Students for Reproductive Justice

In Simone de Beauvoir’s writing about the myths of the second sex she brings up many of the ways in which men have suppressed women over the years. A good portion of these myths revolve around man’s reaction towards women regarding sex. To summarize, some of the myths state that men can have sex freely, whereas women can not. Men can jump from woman to woman, but a woman can not go from man to man.

This had me thinking about a new club that has been formed on campus this semester called “Students for Reproductive Justice.” While this club mostly concerns itself with advocating for contraception, information about sex, and women’s ability to choose, it also touches on fighting stigmas towards women when it relates to sex. Similar to the Feminists for Action organization, this club is fighting against the “patriarchal regime [when] man became master of woman.” (p. 154)

Ink Drawing titled “Not Yours” by Heather Keith Freeman. This piece expresses what it means to be pro-choice.

blacked out poetry

In class yesterday we took a page out of “To the lighthouse” and blocked out some of Virginia Woolf’s words to create our own meaning, this is what I came up with:

Messages breathed. | Never sleep. | Lull deeply. | Whatever dreamt wisely murmuring- laid in the clean sea. | Exactly mattered were entreating would at least see jewelled eyes tired out. | At once read a book. | Had more power. | Preferred argument. | Voice gently would break tenderly through her eyelids. | Falling asleep. | The voice wrapped the blackness, be content with this. | The sigh breaking soothed them.

The entire class did this with the same page from the novel and it was interesting how everyone chose their words differently, no two poems were exactly alike. Occasionally there were overlapping phrases but each poem brought its own meaning. I know it’s choppy, but I like the meaning I got out of it. I feel it applies to the novel in many ways, like alluding to Mr. Ramsey’s personality, but also has a more universal meaning as well.

A more universal theme I got out of mine was the power of knowledge. The lines “At once read a book. | Had more power. | Preferred argument.” show that reading is a powerful ability. It brings us new information which allows us to understand life better, which in turn allows us to effectively argue for ourselves and what we belive in.

Banksy

While stumbling today (using stumbleupon.com) I came across a webpage full of artwork created by Banksy. Looking at his works cause me to think about the effect we have on the world.
This piece here depicts a photographer photographing a pretty flower. In the process of doing so, he has ripped the flower out of the ground. Unfortunately this is a common occurence and if everyone were to rip up all the flowers we wouldn’t have any left. Because of this, this piece conveys some of Sartre’s views, his view that when we act we must imagine everyone doing same thing. That we must think about the consequences of our actions, as if everyone were doing the same.

Peace after the Storm

Friday after class I had an hour to kill so I decided to take a stroll through the art museum. When perusing the art work there was one piece that stopped me as I passed by. It is titled “Peace after the Storm.” At first sight this painting seems to depict a corpse that has washed up on shore. Being the optimist that I can occasionally be, I imagined that this man is alive, struggling to be, but alive. Sometimes I can imagine myself in a similar state, not literally washed up on shore, but struggling to keep myself above water. To me the moment painted is the man’s success in breaching the water’s surface and surviving. It is a peace in and of itself. Some of the aspects of life that keep us (the human race) struggling to remain afloat are not knowing who we are inside and what we want to do with our lives. The latter is where I stand now, trying to decipher how to obtain my long-term goal (preferably without being thousands of dollars in debt).

Peace after the storm by Ferdinand Schauss