Final

One of the main questions males ask is what are woman thinking? Now I’m a female and I still have no idea the wide variety of thoughts and emotions that dance around in my head any given moment of the day. Let alone make that stride outside of just one individual to a community, an entire society, and the entire Earth of woman. There is no science or tell all book that expands to that idea. There is no amount of Woman Literature’s classes that could even begin to tap into the true uncontested identity of a female. What defines us as females? What importance’s do we carry in every sector of our lives?

            Something that is important to a woman is learning to understand our fears. If we are unaware of what frightens us, we are unaware of knowing what to conquer and how we are suppose to handle events in our lives that frighten us. Women are bearers of life, an amazing and horribly frightening role. But through society through our knowledge of self, females understand and accept theses horrors. Even in the beginning of our semester when we examined The Vagina Monologue’s that ever-present fear of childbirth was accepted in a group’s workshop when they were asked to draw a picture of what they thought their vagina looked like " One woman who was pregnant drew a big red mouth screaming with coins spilling out." (Page 44).  This quote goes inside with another thing that is important to women, that we are unique. This is displayed in every book that was selected in this course. Every women’s’ story was unique, from their races, emotional ties, cultural bonds and everything in between. That is what striked me the most about the selection of stories, that everyone was vastly different but everyone illumined almost the same truths.

            Through this class I learned what the difference was between a fact and a personal truth. A personal truth is how “I” feel about how “I” think. A truth is sexuality because in some cases that may not always be a fact. In Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, no one told her she was a lesbian, it was her truth, no one told her how a lesbian has to act, she did it on her own accord. “I bought myself a present. (Swiss Army knife) A symbol of self-reliance? At any rate, it seemed like something a lesbian would have.” (Page 78) There is no fact out there that all lesbians have to carry around Swiss Army knifes but it is something Alison felt that she personally must do.

            Another importance women carry is their own personal goals. Take the story of Precious, one of which everything was against her in which she wanted to achieve. She wanted a better life for her and her child, but having no education and money makes that nearly impossible. But in Precious’s case in which she knew what her goals were and knew the strength that she now processed “I don’t know what “realism” mean but I do know what REALITY is and it’s a mutherfu____, lemme tell you.” (Page 83) She valued the knowledge in which she studied and in which she encountered. But Precious’s story was not the only inspiring one.

            I was the one who was inspired; I was the one who learned the ugly beauty that arises when a woman spills her story for others to learn from. In this course I learned history in which I never heard of. Something that I’m now fascinated by is the story of the Comfort Woman that we learned about in The Vagina Monologues. How could reading “What we weren’t allowed to do: Wash ourselves, move around, go to the doctor, use a condom, run away, keep my baby, and ask him to stop.” (Page 162) not inspire someone for further knowledge of history. I’m a proclaimed non-reader and I read ten books simply in this semester, that inspires me that I can read more, learn more.

            Things that are important to women, their minds, their bodies, their goals, their strengths, their independence and all these things embodied every single one of our books. So what is Women’s Literature? It’s stories of what’s important to women, differently by how very unique and connected we all are.

The End of Blogger

                Dorothy Allison struggled with the same idea that I personally, and many others struggle with. Is our life already predetermined by our family? Allison’s family was the towns’ white trash, and everyone in the community knew it. Allison felt as though even when she was a virgin no one would view her as such because everyone in town knew that single motherhood ran in her family and she would probably have to deal the same fate as well. Allison struggled with the desire she had to break the mold of a bitter unwanted woman that the rest of the woman in her family felt. As a reader we may only hear Allison’s side of the story, but if her family was the way they were portrayed they felt every bit of the anguish that Allison did.

                What’s one way to break the stereotype of your family? For Allison’s case she automatically broke the mold of being a lesbian. Since most of the woman in her family were viewed as loose woman because they all had children out of wedlock. Dorothy being a lesbian looked to escape that. (Yet now that I have finished this book I’m completely puzzled how she had a child.) Never the less she felt smothered by the idea that she would be forced to share the rest of the families’ fate of an unhappy life. The women in her family were only viewed as individuals with “birthing hips” and since that’s the only lifestyle that the woman knew that was the only thing they were confident in doing. When someone believes that their only real skills are what others tell them, then they too believe that those things are their only purpose. Such as Dorothy’s sister Wanda felt that same impact in her life. When Wanda went to visit Dorothy after she magically had a child she “Later she told me she’d only come to save herself another pregnancy.” (Page 88)

                I’m glad that we ended this class with this book. In a time as stressful as finals an easy and quick read like this was exactly what was needed. For being a Woman’s Literature class I appreciate that for the most part all the woman in the stories were strong willed and boisterous. These stories this semester were in some ways inspiring but for the most part I viewed them as something that got my mind thinking. A test of a good book is that once your done reading it, it still stays with you. And for almost all the stories we have done they have done exactly that. I take Two or Three Things I know For Sure as an example of this. An example of escaping the fate that our families and society try to instill on us, which is why as a student we stride for higher education.

I'm Not Sure

                If we are so easily able to lose faith in people, is it just as easy to lose faith in an author? In the book Two or Three Things I know For Sure, right at the beginning of the book are we are made conscious of the fact that Dorothy Allison, the author, may not be telling the truth. This book is noted as a memoir. But the ways in which the stories develop you almost can lead yourself to believe that maybe this is just a story to be taken with a grain of salt. Allison is a woman in which she; herself doesn’t even know the whole truth. How would she then be able to relate to the reader that she is completely uncertain about many details herself?

                Personally I am enjoying the style she writes with. The take it or leave it attitude with a mix of ridged back story. But I still never the less find myself not really trusting her as an author. (Page 3) “I’m a storyteller. I’ll work to make you believe me. Throw in the some real stuff, change a few details, add the certainty of outrage.” That being displayed for all readers to see in the very first few pages of the story just automatically tinted my belief in what I am reading. Though I love that as a definition of a storyteller I’m slightly turned off that the author is telling me this when I’m trying to take her book to be a memoir.

                I guess this book is true reality. For when someone tells you something is the truth, there is never a way to be certain. Allison had to learn the hard truth about many things and many people. And this book is a depiction of it. That as a reader we have to learn the hard truth to believe what we are reading, that every and any single detail contains the real truth. Maybe I’m simply over thinking it. Or maybe I too realize that always beneath the truth does someone not want you to know their truths.