Rape

As I was working hard on Antigone's political campaign, I discovered that she is a huge feminist and, despite being from Thebes, relates much more to today than I originally realized. She pushes against the male-ruled constructs of her society to do what she feels is right and refused to let her gender define what she can and cannot do. Another story that deals with feminism in a different way is The Handmaid's Tale, which shows an extreme dystopia in which women are inferior to men in all aspects and feminism in non-existent. By depicting this society, the author is pointing out flaws in our current society. Both of these stories are pro-feminism and are largely relevant today.

One term that I would quickly like to go over is "feminism". It is the social, political, and economic equality of women to men – not superiority to men. This is a point that many people struggle with, saying that they are not feminists because men and women should be equal (which is completely incorrect), so I just wanted to clarify this word. All people should be feminists.

One instance of feminism in The Handmaid's Tale is when Janine confesses that she got raped. All of the women are taught that rape is their fault for leading the man on. As disturbing as this is, it is what is largely taught in today's society. Women are commonly taught not to report rape because it will hurt their reputation, and many are believed to be lying. Even if they do report it and their cases eventually make it to court, the majority of cases are dismissed by the judge for lack of evidence. However, there can be evidence in the form of Rape Kits, but most of them go untested and are even destroyed in order to make room for other evidence by the police.

However, the most astounding part is what is taught: women are taught not to be raped, while men are never taught not to rape. What's more is that the media chooses to ignore this and does not shed much light, if at all, on rape culture. One example of this is just from the last Oscars ceremony.

On February 28, 2016, the 88th annual Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars) were held. The purpose of this ceremony is to recognize excellence in film and motto picture-related topics. It is regarded as the most important film award ceremony and the highest achievement for those in the industry. One of the categories is the Academy Award for Best Original Song. This category recognizes the best original song composed for a film. However, this year, it failed to do so. Instead of giving the award to the most deserving song, Lady Gaga's "Til It Happens To You", the Oscar was given to "Writing's On the Wall" by Sam Smith.

"Til It Happens To You" is a song composed by Lady Gaga and Diane Warren for the 2015 movie The Hunting Ground. The song not only contains stellar vocals delivered by Lady Gaga, deep lyrics, and masterful production, but most importantly a message. The song deals with the heavy topic of rape. In fact, the song draws from Gaga's and Warren's own personal experience, as they are both survivors. It has received critical acclaim for addressing the issue, as well as for Gaga's vocals. The lyrics are composed from the writers' own experiences of being raped on college campuses, and this emotion is channeled throughout the song to create a masterpiece full of meaning.

"Writing's On the Wall," on the other hand, is a meaningless song composed for Spectre. The lyrics are dull and Sam Smith, the singer, stays in an unbearable falsetto voice the entire time. The song received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics for its unoriginality and dullness, as it is extremely forgettable.

So why did "Wall" win? Because it is easy. The song is from a revered series, and Adele's brilliant "Skyfall" most definitely aided to this decision. It may also seem to the uneducated listener to be a quality song, using many cliché production techniques that seem sophisticated. But I believe that the main reason is that they want to avoid the topic of rape. It is so much easier to give an award to a meaningless song about (love? it remains unclear) than to award a emotional song that deals with a controversial topic – remember that this is the same committee that did not nominate a single black actor. As long as this issue continues to be ignored, no possible steps can be made to fix it.

Rape is rape. And rape is never the victim's fault.

The (Professor's?) Tale

UGH! Why would Margaret willingly choose to end the book like that?! So I just finished The Handmaid's Tale and wow I am upset. If you have not read the book, there will be spoilers so proceed with caution!

I loved the way the book ended...or at least until I turned the page to discover more. The final chapter ends with Offred being taken by the Eyes, who could either be the real deal or from the resistance - no one knows. What a great ending, right? Or at least until I turned the page to find an epilogue. In the "Historical Notes" section, it is 2195 and there is a transcribed lecture on the Republic of Gilead. In this speech, it is revealed that Offred recorded the entire story on a set of tapes. Although her future remains unknown, we find out that Gilead had eventually fallen.

This completely ruins, at least for me, the progression of the story. The book was written to illustrate the status of women in Gilead, which is almost an extreme exaggeration of society today. However, I grew to care for Offred as the story goes along, and almost live with her as she faced challenges. The book is written extremely well, as I found myself engulfed in it and feeling the emotions that she felt. And when the final page ends, the feeling left is utter desperation and longing to know what happens. This is perfect. This is how the book should have ended.

But the author decided to keep going. She chose to time jump into the future, after the fall of Gilead, to provide us with no information on Offred. We, the readers, learn nothing about what happens to her, so what is the point? Although we find out that the republic no longer stands, this takes away from the confusion that plagues the reader at the end of the actual story, and its only purpose seems to be to provide catharsis, but that is the opposite of what the reader should get. As the reader become Offred throughout the novel, the two should stay bonded at the end, rather than Offred having one destiny while the reader essentially lives on until 2195.

At the end of the final chapter, Offred is taken by the Eyes, who could either be from the actual government, meaning she gets tortured, or the resistance, meaning she gets freed. The reader never finds out, and leaving the reader in this desperate feeling at the end fulfils the intended theme of the book, while jumping ahead into the future but still not revealing her fate does not leave a feeling as extreme as the original.

The final flaw with the epilogue is that it reveals that Gilead eventually falls. But this takes away from, at least in my view, the entire point of the book. The book depicts an indestructible society that cannot possibly be overthrown and has absolute control on its citizens. It is this society that forces women into submission and prevents them from escaping their terrible situations. This entire society is an exaggeration of today's society, in which men are far more privileged and valued than women, and there seems to be almost no way to achieve absolute equality between the sexes. By creating the all-powerful government of Gilead, the author is exemplifying the system that oppresses women and demonstrates the lack of hope they have. However, by saying that this system fails, she is taking away from the structure that the entire book set up by providing hope. This goes agisnt the whole mood and many themes in the book, and ultimately leaves the reader with a much lighter mindset after finishing the book than the reader would have been left with if it had ended on the final chapter.

So basically, if you ever read The Handmaid's Tale, it is best to stop when the book should have ended: the final chapter.

We are alive because of Islam

So a while ago, I saw this on Snapchat (courtesy of Jeannine for sending it to me thanks) and wanted to share it with y'all. In the forth quarter, there will be a large post about Islamophobia, but I just wanted to share this infographic. With the presidential campaign going on, terrible things have been said by the GOP candidates (especially D***** T****) and their supporters about Muslims, yet Islam has contributed so much to the modern world.

The calculations done to balance government budgets and taxes are courtesy of algebra, an Islamic invention.

Glasses (and contacts), which these candidates and their supporters use to SEE are courtesy of Islam.

Coffee, which they all drink? Courtesy of Islam.

Hospitals in which Republicans have received life-saving medical attention and babies are born are, of course, a courtesy of Islam.

The very cameras that are used to spread pictures of rallies and video cameras that are used to broadcast candidates saying they want to ban Muslims were a courtesy of Muslims.

These are just a few of the Islamic inventions that heavily impact the world today and are used by the very people who want to ban Islam, destroy mosques, and punish Muslims for their own faith.

The Dystopia Awakens

As we delve into the dystopian unit, I can't stop thinking about how the most recent iteration in the Star Wars series is a perfect example of a dystopia: after the fall of the Empire, the entire galaxy is left in chaos and a new power must arise to provide order, which is the First Order. Although they are portrayed as villains in the film, are they really? After all, systems are descending into utter chaos and becoming separated from each other, but the First Order is able to reunite these systems while technically providing protection to its people. If you think about it, the group really has its people's interests in mind sue to the failing New Republic. Even most people (aside from the Resistance) seem to be content with the new rule, as it keeps them safe and cause no direct harm.

The Midterm

The midterm project was, to say the least, a challenge. In case you were unaware, the last few weeks, our class been working feverishly on the midterm project: a political campaign. From character analyses to history papers (but without theses...T Humps would not be happy), this project analyzed every possible angle of each character and time period we did. I was Antigone. And by the way, I would just like to mention my clever (or at least clever to me) campaign title: Antigone Regina; it is inspired by Oedipus Rex, but with "Regina", meaning "queen" in Latin as opposed to king (rex). I felt that this flew over many head, so I just wanted to point it out.

But back to the project. I personally feel that it was a little overcomplicated, with 6 big steps (and a secret seventh...shhhhhh) including multiple papers and a concluding symposium. I really enjoyed looking through the text to find clues about Antigone's character, then using those to form political positions. This really helped me to explore her character and motives for her actions. By focusing in on only her, I got a much better understanding of the text as a whole, as opposed to what I got by reading just the lines in the fall.

Despite this, I felt that the project involved a little too much, so I was jumping around from step to step that included a large variety of aspects that are needed for a campaign. For example, the history paper-esque step was focused very little if at all on the actual text and character, and it was essentially just a list of information. It goes against what we are taught in both history and English as it had no argument or thesis, so it was literally just a summary. Although it is definitely important to know the time period and issues at that time, I think that it would be better to link this step with the issue statements step so that it would have been focused directly on Antigone, not other aspects of Thebes. This was also a problem, as the Thebes presented in Antigone was not actually a real place, so I had to use a mixture of the history Athens, sketchy articles, and the little information presented in the text to make conclusions.

Another step...

Basically the midterm project...when you finish one step, Mr. Yee be like^