt that they were most comfortable as women. Pepper L. had mentioned that these balls that were held were for them to feel like they were worth something, and could pose as a person who was rich and lived lavishly although it is not his or anyone else’s lifestyle, Once he said that, I began to see beyond the makeup and think about the rest of us who find that “escape” but the only difference is that for a lot of these men, this is not an escape, this is their reality. He, along with others people featured were very entertaining but I guess the question that lingers with me is, is this really you or is this a way to hide other dissatisfactions? I probably will never know, neither will they.

Far From Reality

In Virtuality And Its Discontents we are presented with an article that explores a simulated world that allows you to make it as close enough to real life as you want it to be, but with the perks of a fantasy. I think that this is a cool thing for people who don’t know how to socialize in real life but what also has to be remembered is that these are real people with responsibilities and something like this shouldn’t be taken so seriously. We have people like Josh, Thomas and Tanya who aren’t as content with their life as they would want and see LambdaMOO as a escape route from their dissatisfaction. I think everyone participates in some form of social media where we air out our thoughts, post pictures of ourselves and be ANYONE we choose to be. However, when we encounter an artificial form of rape in games as a form of entertainment, or just simply to simulate real life situations, an escape from reality is no longer an excuse. College graduates are the characters in these games and they all seem to be doing something with their life that isn’t fulfilling enough for them. Control is something we all seek, but why is it that instead of taking control of their own lives and trying to improve on it to make themselves happy, they insist on being the drivers of characters in fake world making everything happen that they can’t in real life? It just seems like a waste of time. 

Turkle asks the question, “Is the real self always the one in the physical world?” Yes it is. No matter how many houses you build and friends you make in the simulated world, you will still be the nanny, or computer maintenance operator you are everyday, As pointed out in the article, there is “the loss of the real” when we take what we see in a simulated world, and think that we’ll get the same results. Real life needs to be accepted for what is or simply make it better if you find yourself caught in the realm of a fantasy more than you should. 

What’s The Point?

I wasn’t a fan of the Na’vi being blue but this was no ordinary animated movie. I didn’t like the movie that much but after class discussion I was able to see a deeper meaning to the movie. I think one purpose for this movie that I drew from the discussion is to show us how there is little respect for what we don’t understand as Americans and therefore, we can go in and destroy as long as we get what we want, which is an oppressive and imperialistic foundation that this country was built with . This search for Unobtainium in Pandora was like the fight for land with the indigenous people of America. The military went into their world destroying every tree that stood in its way of getting to this almost “unobtainable gift”. Jack Sully tried his best to go in and learn the ways of the people and becomes one of them in his attempt to do so which was unlike the method his military fellows went about it. However, this was not the way of the military commando and he didn’t a damn about becoming one and with that, he almost kills Jake and Neytiri by running them over with his bulldozer not realizing it was Jake who tried to get them to stop. Like my earlier comparison, the Native Americans although not as easily taken over, was almost wiped out by diseases and many were killed by Europeans seeking to take land and goods. There are very few left and that’s not because of them but what was done and Avatar shows you how people can get sucked so deep into their hunger for more that they are blind to how it affects the others but luckily, here in this movie, we have someone to draw the line and keep it from going to the point where they have nothing left,

Genetic Engineering for a Tab-A-Tap Child , in other words, Best of the Best!

thesis: Genetic Engineering not only allows you to make a child, but have the perfect one that the traditional parents don’t.

Claim 1: “the union of the egg and sperm from two individuals..would be too unpredictable with intercourse.” (McKibben 415)With that mentioned, if you have the chance to make a child without intercourse, you can take more control of the ability to conceive.

Claim 2: “Why not seize his power? Why not control what has been left to chance in the past?” (McKibben 419). You have the ability to not only change around your life, but your child’s life for the better, and this could be a highly successful future you wouldn’t have if you just had the child naturally.

Claim 3: “With reprogenetics, parents can gain complete control over their destiny, with the ability to guide and enhance characteristics of their children and their children’s children.” Genetic engineering won’t just mean the possibility of greatness for one child, but for their children to come and wouldn’t that be a great family to have ?

Genetic Engineering sounds like a highly complex and scientific term for the average person, but for what if it meant, it could take your family from average to elite? Would it be less complicated then for you to want it for you and your family? Years and years of studying and research has led the future of your family to become a simple procedure in the lab. You, who invests thousands of dollars in a private school education won’t ever have to rely on the school system being the reason for your well disciplined and brilliant children. Your next child won’t have to compete simply because he or she is the competition and everyone will want to be like your attractive, athletic, intelligent and not to forget, caring and well behaved child. All of these qualities can become real once you decide to take a look into what genetic engineering means for your future family.

 

thoughts on baldwin

At first I couldn’t grasp the reason for Baldwin’s resentment towards his father. I mean, what could he do that bad? It seemed that though he loved his children, they way they received it was completely opposite. For James, that was okay, at least until he began to think about his father’s life and what it really meant. Although his memories are few, the ones he has are vivid and through them he begins to understand his father’s actions. The most significant to me, as discussed in class Monday, was when his teacher came to house wanting to take him to the movies. James spitefully told the teacher to come without telling his father, and it only after he said he realized how that moment for his father was “a wholly unprecedented and frightening situation.” I don’t think he really understood his father’s struggle because he was born free and not into slavery. I don’t think anyone could fathom the experience and anger of someone who had been born and lived those circumstances unless they themselves went through the same thing. His father may have been despised by his children because of his distant ways and choices as a father, but that came from his own upbringing and now currently, his fear and resistance to certain people and behaviors. Baldwin as he viewed his father’s corpse only then could recount and really think about these things. Not only did that moment did he understand, but when Baldwin came to face his own experience with racism did he understand the anger that boiled inside his father, bubble within him too. I found it amazing how he says how angry he became as the waitress in the diner says, “We don’t serve negroes here.” He says it made him “colder and more murderous than ever” and to me, he was reliving exactly what was eating his father alive although, unknown to him before his father’s death. His endeavor with riots and racism first hand made him want more to understand his father and the find the answers to his madness and its sad that he only realized the worth of his father’s life, when viewing his death.

response to oscar wao

I don’t think there’s just one protagonist in this book, but one that is particularly important to the book is Belicia. I think that you get a true understanding of what fuku is throughout the book when you read her story. Before you understood what happened to her as a child and to her parents, all you get from her character is a mean woman who is insulting to her children without reason. She called her daughter ugly and definitely ridiculed her son for being fat and never going out into the world and doing anything “normal”. Why though? After reading her story, you see that Trujillo’s dictatorship only brought misfortune to the Cabral family. Being abandoned, of course not intentionally, and being sold and FINALLY found by her distant aunt, she had every right to be angry. Before she could be rescued, she was burned and handed off from one person to another and as mentioned in the book, she was a darker skinned Dominican and no one wanted to claim her. The burns on her back never went away and they will always tell the story of her childhood and she will otherwise, not speak of. The scenes of her being beat in the cane field by the Trujillato, losing her child, battered and close to death, are vivid images of the memories she has of the Dominican Republic. This scene repeats itself in Oscar’s story close to the end, but before I got to that, I understood her anger, pain and how much she really did try to save her children from the fate of the fuku. They would never understand and because they didn’t, we see how the book turned out, especially for Oscar. When Oscar didn’t listen to his mother, he went to see Ybon after he had already been beat in the cane field for seeing her and this is exactly what happened to Belicia when she was dating the gangster. Difference is, Belicia left and went to the US and left that life behind for good where Oscar insisted on going back for her and lost his life in turn. It just seems that her story retells itself in her children and this was a future that although you wanted your character to escape, it just didn’t go as planned.

Response to book

I don’t think there’s just one protagonist in this book, but one that is particularly important to the book is Belicia. I think that you get a true understanding of what fuku is throughout the book when you read her story. Before you understood what happened to her as a child and to her parents, all you get from her character is a mean woman who is insulting to her children without reason. She called her daughter ugly and definitely ridiculed her son for being fat and never going out into the world and doing anything “normal”. Why though? After reading her story, you see that Trujillo’s dictatorship only brought misfortune to the Cabral family. Being abandoned, of course not intentionally, and being sold and FINALLY found by her distant aunt, she had every right to be angry. Before she could be rescued, she was burned and handed off from one person to another and as mentioned in the book, she was a darker skinned Dominican and no one wanted to claim her. The burns on her back never went away and they will always tell the story of her childhood and she will otherwise, not speak of. The scenes of her being beat in the cane field by the Trujillato, losing her child, battered and close to death, are vivid images of the memories she has of the Dominican Republic. This scene repeats itself in Oscar’s story close to the end, but before I got to that, I understood her anger, pain and how much she really did try to save her children from the fate of the fuku. They would never understand and because they didn’t, we see how the book turned out, especially for Oscar. When Oscar didn’t listen to his mother, he went to see Ybon after he had already been beat in the cane field for seeing her and this is exactly what happened to Belicia when she was dating the gangster. Difference is, Belicia left and went to the US and left that life behind for good where Oscar insisted on going back for her and lost his life in turn. It just seems that her story retells itself in her children and this was a future that although you wanted your character to escape, it just didn’t go as planned.